A SUPERMARKET civil war has broken out in a city store – over a cat.
Ginger moggie Pixie is known as the “Asda cat” because of his regular jaunts to the store in Edinburgh’s Jewel.
The feline, who has recently taken to sleeping under the store’s Christmas tree, even has his own Facebook page with 4000 fans.
But store bosses want to end the visits, prompting some shoppers to boycott the shop.
Pixie’s owner Jennifer Loy, 35, who lives nearby, said: “I could see the problem if he was going in to the store and eating off the fish counter but he generally just hangs about the foyer.”
But Asda say they are no longer willing to tolerate the cat inside the building.
Andrew Mackie, 55, from the Craigmillar area of the city, discovered the planned eviction when he contacted the company to ask if it would help him produce a charity calendar of the celebrity feline.
He claims the store said that not only would they not help him with the calendar, but that bosses planned to kick the cat out of the shop.
Outside
Mr Mackie said: “I’m quite angry about it – I’m only trying to do a favour for the fans of Pixie on the Asda Cat page.
“They are not even happy with the Facebook sites – the guy said they are taking steps to have the Facebook pages taken down.”
The feline fans on the social networking site reacted with anger to the news and said they would no longer go to the store until the decision was reversed.
Ms Loy added that Pixie’s presence was actually good for the store.
She said: “Asda has got a fair bit of press out of Pixie and there’s a lot of people who go to the store just to see him.
“He does come home each day, but I think it’s just to show face – he gets complete adoration any time he goes to Asda so I don’t blame him for being there all the time.”
However bosses at Asda said that while they planned to put Pixie out in the cold, he was welcome to wander outside the building. They added that they had no plans to try and close any of his Facebook fan pages.
A spokesman said customers had complained about the cat wandering around the store.
He said: “Pixie the cat is more than welcome to visit outside the store as part of his daily travels.
“We know lots of our customers love to see him, but for the comfort of everybody he needs to stay outside.”
