Bodega cats are part of New York's daily life, but most of their stories were never written down.
BCNY keeps a public record of the cats New Yorkers already know by name: the ones on the counter, under the chip rack, in the window, or asleep beside the register.
The point is simple: document the cats where they actually live, keep the store context around them, and make the case that they deserve care and legal protection.
Every entry keeps the cat tied to its bodega.
The cats
Names, habits, hiding spots, and the routines workers notice before anyone else.
The stores
The counter, the aisle, the owner, the block, and the reason that cat belongs there.
What gets kept
Photos, notes, press, and book material, kept together before the small details disappear.
The work became a book, a campaign, and a public record.
The book, Bodega Cats of New York, is coming this fall from Epic Ink Books / Quarto Publishing. It grew out of the same photos, names, neighborhoods, and cat stories that built the work.
The advocacy started the same way. Owners kept describing the gray zone around cats they look after every day. The petition crossed 13,500+ signatures, raised $7,442 for local rescues, and helped move Int. 0830-2026 and A08341 into committee.
Built from fieldwork.
Dan Rimada is the founder of Bodega Cats of New York. He started noticing the cats in 2020, when the city went quiet. In 2022 he started writing down the cats he saw around Fort Greene. People from other neighborhoods started sending in their own bodega cats, and the archive kept widening from there.
The work has stayed close to the stores: ask permission, learn the cat's name, write down the details. The archive keeps each cat tied to the store: the people, the routines, and the details that make the place feel specific.
“We want to protect what makes New York City feel like home. And that includes taking care of the cats that are a part of it.”