August 27, 2026

The Cats of Ophelia’s Books

“It might make it feel more like a home.” Jason on Ophelia’s Books, Boris and Arkady, and nearly 30 years in Seattle.

Walk into Ophelia’s Books in Seattle and there is a lot to take in. The independent bookstore is packed floor to ceiling with books, art, and decorations, all squeezed into a building that is more than a century old.

Then you might turn a corner and find a cat. Or two.

Boris and Arkady have lived at Ophelia’s since 2024. Boris spends much of his day on the main floor, inspecting bags and boxes of books and directing customers toward wherever he’d like to be petted. Arkady prefers his throne above the Drama section downstairs, at least until dinner starts getting close.

But Boris and Arkady aren’t the first cats to call Ophelia’s home. The bookstore opened in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood in 1997 and was named after its first shop cat. After four years “between” cats, as Jason puts it, the brothers arrived in 2024.

We spoke with Jason from Ophelia’s Books about Boris and Arkady, the people who come to see them, and what cats add to a place like this.

Editor's note: The conversation below has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Meet Boris and Arkady

Boris and Arkady were adopted by Ophelia's in late August/September of 2024, so as of this writing they've been here almost exactly two years. They are twin brothers, so when a friend of a friend told us they needed a home, we eagerly adopted them both to keep them together. We had been "between" shop cats for about 4 years after the previous (very old) cat retired (moved to the owner's home) when the shop closed temporarily for the pandemic, and we were very ready to have (a) new cat(s) in the shop!

A day at Ophelia’s

Both of them like to get attention from customers, but Arkady is more aloof about it. Boris will often plot himself down in his basket on the main floor right when we open and nap all afternoon with the hopes that people will pet him. Arkady tends to stay in the basement on his "throne" (an old cushion on top of the Drama shelf) where he also awaits affection. Because Boris patrols the main floor where we buy and sell books, he will often hop up to inspect bags people set down and boxes of books people bring in for us to buy. If he's particularly needy, he will follow a customer into the back corner of literature, meow at them and flop on to his back for belly rubs.

As the afternoon progresses and we near closing time, Arkady usually comes up from the basement and starts to meow at customers the closer it gets to closing time. Because at 7, he gets fed! At the very least, he will come up from the basement, then make his way up to a perch in the children's loft to watch the shop from on high and await the end of the day and dinner.

Sometimes they do get in the way of things when there are a lot of bags and boxes being moved around, but when it's really busy, they'll find a spot to hunker down and let people do their thing while they nap. Boris is much more vocal than Arkady. He will guide someone with meows to the exact area he wants to get pet and then flop down. When Arkady isn't sleeping, he will scurry around and probably not want to get pet until he has settled into a spot. Arkady is a bit more observant than Boris. He spends more time staring out the front door, watching things from the children's loft, and generally judging people silently.

” He will guide someone with meows to the exact area he wants to get pet and then flop down.

The regulars

We do have regulars who come in to pet the cats every week. The manager of the coffee shop next door pops in every day to get his cat fix on his breaks. He knows all their hiding places.

Our place is eclectically decorated, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall books and weird art and decorations everywhere. So sometimes people will come in slowly, taking in the aesthetic of our shop, turn a corner, and see a cat dead asleep.

More than once, they think it is a stuffed cat, sit down next to it, and suddenly Boris is rolling over, meowing, asking for pets. Since they are almost identical twins, people also experience "glitch in the Matrix" moments. They come into the main floor and there are no cats to be seen. Then in the basement, they pet Arkady. They come back upstairs only to find what appears to be the exact same cat waiting for them there. This is always fun as we watch them do a double take and wonder if they're losing their mind.

The cats online

Ophelia's is named after the first cat that lived in the bookshop, so shopcats have always been a part of our identity. However, we never had the bandwidth (or need) to have much of a social media presence. As our business has grown since the pandemic, we have more employees and the capacity to maintain our socials. So, of course, the cats became a big part of that. We've had enough attention that HarperCollins put us in their Book Shop Cats book that came out this last spring of 2026.

” I guess having the cats there might make it feel more like a home that someone (even if it’s just cats) live in.

A bookstore with cats

We are a quintessentially quirky old bookshop in a 115+ year old building. Exactly the sort of old school bookshop one would expect to find a cat in. Our floor space is rather tight, because we have an outsized number of books in our shop compared to our actual square footage. When new customers or visitors walk in, we like to imagine they're "transported" to another world and often they slow down and start staring up and down, getting their bearings. I guess having the cats there might make it feel more like a home that someone (even if it's just cats) live in.

We want to thank Jason and the team at Ophelia’s Books for taking the time to share Boris and Arkady’s story with us. You can visit Ophelia’s Books' website and follow them on Instagram.

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