Notorious for sleeping on the job or otherwise goofing off, these animals put in their hours at area stores, day in and day out.
Flash has lived in a Center Street hardware store in Auburn for 10 years, or maybe 12. When the stray was hit by a car, she was adopted at the store after employees and customers at Paris Farmers Union raised money for her vet bills. She naps most days on the register and, in her waking spurts, she roams the aisles or does some mousing out by the grain.
When the store fills with hundreds of chicks each spring, she doesn’t bother a feather, said store manager Mike Rogers.
She’s a fixture as much as the birdseed and the twine.
Rogers enjoys having her around. So do the customers.
Businesses with pets say the animals help create a nice atmosphere, embodying a mix of affection and ease. They can also serve as a draw.
People come in specifically looking for Flash, just the way visitors still are asking for Monroe the macaw a year after he left Lewiston Travel.
The macaw sat on a perch in the travel agency’s window for more than two decades. Back in June 1989, Monroe even made the cover of LA Today magazine for a story about the local travel scene.
“He was wonderful,” said Jackie Emond, a travel agent. He danced when she clicked her fingers, and he did other tricks, like hanging upside down. Customers would watch him while they sat there making vacation plans.
Just like the jungle
On warm summer days, Emond took Monroe outside and, twice a week, gave him “showers” from a full squirt bottle.
“He would act like he was in the jungle, and he was bathing,” she said.
When the agency was bought by Hewins Travel a year ago, the new owners thought the bird might be a liability so the staff had to find him a traditional home, Emond said. “We cried like babies when we had to let him go.”
She’s had people come in who were worried that he died.
Catapult became the store cat seven years ago at The Little Jungle in South Paris. Owner Kris McAllister said he came into her pet store as a rescued cat, who’d been tossed out of a van. Catapult hated cages. So they let him out, and he stayed.
“All of my regulars know who he is. He sits on the counter and screams at them sometimes,” said McAllister. (The screaming can be stopped with treats.)
Catapult has no qualms about drinking from her fish tanks when he’s thirsty. “He always has a comfortable bed, and if he doesn’t, he takes one off the shelves,” McAllister said.
He also climbs into offered laps to cuddle.
After they got Kitty the cat at Steven’s Hardware & Rental in May, Dan Dubois, the store manager, put her bed out back so she’d have a quiet place to sleep. But she wouldn’t. She was too drawn to the people and activity. He moved her bed under a table at the front of the store and the little black cat is often found there.
“She’s been an asset to the store, at least to us anyway. We’ve only had her seven months, and I can’t imagine the place without her,” Dubois said. “I would recommend a cat or a pet to an office or someplace like this in a second. You see an impact on the customer, you see an impact on the employees.”
People ask about Kitty at the Sabattus store and bring her treats.
Tailing the boss
Sometimes, over at Agren Appliance in Auburn, the mailman or the UPS driver bring Sellar, the chocolate Lab, some dog goodies.
Seller lives above the Minot Avenue store with owner Douglas Agren. “He’s been here ever since he was almost 2 months old,” Agren said.
The point of pets is to have them with you, he says. Seller camps out at Agren’s feet in his office, tails him around the washers and dryers, and tries each day at lunch to finagle some of what the boss is eating.
Agren has thought about using Seller in an advertisement, standing up, paws at the helm of a new snowblower.
Agren said he’s never had to teach the dog not to bolt for the open door or wander outside on their busy street. But he did have a scare once: Years ago, he happened to look out the window to see Seller in the front seat of a car. The dog had followed one of Agren’s friends out the door.
Rogers had a similar fright with Flash. She also hopped in someone’s car. Then the car drove away.
“I don’t know where she ended up, but it took her three days to come back,” he said.
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