From 8-year old Hilda Firestone’s diary:

January 2
I think men are much nicer than women. Anyhow, my Grandfather is much nicer than my Grandmother, and my uncle Milton is much nicer than Retta, and Ito, our Japanese servant, is much nicer than Gladys, our maid. Only with dogs and cats it doesn’t make any different, the ladies are just as nice as the gentlemen.  This was the first day of school, and something beautiful happened. Wesley’s cat had kittens just two weeks ago. Nine of them. His mother said she would give him a nickel for each cat that he would give away, and I said that if it was all right with him, I would take all of them. We have a big yard, Wesley said I could.  He would have forty-five cents, and I have nine cats. Isn’t that lovely? Wesley carried them home for me in the little box which had a nice, soft blanket in the bottom, and the kittens looked so comfortable, and cuddly. Grandfather was so pleased. I thought he would be. When he took them out of the box there was a note tucked into the blanket, it was from my teacher, Miss Hare. I will copy it into this book so that when I am an old lady, I will enjoy reading it. Besides, I don’t know how to spell all these words. This is the note: “Dear Sir, Please do not be angry with Hilda. This event will go down as the greatest financial transaction made in America since the Louisiana Purchase.”

Reading the first two entries of Hilda’s diary, we see how much she likes animals, perhaps more than people. Almost every photo I have of Hilda includes a dog and/or a cat. Below is a photo of Hilda with her husband Nathan taken in the early 1940’s. Hilda is holding a kitten.

The 1910 census listed the people living in Jacob Levy’s household:

In 1910, Hilda and her father Solomon were listed as “lodgers.” I believe Solomon did not live with the family very long and went back to New York. He left his daughter to be cared for by her maternal relations. Also listed was a servant named “George Japenese” (perhaps listing his ethnicity rather than last name?), who apparently was replaced a few years later by another named Ito.