When you visit your local garden center, you may notice a furry employee patrolling the grounds or curled up amidst the plants. These nursery kitties keep pests from taking up residence in the warm greenhouse or nibbling on foliage, but they also act as purrfect PR ambassadors, schmoozing with customers.
Here are a few we think you’d like to meet.
Moose, The Nursery at Mount Si, North Bend, WA
A sleek gray cat named Moose can be found snuggled in a box or wandering among the blooms of The Nursery at Mount Si.
As the name indicates, the nursery is tucked in next to the stunning Mount Si. The 4,167-foot peak east of Seattle is part of the Cascade Mountain range and features one of the area’s most popular hiking trails.
Nursery lead Callyn Owen said nursery owner Nels Melgaard was out on a landscaping job when some friends mentioned that they had a cat who needed a home.
“They sent him home with Moose, and (Moose) has been here ever since,” said Owen.
Moose is a very social cat, and he can be seen around the grounds or hanging out inside the greenhouse.
“He loves to meet new people, and this will get lots of pets,” she said.
Moose loves to greet customers.
“You’ll see somebody pull into the parking lot, and he’ll have been sitting on the checkout counter. And you see somebody pull in and he gets all excited and he goes running out to their car. I think that’s pretty cute,” said Owen.
Moose spends a lot of time with Owen when she’s working on a project.
“Often times I get him a little box, and he’ll just come and relax and get some pets and just hangs out with me,” she said.
Moose “works” at the nursery during the day but goes inside the Melgaard’s home at night.
“We’ve got wildlife around here, so the owners want to make sure he’s inside,” said Owen.
Annabelle, Agnes, Betty, and Albert, Oakridge Nursery & Landscaping, Inc. Brandon, S.D.
Four cats are on the job at Oakridge Nursery & Landscaping in Brandon, South Dakota, and they are all named for plants.
Annabelle, a dilute calico, is named after the Annabelle Hydrangea. She is mom to gray and white Agnes, named for Elaeagnus angustifolia (Russian olive tree), and baby Betty is named after Betula, a birch tree. Albert is named for the Fat Albert spruce tree.
All of the cats have free run of the property, and they can be found outside among the perennials or inside snoozing on a bench.
Greenhouse team lead Mary Wiese said they love people.
“They’re pretty much always wanting to be around you,” she said. “They’ll sometimes crawl right on top of us because they want attention.”
Wiese said the cats are great with customers, especially kids.
“They’re super tolerant,” she said. “They’re super sweet and just hang out on the front counter and love getting attention from customers.”
Wiese said the store has various levels to it and a lot of wood structures the cats like to explore.
“They climb up those and walk across the beams, which gets a little nerve wracking because we all kind of stand below in case they fall,” she said.
Aside from greeting customers, the cats do take care of pests on the property. But that can also have its downside.
“Sometimes we’ll have the doors open, and we’ll be checking someone out of the front counter, and all of a sudden you hear them do this certain meow, and you know that they caught something,” she said. “And they’ll bring whatever it is up to the front counter as we’re checking out people, and then start playing with it as cats do, right in front of customers and we’re like, no.”
Baby Kitty, Gray Barn Nursery, Redmond, WA
At age 15, Baby Kitty is a senior staff member at Gray Barn Nursery but the fluffy orange cat was indeed a baby when she first arrived.
Assistant Manager Lindsey Brown said the brother of Gray Barn’s previous owner had brought in two cats, and said they were in the sunroom. He warned that the orange one was “mean.” But it turns out they were not cats, but tiny kittens.
“So, I go in the sunroom, and Baby is cowering in the corner, hissing, just terrified out of her little mind,” said Brown. “I reached out and I pick her up and I put her on my shoulder and she just sank into my shoulder.”
“She fit in my hand when she came, that’s how small she was,” she said. “So that’s why I kept calling her Baby.”
Brown said customers love to see Baby.
“When they come they say, ‘where is Baby?’” she said.
Baby was brought on board as a mouser but she’s become a “love machine” in her golden years.
“She just wants to be close. She wants to be held. She wants to love on you, and you love on her. She’s just a source of entertainment and stress relief and just the best,” said Brown.