Apparently, I’m not alone in piling on pounds during hotel stays. According to Willis Loughhead, the Algonquin hotel’s general manager, long term guest Hamlet the Eighth is struggling to shift his post-pandemic pounds. His excess calories don’t come from room service, though, but titbit-proffering guests. For Hamlet is a hotel cat – one of a growing number of New York working cats employed not only for their rat-catching skills, but their people skills.
New York is famous for many things, including rats, hence the recent appointment of the Algonquin’s first so-called rat czar. Someone else doing their bit is Sheila Massey, founder of Hard Hat Cats. Massey previously worked with volunteer groups which neutered and vaccinated strays, before returning them to their colonies. “The aim is to stop breeding, but another benefit is rat deterrence – neighbourhoods with cat colonies are rat-free,” says Sheila. After hearing how working cats helped rid a Chicago brewery of rodents, Sheila founded Hard Hat Cats, which works with a shelter to rehome cats unsuitable for families – but perfectly suited to certain distilleries, breweries and hotels.
Hamlet the Eighth is the Algonquin’s resident celebrity cat
(Tamara Hinson)
Join a tour of Brooklyn’s Kings County Distillery, New York’s oldest distillery, and you’ll almost certainly meet Harold and Maude, two Hard Hat Cats. Visitor services manager Aline Nocera initiated their adoption. “They get on incredibly well with the entire workforce, and love meeting visitors on tours,” says Nocera, who makes an interesting point about how working cats’ roles have evolved. “Our relationship with domesticated animals has changed. These cats are hybrids of traditional working animals and pets, which is a more recent concept.” Nocera hasn’t seen any rodents since Harold and Maude arrived. “Rather than being active hunters it’s now about their presence deterring rodents,” says Nocera. These days, they can kick back and relax – focusing on bonding with employees and visitors, instead.
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Other Hard Hat Cats successes include Five Boroughs Brewing’s Amor, who made the transition from working moggy to much-loved pet after being adopted by an employee; Oreo, who resides at the plush Stamford Suites Hotel; and Elizabeth, a male, one-eyed cat at…
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