Apartment Building's 'Basement Cat' Believes It's His Job To Escort Residents To and From Laundry Room

Some cats live in the lap of luxury, pampered pets who have little to do during the day other than snooze on the back of the couch and wait for mealtime. Other cats have a far rougher life on the streets, hunting prey and making their home in whatever dry spot they can find. But most cats throughout human history have lived somewhere between these two extremes—belonging to people, and yet leading surprisingly independent lives for a supposedly domesticated animal.

The truth is that cats like having both jobs and routines, whether that’s catching or scaring off any mice who may venture inside your home, or making sure that the people in their territory are getting where they need to go, such as with this apartment building’s “basement cat.”

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For this chunky orange boy, George, life in a New York City basement is pretty sweet. He spends his nights defending the space from rodents and his days escorting the residents in and out of the elevator to the trash and laundry rooms.

Related: New Yorker Magazine Cover Spotlights NYC's Famous Bodega Cats

He’s clearly a very people-oriented cat, and always wants to know where people are going when they come onto his floor. (He’s not afraid to ask for pets, either.)

Don’t worry about George’s well-being. When he isn’t being terribly spoiled by visitors to the well lite, well-appointed finished basement level of the building, he’s hanging out with his kitty girlfriend, a tortie named Eloise, who also lives there, or being cared for by the building super, who has at least an office down there (as well as a possible on-site apartment).

Cats With Jobs

Some believe that cats were not domesticated in the same sense as dogs or cows—that is, purposefully bred for their usefulness to humans. Rather, the idea is that they voluntarily began to live alongside humans thousands of years ago, and certainly adapted their nature to become the fluffy little couch panthers we know and love today. Basically, they saw that humans made structures and grain storage units that attracted their favorite food, rodents, and decided that hanging out with people was the ideal way to spend the next few thousand years.

Even today, many cats come and go as they please in America and all over the world, such that a cat may not belong to you as much as to the neighborhood. Cats can live quite happy lives in building courtyards, barns, and even shops.

The Territorial Cat

One of the reasons that keeping cats in a building or store works so well is that aats are extremely territorial in nature, so it would be natural for them to regard a given shop, barn, or even ship as their natural hunting grounds. Though some question the kindness of such a life, I’ve seen enough pampered bodega and bookshop cats to know that a home is a home for a cat, even if it doesn’t look like one to a human.

George here clearly sees the basement as his territory, and that’s why he is so curious about any of the people he sees passing through, and wants to make sure they aren’t up to any mischief on their way to the laundry room.

Also, probably, to check for treats.

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