For The Love Of Cats: NYC Pet Employee Trail Blazes Cat Adoption Program

PARK SLOPE – A mother and daughter hold hands and slip through the aisles of NYC Pet, a pet store at 218 5th Avenue in Park Slope. They weave through the well-lit shop and scan the ground, as if looking for lost keys.

Near the back of the store the manager, Carlos Leon, slices open cardboard boxes and stocks the shelves. Originally from Guatemala, he has worked at the store for approximately ten years. Leon is alert and warm and wears a field cap with his hair underneath drawn into a bun.

He notices the quiet, intent look on the two faces. “Are you guys looking for George?” he asks. The daughter gives a shy nod. Leon doesn’t know where he is, but calls out for him. “He must be hiding somewhere.” George is often nestled between 25 pound boxes of Ever Clean and Scoop Away cat litter, or underneath shelves. Disappointed, the pair drift towards the door and exit without buying anything.

The NYC Pet on 5th Avenue is home to a unique adoption program. Rescued cats live in large crates by the window, waiting to be adopted. A sign advertises that 357 cats have been adopted from this store to date.

“George is the cat who started it all,” Leon says. About six years ago he found George and his four siblings as kittens, in the neighborhood. He set them up in a small crate in the window with a sign. They weren’t spayed or neutered, but they were free. Like samples at the grocery store, the four siblings were gone in an instant. But George, a big, grey and white tabby remained.

“George gave me an idea,” Leon said. He wondered: what if the store housed abandoned and stray cats in the windows? This way the cats would quickly find good homes. If he got larger crates, NYC Pet could house as many as three adult cats and four kittens at a time. While several pet stores in the city host adoption events, not many offer an on-site adoption program.

For two years prior to Leon’s epiphany, an animal rescue based in Queens, For Animals, hosted a weekend adoption event in front of NYC Pet. They were the perfect partner for Leon’s idea. The founder and owner of For Animals, Theresa Samsingh, says that their partnership with NYC Pet on 5th Avenue is crucial for her rescue’s continued existence. For Animals has rescued cats (and other pets) for close to seventeen years now. “It helps us to be visible,” Samsingh said. If they didn’t have a store to host cats, they would rely solely on online adoptions, which happen less frequently. Partnered with NYC Pet, their turnover is higher and they can rescue more cats.

For Animals schedules volunteers to go to NYC Pet to clean the cages and feed the cats. Depending on the season, there are up to ten people going in to help every week. People often become interested in volunteering when they visit the store and see others tending to the cats. There are applications for volunteering, and for adopting, in the store, but people can also go online to connect with For Animals too.

The rescue cats draw both customers and non-customers into the store. This is beneficial because pet-store competition is Park Slope is intense. Leon rattles off twelves stores in the area, just off the top of his head—not to mention the specter of online shopping. But that isn’t why Leon wanted to have the cats in the window. There are an overwhelming number rescue cats in need of homes. “Somebody has to do it,” he says.

Just outside, rock pigeons and house sparrows congregate over a loose carpet of bird seed that drapes the sidewalk around the fire hydrant to the curb. The cats watch the birds with rapt attention. There’s a tray of seed just inside the front door. I ask Leon if he had anything to do with the avian buffet. He confesses. “For the cats, it’s like TV.”

Then Leon pulls out his phone to show me a picture of his own cat (not George). It’s a stunning portrait: the animal gently lit from above in a three-quarters pose, emerging from absolute black. I can’t believe he captured it with his phone. He laughs. He didn’t. It was professionally done. Why not? He loves cats.

Click here to learn more about For Animals’ adoptable animals and adoption process. For information on how to volunteer, click here.

NYC Pet
218 5th Avenue (between Union & President Streets), Park Slope
Hours:
Monday-Friday: 9am to 8pm
Saturday: 9am to 7pm
Sunday: 11am to 6pm