Sunday, December 23, 2007

On the prowl

Across the city, delis and bodegas are a familiar and vital part of the streetscape, modest places where customers can pick up necessities, a container of milk, a can of soup, a loaf of bread.

Amid the goods found in the stores, there is one thing that many owners and employees say they cannot do without: their cats. And it goes beyond cuddly companionship. These cats are workers, tireless and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, and they typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons.

To Dismay of Inspectors, Prowling Cats Keep Rodents on the Run at City Delis

Maybe this is where the idea for Deli-Cat brand cat food came from.

Can we get some of these kitties at City Hall? There's a big rat problem there, both inside and out!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

great alternative to calling in an exterminator and having them spray poison about. But how do you keep a cat from gobbling up all the food in your deli? Seems like a catch 22, though of course just owning one of the cuddly critters is rewarding in itself. :)

Anonymous said...

They really don't eat people food if they are given cat food. At least in my experience they don't. But they do go after moving objects.

Anonymous said...

Cats guarding the store against rodents is an proven age old solution. The store owners usually treat the felines well and most customers like them well enough. However there are issues with cats that are not spayed or nutered as they spray urine about to mark their territories and this is a real problem. Other than that cats eat what you give them from the onset and get used to that.

Anonymous said...

There are plenty of "kitties" around at City Hall.....
the ones that developers drop their loose change into
in order to buy some influence or get approval
for a particular project that they're working on!

Ask the queen of the kitties....
the developers' poster child....C.M Katz!

Anonymous said...

good to know that, about there not eating people food, in case I get a cat of my own. My previous boss had one. I used to dangle a string around which it chased. Really fun. Miss the little fellow. Its name was Red.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, our City Council is unlikely to rescind the ban on "deli cats" because the exterminator's lobby is powerful. Animals don't have lobbyists. Maybe the bodega associations can effectively lobby for their right to employ pets.