Gacek – Pain In The Bud

Cats Listed On Google Maps Are Getting Showered With Treats By Enamored Visitors. Buddy Wants In!

Some friendly felines boast five-star ratings in their listings, beating out top restaurants, hotels and nightclubs for highest-rated tourist attractions in their cities.

People have been listing their cats as tourist attractions on Google Maps, drawing five-star reviews from feline fans who come bearing snacks.

Titan the orange tabby, an absolute unit of a chonky cat who lives in Athens and is regularly fed by admirers, as well as “friendly neighborhood cats” in cities like Sydney, Australia, are earning ratings that most restaurateurs would envy.

“Visitors are evaluating a cat’s overall behaviour: enthusiastic purring, chonkiness, politeness and general adorability,” a story in The Guardian notes.

Titan, who likes to hang out in the ruins of the Acropolis, is the venerated subject of hundreds of glowing reviews on Google Maps.

“If there was a king in Athens, it would be him,” one reviewer declared, while another was laconic but no less enthralled: “HE IS GLORIOUS!”

In Sydney, where listing affable cats has become a trend, a moggie simply known as “friendly orange cat” had 117 reviews and a 4.9 rating before someone, presumably the cat’s caretaker, removed the listing.

Friendly orange cat’s listing before it blew up in popularity and the feline’s humans took the little one’s page down. Credit: Google Maps

Perhaps they were concerned F.O.C. was in danger of becoming the next Gacek, a famous chonkster in Poland who was the highest-rated tourist attraction in Szczecin, a city of almost 400,000.

Gacek had his own little house on the street complete with a bed, blankets, a spot where admirers could leave treats, and a note asking them to hold off on feeding him directly because he was gaining too much weight.

While Gacek’s popularity never waned, and in fact increased with each new press story or Youtube video about him, his humans made him an indoor-only cat after too many people ignored their pleas not to feed him. There were also a handful of incidents involving people who tried to take him, which was another factor in the decision to move him inside. It’s a reminder that there are dangers that come with publicly listing cats.

Buddy the Cat was giddy when he learned tourists were visiting specific cats and showering them with treats.

That said, Buddy is enamored with this idea. He envisions a Google Maps listing headlined: “MAGNIFICENT Cat In New York!” and a court of sorts where he can lounge on a gilded throne with red velvet cushions while “supplicants” line up to pay tribute to him in Tempations and Sheba Meaty Sticks.

“Your Grace, it is my life’s honor to greet your esteemed personage and to tell you that I have always been…”

“Yes, yes! What are those, crunchies? Leave them at the base of the steps to my dais and move along, there’s a whole crowd of people here who want to lavish snacks on me. Did anyone here bring any of those soft Blue turkey treats? Well, step forward! Lay ’em on me!”

It really is his dream: to get attention and an endless supply of snacks without having to actually do anything. He could spend the entire day lounging and napping, and people will simply bring him food and give him head scratches when he wants them.

Although, now that I think about it, I’m not sure how that’s really different than the arrangement he has now.

Header image credit: Hasan Albari/Pexels

Poland’s Most Famous Cat Is Off The Streets And Off The Snacks

Gacek the cat went viral earlier this year, commanding international headlines as thousands of tourists rated him the top attraction in his home city in Poland.

But as the feline’s renown grew so did his waistline, with tourists flocking to his little wooden home on the street to snap photos of the rotund tuxedo and — despite signs pleading with them not to feed him — gift him with snacks.

That wasn’t the only problem. Gacek couldn’t walk around most of the time without an entourage following him, and in March a woman tried to snatch “The King of Szczecin” in broad daylight. Her catnapping caper was quickly canned when Gacek slipped out of her arms and took refuge under a car while his admirers turned their phone cameras on his would-be abductor, who sheepishly retreated to a cab and took off.

The last straw was a recent veterinary exam which found the tubby tux was as many as 11 pounds overweight.

Something had to change.

Szczecin’s municipal animal shelter took the little big guy in their care and put him on a diet while looking for an appropriate home for him. Now Gacek has been adopted, the shelter wrote in a series of social media posts, and he’s starting to slim down after six years of livin’ la vida treats with a steady stream of visitors to his court, seeking his favor with offerings of yums crunchy and soft.

That’s okay. He’ll be a different kind of king now, with dedicated servants to see to his needs 24/7.

And although his old wooden cat house was cozy, well-maintained and lined with blankets, it wasn’t enough to keep him warm on cold winter nights. Now he’ll snooze indoors with the option to use a human pillow should he desire additional body heat.

It’s good to be Gacek.

Chonky Cat Is Polish City’s Biggest Attraction

People come from all over Poland, neighboring Germany and beyond to see Gacek up close.

The Polish city of Szczecin has a message for visitors: Come, see Gacek and marvel at his chonky feline glory, but please don’t feed him!

It’s not a joke. The rotund tuxedo kitty, dubbed the “King of Kaszubska Street” in a 2020 local news report, has become so famous that he’s listed as the top-rated tourist attraction in Szczecin, a riverfront city of 395,000 people in northwest Poland. That’s no small feat in a place that boasts a beautiful historic old town and a bustling riverfront lined with shops, restaurants and attractions.

Locals think Gacek is about seven years old, and some years ago they built him his own little house on the street, where he can be found snoozing comfortably when he’s not strolling the block, charming tourists and nibbling on the food they (still) bring him.

gacek2 — Gacek isn’t bothered by street sounds or crowds of admirers as he naps in his house. Credit: Krola_Karo/Reddit

There are more than 1,100 reviews for the big guy on Google, with an average of a 4.9/5 rating. (We suspect the handful of less-than-perfect reviews are from dogs or jealous rivals.)

“It was worth traveling three hours to feel ignored by him,” one reviewer wrote.

Another visitor got too close to the magnificent chonkster and found out what happens: “He stole a sausage,” the reviewer deadpanned.

As Notes from Poland points out, there’s a sign on Gacek’s house informing visitors that Gacek will “happily pose for photos,” and asking for people to leave food in sealed bags in a box, so Gacek’s caretakers can keep him on a somewhat normal diet and prevent him from gaining more weight. A post on the Slavic social media site VK describes Gacek as calm and nonchalant about the attention he draws, but notes he doesn’t particularly like it when people pet him, and he’s not a fan of the cold.

h/t reader Gilda P. for letting us know about Gacek.