Cattitude - Episode 290 Cats About Town: NYC’s Secret Feline History

<v Speaker 1>Live.
<v Speaker 2>This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
<v Speaker 3>Hello feline friends, Welcome to Kata Tune. I'm your show
<v Speaker 3>host Michelle Byrne. Well, we're talking about New York again.
<v Speaker 3>I can't help it, but the city. You know, what
<v Speaker 3>can you say? New York is everything. Anyways, We're going
<v Speaker 3>to talk about some wonderful historical cat tour that you
<v Speaker 3>can take, as well as talk a little about the
<v Speaker 3>Baudegga cats in New York and why they get a
<v Speaker 3>bad rap sometimes. My guests today are the founders. They
<v Speaker 3>each the co founder of Cats about Town tours, So
<v Speaker 3>stay tuned. Can't wait to talk to them.
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<v Speaker 3>Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Peggy Gavin and
<v Speaker 3>Daniel Ramada. Welcome Peggy.
<v Speaker 5>Well, thank you so much for having me today. I'm
<v Speaker 5>really excited to talk about Cats About Town Tours with
<v Speaker 5>your listeners.
<v Speaker 3>I love that New York accent. It's funny because lately
<v Speaker 3>I've had a lot of New York. So I'm thinking,
<v Speaker 3>is the universe sending me a sign that I have
<v Speaker 3>to go there again? Because I was born there, but
<v Speaker 3>I didn't spend a lot of my life there. I
<v Speaker 3>live in what I call South New York, which is
<v Speaker 3>South Florida. We're South New York. Oh okay, we're a mix,
<v Speaker 3>but South New York anyway. So Cats About Town Tours
<v Speaker 3>you're the co founder. What inspired you to create Cats
<v Speaker 3>About Town Tours?
<v Speaker 5>Well, about five years ago, just before COVID lockdown hit,
<v Speaker 5>I got my New York City Tour Guide license, which
<v Speaker 5>is a very You have to go through a lot
<v Speaker 5>of studying and you have to take a test, and
<v Speaker 5>it's this big process and I was going to be
<v Speaker 5>joining another tour company to do some tours about animals
<v Speaker 5>in New York City history. And I got my license.
<v Speaker 5>I was all excited, and then COVID came along and
<v Speaker 5>there went that. So about a year ago, I got
<v Speaker 5>a call from a Dan Ramata, who's my co founder,
<v Speaker 5>my partner, my business partner, and he and I had
<v Speaker 5>both been on a documentary about cats of Old New
<v Speaker 5>York and just Cats of New York City and so
<v Speaker 5>he contacted me and he said, hey, you know, I've
<v Speaker 5>been thinking about doing this walking tour with like cats
<v Speaker 5>stories and stuff. Would you be interested? And I was like,
<v Speaker 5>of course, I said, I've been trying to do something
<v Speaker 5>since before COVID. So we just partnered up and I
<v Speaker 5>can't even tell you. Within a week, we had the
<v Speaker 5>name of the tour the company, We had the website
<v Speaker 5>up and running, we had the registrations up and running,
<v Speaker 5>and we were already starting to get publicity. It just
<v Speaker 5>it went so quickly, it was. It was just amazing.
<v Speaker 5>So that's kind of how it all came together.
<v Speaker 3>So why cats, though, Well.
<v Speaker 5>I have been right about cats. In fact, my license
<v Speaker 5>for my car is cat Writer. My husband got that
<v Speaker 5>for me for Christmas a few years ago. I am
<v Speaker 5>a cat historian and I write about cats in New
<v Speaker 5>York City old New York City history, and I've been
<v Speaker 5>doing a website for about fifteen years now, and I
<v Speaker 5>have a book called The cat Men of Gotham, which
<v Speaker 5>is all about men who loved cats in the eighteenth
<v Speaker 5>and nineteenth century. In fact, a lot of the stories
<v Speaker 5>for my tours come from this book. And so, yeah,
<v Speaker 5>I have a love of cats, I love New York City,
<v Speaker 5>and I just love sharing my stories with people. So
<v Speaker 5>that's it just came together really perfectly.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, And I heard that Daniel just joined us.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, hey Michelle, I'm here.
<v Speaker 3>Hi, Daniel, welcome. What inspired you to go make it
<v Speaker 3>about town tours cat focused?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, well, so I've realized that there were no animal
<v Speaker 6>related tours in New York City, and there's very few
<v Speaker 6>throughout the United States. So I figured out I have
<v Speaker 6>I kind of promising happening here with Bodega Cats of
<v Speaker 6>New York and the Instagram account. People in New York
<v Speaker 6>City seem to really love cats. I'm also a history buff.
<v Speaker 6>I love history, especially in New York City history. So
<v Speaker 6>I decided, Hey, why don't I stitch this all together
<v Speaker 6>and started walking tour about you Know Cats in New
<v Speaker 6>York City, and I started to piece it together myself
<v Speaker 6>and I started reading It's funny. I started like memorizing
<v Speaker 6>Peggy's Hatching cat blog. I started to try to memorize
<v Speaker 6>the stories and really trying to, you know, learn as
<v Speaker 6>much as I possibly could before I even knew Peggy,
<v Speaker 6>and I ended up preaching out to her and I said, Hey,
<v Speaker 6>would you be up for like a quick phone call.
<v Speaker 6>I have an idea for a tour that I'd like
<v Speaker 6>to start. I'm going to get my license and I'm
<v Speaker 6>going to you know, do all these tours myself. And then,
<v Speaker 6>as luck would have it, Peggy's like, you know, I
<v Speaker 6>had a very similar idea to this. Why don't we
<v Speaker 6>work together on it? I said absolutely, So we linked
<v Speaker 6>up that way and it was just just you know, serendipitous.
<v Speaker 6>It ended up working out perfectly, and me and Peggy
<v Speaker 6>get along famously, and we're running this awesome you know
<v Speaker 6>about Cats in New York City, the first one ever?
<v Speaker 3>Do you both have cats?
<v Speaker 5>I have three cats, they're all rescue cats from the
<v Speaker 5>shelter in town. I have Jack and Jeter, who are
<v Speaker 5>all black cats. Brothers, and then I have Misha, who
<v Speaker 5>is their older sister. She's a delute tortoise and she
<v Speaker 5>does not really like her brothers that much, but they
<v Speaker 5>do tolerate each other. And I'm limited to three cats.
<v Speaker 5>My husband tells me if I get any more than
<v Speaker 5>three cats, we will get divorced.
<v Speaker 3>I have three, and my partner wanted to get more,
<v Speaker 3>and I have like allergies and mild asthma with them,
<v Speaker 3>and I said, get any more and I won't be
<v Speaker 3>able to breathe. At that time, we had two dogs
<v Speaker 3>and three cats.
<v Speaker 6>So that's so funny.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, wes Keith Daniel, what do you have.
<v Speaker 6>I've got two ragamuffins. One of them is sleep. Oh
<v Speaker 6>it's blurred, but I got one sleeping in my cat
<v Speaker 6>tree in the window here. That's Coco. So I've got
<v Speaker 6>brother and sister and Coco and Charles. I've had them
<v Speaker 6>for a few years now and they're just the best.
<v Speaker 6>And I had to lock one out of the room unfortunately,
<v Speaker 6>and he's clawing up the door as I'm talking, because
<v Speaker 6>you can't lock a door. You can't shut a door
<v Speaker 6>when you have cats, obviously, So yeah, I've got Coco
<v Speaker 6>and Charles here with.
<v Speaker 3>Me, okay, helping monitor and helping you with questions and
<v Speaker 3>so forth. So let's get to the tour. How did
<v Speaker 3>you decide on the very first either cat? Or was
<v Speaker 3>it the location that had cat or was it Hey,
<v Speaker 3>do you know about this cat? I know about this cat.
<v Speaker 3>We have to go to this place and talk about
<v Speaker 3>this cat. What was the first one and why did
<v Speaker 3>you choose that very first cat?
<v Speaker 5>What I did was I have the book The Catman
<v Speaker 5>of Gotham, and I have my website, The Hatching Cat
<v Speaker 5>of New York City, which has about five hundred stories
<v Speaker 5>all different animals, not just cats, but dogs and horses.
<v Speaker 5>And so I went through both of those, my book
<v Speaker 5>and my website, and my goal was to find an
<v Speaker 5>area where not only did I have a lot of
<v Speaker 5>cat stories and within like say a one or two
<v Speaker 5>mile radius, but also an area that had some interesting history.
<v Speaker 5>And so we first landed on Brooklyn Heights. I had
<v Speaker 5>some great stories, historical cat stories from Brooklyn Heights. Brooklyn
<v Speaker 5>Heights is America's first suburb. It's got over six hundred
<v Speaker 5>buildings that are protected by the Landmarks Conservation Society. So
<v Speaker 5>it was just a really great way to start the tours,
<v Speaker 5>and then from there I did the same thing. I
<v Speaker 5>again looked for two more areas in New York City
<v Speaker 5>that again had this concentration of stories with history. So
<v Speaker 5>we landed on the Lower east Side, the Bowery area,
<v Speaker 5>and then the Financial District. So those are the three
<v Speaker 5>tours that we currently run right now.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, thank you for those of us listening that are
<v Speaker 3>not in New York and unfortunately might not get to
<v Speaker 3>New York soon. What would you suggest as far as
<v Speaker 3>if they're looking to create their own tour in their
<v Speaker 3>city or maybe look for a tour in their city
<v Speaker 3>that is cat focused.
<v Speaker 5>Well, I mean, I hope that if they were going
<v Speaker 5>to start a cat tour company in their city, they
<v Speaker 5>would reach out to us and let us kind of
<v Speaker 5>help them. Although I'm not an expert in other cities,
<v Speaker 5>but I could certainly help people. But again, it's really
<v Speaker 5>the same thing as trying to find old cat stories
<v Speaker 5>from a particular neighborhood and try to find a neighborhood
<v Speaker 5>that is got a lot of history in it and
<v Speaker 5>that's easy to walk too. I mean, there's a lot
<v Speaker 5>that you have to think about, you know, Is it
<v Speaker 5>easy to walk and people with wheelchairs do this tour,
<v Speaker 5>and you know, you have to kind of go through
<v Speaker 5>it and make sure that it really fits for everybody.
<v Speaker 5>So it's not the easiest thing to do.
<v Speaker 2>Why.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it sounds, oh, let's just do a tour
<v Speaker 3>about cats, But there's so much more involved than we're
<v Speaker 3>starting here and we're just gonna walk and I'm gonna
<v Speaker 3>point to things. There's a lot more involved, especially the knowledge.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, we looked out with Peggy. I mean, Peggy has
<v Speaker 6>a wealth of knowledge, not just about history, but about
<v Speaker 6>how cats are related to that history of New York City.
<v Speaker 6>So we have, you know, a well known cat historian
<v Speaker 6>as a co founder of his company, and she's, you know,
<v Speaker 6>our lead tour guide. So we're super super lucky. But
<v Speaker 6>I don't know if there's many other Peggy's out there
<v Speaker 6>in the United States who you know, can co found
<v Speaker 6>this type of tour, so it'll they'll be pretty hard
<v Speaker 6>pressed to find somebody like her. So we very very
<v Speaker 6>lucky to have Peggy.
<v Speaker 3>So if you love cats and you want a good
<v Speaker 3>cat tour, you have to go to New York.
<v Speaker 6>You have to. You must. Yeah, I would think.
<v Speaker 3>Too that you have to find us a walking city.
<v Speaker 3>There's not not all cities are walking cities. La is
<v Speaker 3>not a walking city. I live there at one point.
<v Speaker 3>I know San Francisco is a walking city some parts
<v Speaker 3>of it. It's hard because you have to find a
<v Speaker 3>walking city and there's not you know, Boston maybe, so
<v Speaker 3>that's the challenge.
<v Speaker 6>Philadelphia maybe. Yeah. It has to have like deep historical routes.
<v Speaker 6>Boston is a great example. Philly would be a great example.
<v Speaker 6>Up and down the East coast. The cities here that
<v Speaker 6>have like deep connections for like the you know, the
<v Speaker 6>founding of the country. I think those are going to
<v Speaker 6>be the really the good types of cities for these
<v Speaker 6>types of tours.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, not where I am.
<v Speaker 6>That's for You're welcome to come on our tour.
<v Speaker 3>So okay, let's talk about hecky. What is the one
<v Speaker 3>historical story that you always like to share that is
<v Speaker 3>just quirky and unusual and is a must you know,
<v Speaker 3>this is where you must stop every tour because just
<v Speaker 3>so interesting.
<v Speaker 5>One of my tours, I have a favorite story because
<v Speaker 5>we're in three different sections of the city. So in
<v Speaker 5>Brooklyn Heights, my favorite story is about Jerry Fox, who
<v Speaker 5>was a blind cat. He lived to be about twenty
<v Speaker 5>eight years old and he saved brooklyn Borough Hall from
<v Speaker 5>burning down in the Lower east Side. My favorite story
<v Speaker 5>is about a cat named Nicodemus, who was a cat
<v Speaker 5>who starred in the very very first national Cat Show
<v Speaker 5>at Madison Square Garden in eighteen ninety five. And then
<v Speaker 5>in the Financial District, my favorite story is about a
<v Speaker 5>cat name Mutilator, who was the cat for the New
<v Speaker 5>York Sun newspapers. So each of those three stories are
<v Speaker 5>just they have a lot of history. They are like
<v Speaker 5>people just lef and you could see the expressions on
<v Speaker 5>people's faces. They just find these stories to be absolutely
<v Speaker 5>amazing and they are just really fun stories to share.
<v Speaker 3>Now we're Catitudes, so we're all about cats. But you know,
<v Speaker 3>there's all kinds of cat lovers. Some are fanatical cat lovers.
<v Speaker 3>Some are just like, okay, I have a cat, you know,
<v Speaker 3>or maybe I want to have a cat. But your
<v Speaker 3>tour is also deeply, deeply historical, as we've been discussing.
<v Speaker 3>So even if you're a dog lover, which I don't
<v Speaker 3>know why you're listening to Catitude, but thank you. But
<v Speaker 3>if you're a dog lover, you'll still love your tour.
<v Speaker 6>One of our recent.
<v Speaker 5>Tours, we actually had somebody breathe their dog on the tour.
<v Speaker 5>We've had people bring their cats, but recently we did
<v Speaker 5>have a dog person. And yes, it is because we
<v Speaker 5>tell a lot of history and it's just kind of
<v Speaker 5>a really fun way to learn the history of New
<v Speaker 5>York City. I kind of just describe it as many
<v Speaker 5>history lessons interrupted by fun cat stories. So it's and
<v Speaker 5>I always tell everybody there's no test at the end,
<v Speaker 5>but you know, I really fun stories like you know,
<v Speaker 5>this building was where Houdini performed, and this spot is
<v Speaker 5>the man who invented Jello, and there's just a lot
<v Speaker 5>of you know, the cat who saved Deborah Harry, a
<v Speaker 5>blondie from dying. You know, like it's just amazing history
<v Speaker 5>in all of our tours. So it's it's really for everybody.
<v Speaker 6>So sometimes when I describe the tour and what people
<v Speaker 6>are going to discover, sometimes when I describe it, I
<v Speaker 6>like to say, like Brooklyn Borough Hall in Brooklyn Heights,
<v Speaker 6>it has its own history. It's it's deeply significant in
<v Speaker 6>Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, and it's got a really long
<v Speaker 6>historical past. But there's a whole nother dimension and it
<v Speaker 6>has to do with cats. And it was so funny,
<v Speaker 6>like when Peggy was stitching together like the stops and
<v Speaker 6>the itinerary for these tours, I kept thinking like, oh wow,
<v Speaker 6>I had no idea like the cat historical significance of
<v Speaker 6>like CBGB or oral haul or something, but it was
<v Speaker 6>just so interesting to know that, like there's more than
<v Speaker 6>just like the history books history. There's a whole other
<v Speaker 6>dimension and it has to do with the animals, and
<v Speaker 6>in our case, it has to do with cats. So
<v Speaker 6>if you are a cat fanatic, then you are looking
<v Speaker 6>to come on our tour. And if you're in New
<v Speaker 6>York City, yeah, please come buy.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, and we're going to talk to you more because
<v Speaker 3>you also we want to find out about the Bodega cats.
<v Speaker 5>Of New York.
<v Speaker 3>So we're going to take a quick break and we'll
<v Speaker 3>be right back.
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<v Speaker 3>Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Haggy Gavin and Daniel
<v Speaker 3>Ramatta and we talked in the first half about the cats,
<v Speaker 3>about town tours, in New York. They're both co founders
<v Speaker 3>and Peggy is the lead tour guide. Now we're going
<v Speaker 3>to talk about the bodega cats of New York, which
<v Speaker 3>are probably part of your cat tours. What is it
<v Speaker 3>about bodega cats? And for those that don't know, what
<v Speaker 3>is a bodega?
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, so a bodega is a easiest way to picture
<v Speaker 6>it is. It's a convenience store. It's a deli. Typically
<v Speaker 6>it's independently owned, typically family owned. But it's a convenience
<v Speaker 6>store where you can get staples everything from Arizona iced
<v Speaker 6>tea to Dorito's to cigarettes, to band aids and aspirins.
<v Speaker 6>Cat food, cat food, absolutely tons of cat food. Yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 6>And in New York City, in these bodegas, you can
<v Speaker 6>also find cats working animals. They are there to serve
<v Speaker 6>a purpose, and their purpose is mainly roadent control. Even
<v Speaker 6>just the smell of a cat from a rodent will
<v Speaker 6>deter tests and rodents mice, which, as your listeners probably know,
<v Speaker 6>we have a bit of a problem here in New
<v Speaker 6>York City with that. So these cats are a like
<v Speaker 6>natural form of pest control.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I did a show not that long ago
<v Speaker 3>and we talked about that, and the author of the
<v Speaker 3>book said, I think there is a rat for every
<v Speaker 3>person where I lived. And then we're talking about what's worse,
<v Speaker 3>So rats or mice or roaches, Because I live in
<v Speaker 3>South Florida, it's tropical. We have roaches, we just do.
<v Speaker 3>So they said they preferred rats or mice. I said, oh,
<v Speaker 3>I'll take a roach any day. Oh well, compared to
<v Speaker 3>our rodent. We actually have a rat tzar in New
<v Speaker 3>York City. It's a woman.
<v Speaker 5>The mayor, I guess a couple of years ago, said
<v Speaker 5>you know, we need a rat sar and he brought
<v Speaker 5>in this woman and I'm like not So, I'm like,
<v Speaker 5>we don't need.
<v Speaker 6>A woman, we need a human. We need cats. You know.
<v Speaker 5>One of the stories I tell about mcsorley's Alehouse, famous
<v Speaker 5>bar in New York City, when they had cats, they
<v Speaker 5>had no rats, and after their last cat was kicked
<v Speaker 5>out by the New York City Board of Health. A
<v Speaker 5>few years later, mcsorley's was shut down because they have
<v Speaker 5>too many rats. So there's your answer. You don't need
<v Speaker 5>a rats. Are you need bodega cats and other kind
<v Speaker 5>of cats?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 6>Work cats, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yep, And that's I mean cats were mousers way from
<v Speaker 3>way back. Well, your the historians more than I do.
<v Speaker 3>But I've done my share of reading historical books with
<v Speaker 3>hosting catitude for the last eight wow eight years. But
<v Speaker 3>cats were originally mousers, and they still have that stalking
<v Speaker 3>prey instinct. Mine don't. I don't know why.
<v Speaker 6>But other yeah, I don't see.
<v Speaker 3>Like if a bug comes when it rains here, they
<v Speaker 3>just come out the bugs, it doesn't matter what. I
<v Speaker 3>don't have tons. I'll find like one a week. But
<v Speaker 3>my cats just don't even pay attention lizards, though they
<v Speaker 3>get excited about lizards. I just try to bring outside.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, they just look. But I'd never seen a rodent,
<v Speaker 3>so I guess the scent of the cats keep them away.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm happy with.
<v Speaker 6>That, yeah, exactly. And we have my and we have rats,
<v Speaker 6>and the rats are way bigger than the mice, so
<v Speaker 6>the cats typically don't go after the rats. They're sometimes
<v Speaker 6>as big as the cat.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god.
<v Speaker 6>But it's just the But it's just the smell of
<v Speaker 6>the cat, you know, It's presence sometimes like the urine.
<v Speaker 6>If it could smell that, it's enough of a deterrent
<v Speaker 6>it will go after mice. Though if it's small, then
<v Speaker 6>they will go after those. But typically rats just stay
<v Speaker 6>away from these types of podegas.
<v Speaker 3>That's a good thing. But I cannot imagine a seven
<v Speaker 3>pound rat and then that's a very tiny small cat,
<v Speaker 3>aren't egg?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, mine are big cats. They're just big, like eighteen pounds.
<v Speaker 3>An eighteen pound rat, oh, I think should be called
<v Speaker 3>something else.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah it's a bear. Yeah, Yeah, that's funny. Bodega cats
<v Speaker 6>have been a part of New York City for a
<v Speaker 6>really long time. The bodega's themselves have their own kind
<v Speaker 6>of interesting history. So in the nineteen fifty nineteen sixties,
<v Speaker 6>Puerto Rican families came to New York City. They kind
<v Speaker 6>of coined the phrase bodega, which actually is funny because
<v Speaker 6>it translates to a warehouse or like a seller, doesn't
<v Speaker 6>it We translate to like convenience store in Spanish. But
<v Speaker 6>somehow it's stuck and it's become synonymous with like the
<v Speaker 6>cultural with the culture of New York City.
<v Speaker 7>Right.
<v Speaker 6>I always like to say that New York City runs
<v Speaker 6>on bodegas, and it's true. Even during COVID they were open,
<v Speaker 6>and you know, they really were there for New Yorkers.
<v Speaker 6>And every neighborhood has, you know, their their token bodega,
<v Speaker 6>and some of them have multiple bodegas, but they've really,
<v Speaker 6>you know, kind of intertwined themselves with the cultural fabric
<v Speaker 6>of New York City and and so have bodega cats.
<v Speaker 6>And the account that I run, Bodega Cats of New
<v Speaker 6>York on Instagram is really a testament to that. It's
<v Speaker 6>what we're doing is documenting bodega cats. They they are here,
<v Speaker 6>They're they're not going anywhere. They're part of the fabric here.
<v Speaker 6>And our job is just to document and you know,
<v Speaker 6>post photos that our followers send us, and we get
<v Speaker 6>dozens of photos a week and we're really thankful to
<v Speaker 6>all of our followers for sharing those with us and
<v Speaker 6>telling people from outside New York City what bodiga cats are.
<v Speaker 6>And I think our account is a really good example
<v Speaker 6>of what healthy, you know, happy bodega cats look like.
<v Speaker 3>There's controversy around bodega cats because you mentioned happy and healthy,
<v Speaker 3>but there's some controversy. I think it generally stems from
<v Speaker 3>lack of knowledge, which is where that comes from. But
<v Speaker 3>some people think, you know, oh it's cruel to have
<v Speaker 3>bodega cats, or you know, bodega cats because someplace, some
<v Speaker 3>bodegas have like you know, like you said, deli and
<v Speaker 3>you know, then you have cats there or solid areas
<v Speaker 3>and you know you have cats there. So there's some
<v Speaker 3>negative component to this. My personal belief is I think
<v Speaker 3>the cats are fine. They're prey creatures. They just are
<v Speaker 3>So it's nothing against their you know, DNA. That's my
<v Speaker 3>personal opinion. But what would you say, because there is controversy.
<v Speaker 3>Some people think it's cruel to have badega cats. They're
<v Speaker 3>they're just working and whatever, and some people are just
<v Speaker 3>you know, they shouldn't be in an area where there's food.
<v Speaker 3>I don't buy that either. In Europe they're all over
<v Speaker 3>restaurants dogs two. So what do you say to those
<v Speaker 3>people that just say that, oh, it's terrible. It's either
<v Speaker 3>useful to comment on bodega cats or just have a
<v Speaker 3>negative vibe about bodega cats.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, so there's a couple of common misconceptions, and I
<v Speaker 6>should preface and say that, like the cat rescue organizations
<v Speaker 6>are doing fantastic jobs, and they're really the ones that
<v Speaker 6>are day in, day out airing for bodega cats, are
<v Speaker 6>the ones checking in on them. So hats off to
<v Speaker 6>like cat rescue organizations, and we work with a lot
<v Speaker 6>of them. We just raised eight thousand dollars in a
<v Speaker 6>fundraiser and we donated all the money to four different
<v Speaker 6>cat rescues that we work with. But rat, yeah, bodega
<v Speaker 6>cats are starved or they're you know, locked away twenty
<v Speaker 6>four to seven. It's not the case. They're not starved.
<v Speaker 6>A lot of people say they're starved so that they
<v Speaker 6>are trained to only eat mice. There's not that many mice.
<v Speaker 6>These cats would start to death. It's just it's a
<v Speaker 6>silly misconception. It's not true. It's a complete myth. These cats,
<v Speaker 6>the ones that we visited, are fed, they are well
<v Speaker 6>cared for. They're stables in the community. They get so
<v Speaker 6>much love and so much attention throughout the day from
<v Speaker 6>regulars passing, you know, in and out. Do all bodegas
<v Speaker 6>treat their cats equally? Definitely not. There's absolutely abuse and
<v Speaker 6>there's neglect that happens in terms of inside of Bodega's,
<v Speaker 6>But it happens everywhere. It's not exclusive to Odega's. Animal
<v Speaker 6>abuse happens everywhere.
<v Speaker 3>Right, Unfortunately it does. And I was going to comment
<v Speaker 3>that can happen from someone adopting a cat, that can
<v Speaker 3>happen from a cat order. There's plenty of others. And
<v Speaker 3>then what's your third point.
<v Speaker 6>Well, I was going to say by documenting them, what
<v Speaker 6>we're trying to do is encourage shop owners to take
<v Speaker 6>pride in their cats, right, to really showcase their cats
<v Speaker 6>and be proud of their cats, which hopefully we'll raise
<v Speaker 6>the bar for the cat's well being. So not just
<v Speaker 6>having the bodega owner care for their cat and love
<v Speaker 6>their cat, but also like people that see our account
<v Speaker 6>and see Bodega Cats of Instagram or see the Shop
<v Speaker 6>Cats show on Instagram, we want yours to fall in
<v Speaker 6>love with bodega cats and we want them to care
<v Speaker 6>when something happens. Oftentimes these cats will get snatched from
<v Speaker 6>a store, they get stolen, or they'll go missing, or
<v Speaker 6>sometimes they get hit by a car, and the community
<v Speaker 6>outpouring is huge. People really get upset when bad things
<v Speaker 6>happen to their local bodega cats. So hopefully by showcasing
<v Speaker 6>these cats, we're making people care more. And we're trying
<v Speaker 6>to avoid the out of sight you know, or out
<v Speaker 6>of sight out of mind kind of you know idea
<v Speaker 6>where Let's put these cats in front of people. Let's
<v Speaker 6>get them to really care about their neighborhood cats. And hopefully,
<v Speaker 6>you know, that's what we're doing with our account to
<v Speaker 6>showcasing these are what healthy cats look like. Let's make
<v Speaker 6>sure that they all look like this, right.
<v Speaker 3>Do you think bodega cats could influence cat adoption from
<v Speaker 3>rescues or shelters a little? Maybe for someone who doesn't
<v Speaker 3>have a cat, who sees a bodega cat all the
<v Speaker 3>time and thinks, you know, maybe I should get a cat.
<v Speaker 6>That's interesting, that's really interesting.
<v Speaker 3>It's a stretch. But I'm just one because the more
<v Speaker 3>that are adopted, the less that are, you know, the other.
<v Speaker 6>Shore and so well, you can't hurt. Yeah, no, it
<v Speaker 6>can't hurt. I would hope that like the people that
<v Speaker 6>really care about their bodega cat who haven't adopted a
<v Speaker 6>cat just yet, Number one, I absolutely hope they adopt
<v Speaker 6>a cat from a rescue organization. But until then, if
<v Speaker 6>you haven't adopted a cat yet, check in on your
<v Speaker 6>local budea cat, ask the owner to spay and to
<v Speaker 6>neuter their cats. That is a huge problem in New
<v Speaker 6>York City, as it is everywhere, but especially in New
<v Speaker 6>York City, there is a massive feral cat problem, and
<v Speaker 6>bodega owners are not spaying and neutering their cats as
<v Speaker 6>much as they should. So I would say, until you
<v Speaker 6>got your own cat, treat the bodega cat as your cat.
<v Speaker 6>Ask about the bodego owner if they spain, they need
<v Speaker 6>to their cat until you get yours.
<v Speaker 3>What I was meaning as people visiting the bodega cat
<v Speaker 3>like every day. Oh, I stopped there five times a week.
<v Speaker 3>I see this cat, and then I should get my own.
<v Speaker 3>The other thing is people sometimes say, well, sometimes the
<v Speaker 3>boat because it's not the easiest to transport cats, so
<v Speaker 3>the cats stay like overnight, you know, in the store
<v Speaker 3>by them. To me, that's not an issue. Cats do sleep.
<v Speaker 3>I mean some are nocturnal, but they do sleep. And
<v Speaker 3>what would you say to someone who says they're by
<v Speaker 3>themselves when the store is closed.
<v Speaker 6>It does happen. I mean, these cats are left alone
<v Speaker 6>for a period of time. I think that they've really
<v Speaker 6>gotten used to kind of the solitude at night. A
<v Speaker 6>lot of these bodegas are open twenty four to seven,
<v Speaker 6>but the ones that are not, yeah, I mean I
<v Speaker 6>think they just get used to the solitude. These are
<v Speaker 6>working animals, right, So I think we should look at
<v Speaker 6>it through a different lens and just consider them. These
<v Speaker 6>are cats with a purpose. And when you see these cats,
<v Speaker 6>you can you notice that they feel their purpose and
<v Speaker 6>that they know that they're there as a working animal.
<v Speaker 6>So I think maybe just looking at it through a
<v Speaker 6>different lens kind of helps. But I would love for
<v Speaker 6>these cats to have attention twenty four to seven. But
<v Speaker 6>during the operating hours of these bodegas, they get a
<v Speaker 6>ton of love and a ton of intention from people
<v Speaker 6>passing through the bodegas.
<v Speaker 3>That's good to hear.
<v Speaker 6>Do you have a favorite, Yeah, there's probably a couple favorites.
<v Speaker 6>I'll tell you my favorite and then I'll tell you
<v Speaker 6>a quick story if we have time. Sure, sure, Okay.
<v Speaker 6>My favorite is probably Tiger in Williamsburg. He's a Metropolitan you,
<v Speaker 6>He's a Scottish fold cat and the owner there, his
<v Speaker 6>name's Chicu. Very very nice guy, very kind guy. He
<v Speaker 6>let me. I was interviewed by News twelve, which is
<v Speaker 6>actually kind of funny. That's where Peggy and I met.
<v Speaker 6>We broke interviewed for the same segment on News twelve,
<v Speaker 6>and I reached out on Instagram to the owner, and
<v Speaker 6>I said, hey, would it be cool if like a
<v Speaker 6>news crew came to your bodega and we filmed with
<v Speaker 6>you and your cat and we asked you a couple questions.
<v Speaker 6>He said, absolutely, come by. Come by. It's still on
<v Speaker 6>my website if you guys want to watch the video.
<v Speaker 6>We have the video there. But that cat, or the
<v Speaker 6>owner of that cat, Chico, he cares for his cat
<v Speaker 6>and deeply. He was showing me photos of when Tiger
<v Speaker 6>went to the vet and when he got his second
<v Speaker 6>bodega cat in a different location in Williamsburg. And he's
<v Speaker 6>a really shining star type of example of a bodega
<v Speaker 6>owner that cares deeply about his cat, takes a cat
<v Speaker 6>home every single night, and I think that should be
<v Speaker 6>the standard, right, Like how happy that cat is. He
<v Speaker 6>does his own Instagram page. People stop in just a path,
<v Speaker 6>so he probab him a favorite. And Scottish folds are
<v Speaker 6>like they're very common breed a bodh cats, So it's
<v Speaker 6>cool to see, you know, a traditional Scottish fold with
<v Speaker 6>his ears, you know, and a tabby coat. Really funny story,
<v Speaker 6>and I'll keep this one kind of brief, not to
<v Speaker 6>hog up all the time. But there was a cat
<v Speaker 6>named Zoro. I won't mention exactly where he is, but
<v Speaker 6>he's in in Alphabet City in New York City, this
<v Speaker 6>kind of named Zoro. He's at a Mexican restaurant out there,
<v Speaker 6>and the owner was telling me that a health inspector.
<v Speaker 6>So health inspectors are kind of key here because bodega
<v Speaker 6>cats are technically illegal, you're not technically allowed to have them.
<v Speaker 6>A lot of times the health inspectors will look the
<v Speaker 6>other way. Sometimes it's better to have a cat than
<v Speaker 6>to have a rodent infestation, so they kind of look
<v Speaker 6>the other way. They understand that there's like this kind
<v Speaker 6>of funny New York City catch twenty two that happens
<v Speaker 6>with bodeta cats. But anyway that the health inspector came
<v Speaker 6>looking for infestation, for any violations, code violations, and he
<v Speaker 6>saw the cat, didn't really care. He saw the food,
<v Speaker 6>saw the water, didn't really care about the cat. He
<v Speaker 6>was there looking for, you know, bigger issues. And the
<v Speaker 6>owner of this Bodheo cab was a little bit nervous
<v Speaker 6>because sometimes they do get a summons for having a cat.
<v Speaker 6>It's about two hundred dollars for having cat. You know
<v Speaker 6>place that serves food, and the health inspector was on
<v Speaker 6>his way out. The owner of the Bodetta was pretty relieved.
<v Speaker 6>As the inspector's reaching for the door, he grabs the handle,
<v Speaker 6>he pulls back the handle, and then the cat named
<v Speaker 6>Zoro takes his claw out, scratches the health inspector from
<v Speaker 6>elbow to wrist and a nice cut on his arm,
<v Speaker 6>and so the helps dependent closes the door. He looks
<v Speaker 6>back at the owner of the of the Mexican restaurant.
<v Speaker 6>He's like, really, man, really, and the guy's like, hey, sorry,
<v Speaker 6>it's a cat. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry,
<v Speaker 6>but he still didn't get a summons. The guy walked out,
<v Speaker 6>everything's okay. But that was my favorite because you know,
<v Speaker 6>Zora the sword fighter leaving a nice claw on a health.
<v Speaker 3>Right at health inspector. You know, that's just how cats are.
<v Speaker 3>You never know, you can pet one and then all
<v Speaker 3>of a sudden they don't want like wow, you know,
<v Speaker 3>the claws just come.
<v Speaker 6>So that's all right.
<v Speaker 5>I just saw something on the news today though, that
<v Speaker 5>new or is they can considering making bodega cats legal.
<v Speaker 5>It just popped up on my banks, so I don't
<v Speaker 5>know what's happening with that, but that would be yeah,
<v Speaker 5>pretty cool.
<v Speaker 6>We started that petition, It got about I think it's
<v Speaker 6>a thirteen thousand signatures on change dot org, and we
<v Speaker 6>were asking for the city council to legalize bodega cats,
<v Speaker 6>not so that there's a ton more of bodega cats,
<v Speaker 6>but just so that the city can step in and
<v Speaker 6>enforce minimum standards of care for bodega cats. Right so,
<v Speaker 6>right now, the city they can't force bodega owners to
<v Speaker 6>spay and neuter. There's not a lot the city can do.
<v Speaker 6>Even though they want to help these cats that live
<v Speaker 6>in these stores, they can't do anything about it while
<v Speaker 6>they're illegal. So what we're saying is, hey, city council
<v Speaker 6>legalized bodega CATS's let's make them official workers of this store.
<v Speaker 6>And that way the city can step in and provide
<v Speaker 6>resources and maybe you know, allocate funding to cat rescues
<v Speaker 6>to help these bodega cats through kind of this proxy
<v Speaker 6>of this cat rescue. Yeah, Keith Powers introduced or is
<v Speaker 6>going to introduce legislation based on our petition.
<v Speaker 3>That is great news. Okay, we're talking about at a
<v Speaker 3>time where can people find out more about cats, about
<v Speaker 3>Town Tours and about Bodega Cats of New York. And
<v Speaker 3>thank you both Peggy and Daniel for coming on Catitude.
<v Speaker 6>Yeah, take it away, Dan, great, great, And so for
<v Speaker 6>the for the cat tours, we are discoverable at cats
<v Speaker 6>about towntours dot com. You can book tours up until
<v Speaker 6>I guess the end of December. Once it gets a
<v Speaker 6>little too cold, probably gonna start shutting down and then
<v Speaker 6>we'll be back up in the spring. And for the
<v Speaker 6>listeners at home, we have a coupon code for ten
<v Speaker 6>dollars off a tour if you'd like to come on.
<v Speaker 6>So it's Attitude twenty twenty five, all one word, all
<v Speaker 6>our broadcase. You get ten bucks off for being a
<v Speaker 6>listener to pet Life Radio. And for the Bodega Cats,
<v Speaker 6>it's at Bodega Cats of New York on Instagram and
<v Speaker 6>it's the same name Bodega Cats of New York dot com.
<v Speaker 6>We saw merch there and you'll find out more about
<v Speaker 6>our petitions and about our fundraising efforts, so you can
<v Speaker 6>learn more there.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, Well, thank you so much, Daniel. Peggy, what would
<v Speaker 3>you tell listeners that are thinking about making a trip
<v Speaker 3>to New York and thinking should I squeeze in a
<v Speaker 3>cat tour or or I don't know. So what would
<v Speaker 3>you tell them that why that they should Yes, you
<v Speaker 3>should go on this Cat's About Town tour. Absolutely.
<v Speaker 5>All you got to do is look at our Google reviews.
<v Speaker 5>We have got I mean, all of our reviews are
<v Speaker 5>five star and we have a lot of tourists. I
<v Speaker 5>had just this week, I had tours from North Carolina.
<v Speaker 5>We get people from California and they do give us
<v Speaker 5>these five star reviews and they say, you know, we
<v Speaker 5>were looking for a tour. We were looking for something
<v Speaker 5>in New York City. We're looking for something different, and
<v Speaker 5>we stumbled uponcats Abound Tours and it's the best decision
<v Speaker 5>we made. It's the best tour we could have possibly
<v Speaker 5>chosen out of all of the other tours that are
<v Speaker 5>out there, because it's just so unique and it's just
<v Speaker 5>really fun. So just just go to Google and you
<v Speaker 5>see the proof.
<v Speaker 3>Well, thank you so much. I'm interested Cat's history. I'm
<v Speaker 3>there so again. Thank you Peggy and Daniels so much
<v Speaker 3>for coming on Caatitude, And I guess I should say
<v Speaker 3>stay warm.
<v Speaker 5>Well, we hope you come up and visit us and
<v Speaker 5>just reach out to us. If you come up and
<v Speaker 5>you want to go on a tour, you are our guest.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, I appreciate that. I hope you guys all enjoyed this.
<v Speaker 3>If you're in New York, definitely check out Cats about
<v Speaker 3>Town tours. There's a lot besides cats. There's a lot
<v Speaker 3>of history involved, and I'm sure you will love it.
<v Speaker 3>I want to thank my guests today, Peggy and Daniel
<v Speaker 3>for coming on Caatitude. Thanks to my cat crew Bill
<v Speaker 3>are all from South Florida who rescued me, so thank you, Dennis, Charlotte,
<v Speaker 3>Molly of course, huge thank you to everybody listening. Cattitude
<v Speaker 3>greatly appreciated. And a huge, huge, amazing thank you to
<v Speaker 3>my producer for all he does. He makes our shows
<v Speaker 3>sound amazing. Thank you Mark Winter for all you do,
<v Speaker 3>and remember, lose the attitude, have Catitude.
<v Speaker 1>Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on petlve
<v Speaker 1>radio dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Cop