'It's been crazy': Map of Richmond's shop cats a smash hit as initial printing goes fast

Sue likes to make the rounds on Bellevue Avenue.

From sitting with strangers at Northside Grill to pulling up a barstool at Italian restaurant Enoteca Songo to chatting with people on the street, Sue has earned a nickname: the Mayor of Bellevue. 

But Sue already has a full-time job greeting customers at Nicola Flora, a flower shop in this stretch of Northside. The attention-seeking black cat is one of 12 feline friends featured in Business Cats, a new map that documents shop cats across the Richmond region. The free map’s initial printing was delivered to those businesses on Friday; supply quickly ran out after Fan sandwich shop Garnett’s posted about the map on Instagram. 

The Business Cats map was created by Virginia Commonwealth University undergrads Angie Michelsen, Imani Tigney and Dani Pantalone for a graphic design class. Their assignment was to create an “in the know” guide about some aspect of Richmond with 12 entries. Michelsen recalled “Shop Cats of RVA,” a similar map she’d seen on Reddit that documented working cats around town, and pitched an update. The students’ professor was initially skeptical that they would be able to find 12 cats to fulfill the assignment. 

Undeterred, the graphic design majors traveled the city to conduct “interviews” with the cats and their employers. The map includes the location and stats of each cat (age, level of friendliness, petting preferences, etc.), as well as an illustrated portrait. The map doubles as a passport of sorts: map holders can get their maps stamped at participating businesses to denote that they’ve visited each cat.

The students say the appeal of a working cat is obvious. Tigney, a rising junior from Arlington, visits shop cats when they miss their own cat back in Northern Virginia.

“When my friends and I go to Carytown we always go to Shelf Life just so we can look at the cats,” said Tigney, referring to Page and Mylar, the affectionate tuxedo cats that work at Shelf Life Books.

Pantalone, also a rising junior, notes that most of Richmond’s working cats are employed by locally owned businesses instead of bigger retail chains; Francine, the beloved short-haired employee of the Lowe’s store in Carver, is one notable exception. 

“It gives you more of a reason to go,” Pantalone said. “You get to support a local business and see a fun cat.”

The students are shocked at how much interest the map has generated. 

“It’s been crazy. We originally printed 50 [maps]. I thought it was going to be way too much,” said Michelsen, a rising senior, who plans to print more. “I thought no one would be interested except the owners of the stores.”

John Murden, manager of Garnett’s and former publisher of community news sites Church Hill People’s News and South Richmond News, says the maps were gone within a single lunch shift.

“I could see this as something that’s in constant demand,” he said.

Asked about Garnett’s feline star, Murden says Toby lives next door and comes in for occasional shifts. 

“He’s like the oldest cat in the world,” Murden said. “He’s got this meow that’s like a little dinosaur. He’s very friendly. He’ll hang out in front of the restaurant and let people pet him. He’ll sneak in every now and again.”

Page and Mylar took their jobs after apprenticing under WonTon, the longtime shop cat of Chop Suey Books. WonTon worked at Chop Suey’s two locations for a decade and a half before retiring in early 2023; he passed away later that year. After a change in ownership, Chop Suey rebranded as Shelf Life in early 2023. Neda Massalha, Shelf Life’s used book manager, says Page is the feistier of the shop’s two remaining cats. 

“She will try to climb in our ceiling,” Massalha said. “She will swat at people’s wallets sometimes if she’s up on the counter. We always joke that she’s trying to rob our customers.”

A proud employment history

Cats have worked alongside humans for thousands of years. Mousers were especially prized on ships, as rodents could spread disease, eat food supplies, chew through sails, and, back when it was more common to have gunpowder laying around, leave a trail of the easily ignitable substance in their wake as they scurried around. And as cats sometimes physically respond to a drop in air pressure — which signals an oncoming storm — savvy sailors would watch their feline friends’ behavior to detect oncoming foul weather.

Every so often, a claim that a cat named Herman served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II makes the rounds of the internet. Though Herman was issued a military ID card (Occupation: “Expert Mouser”) and served as the subject of a Paramount newsreel, Scot Christenson, the director of communications for the U.S. Naval Institute and author of the book “Cats in the Navy,” says this was simply an effort to boost morale. Other titles bestowed upon cats by the American military included “Master-At-Naps” and “Chief Food Taster.”

Though cats may be more prized for their companionship than their hunting abilities in the modern era, we still seem to love the idea of cat employment. The X account Cats With Jobs features cats “working” at Starbucks, “driving” tractors and holding down various other occupations; it has two million followers. The Instagram handle Bodega Cats of Instagram, which profiles bodega cats in New York City, has more than half a million followers. Across the pond, Larry, the official resident cat at 10 Downing Street, has held the title of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office since 2011.

Of course, many cats served as invaluable coworkers during the pandemic, warming laps, knocking over mugs of coffee and making cameos on Zoom calls. Despite the obvious affection that people feel towards their pets, a 2021 study of pet ownership during the pandemic found that while remote workers with dogs “reported socializing with other humans more and getting more physical activity on the days they worked from home,” “surprisingly, no relationships were found between pet ownership and positive or negative affect in relation to workplace location.” Worse yet, pet owners “indicated that their pets created distractions during the workday.” Go figure.

For her part, Nicole Roberts, the owner of flower shop Nicola Flora, says the place wouldn’t be the same without Sue. The Mayor of Bellevue’s notoriety is such that he’s included in an Ed Trask mural down the street and was featured in “Rescues in Richmond,” a book that chronicles 170 rescue pets in the city. 

“He’s my dude,” Roberts said. “He’s my family. He owns this place; we just work here.”

And yes, the black cat’s name is a reference to the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue.” When Sue first appeared at Nicola Flora in 2011, Roberts’ vet couldn’t determine if Sue was a boy or a girl. The vet asked Roberts for a name to put on the cat’s paperwork. 

“I said, ‘I don’t know. Chris or Pat or anything but Sue,’” Roberts recalled.

When the paperwork came back, Sue was listed. The name stuck.

“He’s my man in black,” Roberts said.