Photographer Captures the Working Bodega Cats of New York City

New York City’s bodega cats are not any bizarre felines. They’re working cats in neighborhood shops which are in command of pest management — an vital job in a metropolis with a persistent rodent drawback.

They’re additionally beloved by New York’s residents. Regular clients know their native bodega cat’s identify, deliver them meals, and can even cease by simply to say good day.

Bodega Cats of New York, a mission led by reporter Dan Rimada and photographer Gulce Kilkis, has spent 4 years documenting 60 bodega cats throughout all 5 boroughs.

The first-of-its-kind mission has now culminated in a e book titled Bodega Cats of New York: Portraits and Stories from New York City’s Working Cats. It options 120 images of the cats lounging on meals cabinets, curled up in purchasing baskets, and patrolling for undesirable pests.

Kilkis grew up in Istanbul, a metropolis well-known for its cats. She nonetheless paperwork cats in Turkey on her fashionable Turkish Street Cats Instagram page.

But whereas New Yorkers and guests alike are acquainted with Bodega cats, some could also be shocked to study that they’re technically unlawful. Under New York State meals security laws, dwell animals usually aren’t allowed in shops that promote meals.

Bodega homeowners will be fined if their feline worker is discovered napping between the canned items and paper towels. But in follow, enforcement has typically been inconsistent. Inspectors ceaselessly prioritize training and correcting meals questions of safety over instantly issuing fines.

The Bodega Cats of New York e book arrives whereas two measures regarding cats in meals shops stay in committee. New York City Council Int. 0830-2026 would override the town health-code prohibition, however state motion would nonetheless be needed. New York State Assembly invoice A08341 would set up humane and sanitary requirements, together with veterinary care, vaccinations, spaying or neutering, meals, water, relaxation, and sanitation necessities.

“This is not a legal argument. It is a record of something New Yorkers already know: the city runs on small businesses, and many of those businesses run with a cat asleep on the counter,” says Rimada.

A press launch notes that the e book doesn’t deal with the cats as mascots or stage them for images; it data the folks, routines, and circumstances round them, together with the authorized uncertainty that retailer homeowners and dealing cats face.

The e book additionally explores the hole between New York City’s well being code and state agriculture regulation, in addition to what homeowners, clients, and advocates say a humane authorized framework would want.

Bodega Cats of New York: Portraits and Stories from New York City’s Working Cats shall be printed by Epic Ink on November 3, 2026, priced at $30. To pre-order a duplicate of the e book, head to the Bodega Cats of New York website.