<story><title>Ship&apos;s cat</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_cat</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>junto</author><text>Based on this:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  Emmy was the ship&amp;#x27;s cat on the RMS Empress of Ireland. 
  She was an orange tabby cat who never missed a voyage.
  However, on May 28, 1914, Emmy tried to escape the ship. 
  The crew could not coax her aboard and the Empress left 
  without her. She was reportedly last seen on the roof of 
  the shed at Pier 27, watching her ship sail out of Quebec 
  City.[citation needed] Early the next morning the Empress 
  collided with the SS Storstad while steaming through fog at 
  the mouth of the St. Lawrence river and rapidly sank, 
  killing over 1,000 people.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
I have decided to disembark any ship when the cat leaves.&lt;p&gt;The article also led me to a Wikipedia page about the Dicken Medal [1], which is fascinating.&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  The PDSA Dickin Medal was instituted in 1943 in the United
  Kingdom by Maria Dickin to honour the work of animals in 
  war.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickin_Medal&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Dickin_Medal&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Ship&apos;s cat</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_cat</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>msane</author><text>The internet cats on Hacker News are of a classier variety than those you find at more run-of-the-mill pages, requesting cheese hamburgers and speaking unskillfully. These cats have Wikipedia articles, with footnotes. Some are decorated veterans.</text></comment>