Press Kit

Bodega Cats of New York is a New York City brand built around documenting and advocating for the city's working bodega cats. We photograph the cats and talk with the store owners and regulars who know them best. Their names and stories go into a public archive. We're documentarians and advocates, and BCNY is the brand behind the archive, the book, and the legislative work.

It wasn't a single moment. I started taking photos in Fort Greene because I liked the cats and the neighbors who kept them. During COVID, I began paying closer attention to Luna, a tuxedo cat in a neighborhood store. Then I started talking with owners about mice, health inspectors, and fines. One owner had cared for the same cat for eleven years and still worried that an inspector could penalize him. A photograph alone no longer felt complete, so I began recording the names and histories too.

A bodega is New York's neighborhood grocery, and these are working cats. Their presence can deter mice, and some are good hunters. Over time, the job gets bigger than pest control. Customers know the cat by name and stop in to see it. There is a person behind every one of these cats, often an immigrant shop owner who depends on the cat and can still be fined for having one.

My estimate is that 30–40% of New York City's roughly 13,000 bodegas have a cat. It's not an official city census, and I don't present it as one. It's the range I use after years of visiting bodegas and receiving submissions from around the city. The number of cats won't match the number of stores because some stores have more than one.

They are still prohibited under the rules that govern food stores, even though enforcement can be inconsistent. That leaves owners in a contradiction: they can be cited for a cat, and they can also be cited for a rodent problem. Int. 0830-2026 would change the city's rules and, subject to funding, create free vaccination and spay-neuter programs. A. 8341 would direct the state to establish care and sanitation standards. Both bills are still in committee and neither has passed yet. The city bill cannot override state rules on its own.

Conditions vary, and I don't pretend every bodega cat has a good setup. I've met cats who are clearly loved and have lived in the same store for years. I've also heard about missing veterinary care or cats left behind when a store closes. The current gray area makes some owners less likely to speak openly or ask for help. Any legal path should set basic care requirements and make veterinary and spay-neuter support easier to get. It also needs a way to deal with neglect.

I start with a conversation. I ask the owner or regulars for the cat's name, how the cat came to the store, and what its days are like. For the book, Gulce Kilkis made the photographs while I handled the interviews and written stories. The photographer varies across the wider archive, so each image should be credited as listed. We do not stage the cats or assume we can walk into any store. Exact addresses stay private unless the owner has agreed to make one public.

A book is permanent. Social media rewards whatever is new that day, and this work needed room for the full stories. Bodega Cats of New York is a 240-page hardcover with 150 photographs of 60 cats across all five boroughs. Gulce Kilkis's photographs show the cats inside the places where they work. My text tells the stories around them. Epic Ink, an imprint of The Quarto Group, publishes it on November 3, 2026. I want readers to see the cat, the store, and the owner as one story.