Simba, a large cat with thick ginger and white fur, is one of thousands of felines that live in New York’s corner shops known as “bodegas” -- even if their presence is illegal.
Praised for warding off pests, so-called bodega cats are also a cultural fixture for New Yorkers, some of whom are now pushing to enshrine legal rights for the little store helpers.
“Simba is very important to us because he keeps the shop clean of the mice,” Austin Moreno, a shopkeeper in Manhattan, told AFP from behind his till.
The fluffy inhabitant also helps to entice customers.
“People, very often, they come to visit to ask, what is his name? The other day, some girls saw him for the first time and now they come every day,” said Moreno.
Around a third of the city’s roughly 10,000 bodegas are thought to have a resident cat despite being liable to fines of $200-$350 for keeping animals in a store selling food, according to Dan Rimada, founder of Bodega Cats of New York.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member