CityView Magazine

46 | October/November • 2009 Local Business I t's always Good Friday at Paul and Frances Monroe's floral shop. The couple found the orange tabby crouched beneath a cooler at their old building two days before Easter. That was nine years ago and Friday has lived at Floral Arts on Ramsey Street ever since. Now he spends his days napping, snacking and lying near the front door, meowing at every customer who walks in. "We have people that come by, literally, to visit the cat, not to buy flowers," Frances says. One Christmas, the Monroes RUFF constructed a nativity scene in the shop's front window. Shoppers often stopped to admire it, long after the store had closed. But when a man peered in one evening, he immediately jumped back. Sitting in the middle of the display yawning was Friday. "He likes people, and he's good from (that) standpoint, especially for working with families who have lost somebody," Frances says. "It kind of breaks the ice and makes it a little bit easier." As more and more pets go to work, owners say they put customers and clients at ease. They may even affect the bottom line. When Jennifer Higgins stopped bringing her two dogs, Gracie and Rocky, to her boutique in Haymount this summer, sales actually dropped. Coincidence? As soon as she brought them back, Higgins says, sales at Ladybugs picked up again. "They (customers) love them," she says. "They really do. They get excited and hold them. They walk around the store with them, while they're shopping. I've got customers, even little children, will come in (asking) 'Where's Gracie?' and they'll be looking behind the counter." Gracie, a gray toy poodle, looks forward to getting dressed for work from her own wardrobe, which includes holiday attire, such as Easter underwear BY STEPHANIE BRIGMAN DAY AT THE OFFICE Top and Above | A cat named Good Friday. The orange tabby is a fixture at Floral Arts on Ramsey Street.

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