Why Every Scottish Distillery Needs A Cat
Dear Diary,
I’ve got a question for you today.
What have cats and Whisky distilleries in common?
No idea?
Well, I was pretty clueless as well, until I recently watched the Netflix documentary “Inside the Mind of a Cat”.
By the way, I can only recommend it and not only because of all those adorable fluff balls that are featured in there. I’ve certainly learned some new things about cats’ behaviours and where they come from.
Jamie tried to attack the cats on the screen a couple of times whilst I was watching it. So I think he wasn’t too fond of it. He also stepped on the remote control (on purpose!) and switched the channel at some point …
Anyways. I’m getting carried away here. Back to the topic and my initial question.
There’s one thing cats love to do. Catch mice!
And where there is barley (the main ingredient of whisky in case you didn’t know …), there are mice.
See, where I’m getting here now?
The History
For hundreds of years, cats have been recruited by distilleries as mousers to protect their stocks of barley.
If you look at the job description, it does sound like a cat’s dream job:
Catch rodents in exchange for food and free housing in form of a cosy and warm place to sleep. Also included, cuddles from human colleagues and visitors. Oh and it’s usually a lifetime commitment.
And whilst nowadays rodents in distilleries might not be as big a problem as they used to be, mousers are still valued team members in many Scottish distilleries.
Meet Some Famous Scottish Mousers
Towser of Glenturret
Towser - Glenturret’s Distillery
A cat from the 60s. She’s also known as “The Most Prolific Mouser of All-Time” and got a statue in her memory.
An astonishing amount of 28,899 eliminated rodents go on her account. Thats 3 to 4 a day throughout her entire lifetime of 24 years. Not bad I’d say!
There’s the rumour that she used to have her milk with a wee dram. Must be the secret behind her success.
Tommy - Ardmore Distillery
Tommy was dreaded and fearsome. And not only by mice …
He’s often described as “a three legged beast of a cat with the biggest head one has ever seen”. I wasn’t able to find any footage but he sounds like a very frightening team member to me. Well, as long as he got his job done.
Barley & Malt - Highland Park
This story involves three kittens born at the Highland Park Distillery in Orkney. They were named Barley, Malt and Peat. Love those names!
Unfortunately, Peat died very young. But his two siblings quickly took over the distillery. Malt soon became a much loved distillery tour guide, whilst her brother Barley focused on his job as a mouser. A prime example of job-sharing.
Vesper & Friar John Claw - Lindores Abbey Distillery
Those two mousers-in-chief are real global superstars, thanks to being featured in the Netflix documentary.
Their more unusual names go back to the history of the abbey. Vesper refers to the vesper hymns people would have sung in the abbey. Friar John Claw is named after Friar John Cor who was the first monk at the abbey to distil whisky there.
Check out there Instagram account, too cute not to follow!
So, behind every successful distillery is a very cute distillery cat! What a great story.