The U.S. Postal Service will deliver smiles to cat lovers
later this year thanks to new First-Class Forever stamps that pay tribute to
our friends with fur, fins and feathers.
Among a group of 20 stamps of popular pets who looked into
the lens of Eric Isselée are two photos that celebrates the beauty of our pals
who purr.
Cats have acted as muses (or should that be mewses?) for
postal art since 1887, when Germany issued a stamp which featured a feline
sporting a fish in his mouth. Possibly the first cat to appear with a pet
parent on a stamp, in 1930 the silhouette of a small black kitten named Patsy
starred on a stamp from Italy which honored Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight
in the Spirit of St. Louis. U.S. cat lovers had to wait until 1972 for a feline
to show up on a stamp, according to the book Planet Cat: A Cat-Alog.
Along with the cat and kitten stamps, the upcoming booklet
of First-Class Forever postage also includes such popular companion animals as
puppies and dogs, parrots and parakeets, rabbits, horses, fish, mice, gerbils
guinea pigs and hamsters, geckos, hermit grabs, corn snakes, iguanas and
tortoises.
Pets will be issued as Forever stamps, which are always
equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.
