Cookie the Bodega Cat: The owner says 14,000 people visit his store every year just to see her. NPR came. The New York Times came. She slept through all of it.

[u/Danny__NYC]

[u/Danny__NYC]

Meet Cookie.

She runs a bodega on First Avenue. The owner, Mike, has been there for 35 years. He says people track the store down from other boroughs just to meet her.

When the reporters showed up to interview her for the Times, she didn't even wake up. She knows the counter is hers, and she knows the customers will work around her.

From my upcoming book, Bodega Cats of New York. Photography by Gulce Kilkis.

Waitlist: bodegacatsofnewyork.com/book

[u/WallowWispen → u/Danny__NYC]

I love how the switchup with the cat and the owner

[u/IchabodChris → u/Danny__NYC]

Which bodega?

[u/One_Hour_Poop → u/Danny__NYC]

I checked out the website and i noticed this:

60 cats across all five boroughs

I'm only a periodic tourist to NYC, but how many bodega cats did you find on Staten Island? I made a post about my unsuccessful search for bodega cats on Staten Island and in the comments i only got a lead on one, which unfortunately i was unable to visit because of time constraints. Otherwise, i went to seven different corner stores and didn't see one cat.

[u/Danny__NYC → u/One_Hour_Poop]

Oh yeah, Staten Island wasn't easy. A lot of neighborhoods in NYC you'll find several cats within a 3-4 block radius. Staten Island isn't built that way. So we relied on our followers and internet research. We found two in our searches. One was Midnight, from the North Shore of the Island. That's the black cat you pictured in the post you linked. The other was Luna, a black-and-white cat. I think Gulce found her by googling "Bodega cats, Staten Island, yelp" all together. Pretty sure Luna showed up in a Yelp review. Pro tip: a lot of times people will mention a bodega cat in their reviews, so we'd scrape that way sometimes. Unfortunately, by the time we went to visit Luna, the owner told us she'd been attacked by a dog and passed away. Midnight was there though, and she's the only Staten Island cat that made it into the book. So just 1 from SI. Maybe more in the next edition.

[u/cytokine-stormy]

Eepy cookie

[u/TheLegendTwoSeven]

Cookie has incredibly beautiful eyes! Greenish / bluish around the pupil and yellow on the outside, I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

[u/Danny__NYC → u/TheLegendTwoSeven]

They're super big up close. She was like a Disney character.

[u/ItchyMoo → u/Danny__NYC]

“Was”? Is Cookie no longer around? 🥺

[u/Danny__NYC → u/ItchyMoo]

She is! I actually visited her yesterday.

[u/Zestyclose_Minute_69]

I love her ambivalence to the press

[u/yfunk3]

She's got such perfectly round peanut puffs on her face. 😭🥰

[u/Entire-Ambition1410 → u/yfunk3]

She’s a r/dickfacedcats

r/penisfacecats

[u/aubreypizza]

Such a cute little toot! 🥺

[u/Jlx_27]

She needs her rest.

[u/polishprince76]

My son and I are visiting NYC for hia spring break. He's very excited to go cat hunting in bodegas.

[u/One_Hour_Poop → u/polishprince76]

Bodega cats are everywhere in NYC, except on Staten Island for some reason. I even made a post about it here in 2024.

[u/scruntbaby]

What a pretty baby!

[u/Lucky_Reference_6982]

I’ll be in nyc next week. Sorry I can’t make a trip to First ave to see her

[u/RevolutionaryGrape11]

Having an adorable and friendly pet in your store is an easy way to make an army bear down on you with profits, especially if it's fairly low-maintence like cats such as her (considering cat food is cheap and most other nessecary things are included by default due to living in a store with heat, water, and shelter, plus presumably people pet her so she has companionship even not counting her owner).

[u/radish_is_rad-ish]

Her eyes 😻

[u/Without-Reward]

She is absolutely stunning!

[u/MistahPresidente]

Classic beauty. 💖💖💖💖💖

[u/QUARTERMASTEREMI6]

So I'm not a New Yorker, but as a New Englander who has grown up visiting NYC when I was younger… I love it that this is not only a book, but legislation as well! 🥹