The feline named Room 8 Cat that once roamed the halls and classrooms of Elysian Heights Elementary and served as the school’s mascot has been immortalized on campus in the form of murals painted on school buildings, tributes carved into the sidewalk and hallway displays. Far from the campus, in Riverside, there is another tribute to the legendary school mascot, the Room 8 Memorial Cat Foundation, a home for cats left homeless by owners who have died or can no longer take care of their pets. A story in the Riverside Press Enterprise said the organization was founded in 1972 by a Pasadena woman named Hetty Perry who named her foundation in honor of Room 8 after reading stories about the cat, which passed away in 1968. Perry, known as the Cat Woman of Pasadena, eventually moved her foundation and cat shelter to Riverside. The facility is now home to 75 cats but the foundation is seeking to raise funds to expand the facility and make needed repairs, Debbie Marks, foundation president, told the Press-Enterprise:
“We have a lot of property we could develop and help even more cats,” said Marks, foundation president, “But we don’t have the funding at this time.”
The foundation is working on adopting out more of its cat, matching its senior kitties with senior citizens.
Image from HistoricEchoPark.org
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