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