NJ’s Giant Weird Kitty: Essex County Urban Explorer Tells Its Story

NEW JERSEY — In 1970, a truck driver in North Jersey saved a Macy's Day Parade cat from being discarded in a landfill. After 52 years of caring for the giant kitty, he finally found an animal rescue organization to adopt his fiberglass feline.

Now, there’s a documentary that tells the story.

Recently, Montclair native Wheeler Antabanez and WeirdNJTV released a video that chronicles the tale of the giant, Christmas-hat-wearing cat (watch it below).

Antabanez’s name should ring a bell for many aficionados of strange news in New Jersey. The Weird NJ correspondent, photojournalist and urban explorer recently completed a 200-page book of photos and accompanying 40-minute movie, "Walking the Newark Branch: A Photographic Journey on the Abandoned Rails of New Jersey."

The work chronicles Antabanez's journeys on the Newark Branch of the old Boonton Line in North Jersey, which runs through Kearny, Harrison, East Newark, Newark, Belleville, Nutley and Clifton.

Along the way, he took his first photos of the giant kitty, which he encountered while rounding a bend near Belleville.

• See related article: Poetry Amid Decay; NJ Photographer Explores Abandoned Railway

He’s also created a documentary that chronicled the demolition of one of Essex County's most iconic urban exploration sites – the Overbrook Asylum in Cedar Grove – and stumbled onto an intriguing storyline involving a pair of abandoned wind tunnels in North Jersey.

• See related article: Overbrook Asylum Explorer Captures Dangerous Photos
• See related article: NJ Urban Explorer Stumbles On Secret In Abandoned Tunnel (Video)

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Sign up for Patch email newsletters. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.