NPR

Distillery Cat Wanted: Must Be Affable, Brand-Boosting, Cold-Blooded Killer

A new book profiles some of the world's most fascinating felines, while telling how their job descriptions have evolved from rodent catchers to today's ambassadors for distilleries and breweries.
Brewster the Brewery Cat, of The Guardian Brewing Co. in Muncie, Ind., is a husky, middle-aged, orange Creamsicle–colored feline who enjoys tuna and sleeping in cardboard boxes.

Inviting a cat to live in a distillery is like offering a child free room and board at a Disney World theme park. In a distillery, there are tall stacks of shipping pallets to climb, oak barrels to jump on, pipes to nimbly tightrope-walk across and — of course — a steady supply of rodents to hunt.

People and cats have always had a businesslike relationship. Where human agriculture goes, a smorgasbord, a new book by Brad Thomas Parsons, is based on his popular Instagram chronicle of these mousers.

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