What was the origin of the Chessie kitten logo ?

[Anonymous]

and he notes -

"Chessie" originated as an etching in a newapaper back in 1933. The kitten was shown sleeping under a blanket and C&O's Public Relations office picked up on it with the idea of promoting their new air conditioned sleeping cars. They touted the service with "Sleep like a kitten and wake up fresh as a Daisy."

Over the next few years, the kitten appeared in all their ads and gained the name "Chessie" from the railroad's name. It was featured in their 1934 calendar and gained nationwide recognition and is still considered to be the most successful railroad ad campaign symbol of all time.

I believe CSX retired "Chessie" a few years ago, but there's still plenty of memorabilia around.

[Modelcar]

....Chessie info I pulled up:
During the depresion era....C&O vice president, Mr. Probert started looking for a new advertising slogan to show how smooth and relaxing a railroad ride could be. Mr. Probert noticed this picture of the "cat" in the NY Herald Tribune and decided that could become the logo and slogan for his R R. Chessie Cat was created by Guido Gruenwald of Vienna, Austria...and to make the story short was eventually adopted for the job....The first "Chessie" add appeared in 1933.

[Kozzie]

I have wondered for some time the story behind the kitten in the Chessie logo.

I reckon someone in the East Coast regions will know [;)]

Cheers

Kozzie