Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Fat Kat, who calls the Saratoga Public Works Department home, gets plenty of attention from employees who have adopted him. He occasionally earns his keep by depositing a mouse on the steps of the office.

City's fat cat makes himself at home

By Sarah Lombardo

So much for denying that fat cats exist at City Hall. Not only does one exist, but he has the name tag to prove it.

Fat Kat wandered onto the corporation yard of Saratoga's Public Works Department about six or seven years ago, public works services leads worker Bryan McQueen said, and he's been there ever since.

"He just started hanging out and was noticed," he said. "And people began to feed him. He kind of came in and said, 'This is the place.' "

McQueen said Fat Kat, a calico/Siamese mix as far as anyone can guess, began making himself at home at the department and in the corporation yard. The friendly feline was basically adopted by the department; pictures of Fat Kat over the years--sitting in "in" boxes, seemingly guarding the copy machine--hang in the office, and employees chipped in to get Fat Kat his shots. And they weren't the only ones. "Unbeknownst to us," McQueen said, "they were feeding him over at the post office as well. And they took him to get his shots. So, for his food, he paid his price. He got double shots."

McQueen said a container is kept on the refrigerator of the lunch room for donations when Fat Kat needs any veterinary attention. One employee even takes on the cost of Fat Kat's food and bought Fat Kat a name tag when he was mistaken for a stray and taken to an animal shelter, McQueen said. The address on the tag lists the city's corporation yard as the cat's home.

"He was there when I inherited the maintenance department, and I think he was there a few years before that," city manager and former public works director Larry Perlin said. "I'd like to think that he epitomizes what the maintenance workers are not, which would be lazy fat cats."

Perlin said no one is sure just where the cat came from. "He may have been a cat who was abandoned in the area, maybe a family moved away and didn't take the cat, and he wandered over and found a new home in the corporation yard," Perlin said. "He seems to like it."

Fat Kat may not be as svelte as a feline should, but employees said he does earn his keep to a certain extent. Fat Kat, who is about eight years old, has been known to drop a gift of the rat, mouse and even lizard variety once in a while on the steps of the office. "He lets us know he's paying for his food," McQueen said.

But for the most part, McQueen said, Fat Kat likes to hang out where the action is, often waiting at the door to be let in when the first employees show up--especially on cold mornings. McQueen said the cat also "assists" around the office. "When you're writing," he said, "he likes to sit down where you're writing."

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