In 1910, Walter Wellman, five companions, and a cat named Kiddo tried to cross the Atlantic ocean in airship America. What seemed to be a historic adventure, turned out to be something of a nuisance because the cat was terrified of flying and was acting like a "squirrel in a cage".
Coincidentally, the airship was the first to carry radio equipment, which eventually helped Melvin Vaniman to broadcast the first in-flight message. He was annoyed by Kiddo the Cat, and as a result, he decided to broadcast "Roy, come and get this goddamn cat."
A plan was launched to lower the cat into the water using the ONLY lifeboat - but because of the bad weather the plan was scratched and the cat was hoisted back into the airship. The cat settled down after this, but the weather became so bad that the task of flying across the Atlantic was abandoned and the crew huddled together into the lifeboat - that they almost threw away with a cat in it.