People have asked. “Just who is that handsome cat with the bow tie at the beginning of the video?”

The story goes like this:

It was a warm summer night in 2015. I was feeding some outdoor cats at about midnight in a rough part of Queens NY that sometimes known as a high crime area.

Trying To Help Cats In Bad Neighborhoods

On Jamaica Avenue and about 162nd street where there are several Latin bars that can get busy at night and sometimes drinking leads to fighting which can lead to an occasional stabbing.

Across the street from the bars, there is a taco truck that often has a line of customers well into the morning hours.

I had just finished leaving some food and water for the feral cats that we had spayed and neutered around there because irresponsible pet owners that don’t spay/neuter their cats and just let them roam free and reproduce. We have rescued many cats from that area and have a lot more work to do.

Who Is Mikey The Cat

As I got back in my car, turned the ignition key, moved the gear shifter to drive and about to pull away I saw what appeared to be a young gray and white cat hanging around the taco truck rubbing against the customer’s legs basically begging for food and attention.

I observed this for a few minutes and was amazed and curious to see such a friendly cat on the sidewalk of a busy avenue begging for scraps.

Of course, the customers and the truck owner did not seem too amused at this as they tried to shoo him away.

I got out of the car went to over to people whose legs he was rubbing against and asked if this was their cat.

The customers answered no, the taco truck people said no as he was rubbing against my leg. I had bought some food from the car with me, gave it to him and he promptly consumed it.

A blind man could see that any cat this friendly had grown up with people and may have been someone’s pet. However, judging by his slim appearance, dirty paws that were actually white, but you could never tell because of all the dirt and lesions on his nose that he had been on the street for a while.

When he was finished eating I picked him up. Not in a rush to take him. After all, I did not want to take someone’s beloved pet. I walked around the neighborhood with him in my arms asking if anyone knew him.

Since it was a hot summer night people were out on their stoops. Some in small groups others by themselves. So with him in my arms which he did not seem to mind, I proceeded to ask anyone who was out.

No one knew him or even seen him hanging around before. More interestingly no one seemed to care.

So, I took him home planning to clean him up, neuter him and adopt him out.

Still not sure if he perhaps he was a cat of one the businesses on that block since he was dirty and there are some machine shops and manufacturing places in the area.

Once again everyone replied no.

After being in my house, I noticed how friendly he was not only to people but to other cats. Sometimes when you take a cat that’s been out on the street for a while and seems very friendly to anyone offering them attention and food will behave totally different when suddenly finding itself in a new location; like a strange house with other cats and may attack the other cats and people.

However, this guy was a love. Not only did he love people, but got along great with other cats. All he wants to do is play with them. The other guys can sense this and even unfriendly cats like him.

This talent really comes in handy when you have feral kittens that you want to socialize.

The kittens come right over to him, he doesn’t mind them cuddling and crawling all over him. He purrs, grooms them and the kittens become less fearful which makes them easy to pet and handle them while in his company, making him a great surrogate mom or what we call in the business “a nanny cat”.

When we took him to get neutered at the ASPCA clinic in Queens NY we had about 6 cats that day. We have to name them on the paperwork.

Usually, when we have more than one I like to go with a theme for naming. Sometimes TV show characters, historical figures. That day I chose stripper names. Champagne, Misty, Diva, Roxy, Divine. All real strippers that had crossed my path at some time or another. I named him “Magic Mike”. After realizing how silly that name was and since we did not adopt him out to people who would surely rename him.

He is now just known as Mikey the Cat. The cat is so as not to be confused with another Mikeys who are not cats.

So in short; we kept him. He’s one of the best cats we ever had, looks good in front of a camera and works cheap.