I've lived in New York for decades and one of my favorite discoveries is the bodega cat.
Bodegas are convenience stores, which sell everything from beer to batteries to lottery tickets. Many of them have cats, not just as companion pets, but also to take care of rodents and attract customers.
But since many of these bodegas serve food, their feline residents are, strictly speaking, illegal in New York City.
But a petition has been started to help change the law and designate bodega cats as working animals. Full disclosure, I've signed it.
Bodegas – the Spanish term translates to warehouse – were established by Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants living in New York City in the 1950 and '60s, to cater to overnight workers. Over the years, these stores have also been owned by Yemenis, Egyptians, Pakistanis and Indians, but the name bodega has stuck.
My local Brooklyn bodega has a fluffy black and white cat named Lola and whenever I see her in the window, I go inside to say hello. Sometimes, I take a picture and post it online.
In 2022, like me, Dan Rimada started posting pictures of bodega cats on social media, but it exploded into a business.
"I started the Bodega Cats of New York Instagram account. It's been pretty successful. It's a wild ride," he said, laughing. "The intention was not to start a bodega cat Instagram. The intention was: I was going to snap photos of bodega cats myself with just my iPhone. And then people started sending me photos of their bodega cats and then it just kind of spiraled from there."
The Brooklyn native is now a bodega cat entrepreneur – he sells apparel and stickers on an Etsy page. He leads cat tours in the city and is working on a coffee table book.
We met at a bodega in Brooklyn and, with documentary photographer Lanna Apisukh, we went on a bodega crawl, meeting cats across the neighborhood – from kittens to mature tabbies to a chunky tortoiseshell named Tiger.
"So many customers like the Tiger," said bodega clerk Karim Chunara. "And she's friendly for everybody."
Well, maybe not the rodents. "Between 30 and 40% of bodegas in New York City probably have cats," said Rimada. "They're not always in the front of the house. Sometimes they're kept in the back. They're working animals."
And some have become celebrities. Comedian Michelladonna has become something of a TikTok superstar, hosting Shop Cats Show , highly produced 90 second TikTok videos, where she speaks with bodega owners, customers and plays with the cats.
On each of these bilingual episodes – in English and Spanish – she tries to determine if the cat is a "hunter or a gatherer" and dangles a cat toy on a string to see how the kitty responds.
"I love bodega cats," she said. "I've never had a pet in New York City. And my mom has always said no."
Beyond their affinity for felines, keeping a cat is also a business necessity for bodega owners, despite being illegal, according to the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
"Sometimes the health inspectors will look the other way, sometimes they won't," Rimada explained, "but it's just one of those things where, like, as a bodega owner, you have to face a fine. I mean, you get a choice, like, you get a fine for having a cat or get a bigger fine for having [a] rodent problem."
Rimada set up the petition to make the cats legal and he's also collaborated with Shop Cats Show and other internet sites to set up a $30,000 fundraiser to make sure bodega cats can visit vets for free and those healthy kitties can continue to delight customers all around New York.
Copyright 2025 NPR
