A motorbike

"She was one of the most interesting cats I ever met," Richard Harrington said to me last week as we awaited our appetizers at a new Takoma Park restaurant. "I met Stray Cats. I met Cat Stevens. They were all dull compared to Motor Cat."

Motor Cat was a motorcycle-riding feline that Richard, then The Post's pop music critic, wrote about in 1993 in the Style section. The cat was already well known in Takoma Park, where she was often spotted whizzing past, her front feet on the handlebars, her back claws clenched into the rug her owner had affixed to the gas tank of his Suzuki 500.

Richard's article flung her fame far and wide.

"She was a star and she knew it," he said. "She knew she was different and special."

And this from a guy who covered Madonna.

Richard retired from The Post in 2008. I’d dragged him to Motorkat, a new restaurant named after the famed feline, to reminisce.

The headline on his July 8, 1993, story was "Fur Out! It's Motor Cat! The Claws Celebre Rides Again After Three Weeks as a Missing Purrson."

Can you tell we used to really like puns at The Post?

In a nutshell, the cat was briefly separated from her owner. Richard lived in Takoma Park — still does — and would see the man searching for her. When Motor Cat was discovered, Richard knew there was a happy ending — and he knew how he’d begin his story.

"Some leads write themselves," he said. His lead: "Motor Cat came back. They thought she was a goner."

Just as fun as the story were the photos that James M. Thresher took of Motor Cat at speed. For nearly a month, Richard said, those photos were the most requested by readers for reprints.

Despite the cat's fame, Motorkat's co-owners, Chris Brown and Danny Wells, said they were not thrilled with the idea for the name.

"At first I was like, ‘I don't want a cat-themed restaurant,’" said Chris.

"We originally wanted to do something that was not a direct Takoma Park reference," said Danny. "We thought that had been done."

Roscoe's, a pizzeria four blocks away, is named after a rooster that once strutted around Takoma Park. But the staff really liked the tale of the cat, and after Richard's 30-year-old article was passed around, the decision was made.

"Takoma is so close knit, and tapping into the energy of the late ’80s and early ’90s vibe was kind of the goal," said Chris.

Though Motor Cat was associated with Takoma Park, she actually lived in Arlington with her owner, who went by the name J. Catman.

"I never did get his real name," said Richard. ("I don't want people beating my door down" is what Catman told Richard in 1993.)

Catman was given the cat — then named Greasy — in 1987 by a mechanic who had done lousy work on his car. From the start, the cat seemed different. She was obsessed with revving engines, running to the window whenever a motorcycle went by and sitting in front of the television when motorcycle racing was on.

One day, Catman left the house in his car only to be told by another motorist that there was a cat hanging onto the roof. The cat — Greasy, soon to be dubbed Motor Cat — seemed to crave the sensation of speed. A motorcycle seemed somehow safer than a car.

"From there it kind of grew," Richard said.

Catman found a company on the West Coast that was able to fashion a tiny motorcycle helmet.

"They used to go on the Beltway," Richard said. "J. Catman told funny stories about people screaming at him: ‘There's a cat on your bike!’ I guess they didn't notice the cat was wearing a helmet. That should have been a giveaway."

Motor Cat died in 2002 at age 17. She's buried in the pet section of Rockville's Parklawn Memorial Park. It was one of the first ceremonies Parklawn's Paris Dombrowski oversaw. About 60 motorcycles rumbled up to the grave, she remembered.

"They were all bikers," Paris told me Monday when I visited Motor Cat's grave.

Engraved on the bronze plaque atop Motor Cat's final resting place is what might pass as the adventurous cat's motto: "It's my ambition to fly."