Meet the cats who rule NYC's bodegas

Viral TikTok show Shop Cats "interviews" the feline occupants of New York City's delis and grocery shops

- Savannah Sobrevilla

NEW YORK — If you are in a deli or a bodega in New York City and need to speak with "the manager," you may find her underneath the fridge or nestled between bags of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Bodegas, or small grocery shops, being managed by the cats that live in them is part of a "big running joke among a lot of New Yorkers," said Drew Rosenthal, creative producer of Shop Cats, a web show that recently found a large audience on TikTok for its feel-good feline coverage.

When Rosenthal, 35, moved to Brooklyn eight years ago, he was surprised by the ubiquity of semi-feral cats patrolling the city's bodegas and delis. Even more so by the scarcity of online bodega cat registries documenting their addresses and personal updates, given their beloved role in the city's ecosystem.

Last summer, working for Mad Realities — a media company with ambitions of becoming "the MTV of the internet," according to its chief executive and founder Alice Ma — Rosenthal addressed this gap in the kitty catalogue by pitching a bodega cat talk show he characterized as "Cribs meets Steve Irwin." It was greenlit almost immediately.

The pilot of Shop Cats featured Rosenthal's local bodega cat in Crown Heights, a cuddly but capricious grey and white tabby named Kiki, who sleeps behind a display of corn chips.

In the 1½-minute episode, Michelladonna, the flamboyant host of Shop Cats, interviews the whiskered bodega manager — who introduces herself by hissing into the microphone — and the locals who take care of her.

The interview culminates in a test of Kiki's hunting skills via her ability (or desire, rather) to chase a feathered toy. The hunt was set to a zany, Looney Tunes-style soundtrack, a signature of the show.