I heard a rumor a few weeks ago that someone once tried to train cats - CATS - to deliver mail. Sure enough, it really happened; someone wrote a story about it: The Mail-Carrier Cats of Liège!

Amazingly, this tale was inspired by a true event. It took place in 1879 in Liège, Belgium. The city fathers attempted to train 37 cats (imagine that!) to deliver mail from the central post office to outlying villages. What the cats thought about this, and what they did and didn’t do, is lost in the mists of time. All we know is that the scheme didn’t turn out exactly as planned.

For the life of me, I can’t even begin to fathom what could possibly make someone think that a cat could be trained to do this.