I have two fuzzies, and while I love them to death, I would not appreciate a restaurant with a cat. It seems unsanitary, and the restaurant should be kept clean enough that they can handle any pest problems with a couple of traps.
But if the cat lived in an attached apartment, thats a different story. It can be darn well impossible to keep the little furry bastards in sometimes, and they always seem to escape at the worst time.
What does a “snart cough” feel like? 
Personally, I don’t care if a restaurant has a cat on premises as long as the place doesn’t smell like…cat.
Love the ferret! That is so freaking cute!
What is it with people assuming that a cat in a restaurant is shitting in the food? Where the heck did you get THAT idea?
To all of you who aren’t fond of cats in restaurants, I’d highly suggest you avoid visiting Key West.
Whenever I hear someone say they have a ferret, I think of this.
I guess you prefer mice in the kitchen.
I would also like to offer up the suggestion that the cat was not a welcome visitor to the kitchen. The restaurant I used to work in had a cat who lived underneath our big walk-in refrigerator on the loading deck (it looked like a shed from the outside). He started off as a nice guard-cat and, after the chefs got him neutered and started feeding him, he was quite laid back.
Occasionally he would try to sneak into the kitchen when someone held the door open too long (probably to get at the yummy crab cake smell). Now, I don’t remember him ever actually making it inside, but if he did, it is possible that he could have made it to the dining room before anyone noticed. If he did, I’m sure I would have done the same as the waitress and picked him up without much fuss.
(As an aside, my manager told me that she once had a couple come in to try the food for a wedding reception and a mouse, partially trapped on a glue-trap, managed to run into the dining room as they were tasting the food. Luckily the couple was facing away from the door and she was able to kick it back into the kitchen so it could be dealt with appropriately. I imagine that mouse would have been more of a problem than the cat.)
Yeah, if anything maybe a bit of concern that the cat might have sampled it or gotten a hair in it. But shit? Why would the cat shit in your food?
A restaurant with cats is* more* likely to attract my patronage than one without. Especially if they climb into your lap and purr.
…and that, psychonaut, is one cute ferret. BTW, is the username from the game, song or spiritual practice?
I pit the restaurant with a cat
I initially read this as though “with” was modifying “pit” rather than “restaurant.”
That is, as if “Pit me with a cat” was something like “Gag me with a spoon.”
I didn’t notice the first time that the beer is called Firsty Ferret! And the tongue, way too freakin’ cute!
I think the point was, that they didn’t know there was a cat there and didn’t have the choice of eating where there was a cat or not eating where there was a cat. It brushed up against them towards the end of the meal. I assume they went into the restaurant assuming that there wouldn’t be a cat there.
I don’t think I’d mind. Cats are pretty clean anyway. They had an article in the NYTimes about kitties in bodegas as an alternative to rat poison. I guess bodegas are a bit different since the food is mostly packaged but I’m not too bothered.
After all, it’s not like a monkey butler at a buffet.
I’ve never heard of any game, song, or spiritual practice by the name of Psychonaut. I’d tell you where the username actually comes from but I’m pretty sure that in my case that would be in violation of the SDMB rules.
Cats don’t shit in food. What kind of psycho pets have you people had?
They might, however, have just thoroughly cleaned their asshole with their tongue and then licked my veal piccata on its way out the kitchen.
Hey, I might not eat there, but it’d make a great floor show!
I don’t think being a 'shroomhead is in violation of the T&C as long as you don’t go into details.
Turkish restaurant, you say.
I read something once about how cats are revered in Turkey. Had to do with the spirit of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as I recall. Perhaps the presumably Turkish owners of the restaurant are loathe to evict the cat for cultural reasons.
I would just like to thank the OP for going to the theatre.
Carry on.