Kiki

Kiki prefers the top of the ATM. She claims it like a throne.

The owner's daughter named her. The daughter does not work there. She just made the decision early and nobody overruled it.

ATMs run hot. Bodega cats figure this out fast. In the winter, the machine is the warmest surface in the store. In the summer, it is still warm, but the cat does not care. Kiki has claimed the spot and ignores every other warm surface.

When people try to use the machine, she stares them down until they apologize. Some customers use a different bodega just to avoid the confrontation. Kiki does not care about lost revenue, and the owner only cares a little. Customers usually laugh, take photos, or reach around her to enter their PIN.

If you have spent enough time in bodegas, you learn to check the ATM first. Fur on top of the machine often means the cat is somewhere in the store, perhaps in the back, the basement, or behind the paper towels.

Kiki is elevated, visible, and unbothered, watching everyone who walks in like she is deciding whether they deserve access to their own money.

From the StoriesKiki's story appears in Bodega Cats of New York, out November 3, 2026.