Brooklyn Cat Cafe Employs Rats To Care For Kittens

Rats and cats aren’t famous for their strong friendship, however this New York cafe en’tails’ peace and harmony between the furry animals. The Brooklyn Cat Cafe located on Atlantic Avenue and has recruited two rodents, Emile and Remy, to help care for young orphaned kittens.

Manager Anne Levin said: “We started Brooklyn Cat Cafe as a way to have an adoption space, it allows us to have anywhere between 20 to 25 cats fostering in this location, so the cat cafe has been very successful in terms of getting pets adopted. When we started in May 2016 we had almost 300 adoptions our first year. It’s a great opportunity for us to speak with individuals about cat issues and things they can do in their local neighbourhood to help cat and dog population.”

The rat/cat relationship began after introducing an unwell black kitten, Ebony, to a white rat called Ivory. Ebony had been diagnosed with feline leukaemia and became desperately lonely because she was unable to be exposed to the other kittens at the cafe. So the staff decided to rescue a rat companion, immune to the disease, and along came Ivory. After the unusual duo formed a solid friendship, there was no looking back for the cafe. Sadly, Ivory died in February so Remy and Emile were brought in to help care for the kittens.

Click here to see the classic video “Surprised Kitten!”