Some stray cats who are easy to please may be satisfied with food, water, and a comfortable spot to call home. But for this former street cat named Tom, such things won’t be enough on their own.
Tom asks for more. He needs respect, and he’s discovered the perfect location to acquire it.
Three years ago, staff at Photo Fast Studio, a printing shop in the United Arab Emirates, began noticing Tom, then just a lonely stray, lingering around outside their door. Figuring he could use a handout, they began feeding him.
Things gradually began to escalate from there.
“One day he started following us into the shop,” Adem, an employee there, told The Dodo. “Then he stopped leaving. Now, he lives here.”
Tom made himself a permanent presence at the store as soon as he got his paw in the door. What were the responsibilities of his position? He basically eats and sleeps all day, Adem claimed. He “sometimes plays with the customers.”
However, by using his cat’s charms in the correct situation, Tom was finally promoted to a new position as a model in pictures that filled the shop’s assortment of picture frames.
Tom had essentially conned the business into building a shrine in his honor.
When asked why the cat was chosen for the job of picture frame model, Adem’s response was simply, “We like Tom.”
However, it’s unclear if she was answering under duress from the watchful shop cat, who was likely within earshot.
Incidental as it may be, Tom’s presence at the shop has apparently come as a boon for the business. According to Twitter user Pahtch, who lives nearby, the cat has actually changed her shopping habits.
“I’m a regular [customer] of the film shop now because of him,” Pahtch told The Dodo. “It really helps that this print shop has a mascot that makes you keep going back. Customers can’t help but play with him.”
As if achieving local celebrity status weren’t enough for the cat, now he’s admired around the world. Pahtch recently posted a tweet about Tom which has since been liked and shared more than 80,000 times.
Turns out, business at the photo shop may soon be booming even more because of it — and new shrines to Tom may start popping up around the globe.
Pahtch said, “I didn’t really anticipate my tweet to blow viral.” “I’ve been inundated with messages asking where the store is and if Tom’s photo frames can be sent,” one person said.
Tom played it well. Well done.
