Purr-fect partners: Louisville area breweries rely on working cats to keep operations pest-free
Over the last five years, Kentucky Humane Society has found homes for about 270 working cats. Many go to farms, but some go to businesses like distilleries and breweries and others with warehouse operations, according to Louisville Business First.
They're low-maintenance, but still require food, water and access to shelter out of the elements like other pets.
Gertrude never leaves Gravely Brewing Co.
On nice days, you'll see her traipsing about the outdoor patio. Sometimes, she'll be in the production facility, socializing with the employees who, in turn, give her free food and a place to crash.
She might occasionally find her way into a troublesome spot that will get her shooed away.
She is, after all, a cat.
Feline friends are a fixture — and at times, an attraction — at many Louisville-area breweries and distilleries. Most have been adopted through KHS's working cats program, or others like it, that aim to place cats not suitable for traditional home adoption into businesses, farms or other environments where they can thrive.
The program, which began in 2011, was started to help cats that weren't friendly or otherwise compatible with normal home life, said Kelly Ledtje, the foster program manager at KHS.
"At a lot of shelters that don't have a working cats program, [these cats] wouldn't be adoption candidates and they would probably be euthanized," she said. "So with the working cats program, it gives cats an option to get out of the shelter and a way to have a happy life with someone caring for them that works for everybody."
Apocalypse Brew Works was among the first local, non-farm businesses to employ working cats. The brewery at 1612 Mellwood Ave. has had its cats — Saki and Hiro — for years.
Leah Dienes, co-owner of Apocalypse, said the brewery heard about the program roughly seven years ago through her business partner Bill Krauth's wife, who was a volunteer.
"We've got a big field behind us and we were starting to get mice because we have thousands of pellets of grain," Dienes said. "We were trying those glue traps and stuff, but it wasn't working."
Enter Saki and Hiro, a bonded pair of cats that earn their keep through mousing. The duo also make regular appearances on Apocalypse's social media accounts and have even influenced the design of the brewery's merchandise, much of which aptly features a kitty wearing a gas mask.
At Atrium Brewing, Nora is queen bee. The 7-year-old tabby, who is very fond of the brewery's co-owner Mark Rubenstein, has been at its Logan Street production facility, just behind the taproom, for two years.
Nora was adopted from Kaydee’s Promise Feline Rescue.
Nora, while still not super social, has come a long way since arriving at Atrium, said Spencer Guy, Atrium's head brewer, noting that for two months, she hid from everyone.
"She makes us happy when we walk in the door every morning," he said. "While she is a companion and a friend and she's awesome — that's not why she's here. That's not why we got her. She's here to do a job, and she has fun doing it."
Atrium is growing, filing plans last month to open a tap room in Norton Commons. It's also in the process of building out an additional warehouse and office space adjacent to its current operations in Shelby Park, where Guy said they will likely employ a second working cat.
Nora will stay at the current space, as she's already accustomed to it.
"It's funny because she acts like a guard dog," Guy said. "I mean she walks the perimeter of this building, and you will see if you ever come here in the evening with a dog, Nora will sit on the other side of that glass and stare dogs down and even like beat on the glass."
Gravely's cats, Gertrude (Gertie) and Thundercat (Chi Chi), also patrol the perimeter of its property on Baxter Avenue. The brewery has had working cats since 2017, assistant brewer Andrew Whiteman said.
For more on these brewery cats and others, you can read Louisville Business First's entire article here.