Working / cats
No, “working cats” is not an oxymoron. The Chinatown bodega cat (not technically an accurate descriptor) is earning her keep in the millennia-old traditional job of mousing.
The sophisticated Parisian cafe cat is in the hospitality business and quite at home at a sidewalk table.
These cats allow people to avoid poisons to help control the cities’ ubiquitous rats, and no one seems to freak out at the “sanitary” implications of the cats’ proximity to food.
I love it! Our cats have pretty much free access to table tops, desks, food areas you name it and we are not one iota the worse off for that. In our house, if a cat makes him or herself comfortable on a chair or couch where a human would want to sit, the human is not allowed to disturb them or chase them of the seat. You wait, or find another place to rest. We are expected to show some humility and some respect.
My kitty kat earns her keep most days. Mice are no longer a problem, well so far. Unfortunately her skill w/cockroaches vary. Some days she’s really into the job, Other days, not so much. Fortunately, I don’t have many roachs.