{"id":1190,"date":"2016-04-20T04:30:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T12:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2016-04-20T04:30:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T12:30:45","slug":"wild-and-sometimes-crazy-wednesday-cats-who-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=1190","title":{"rendered":"Wild (and Sometimes Crazy) Wednesday\u2014Cats Who Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While I was earning my living as a freelance article-writer, I happened across a fascinating topic\u2014working cats. And I wrote a couple of articles featuring some of the working and library cats across the US.<\/p>\n

You probably know of a cat or two who hang out at a pet store, garden center, flower shop, quilt shop, refinishing shop, your vet\u2019s office, or even a bed and breakfast. There are actually 470 known shop cats throughout the states, according to Trina Samson, who\u2019s been operating the Shop Cat website at http:\/\/www.shopcat.com<\/a> for at least fifteen or twenty years. Visit this site and find out some of the interesting and unique places where cats work.<\/p>\n

Here in Ojai, CA, we see a resident cat lurking about at a feed store, and there was one \"sophielily-011\"greeting customers at a unique outdoor bookstore for many years. I love eating at a particular restaurant in Big Sur where cats grace the place. There are also lodges and inns where you can request a cat for your room if you so desire.<\/p>\n

There are 809 library cats in the world\u2014664 in the US and over 400 former library cats in the US who have since passed on. You\u2019ve probably heard of the most famous library cat of all\u2014Dewey. I was among the first to write about Dewey, years ago. The librarian, when she retired, made him even more famous when she came out with a book about this cat. Check out the list of library cats here: http:\/\/www.ironfrog.com<\/a><\/p>\n

There are advantages to having a cat in the workplace and public places, but also disadvantages. Cats are known to have a calming effect on people. Some employers actually allow people to bring their pets to work. In some instances, the employer adopts a relaxed, quiet cat from a shelter and gives him the run of the office. The cat\u2019s job is to provide a serene atmosphere in even busy, hectic businesses. Cats are often brought into warehouses to work as mousers.<\/p>\n

It has been shown that customers will stay longer and, perhaps, buy more in a business \"crystal_in_uniform\"where there\u2019s a friendly cat. A cat in the workplace is also an advantage for a cat who has no place else to go. Many of the business and shop owners I spoke to while writing about shop cats and library cats said that the cat strayed in, or they found the cat wandering the streets. Some purposely rescued cats from local shelters. And others bring their own cat back and forth from home to work.<\/p>\n

The disadvantages to having a cat in a public place or business is the obvious\u2014some people dislike and even fear cats. There are people with cat allergies. I was involved in a cat therapy program once. We\u2019d take kittens from a shelter into nursing homes. At one place, I was confronted by a scary employee who was deathly afraid of cats\u2014even kittens. She\u2019d run away screaming whenever I\u2019d walk into the place with a kitten. Certainly, that woman would never knowingly set foot in a business or public building with a cat. I talked to some librarians and business owners who say they will lock the cat up in such cases.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we\u2019ll talk about cats in the White House and famous people in history who owned cats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I was earning my living as a freelance article-writer, I happened across a fascinating topic\u2014working cats. And I wrote a couple of articles featuring some of the working and library cats across the US. You probably know of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}