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Kaspar the "Lucky" Wooden Cat
The Savoy Hotel in London has a wooden cat that sits at the table with a napkin tied around its neck, and the waiters are always careful to change the place-settings for each course of the meal. Kaspar the "lucky" wooden cat always occupies the fourteenth seat when dinner parties number thirteen. A tradition which remains to this day.
The superstition must have some significance, as a gentleman who had been forced to host a party of thirteen, because one of his guests had cancelled at the last moment, was later found shot dead in his office. After this incident, the Hotel always provided a staff member if a party had thirteen guests. However, as some of the conversations were often of a confidential nature, wooden-eared Kaspar was conceived to become a convenient fourteenth guest.
The black wooden cat, carved by Basil Ionides in 1926, has been used by many famous guests over the years including, on many occasions, cat-lover Sir Winston Churchill. [ see Margate ]
The Origin of the Fear of Number Thirteen: The fear of the number thirteen originated from Norse mythology, when twelve gods at a feast were joined by an evil spirit, who upset them by causing havoc.