A Coffee With Felix The Shop Cat from Bushell Transport

Join us for a coffee and chat with Felix The Shop Cat from Bushell Transport. Listen to hear about how Bushell Transport started the social media stardom for their cats. Cheryl shares stories of Felix's predecessor, Oliver Da Cat and how he stole the heart of Acheson workers everywhere. Hear how Oliver and Felix gained their fame, how they came to be a part of Bushell Transport, and the amazing adventures they have taken. If you listen closely you can hear Felix's thoughts as well!

Transcript

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Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the ABA Coffee In The Park. Thank you for joining us. My name is Cam Milliken. I'm your co-host, and I am here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick, the Acheson Business Association Executive Director. Good morning, Jennifer. Good morning, Cam. How are you this morning? Well, I'm doing okay. I'm looking outside, and I'm watching lightning, and hearing thunder, and all that kind of stuff, and just kind of a weird morning here in Acheson. It is. It is quite the storm we're having. yes. And we need to tell the people that we are not at the Wall Coffee Roaster this morning in beautiful downtown Acheson. We are at... Well, you're right. We are not at our usual spot where most people are used to listening to us from. We are currently at Bushell Transport in Acheson, located in Zone 7. And we're going to tell you in a few minutes why we're actually here on the road. Right. And before we do that, why don't you tell us about our amazing sponsors? We would like to thank our gold corporate sponsors, which include the MyShak Group of companies, Genics, and of course, Parkland County. We want to thank these businesses for their continued support of the Acheson Business Association and Acheson in general. Right on. Because without them, we would not be able to do this. So thank you. Thank you very much. Jennifer, how are you doing these days? Well, this weather's really thrown me off this morning, Cam. I got to admit it. I know. It's very strange outside. It's like usually you expect thunder and lightning at night. And then you have it at like seven o'clock in the morning. I know. Kind of weird. It is a little weird. Yeah. Anyway, I think we'll get over it and get used to it and we'll make it happen. So we today are and have a very, very special guest. You want to tell us about our guest? I do. And this is the reason we are currently at Bushell Transport. Right, Roadshow. Our particular guest, well, let's just say, I don't know if he would quite be allowed in The Wall Coffee Roasters. No, folks, he hasn't been banned from The Wall Coffee Roasters. No, no, no, no, he hasn't been banned. For not paying his bills. Don't worry. No. But the reason that we are currently at Bushell is because we are here to interview Felix The Shop Cat. Yeah. Right? Felix The Shop Cat. Felix The Shop Cat. That's right. Who is currently wandering around our feet somewhere down here. Oh, he's over in the corner over there. And tell us why we're interviewing Felix The Shop Cat. Well, for anybody that does not know Felix The Shop Cat, he is an Acheson celebrity. But not only an Acheson celebrity, Cam, he has more Instagram followers than I do at over 2,500 Instagram followers. Yeah. And we're going to get into that in just a little bit. And I'm excited about that story. But we have Felix... I don't know what to call you, Cheryl. Do we call you Felix Mom? Felix Handler? Felix... Social media manager? I don't know what to call you. But we are very excited to have Cheryl with us today. Who is...? Well, Cheryl and Grant Glattacker are the owner-operators here at Bushell Transport. And again, they are the reason that Felix The Cat is so popular. So we're excited for Cheryl to speak on behalf of Felix today. Welcome, Cheryl. Thank you for having me. Good to have you. Hey, before we get into Felix, why don't you tell us a little bit about Bushell Transport? Because I think the people would like to hear what you guys do here. We've been in business in Acheson here for probably the past 10 years in Acheson. Grant and I have been running it for 21 years, and we specialize in heavy equipment, oversized, over-dimensional freight, all over the US and all over Canada. Wow. And how many trucks you have? Currently, I think about 20, and then with RST, we have five more. Wow. And when we say RST, for those that listen to Tamara's podcast, Tamara is also located here in the Bushell Transport office. Right. She's not here right now. She's not here. Not in this current room. She's out of this office. No, Cheryl. She's not here. Tamara's not here right now. Anyway. So, well, that's awesome. And looking out the window right now, I see one of those big, beautiful trucks, and that's kind of awesome. And you guys do an amazing job. But, as great as all of that is, like Jennifer said, we're here because of Felix. Felix, who, it is really too bad we don't have video for this podcast. It is, yeah. Because the Purolator driver had just arrived, and currently Felix is looking out the door, wondering if the package that was delivered is for him. Right. So, he's got quite the personality. But let's kick it off, Cheryl, because we want to take a step back. Before Felix, there was another cat. And for those in Acheson, I'm sure you also all remember Oliver Da Cat. Right. So, tell us, Cheryl, how did the whole Oliver and Felix phenomenon begin? Yeah, why cats? Why cats? Yeah. Well, when you have mice, you have to have a cat. And when we were over in Walker crescent, we had plenty of mice. And you can only set so many traps. And then eventually, you need to get a cat. We had talked about it over and over again, the responsibilities of having a shop cat, how it would all work. And then one of our drivers had a cat that needed to be rehomed. And we took in Oliver. At the time, he was nine months old and didn't even have a name. And he became quite the little mouser for us. Wow. So, you had Oliver first, now Felix. yes, now Felix. And you originally got them as shop cats. yes. So, Cheryl, I do recall you telling me the story. Oliver was so good at his job. In fact, he helped fellow businesses in Acheson out with their mouse problem. yes. That's why we moved, because he de-moused that entire area. So, we had to build a new shop and start all over. Look at that, you moved so you can help the neighborhood with their mouse issue. I like that. You guys are good people. That's really awesome. So, now people are asking, so why are you doing a podcast on cats? And Jennifer mentioned it a little bit earlier, but these cats have quite a bit of notoriety. Like, they're famous. yes, they are. Because of your Instagram page. yes. So, tell us a little bit why. Why start Instagramming about your cats? Well, originally, I had a Facebook page that one of the drivers had started, and then never, ever implemented. So, I just asked for the password, and I started using Facebook for Oliver. And Facebook proved to just be kind of a boring platform for him. And one day, I decided, let's do Instagram. So, yeah, long story short, started up Instagram, and... Way to go. Yeah, there's a lot of cat pages out there, and a lot of people who follow cats, and so... A cat cult. yes, a cat cult. So, sorry, Jennifer, how many followers? Oh, he has over 2,500 Instagram followers. 2,500. It makes me a little sad about my life, can't I? My 12 Instagram followers, and Felix 2,500. He's a cat, yeah. Pretty amazing, so... It really is amazing. Yeah. So, just tell us this story. So, you got cats, you brought them in. Probably lots of people who have big shops and stuff say, we have cats too. How did they become so famous within your company? Give us a little bit of how that all worked out. Well, with Oliver, it was easy. And for four years, we had him, and he would be around the Walker crescent area, and he was de-mousing next door, he was de-mousing across the street, and then he was going to A&W and meeting people, and on his... Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Yeah. Felix is talking. He's standing at the door talking. I think he wants out. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, so anyway, and then he has a tag that has his Instagram handle on it, so when people would find him at A&W, they would Instagram me, and yeah. And then same thing when we moved here, Oliver decided he was going to go across the way to Ledcor when they were building Amazon, and he spent hours and hours, days really actually, because one time he was missing for 36 hours. And yeah, we found out he was building Amazon. Wow. So for those, just to give context to what Cheryl is saying, right next to Bushell Transport is a massive robotic Amazon plant. And so it took them what, two years to build that. I remember touring that a while ago before it was finished. And so Oliver would head over there. Yep. And hang out. Yep. He was often found on the fifth floor. He would ride the elevator. Once the elevator got running, he helped operate the crane. Yeah, I would get pictures from the crane operator, selfies with Oliver in the back. And then he was hanging out in the Ledcor shacks during COVID. And he knew exactly where the temperature place was and where you get your wristband after you get your temperature taken. And he'd sit there and wait for everybody to pet him. And then kind of like, here's your wristband. You can go to work now. Did they employ him? Did they pay him? I know, right? Yeah, he wasn't paid a dime for that. I think they just paid him in treats. But I do believe that Oliver was one of the very few people that actually had clearance to be at Amazon, Cheryl. yes, he did have clearance. He was caught there one time and someone didn't know Oliver. And they called bylaw. And so Parkland County doesn't have a cat bylaw. So they said, well, we'll come out and check it out. Just see who this cat is. And within minutes, Amazon phoned bylaw back and said, no need to come out. We just found out that Oliver does have clearance to be at Amazon. So we're good. Security clearance for Amazon. Jeff Bezos, did you hear that? A cat has security clearance for Amazon. I love it. Yeah, and then, so that day, yeah, Kaylee would always get phone calls after phone calls, come and get your cat. And Kaylee would say, well, just tell him to go home. They're like, yeah, well, we tried and he won't go home. Well, we'll just keep him for the day. Like they just, they didn't mind. You know, he just became part of their lifestyle. And then I'd get messages on Instagram from all the workers taking pictures. He was up there when they were doing like the rebar and stuff for the concrete. He was up there helping. Yeah. Are those pictures on Instagram? They might be, lower down in the Oliver days. That's a plug if you're not, if you're to friend Felix The Shot Cat, so you can go back and look at all the pictures of Oliver on there as well. And then we know sadly that unfortunately, Oliver has since passed away. yes. On June 1st of last year, we lost Oliver. And it was one of those things that we had talked about as workers and stuff, and because we all got attached to him, obviously, after four years. And we all kind of knew in the back of our mind that it was a risk having an indoor, outdoor cat, that things happen. And sure enough, one day that did happen. And actually, we found him just over there. And thankfully, the GPS is what helped us find him. But yeah, after that, we... Because a cat adds culture to the space. Tell us a little bit about that. Because it seems like your whole company, all the staff has bought in to the cats. Oh yes, absolutely. He, even people who are like, oh, I just like dogs. I'm not a cat person. Right. Felix and Oliver converted everybody. They're all cat people. Right. And so everybody likes to come into work and they look forward to him because he'll lay in the middle of the mat when everybody's checking in and just want belly rubs. And you have to walk over him to get to work. So you got to rub. It's a belly rub tax. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so yeah, after Oliver passed away, we decided we would wait until the fall to get another cat. It wasn't an option of not getting another cat. We had to have another cat. Yeah. When's the right time. Yeah. And we only lasted like two months. It was just depressing. You know, we had all this cat stuff around and no cat. So, yeah, then we found Felix and... So tell us that story because I love that story. How did you find Felix? Well, I follow Old MacDonald Kennels. It's a rescue out of the Ponoka area. And this cat came up on my Facebook feed and he was just adorable laying in his pet valu cage. And he had these big paws. And I thought, oh, those are perfect mousing paws. And so I phoned one of my co-workers, Ralph, and or sorry, he phoned me after I tagged him in it. And he's like, well, we can just go check him out. And I said, well, it's a little bit early in the game, but yeah, why not check him out? And then we decided we would just leave him there. If this was the cat for us, we would leave him there because it was a Friday and we didn't want to bring him to the shop over the weekend and leave him be. That's not nice. And so we were going to leave the kennel at home as well. And that didn't work. We brought the kennel with us. And then we ended up at the Pet Valu of Ponoka and his name was Rye at the time. And because he loves to loaf, so they named him Rye Bread. Yeah. And so we got there and we knew right away, we took him out of the kennel and it was a rainy day like this actually. And we took him out of the kennel and he was confident. Like when a cat walks out and they're confident, and you know, okay, he's going to man this building. yes. yes. He's not afraid of anything. If the air brakes go off on a truck, he's not going to run. He's not going to bolt him. You're not going to find him for a few months. So yeah, we put him back in the kennel and then these kids came and they're poking at him and teasing him. And I thought, well, that's not nice. I don't want to sit here in this store all weekend, being poked and prodded through the kennel. And so I looked at Ralph and I said, give me the keys to the car. I'm getting the kennel. It's like the IKEA commercial. Get in the car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty much, pretty much. And yeah, so we loaded him up and brought him here. And the minute we took him out of the kennel, he was like, oh, okay, yeah, this is cool. I'm good here. He wasn't afraid of anything. And yeah, as you can see, he just walks around. He's a confident cat. Well, he owns this place. He does. He truly does. The world revolves around him here. He does. And it's funny, Cheryl, I've been in many of the offices here, and every single office has a cat bed. yes. There is multiple cat toys. There's treats everywhere. However, we have been informed that poor Felix is currently on a diet. yes, he is. So he's not too happy about his diet. But you mentioned you went to the vet and he's lost... He's lost a half a pound. Half a pound. yes. So he's on the road to weight loss. yes. But he did take his diet quite, I don't know what the word would be. He was a little bit irritated about the diet. Well, yeah. Decided he would just take it upon himself to go find his food. Want to tell us a little bit about, well... Yeah. When you don't, you've got to find food. So he found food, right? He has plenty of food here. But yeah, no, we have resident Jack Rabbit's here. And a little while ago, he had found the nest of the bunnies. Right. And then we think that a Jack Rabbit might have beat him up because he had an injury on his back claw. And then he decided he'd go take care of that Jack Rabbit. So... Wow. Yeah, that one was no longer existent. Wow. Well... Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you got to defend yourself. yes. Good for Felix, you know. It's his territory, his. So nobody get upset. Nobody call or write letters or anything like that. PETA, don't come after us. What do they call it? The circle of life. That's what it is. It's nature. So nobody get all tense about all this. It's all good. Yeah. That's right. Well, that's pretty amazing. Can we just go back to something because, and I don't want to belabor the point, because I know it's a bit of a soft spot, but when Oliver passed away, you had an amazing, people were amazing. Tell us about that. Like honestly, like for a cat, like it was unbelievable. Yeah. I had no idea the reach that Oliver had and that every day people were looking forward to his posts. And then when he passed away and I made the post, the response that I got and even just personal messages and messages on Instagram, I actually had to shut it down for a little while because I couldn't handle it. And then we were getting gifts from lots of people, from people I've never met. And it was just an outpouring. And so that's when I knew when we got Felix that I would need to keep this up because there were a lot of people. Yeah, So he brings both of them bring joy to people on a daily basis. I know his Instagram post bring me joy on a daily basis. And I so look forward to what is he up to today? Yeah, I agree. I have to be honest. When I open Instagram, I'm always hoping there's a new Felix The Cat. And there usually is. So you guys do an amazing job on your media side of it. And I think that's really cool. Can you just and we touched on it a little bit, but tell us about the culture it brings. Like just what does it do for your entire staff in terms of your whole team and everyone around here? What is, how does Felix contribute to that? It's teamwork with him. Like as much as I do the social media, it's the team that is sending me pictures and catching him and doing weird stuff. And they all probably if you open anybody's phone, they probably have over 100 pictures of Felix at any given time. And Felix, his name is actually in Latin, it means happy or lucky. Okay. Which, you know, we're very happy that he came to us and we're lucky to have him. Yeah, for sure. So his name is suiting for him. But yeah, as culture, when the guys come off the road and, you know, a Saturday night and nobody's here, just Felix to greet them, they love that. Yeah. And sometimes he'll get into their trucks and, you know, we're closing up the shop and we're like, where's Felix? So he's in a truck. So we have to check trucks every now and then. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, that's right. Get 200 miles down the road and all of a sudden, Felix appears in the cab. There you go. Hey, how's that going? That almost happened with Oliver once, actually. One of our drivers, when we were at Walker crescent, he was driving through the gate and he just sensed that something was not right. Something was in his bunk and he looked and there was Oliver. There was Oliver. Yeah. Road trip. Where are we going? Did he get to go with them for the whole? No, he had to bring him back. Well, you know, it's kind of interesting. Sorry. Every now and then, Felix just lets out a little meow over there. And he really wants out. I can tell. He's looking at that door like there's something on the other side of that door that's better than in here. Yeah, people. But there's something to be said, I think. And we all know this lately, especially we've seen. We've seen a lot of lack of a better word, therapy pets and things like that. And so we know that there is a very therapeutic part to all of this. It's great for people's mental health. Yeah, absolutely. It's stress relief, it's calming. Absolutely. Yeah. And you guys have taken it, I think, just sort of to the next level that engages everybody in it, which I think is really cool. I think that's awesome. Well, when you have an awesome cat like that, you have to share him with the world. Yeah, for sure. That's right. He's a star. And we're hoping that after this podcast, that your numbers boost way up, more people start following Felix and checking in with him. It's just pretty cool. Well, and Felix wants to be a part of everything as well. Like Oliver was more interested in doing outdoor stuff, whereas Felix is very much more in tune to the inside. Right. And when we're in the boardroom having staff meetings, he is right in the middle. Wow. yes. And he will walk to everybody, check everybody out, check what's in their cups, everything, and then lay in the middle. And even for our tailgate meetings, he's a part of them. Yeah. He just likes to participate. When it's lunchtime, he's right there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, obviously. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think it's really cool. I love this story. I just think that this is a really neat story. Well, I do too. And for anybody that's walked into businesses in Acheson, there actually are a lot of people that have animals in their office. Yeah. Whether you're bringing it from home just to hang out with you for the day or whether it's a permanent fixture in your office, there's a lot out here, but no one quite like Felix and Oliver. No. And I think I have a feeling after this, especially this podcast, I have a feeling that Felix is going to be a trendsetter. I agree. We may see some more Instagram pages. There could be. People say, yeah, well, we got a cool animal. We want to put that dog or that cat on Instagram. So that's cool, I think. And Cheryl, we were joking that the cat has more Instagram followers than both transport companies. yes. yes, they do. I remind Grant of that daily. Yeah. So come bonus time every year, the cat should get a pretty good bonus because he's attracting a lot of attention to the company. So I think that's pretty cool. Well, we've talked a lot this morning about Felix and we did that on purpose. We really wanted to do this and we really wanted to do our first road show, so to speak, coming to Bushell and then dealing with Felix. I don't know why I'm into Phoenix, but dealing with Felix. And I think it's really cool, but you guys have done an amazing job as well. Bushell is an amazing company. You really are. You're amazing here in Acheson. You're great members of the Acheson Business Association. And we really, really appreciate that. And both you and Grant are just really amazing people. And so, yeah. So you know what, Felix, I know you were meowing, but you are currently staring out the window. So I'm going to ask Cheryl the last question that we always ask each guest every time we do this podcast. We're going to put you on the spot. We're going to put you on the spot, Cheryl. So what is the best piece of advice that you've been given, that you carry with you to this day, either personally or professionally? Oh, gosh. Oh, wow. Yeah, we love putting our guest on the spot with that one. Yeah. I don't know. Probably just always, oh, God, I don't know. That's a hard one. I always say I have zero expectations for anything and anyone. I always go into everything that way. If they meet your expectations, you're good. If they go above your expectations, you're overwhelmed with excitement. Yeah. But if you set up the bar too high, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. So that's kind of, I don't know if I said that really well. You know what I'm trying to say? Yeah. I think that's fantastic. I think that's really good. And like I said, we love putting our guests on the spot with that. Yeah, good job. Part of the reason we do that is because usually, then it just, you know, the one thing that pops to your mind is that really important thing for you. And I think that is really, really a great piece of advice. Oh, I agree. I think it's great advice for sure. Yeah. And you guys again are doing a great job here. And I'm so glad you're part of Acheson. And well, that about does it for today. I gotta admit, this has been awesome. I know we're probably going to spend a little bit more time hanging out with Felix and doing that and that kind of stuff. Jennifer, do you want to tell us about some things that are coming up with the ABA in Acheson? Yeah. So I know we've talked a lot about our Business Awards Gala coming up on Saturday, September 28th. Tickets are on sale and nominations close next Friday. So get those nominations in. But we're also going to be doing on, I believe it's a Thursday, it's September 5th. We're going to be doing a Welcome Back From Summer-Coffee In The Park at the ABA Parking Lot, which is also where the Wall Coffee Roasters is located. We're going to be bringing out some food trucks. We're going to be talking to some people and it's just going to be a way to welcome people back. Yeah. Kids aren't the only ones who have welcome back to school. Exactly. We want to welcome businesses back. It's parents celebrating. Yeah, kids are going back to school. Exactly. Yeah, no, I think that's going to be a great event. I'm looking forward to that. And one of our guests, our first guest, Jan Michener. yes. Her food truck is going to be there. Her food truck is going to be there. So come out and support Jan Michener, local Acheson business owner. Yeah. So I'm pretty excited about that. That's going to be a lot of fun and come and grab some food and hang out and do some networking and build some relationships. And maybe one day at one of our events, we can talk Cheryl into bringing Felix along so that you get to meet Felix. He has a harness. Yeah. We can sign autograph. Well, we could put his little paw in ink and he could like put ink on people. And that'd be like his signature. Exactly. Yeah. Cheryl, tell us what his Instagram handle is. Yeah. Oh, we want to make sure that people follow Felix. Yeah. It is Felix underscore the underscore shop underscore cat. (Felix_The_Shop_Cat) Cool. Felix underscore the underscore shop underscore cat. (Felix_The_Shop_Cat) Cat. Get it all in there. That's really awesome. Yeah. Well, that's great. Well, thank you, Cheryl. Thank you so much. Like this has been great. We really appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks. For those of you, you'll want to maybe check our website. We'll have some pictures of Felix. On our social handles. On our social handles. Yeah. He's wearing a little bow tie this morning. He dressed up for this occasion. I know. I should have wore a bow tie. Because I didn't know he was going to be so formal, but he's looking pretty awesome. But anybody? Anyway, thank you, everybody. Appreciate you listening. Tell your family. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies about ABA Coffee In The Park. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. That's such a funny statement. Get it wherever you get your podcast. Or if you don't subscribe to any of that, you can go online to our website at... achesonbusiness.com So thanks, everybody. Thanks, Felix. Thanks, Felix. He wants out. See you soon, everybody. See you next week. Bye-bye.