According to  Elsie M. Jury (she and husband Wilfrid Jury were key players in the development of Ste. Marie Among the Hurons) in her article on Toanché of the Hurons, Canadian Geographical Journal February 1967, the first cat came to Huronia in 1623.

“In 1623 a cat came to Huronia. The Recollects at Quebec presented to a chief, Aenons, ‘to take back to his country as a rarity unknown to them. When he saw that the cat came to us when called, he concluded that it was possessed of reason and understood all we said to it. He begged us to tell this cat that when it should be in his land it must not behave badly nor be running around into other lodges nor in the woods, but remain always in his abode to eat the mice, and he would love it like his own son and not let it want for anything.’”

This seven page article is available as a pamphlet at the gift shop of the Huronia Museum, in Midland. It offers a lot of information about Étienne Brulé who spent a lot of time at Toanché, a Huron village, probably near present-day Penetanguishene. Pamphlet cost is $2.00.