The Secret Lives Of Bodega Cats On The Upper East Side

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Jimmy, a portly orange tabby cat who lives in a bodega on Second Avenue and East 61st Street, was adopted to quietly deter rats and mice.

However, Jimmy discovered that hanging around the doorway gets him more pats from people walking by. Now, he's driving up business — his owners estimate the cat tempts new customers inside, earning an average of $400 per day in extra sales.

Jimmy is one of several Upper East Side bodega cats featured in a new book, “Bodega Cats of New York: Portraits and Stories from New York City’s Working Cats" by Dan Rimada, with photos by Gulce Kilkis.

The project began in 2022, when Rimada started posting photos of the four-legged employees on Instagram with captions about their personalities.

Since then, Rimada and Kilkis have visited hundreds of bodegas, documenting the cats and their companions and collecting their stories before writing the book, which will come out in November.

On the Upper East Side, Jimmy, Cookie, Manny, and Mia are among the neighborhood cats documented.

Cookie, a black-and-white tuxedo cat, lives at a bodega near First Avenue and East 74th Street and has brought in a ton of additional foot traffic to the store, Rimada said.

"These cats have become community anchors. They're legends in their neighborhoods," Rimada said.

Mia, the Scottish Fold mix who lives at a bodega near Second Avenue and East 69th Street, is an unbothered local celebrity. Her "smooshed" face is such a crowd-pleaser that she has her own Instagram account, run by a neighbor, Rimada said.

Manny, a grey tabby in a bodega on York Avenue and East 77th Street, is an escape artist. His owners claim that he knows how to completely disappear when the health inspectors come — or anyone with a clipboard and lanyard — since bodega cats are illegal in New York City.

"We had to visit Manny twice to get his picture because he would vanish around us too," Rimada said. "He knows what to look out for, and he just vanishes — he's gone."

Wait — Bodega Cats Aren't Actually Allowed?

It's true — bodega cats are illegal under New York City's health code laws.

In 2025, Rimada started a petition asking the city and state governments to allocate funds for cat rescues and bodega cats, but pivoted to advocating for the legalization of bodega cats after learning the city couldn’t fund something that’s technically illegal.

That petition helped spur a city bill from former Upper East Side Councilmember Keith Powers and Staten Island Councilmember Frank Morano to pave the way to legalization.

There's a similar bill from Upper West Side Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal that would require standards of care for bodega cats, like mandatory neutering, food, and clean water.

Neighborhood Mascots

When taking photos of the bodega cats, Rimada said customers would beam with pride over their local feline making it into the book.

"There was like a sense of pride there, and I really didn't expect that. I didn't realize how much of like community anchors these cats are," he said, adding that neighbors are "really devoted to their bodega cat" and notice when something’s wrong.

In his view, they’re woven into the city’s cultural fabric and a rare point of agreement in a polarized time.

"It doesn't matter what side of the political ideology you're on," Rimada said. "Every single person in New York City agrees that bodega cats are the best thing ever, and we love them."

Health inspectors and people with cat allergies would likely disagree, but that's besides the point.

Why Document Them Now?

Part of the purpose of the project is preservation, Rimada said.

Neighborhoods change, businesses disappear and bodega cats could someday become another piece of NYC culture that's lost.

"Bodega cats, they're a familiar face in a city that changes constantly," Rimada said. "They could be the next thing that gets gentrified out. This could be the next thing that vanishes. This part of New York City's identity and our culture, so I thought it was really important to document it."

For questions, email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.