The Internet is obsessed with cats, from the “I Can Has Cheezburger?” LOLcats to the Keyboard Cat. However, long before we had email, blogs, and online video, people were sending each other cute and funny kitty images via vintage postcards.

Besides being fluffy balls of adorableness with expressive faces, cats can have an air of aloofness, and are sometimes thought of as charming yet sinister creatures who are always secretly plotting against humans. This willful, independent attitude makes it all the more comic when cats get themselves into a fix, which they tend to do quite often.