A Cat Has Become a Museum Custodian
If you’re curious about how a cat could become a museum custodian, then this story is for you. It probably sounds like the plot to a movie, but this didn’t come from the strange minds of people in Hollywood. It’s actually a true story. Even though it started as a joke, it ended up being an amazing ad campaign. Read on if you want to find out more!
It started as a joke: how a cat became a museum custodian
The story comes from the city of Serpukhov, Russia, about 60 miles south of Moscow. In this city, there’s a gorgeous 19th-century mansion that is now used as the houses their Museum of History and Art. A couple years ago, a cat named Marai started to roam around the area, and the people who worked at the museum took a liking to him.
So far, there’s nothing too interesting about this story. But that all changed on April 1st: April Fools’ Day. To celebrate it, the museum’s employees decided to spread the rumor that Marai had submitted an application to be the museum’s custodian.
This cute story soon caught the media’s attention and they immediately started calling the museum to see if the little guy had gotten the job.
If someone tells you a cat has become a custodian at a Russian museum, there’s no reason to think it’s an April Fools’ joke or a new Hollywood movie. It might have started as a joke, but it ended up becoming news and turned into reality. Now, of course, there are tons of museum guests who have come just to see Marai.
More details on how this cat became a museum custodian
The people in charge of the museum decided to make the joke into a reality and they officially hired Marai. Of course, they did a press conference with the journalists to talk about the cat and his new job, along with his salary and schedule.
Like most hilarious stories about cute animals, this one brought a lot of attention to Serpukhov’s Museum of History and Art. The number of visitors immediately went up.
It also gave the media a chance to share a nice story that distracted the Russian people (and people from other parts of the world) to stop thinking about stories of the war and recessions for a little while. It’s hard not to go soft when it comes to stories that personify animals.
Meanwhile, Marai, as far as humans are concerned, seems happy due to the fact they’re giving him more and more responsibilities.
Other stories where a cat becomes a…
As you might guess, Marai’s story isn’t the only one that involves a cat taking a human job (not just as a museum custodian), and becomes an excellent public figure for a business or organization.
Not long ago, there was a story about Felix, a cat who became senior pest control agent for TransPennine Express, at the Huddersfield train station in West Yorkshire (UK). He even has his own Facebook page where he “talks about” his job.
Now, headed to the far east, there was the story of Tama, who managed to become the “boss” of a train station in Kishi, Japan. Unfortunately, she’s no longer alive, but her presence was so good for business that Wakayama Electric Railway company unveiled the Tama Densha, a train covered in drawings of cats, inside and out.
Tama’s successor, Nitama, was her “apprentice” since 2012.