On a recent visit to Seattle we were wandering the streets of Pioneer Square and happened across the signs below. Not only were they quite intriguing, I had never heard of a catnip joint before, but they also struck a chord with me comically. We had to check it out.
We were greeted shortly there after with some stairs down into one of the old buildings of Seattle. And at the base we found Pioneer Pet Feed and Supply! If you've ever done the Underground Tour you'd quickly wonder how this particular building still had an active basement shop running!
But never mind all that! As soon as we entered we were greeted by two shop cats! No lots of stores in Chicago have a cat or perhaps a dog that is around while the owners are in the store, but rarely have I managed to meet a pair of shop cats!
Meet Vito and Ivar! Two beautiful orange Tabby boys that keep an eye on the shop and make it their home 24 hours a day! They even have their own amazing built in condo that they hang out in at night while the shop owner is gone for the evening.
Despite appearances in the picture, both of the kitties quickly came around for pets and scratches and were absolute love bugs.
When they weren't getting pets and scratches they were exploring the store and keeping an eye out for suckers. I mean customers. And boy did they find some suckers to give them treats, more on that soon...
But what surprised me the most was that they seemed pretty used to all the people and the toys. They of course knew that they could get treats from the people if they were lucky, but they were mostly apathetic about the huge wall of toys available to them. I guess they are spoiled by having so many available all the time!
But I digress. The primary reason I wanted to bring this store to your attention is two fold.
- The owner, David, is an extremely cool gentlemen and he is super knowledgeable about all things cat and dog. We talked to him for a solid 30 minutes about all sorts of random topics and he was teaching us things the entire time.
- Beyond that, David also knew just the things to point us to when it came to toys or treats we could bring home to our own little fur balls back in Chicago. And the key item that he called out for us where the Churu's from Inaba.
At first I'll admit, I was a little bit skeptical on whether or not cats would really want to eat this type of treat. But he popped one open and let us feed it to Vito and Ivar. You could tell they absolutely loved these treats. They licked the package right down to the tail end, there wasn't even a tiny little bit left when they were done!
For those interested you can check out this minute long video of them both chowing down the entire package!
Once they finished eating their Churus they both immediately got back to work manning the front desk. They kept an eye out for any other unsuspecting strangers they might be able to trick into giving them another snack! Unfortunately we weren't able to stick around too long as we had an appointment to catch, but they certainly saw us out as we left the store.
If you're in the market for a huge variety of toys and treats, a pair of super cool shop cats, and a really awesome and knowledgeable owner about all things pet (and actually Seattle history) then come check out Pioneer Pet Feed & Supply! Tell Vito and Ivar hello for me and say hi to David as well!
And be sure to check out the Churu's from Inabu!
