Bodega cats of New York

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zzdw 5 days ago 45 commentsRead Article on bodegacatsofnewyork.com

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Discussion (45 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

culi•about 1 hour ago

It seems it might've been taken down but there used to be an app called ShopCats that was a crowd-sourced version of this concept

https://shopcats.en.softonic.com/iphone

WetBurritoLuv•about 2 hours ago

I read Shop Cats of New York a few years ago, and it was great

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shop-cats-of-new-york-tamar...

jackconsidine•about 3 hours ago

Was so excited when I saw this link. Was hoping it would be more like the Trees of New York [0], but appears to be a book.

The bodega in my last neighborhood (Fort Greene) featured an orange cat, Ice Spice. Spice birthed Olivia who now has loads of kittens. They wander in and own like they own the place, even whining at customers to open the doors for them. Here's a picture I took of Olivia on top of the tobacco products

[0] https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/tree-map/neighborhood/177

[1] https://ibb.co/h1cJTs0g

jjtheblunt•about 3 hours ago

That sounds profoundly irresponsible of the associated humans.

jkestner•about 3 hours ago

True. It's unconscionable to give a cat access to cigarettes.

fhdkweig•about 2 hours ago

But hilarious to give a raccoon alcohol.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=raccoon+liquor+store

rafram•about 2 hours ago

Lots of bodega cats are allowed to go out on the street. They usually don't wander far. Cats know where home is.

crooked-v•about 2 hours ago

It would be irresponsible for a pet owner... but you have to understand the context is New York rats, which exist in immense numbers, massively beyond every other major US city, because of a century of just leaving trash piled up on the sidewalk (https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-11-27/new-yo...).

Bodega cats aren't pets, they're a cheap and low-impact way to keep rats from moving into the bodega en masse. If one gets run over by a car, that's just an unfortunate cost of business for a bodega owner who needs an option that works better than putting glue traps every five feet or fumigating the entire place every week.

chirau•about 4 hours ago

When i first realized that their primary purpose was to get rid of rats, I had quite the chuckle.

nonethewiser•about 4 hours ago

Yeah this is why I dont find it endearing. It's just pointing to unsanitary conditions. It's ubiquitous in NYC which may have dulled some senses but it's not ubiquitous everywhere.

Cat's themselves are not very sanitary. Better than rats, sure, but they are a source of toxoplasmosis which is very dangerous to pregnant women for example. Limiting exposure is manageable when keeping as a pet, but its a terrible baseline for a cramped public store.

alexjplant•about 3 hours ago

> they are a source of toxoplasmosis

You are far more likely to get it from undercooked beef or shellfish than from a cat. Less than 1% of cats broadly are shedding it at any given time and that number is even lower for indoor cats. If, like me, you have a penchant for rare steak and beef tartare then there's a decent chance that you have it.

bombcar•about 4 hours ago

The vast majority of NYCs problem can be tied to their trash debacle, which is so outlandish it's hard for anyone not from there to believe is a real thing in 2206.

It appears they finally discovered dumpsters recently: https://www.amny.com/news/curbside-empire-trash-bins-coming-...

(Another crazy trash city was (is?) Seattle with their weird judgement causing everyone to compact their trash.)

blatherard•about 3 hours ago

And the difficulties of trash handling are further traceable, at least in Manhattan, to the decision by city planners in 1811 to not build alleys. No obvious place to store trash, nor an obvious place to put it when being collected.

If you drive in Manhattan you'll also notice a whole lot of delivery trucks and other vehicles blocking lanes, and a lot of designated delivery-only parking zones. This is rooted in the same lack of alleys.

RandallBrown•about 3 hours ago

What about Seattle's trash was crazy? I've lived here for 14 years and never noticed anything weird about it compared to other places I've lived.

addaon•about 4 hours ago

> 2206

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

[Posted from 2026.]

pcrh•about 4 hours ago

It's still a problem in 2206?

dirck-norman•about 3 hours ago

NYC was built without alleyways and much of NYC is single vaulted sewer systems due to its age. There is no space to put underground trash bins.

NYC is also non-uniform, so there are different types of trucks and streets.

Adam's admin largely solved this during his term, but the above ground bins are unpopular because they're ugly and then it takes time to retrofit the garbage trucks for mechanical pickup.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/02/upshot/nyc-tr...

jjtheblunt•about 3 hours ago

> Cat's themselves are not very sanitary. Better than rats, sure, but they are a source of toxoplasmosis

Hyperbole and toxoplasmosis go well together.

In particular: it's a limited time window when an infected feline could transmit toxoplasmosis. It can be dangerous to pregnancies, or immuno-compromised individuals.

Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised, but the drama of the topic gets clicks, so it's a meme of sorts, and it resurfaces every six months or so in the news as if a revelation.

kirubakaran•about 2 hours ago

> Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised

Just because pregnant and immuno-compromised people are in the minority, it's not a big deal?

vedaba•about 3 hours ago

You just angered a lot of cat people

delecti•about 3 hours ago

In my experience most people lovingly refer to their cats in negative-sounding ways. One of the terms of endearment we used for our most recent cat was "stinky little piss baby". I think most cat owners are well aware that they're unsanitary creatures.

sdrm•about 4 hours ago

Paris should take notes

cgg1•about 3 hours ago

Can’t wait for the sequel:

Bodega Rats of New York

brenschluss•18 minutes ago

Is it just me or is it a huge letdown that the text is all AI-generated? Or at least, in the same kind of saccharine style? Are people not able to detect this?

enraged_camel•about 1 hour ago

I strongly recommend the 2016 documentary titled 'Kedi', which is about the cats of Istanbul. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKq7UqplcL8

xoa•42 minutes ago

Seconding this, it's what I immediately thought of. It's a really beautifully made movie. And yes cats are front and center, but it's also using them as a window on humanity, the city of Instanbul and its living history from a very different perspective. It's a very sober film as well, celebrating life but also not shying away from death and the passing of time. The "cat's eye view" is a more 3D sort of feel from a lot of the typical explorations of a city, going at ground level, up and down buildings in 3D etc.

It's become a family favorite film we tend to watch each winter now. All ages can take something from it.

noplace1ikegone•about 3 hours ago

You can’t have a great product without proper security.