October 7, 2026
Another Cat Will Show Up
For more than 50 years, cats have found their way to the Crescent Hotel. Ozzy is the newest resident cat.
On May 1, 2024, a woman walked through the front doors of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, with some interesting news: “their cat” was hanging out in the parking lot, and she was worried he might get hit by a car. Then she handed the front desk manager an eight-week-old tuxedo kitten and left. But the thing is, this wasn't their cat.
The hotel already had a resident cat named Jasper, who had been living there since 2009. But Jasper was getting older, and Gina Drennon, the hotel's Director of Marketing & Communications, had been telling the general manager for a while that it might be time to start thinking about a future hotel cat. His answer was always the same: “Another cat will show up.”
As it turned out, he was right. The front desk started texting the office staff, and soon everyone came running. Gina picked up the kitten, and before she had even made it back to the general manager's office, they had already filmed some content with him, and she was once again making the case for another hotel cat. This time, the answer was yes.
The kitten spent his first two months in the offices, where, according to Gina, productivity took a slight hit. The staff started bringing him into the hotel on a harness and leash for short visits, gradually letting him spend more time there as he became comfortable. Guests and social media followers helped choose his name: Ozzy. By then, he was joining a tradition that had continued for more than 50 years.
The hotel cats
The Crescent Hotel opened back in 1886, high above Eureka Springs in the Ozark Mountains. Over the years, it went from a resort to a women’s college and, during one particularly strange chapter in the 1930s, a hospital run by Norman Baker, who claimed he could cure cancer.
Today, the Crescent calls itself “America's Most Haunted Hotel.” Visitors come for ghost tours, and stories of past guests and staff have become part of the hotel’s identity. Some come looking for things that may or may not still be wandering its halls.
The cats came along a bit later. In 1973, an orange tabby named Morris walked into the lobby and decided to stay. He spent the next 21 years at the Crescent, where he became such a fixture that people called him the hotel's “General Manager.” He even had his own special cat door with carpeted steps, and his title was displayed on his office door. Morris passed away in 1994, and you can still find his headstone on the East Lawn, while his photo and a poem written in his memory hang in the lobby.
More cats found their way to the hotel after that. Some were brought in on purpose, while others just showed up. Not every cat stuck around; some decided hotel life wasn’t for them and moved in with staff members instead.
Then, in 2009, Jasper showed up. He was about a year old and, like Morris, chose to stay. More than 15 years later, Jasper is still there, enjoying what the hotel calls his “golden years.” When Gina started thinking about how they’d eventually find another cat like Jasper, she knew that simply finding a cat wasn't really the problem.
“We absolutely wanted to continue the tradition, but we also knew it couldn’t be forced,” she explained.
Being a hotel cat is a unique job. The Crescent has 72 guest rooms, plus restaurant and spa visitors, ghost tour guests, children, dogs, staff members, and people who drop by just to see the historic building. Whoever lives in a place this busy needs to be comfortable with a lot of people and attention, too.
“It takes a particular kind of cat to enjoy it,” Gina said.
Apparently, Ozzy is just that kind of cat.
Learning the hotel
Ozzy quickly figured out the layout of the Crescent, which has been around for more than 140 years. It’s packed with rooms and hallways, and somehow, he’s found a sneaky way to get to the spa break room on the lower level without using the stairs. The staff still don't entirely know how he does it.
One of his favorite places is Room 101, the Governor’s Suite, mostly because there’s a bar area with its own sink. Ozzy has decided that drinking from a sink is way better than using the water bowl in the lobby.
“He will visit a room, look meaningfully at the bathroom or bar sink, and most guests quickly understand what he is asking for,” Gina says.
Some guests get more than just a quick visit. Ozzy seems to recognize many of the regulars who come back to the hotel, seeking them out in their rooms and sometimes curling up for a nap. He knows the staff, too. The maintenance team is especially fond of him, although Gina “blames” one of them for introducing the sink routine in the first place. Ozzy recognizes the sound of their keys and follows them around the hotel.
“He loves attention, has learned exactly who is most likely to spoil him, and somehow knows when it is time to quietly disappear for a nap.”
It takes a particular kind of cat
Becoming a hotel cat at the Crescent isn’t as simple as just showing up, even though there are plenty of stories about cats doing exactly that.
While the Crescent has plenty of places to nap and no shortage of people willing to provide attention, it is still an unusually busy place for a cat to call home. Ozzy seems to have worked out his own balance. He wants to know what's happening and often wants to be in the middle of it. When he doesn't, he knows how to find a quieter spot.
“He is curious, social, and happy to be in the middle of whatever is happening,” Gina says. “When he needs a break, he knows where to go, but he genuinely seems to enjoy being part of the hotel's daily life.”
That might be why the Crescent can’t really choose its resident cats in the traditional way. The ones that decide to stick around do so on their own terms.
Living history
The Crescent is a hotel with a lot of history, and it has spent years preserving it and keeping it alive. But the cats have become part of it, too.
Guests take photos of Jasper and Ozzy, tag the hotel on social media when they meet them, and sometimes even bring them gifts. People who have been visiting for decades still ask about cats who lived there years ago, especially Morris. His picture has been hanging in the lobby for more than 30 years since he passed away.
The Crescent is also famously associated with ghost stories, and Morris has found his way into those, too. Over the years, some guests have said they felt a cat brush against their legs when there was no cat there. The hotel includes Morris among the spirits guests have reported encountering.
Whether or not Morris is still roaming around, his successors certainly are.
For Gina, that’s part of what the cats have added to a place that already has more than a century of stories behind it.
“The cats make the Crescent feel less like a historic building people visit and more like a place with its own personality and family,” she says. “They are part of the hotel's living history.”
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