A look at practical cats: Shop cat tradition still has lives left in Central Texas

A look at practical cats: Shop cat tradition still has lives left in Central Texas

by Harper Scott Clark - Telegram Staff Writer

Published April 16, 2008

Some may think keeping a cat at a business is a quaint notion from the past. The custom goes back centuries in England and spread to America in Colonial days.

But in Central Texas the concept is alive and well.

Eddy-Puss, or Eddy for short, holds court at Fletcher’s Books and Antiques in Salado. Owner Tyler Fletcher said Eddy, 16, is a greeter for customers and also patrols St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church next door.

Eddy came to him by way of the British attaché at Fort Sill, Col. John Harrington.   

 

Eddy-Puss

“Harrington and his wife were returning from a New Year’s Eve party when they spotted a bloody little ball of fur by the curb,” Fletcher said of the young cat who had been hit by a car, breaking its back legs and severing its tail. 

They took him to a veterinarian and he healed quickly. But the Harringtons couldn’t take the cat with them to England.

“Lt. Gen. Colby Broadwater at Fort Sill was an old friend and former customer at the shop,” Fletcher said of the retired officer. “He called and asked me if I wanted a cat. I said no.”

A few weeks later Harrington showed up at the bookstore with the cat and some carpentry tools.

“I kept telling him ‘I don’t want a cat,’” said Fletcher. “Instead he began cutting a cat door in an antique door to my shop.” When Fletcher complained about his carving into a valuable old door, Harrington just harrumphed.

“Oh, you will be fine,” Harrington replied. “You Yanks don’t know what old is.”

After Harrington left the cat immediately jumped into Fletcher’s lap and claimed him as his own. “He’s very sociable,” said Fletcher. “He greets customers. And in the last two years he has killed about 200 mice.”

Eddy is also a regular visitor at the church next door where he comes uninvited during services and sits in the pews next to the worshipers “If he gets bored, he turns and leaves.”

Fletcher said Eddy likes to sit in the bishop’s chair - a seat reserved for retired Bishop Claude Payne of Salado.

“He attended a wedding once,” Fletcher said. “At the crucial moment he walked down the aisle and stood between the bride and groom. He looked first at the bride, then at the groom. Then he left.”

The Rev. Tom Wallace, who leads services at St. Joseph’s, said that from time-to-time Eddy comes to sit in the front pew or stand at the foot of the altar while he’s performing the communion.

“There’s a chair I sit in at the front and Eddy wants to sit there,” Wallace said. “We have had confrontations over these things but often he wins.” Wallace said the traditional symbol of the Holy Spirit is the dove. “But we’ve decided that Eddy instills the embodiment of the Holy Spirit around here and in the chapel. He comes and goes at the proper times and seems to keep things in good order. So we may have a new symbol for the Holy Spirit – a black and white tuxedo cat.”

Yamaha, in his natural habitat.

At Marine Outlet in Temple, Yamaha and Marina hang out, said Linda Smith. Smith said Yamaha, an orange male, came to live at the shop three years ago – a gift from a friend. “Everyone loved him so much he’s still here,” she said.

  

That Memorial Day he went missing, she said. Five days later they found him behind an air-conditioning unit mewing weakly. Ms. Smith said a predator had attacked him and a back leg was mangled and broken. "We took him to the vet and had a pin put in the bone, ” she said. “The clinic drew cat paws on his little cast.”

Yamaha’s main job today is to lounge on merchandise and give the store local color.

Marina lounges around Marine Outlet in Temple.

Marina has been at the store 10 years, she said. She once got into a fishing boat a customer had parked in the drive. When he drove off, away went Marina looking terrified.

They reached the customer at home, who said he had made only one stop at a bank in downtown Temple. Linda and her husband, Rick, spent five days combing the streets for her.

“I didn’t know there were so many gray cats in downtown Temple,” she said. Two weeks later Marina showed up at the store. She had crossed the Santa Fe railroad tracks and six lanes of Interstate 35 to make her way home to the shop.

“She had lost weight and was very vocal,” said Ms. Smith. “She got up on the fish tank and drank a lot of water. Then she ate a bunch and went to sleep for three days. She doesn’t go out anymore.”

Lucky peers at traffic on Third Street from his perch 
at Aunt Minnie’s Antiques in Temple

Sharon Robbins said her mother, Vernell Rayzor, found Lucky, outside their business – Aunt Minnie’s Antiques on Third Street in downtown Temple – five years ago.

“He was only 5 weeks old – just a handful – and hollering,” said Ms. Robbins.

She told the solid black kitten he was “lucky” not to have been run over by a car. The name stuck.

Lucky is a natural customer greeter and gives tours of the shop, she said. A lot of times customers will pick him up and carry him around. “We do have customers who come here just to see him, not to shop,” she said, explaining that he recognizes certain customers when their cars drive up and he greets them at the door highly excited. “There are other people who tell us they come by at night to play with him through the window.

Lluigi makes a desk his spot at Dodge Country Chrysler Jeep in Killeen

Bill Sellers manages the body shop for Dodge Country Chrysler Jeep in Killeen. His shop foreman is Lluigi, a large, gray neutered male.

Sellers said Lluigi was a feral kitten that knocked on the shop’s door one night asking to come in to be the resident mouse catcher. “You couldn’t run him off now,” said Sellers. “He has his own door and lots of food and doesn’t need more than that. He lives the good life he deserves.”

Sellers said Lluigi is in charge of the whole place.

“He never takes off sick,” Sellers said. “He’s never asked for a raise. And he’s very loyal. You couldn’t ask for a better employee. And there are no mice around here.

Tuli guards the file cabinets at Cole’s Appraisal Services in Killeen

Cole’s Appraisal Services in downtown Killeen has had Tuli, a brindle-marked female, for 11 years. Nelwyn Cole said she showed up in her backyard at home as a tiny kitten.

“I heard our dogs barking at her and went out to find her screaming bloody murder,” said Mrs. Cole, laughing.

She and her husband, Larry, decided Tuli would be a shop cat. Tuli has a cat jungle gym with a perch on top in a bay window that looks out on the city street. That’s where she spends her time.

“That’s her throne,” said Mrs. Cole. “No one bothers her there. She watches people and traffic and when birds are out there she makes that sound in her throat.”

Tuli is not a greeter, but is a very private soul, which is OK, said the Coles. It’s not a walk-in business. “I play with her when I get to work in the morning and that takes care of her for the day.”

Rock curls up on a rug at Harris Law Firm in Killeen

Bill Harris at the Harris Law Firm in downtown Killeen has had Rock, a mottled-coated neutered male, for 18 years.

Harris said Rock as a kitten somehow got up into the ceiling of his office and then fell down inside the wall.

“I heard him hollering and took the wall apart to get him out,” Harris said.

Harris said he has no particular job duties. “The best thing he does is hold down the carpet,” he said with a chuckle. “He used to be a greeter for clients, but he’s semi-retired now. But he greets us every morning.”

hclark@temple-telegram.com