The Cat's Story
What if ten cats, and a mouse...
collaborate to form an Annapolis workshop and create designs to fund historic preservation projects? The Shop Annapolis Cats all have diverse creative skills, avocations, and professions, but as friends they all share a love of the history, architecture, and design of Annapolis.
Misha
A fashion designer who created a line of clothing inspired by the Chesapeake Bay and Annapolis style...
William
This stylish tortoiseshell is an interior designer who has his own fabric collection...
Daphne
A shopkeeper who sells antiques she is an avid collector and deal-maker who travels the world for her shop...
Sebastian
An architect who specializes in historic restoration projects, he is a striped tabby cat with many talents...
Thistle
A landscape architect by day and ghost hunter by night, this friendly ginger cat is also a talented painter...
Garrett
A thoughtful writer and poet, this gray Siamese cat is at home at St. John's College with the Great Books...
Admiral & Navigator
Admiral, a gregarious storyteller, and Navigator, a pocket mouse inventor, are best friends and adventurers on the Chesapeake Bay...
Cinder
An artist with a fiery temperament, this beautiful all black cat paints watercolors en plein air all over Annapolis...
Mittens
An award winning furniture designer who loves hearts, this black and white cat crafts the finest 18th century style designs...
Cocoa
A baker and chocolatier, who is sweet like milk chocolate, his famous chocolate chip cookies are always a favorite...
The story begins with Misha's adventure and what she discovered underground...
Misha, a fuzzy brown cat, sat nestled in the top branches of an ancient oak tree.The tree grew in front of an abandoned house built around 1739 on Prince George Street in Annapolis, MD. Hidden there in the frigid winter air, Misha listened as a tour guide told ghost stories to the crowd gathered below when, without warning, she lost her balance and tumbled headfirst to the brick sidewalk below.
Misha had always dreamed of restoring this special historic house,and the light of her imagination that she cherished became a seed that, over time, grew into a tree as real as the oak tree in which she liked to hide. Her friends offered encouragement, certain her vision of historic preservation could grow.
Now trapped on the ground she scurried into the hollow at the base of the tree to hide, then wedged herself in further. Suddenly, rotten wood gave way; down, down, down, she tumbled into a long, dark chamber.
Eventually she rolled to a stop next to a metal door. Etchings on its surface depicted scenes of Annapolis history, but the door was secured with a large padlock. Curious but bruised and defeated, Misha reluctantly left the strange door behind and climbed out of the hollow and headed home.
Over the days that followed Misha's curiosity about the secret door grew.She returned several times but could not open the lock and whatever it protected, remained hidden.
One day after a heavy summer rainstorm as she wandered through the garden of the abandoned house, she noticed a glint of metal. A little digging revealed an antique key. "It probably won't be anything special," she thought, as she put the key in her pocket.
In the hollow, she inserted the key in the rusted lock and to her amazement, the door creaked open. Inside lay an enormous moss-covered workroom full of original designs, tools and antique goods. Misha had discovered the abandoned historic workshop of Olde Town Annapolis! This fabled workshop was used by talented artisans in the 18th century to make elegant decorative items known for their quality and design.
"Could I make my own exquisite items and use the money to preserve the historic architecture of Annapolis?" Misha wondered.She got to work and from nothing but her imagination and ingenuity a flourishing creative business was born. As her reputation grew, to her amazement other cats in the Historic District saw her designs and asked to join her. Each had a different talent, but a common entrepreneurial dream. They supported one another in creating distinctive Annapolis goods just like those of the original Olde Town Annapolis workshop.
Word of Misha and the other Shop Annapolis Cats creative ventures spread and soon they had positive accolades the world over. Follow their adventures and watch their dreams grow like that ancient and majestic oak, maybe they can use their talents and funds to preserve a long-abandoned, 1739 historic house in Annapolis.
