Step Aside, Bodega Cats—here Is Bodega Possum

New Yorkers love their bodegas something fierce. But deeper even than their love for bodegas is their affection for bodega cats—the tough, seen-it-all kitties who inhabit the produce aisles, snooze atop the soda coolers, and yawn lackadaisically at the register. But there is a mammal that seeks to supplant these beloved bodega cats: enter the bodega possum.

Monday, Instagram account @shevkanyon posted a short video shot inside a bodega. The camera pans over bread bins, all totally banal, until the lens points upward to capture a holy-shit, honest-to-goodness opossum just hanging on top of the loaves. The New York-accented voice over is perfection: "Maybe some dinner rolls, maybe some heros or a ciabatta, maybe a giant fucking opossum." (Giant kudos to the narrator, really. Perfect comedic timing.)

When I passed this video around to my Takeout colleagues, Kevin Pang asked: "Is that a pet possum?" I don't know, Kevin, why don't you give it a scratch behind the ears and find out? Your fingers, not mine, buddy.

Twitter user @nastyradishes claims her coworker took the video inside a bodega in Astoria, Queens, but won't name the store. The video recorder, @shevkanyon, dubs the chillin' bodega possum "totally normal and cool." A follow-up post from the same account shows a man, presumably a bodega employee, who'd reportedly trapped the errant possum inside a 5-gallon bucket. Peak New York? Peak New York.