A therapy animal, Instagram star, and product tester. A customer greeter who's also been lovingly dubbed the laziest employee on staff. Global Neighborhood Thrift & Vintage's resident cat Smudge has many roles.
For nearly all of his two years, the green-eyed, gray-and-white feline with a smudge of gray on his left cheek has been living quite a cushy life at the local nonprofit's Logan neighborhood warehouse and store. Beloved by staff — many of whom are refugees hired through its job readiness program — and shoppers, Smudge is definitely a local celebri-cat.
Born on International Cat Day, Aug. 8, to a street cat mama prowling the South Perry District, Smudge and his littermates caught the attention of Global's store manager, Julie Kimball-Bryant, a friend of the family who took the kittens in.
Smudge, along with his brother, Stripe (who sadly has since passed from an illness), became Global's official store and warehouse cats once they were old enough, in fall 2022. Besides helping scare away any pesky rodents — a job Stripe was much better suited to, Kimball-Bryant says — the cats had the extra benefit of boosting morale among the entire team.
"We realized when we brought him in that animals are a global phenomenon, and a connector," she says. "A lot of our employees had pets and beloved animals at home and were not able to bring them. We sometimes play a game of 'How do you call for a cat in different languages?' or 'What sound does a cat make?' because they're all slightly different in other cultures."
When he's not snoozing on piles of donated textiles being sorted and graded in the massive warehouse attached to Global's thrift and vintage shop off of Hamilton Street, Smudge is often spotted on the sales floor, staking claim to a sofa or armchair in the furniture department. In the mornings while staff are completing opening duties, he often perches on the front counter near the door. If it's not time for his typical midday nap, lucky shoppers may spot him darting under clothing racks on his way to and fro.
"We've had customers who thought he was like a fake glass cat, and we're like, 'No, this is very much a real cat,'" Kimball-Bryant says. "He's very loved, and he wears a tag that says 'Not for Sale' because we've had people ask."
Recently, Global employee Ani Peirson drew Smudge's face with the phrase "not for sale" underneath for a set of special stickers sold at the front counter (they've sold out, but there are plans for a restock).
Peirson describes Smudge as a unifier.
"Even the grumpiest of employees here are like, 'Oh, Smudge, oh!'" she says. "I think it's the same for customers. I think it's fun to have a living creature to care about in a place that you could just be like, head down, I have to get this project done. And you can always take a quick pause when there's a cat around."
"He's a nice reminder to slow down," Kimball-Bryant adds. "Take a break. Pet the cat. Have a cup of tea."
While there's an entire "cat care team" tasked with overseeing Smudge, Kimball-Bryant suspects his favorite person is a textile grader named Dan, who also happens to feed the cat each morning.
She notes that while Smudge has wandered outside his warehouse home once before — a three-day departure that made everyone worry — he since hasn't shown any interest in going past the building's many doors.
"Really, he is fully one of our team," she says. "We're a very tight, close group of people. We take care of each other and watch out for each other, and Smudge is, I think, everybody's friend."
Sometimes, the perfect cat-appropriate item is even donated by a community member. Like a faux fur pillow that Smudge is curled up on at the end of one of the textile bins while an employee next to him sorts through clothing and other goods. The staff have made sure to tell each other that under no circumstances should this particular pillow be moved — it's Smudge's current favorite naptime spot.
"The community loves this cat as much as we do," Kimball-Bryant says. ♦
