Puss in Boots Inspired Dog Names

The first St Regis Hotel, located in New York City, was founded by wealthy businessman and real estate tycoon John Jacob Astor the IV. In 1912, forty-seven-year-old Astor was returning from an extended honeymoon with his pregnant eighteen-year-old bride aboard the RMS Titanic. With him was his valet, Victor Robbins, and his new wife’s entourage made up of a maid named Rosalie Bidois and a nurse named Caroline Louise Endres, and their beloved Airedale dog, Kitty. While his wife, Madeleine Force Astor, and her maid and nurse made it onto a lifeboat, Astor himself was unable to procure spots on a lifeboat for himself, his valet, or his dog. There are many legends that surround his last hours, with some saying that he allowed two frightened children on the lifeboat in his stead, and others saying it was a woman named Ida Sophia Hippach and her teenaged daughter Jean Gertrude that he gave his seats to. The dogs that had been in the kennels were freed from their cages at some point during the sinking, presumably in order to give them a fighting chance to get away, and some claim that it was Astor himself who freed them. Unfortunately, both Astor and his loyal canine companion ultimately went down with the ship, as did many others, both human and canine.

In 1992, eighty years after that fateful voyage, the St. Regis Hotel chain came to Aspen Colorado, and in the winter of 2018, the hotel employed a puppy as their property dog and official mascot. The Bernese Mountain Dog breed was chosen for their thick coat, which made them well suited to the winter climate in Aspen, and for their friendly, gentle temperament, a must when greeting customers. Although the pup is not an Airedale, he was dubbed Kitty Jacob Astor II, in honor of Astor’s final canine companion. Kitty was born in July of 2018, and his job as hotel mascot does not end at greeting new customers; he is also responsible for hosting a storytime for children that are staying at the hotel, occasional good-night cuddles, attending community events, and posing for his Instagram account. On his Instagram account, he shows potential visitors different areas of the hotel, gives sporadic weather reports and is just generally adorable. The account has become quite popular, and over thirty thousand people have tuned in to watch the charismatic pup grow into his paws.