Bodega cats are famous. Particularly the New York bodega cats. And domestic cats are famously attracted to sources of warmth. The shops might get quite chilly during the winter with the front door open. And all devices on standby, as they must be in a shop, will emit heat. This includes freezers and chillers which are based upon a heat exchange system. Heat is removed from the inside of a chiller and emitted to the outside. The cat will find the source of that heat as one of the photographs below illustrates. An added benefit for a cat is a high vantage point.
I thought that it made a nice series of photographs illustrating a particular sort of domestic cat behaviour under a certain and particular circumstance which is shops’ cats surviving as best they can and forming a close relationship with the shops’ owners.
The concept of bodega cats is, I think, excellent. It is a way for community cats to survive. The only downside that I see is that I doubt whether the shops’ owners fork out money to take these cats to a veterinarian when required. I don’t know if that is a fair assessment.
The problem with community cats is that they are cared for in terms of being provided with food and shelter but are they cared for when they become ill? That is the true test. Is a shop owner going to take their bodega cat to a veterinarian and perhaps fork out thousand dollars. We don’t hear about that, but it is a question which comes to my mind.
The number one article on bodega cats on the Internet as selected by Google does not refer to health issues and whether these cats are provided with adequate veterinary care when required. The author does point to the fact that bodega cats are kept as “pets” by shop owners in order to keep down the rat and mice population. So, this is a classic mutually beneficial relationship but how far does it go? Does it extend to veterinary care? I know I am harping on here but that’s the big point that needs to be examined.
I love bodega cats whatever the answer. I love working cats actually as is it good for both cat and human. I feel that the domestic cat’s life can be a little too static and unadventurous when keep indoors full-time as they must be sometimes for the sake of their health. But what about their overall welfare?
Below are some more pages on working cats.
I remember the bodega cats when we went to the Mexico side of Nogales, every store, bar and restaurant had one. 🙂 and I never saw mice or rats.