by David Weber Thursday, January 9, 2003

For the last 19 years, Mitze has been a fixture in the entry hall at the Post Office Square courthouse, delighting harried lawyers and litigants with his absolute disregard for the daily hustle and bustle.

Sadly, those days are gone. The long-haired, slightly overweight cat was put to sleep Tuesday after the Animal Rescue League said he suffered a heart attack.

Over the years, Mitze was taken care of by three different operators of the building's newsstand. But when everyone else went home at night, Mitze stayed behind, serving justice to the occasional mouse. Every once in a while, Mitze would rise from his bed against a wall and amble over to lie down in the middle of the hallway at the top of the stairs leading from the Congress Street entrance, forcing people to step around him or stop to pat him.

In 1983, Mitze was part of a litter of kittens someone brought into the post office in the building. Mail handler John Hodgman ended up giving the last kitten to a Polish man who ran the newsstand and has since moved back to Poland.

``Everybody loved Mitze. He kind of made everybody feel good. He was an icon,'' Hodgman said.

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2003