Carrier cat instead of carrier pigeon - Cats were supposed to deliver the mail in Liège

Waterproof bags containing letters were hung around the cats' necks and they were taken far from their homes to the countryside. According to a report in the New York Times in March 1876, one particularly dutiful cat returned home within five hours, and the rest were all back within 24 hours.

The "Belgian Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Cats" was delighted with the result and proposed to use their cats to establish a system of frequent connections with neighbouring villages. It is unclear why this plan was never put into practice.

Probably there are several reasons:

• the cat could lose the letter on the way
• the cat might not come back for various reasons
• cats, who are known to have a mind of their own, could stay away for days and only deliver the message after 3 or 4 days. By then, the message would have long been delivered by the sender himself.
• Example: You want to send a message to Mrs. X on the other side of town. You cannot send your own cat, because the cat does not know where to run to. So you need Mrs X's cat, because it would run home to Mrs X with your message around its neck. But how do you get Mrs. X's cat now?