Distillery Cats
- Moon Moonshine
- Mar 7
- 2 min read
Moon Moonshine is proudly Made at Barrel House distillery on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in Lexington, Kentucky using the same high quality ingredients, as your favorite bourbon: limestone and shale filtered water and non-GMO Weisenberger milled corn grown within 100 miles of the Distillery. Milled on a 100 year-old mill. The Distillery is guarded by Distillery Cat, Ricky Char. Distillery cats are an important part of the whiskey making tradition.
Once hired as “pest control” at Barrel House Distilling Company in the Distillery District, Ricky-Char quickly proved his true talents lie in customer relations. These days, you’ll find him greeting guests, soaking up the sunshine, or demanding cuddles. Sometimes all at once.
He’s affectionately known as the face of the distillery and the reason morale is at an all-time high. Born right here in the Bluegrass (adopted from the Scott Co. Humane Society), Ricky-Char’s favorite hobbies include creekside strolls, nonstop chatting, and eating like every meal’s his last.
Distilleries are one place you should actually be happy to see a cat. They serve a purpose; in fact, their oldest purpose, beyond variously cursing and protecting ancient Egyptians: they eat mice.
Next natural question: why are there mice in a distillery? That’s a less adorable story. Because whiskey is distilled from what is essentially beer, a working distillery requires a huge supply of grain. Pest control being what it was back in the day, rats and mice had the potential to become a serious problem. But as everyone knows (Tom and Jerry being the sole exception) the solution to a mouse is a cat. Distillery cats served the vital purpose of hunting and killing mice and rats before they could compromise grain supply. Even if you’re a dedicated “dog person,” if you love whiskey, you gotta respect that.
Are you a curious cat lover? Take a deep dive in Brad Thomas Parsons book Distillery Cats. Available from Penguin Random house.
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