Mob social club, closing after five decades, seeks new home for cat mascot named Obama
For five years, he's kept the rats away.
The oldfellas who inherited Cafe Liberty from the mob have a mascot: a black cat they named Obama.
But with the social club set to go the way of the Tommy Gun, they're looking for a new home for the former stray.
"We don't want to throw him out in the street," said Sam Digristina, 72, as Obama curled up in a wicker basket under a wall-mounted TV.
Mob associate Alfred "Freddy Hot" DiCongilio, who has since died, recruited the club's four-legged member in 2006.
After the club lost its previous cats — one was killed, one went on the lam — he spotted animal rescuer Regina Massaro on the street one day and asked for a replacement.
The first one she brought, an orange cat, was too ferocious, and they returned it.
Massaro found a scrawny ebony specimen in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where many of the Gambinos grew up, coincidentally.
The club members describe themselves as right-wingers, so why did they name the pet Obama after the 2008 election? "He does what he wants to," said Arthur Giallorenzo, 83.
Massaro is trying to help the Cafe Liberty crew find Obama a new home.
"He's really a lucky cat because they've treated him very well," she said.
Anyone interested in adopting a healthy 5-year-old male cat with some interesting connections can contact Massaro at the Spay Neuter Intervention Project, SNIPNYC@aol.com.
The oldfellas who inherited Cafe Liberty from the mob have a mascot: a black cat they named Obama.
But with the social club set to go the way of the Tommy Gun, they're looking for a new home for the former stray.
"We don't want to throw him out in the street," said Sam Digristina, 72, as Obama curled up in a wicker basket under a wall-mounted TV.
Mob associate Alfred "Freddy Hot" DiCongilio, who has since died, recruited the club's four-legged member in 2006.
After the club lost its previous cats — one was killed, one went on the lam — he spotted animal rescuer Regina Massaro on the street one day and asked for a replacement.
The first one she brought, an orange cat, was too ferocious, and they returned it.
Massaro found a scrawny ebony specimen in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where many of the Gambinos grew up, coincidentally.
The club members describe themselves as right-wingers, so why did they name the pet Obama after the 2008 election? "He does what he wants to," said Arthur Giallorenzo, 83.
Massaro is trying to help the Cafe Liberty crew find Obama a new home.
"He's really a lucky cat because they've treated him very well," she said.
Anyone interested in adopting a healthy 5-year-old male cat with some interesting connections can contact Massaro at the Spay Neuter Intervention Project, SNIPNYC@aol.com.
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