Callaway the cat lies around the record store all day

Callaway is probably Tauranga's most famous cat. The 15-year-old deaf cat has his own Facebook page and spends his days lazing round Vinyl Destination record store in the city.

But Callaway has caused an uproar, because the store sells takeaway coffee, and that prompted an a complaint to Tauranga City Council about food safety standards.

Store owner Luke Wormald said he received a phone call from the council a few days ago saying someone had lodged a formal complaint about Callaway.

A free coffee has been offered to the complainant if they apologise to Callaway

Wormald has said the store did not sell food and had done nothing wrong.

"They [the council] said you are all above board and kosher and that's fine," he said.

"I put a post on Facebook saying there's a free coffee here if you apologise to Callaway. There's been hundreds of thousands of people view it.

"I've had hundreds of comments, tons of people have come into the shop to take photos of Callaway."

Wormald has posted a message to the complainant saying: "Legally all cafes are allowed to have a cat on the premises for the purpose of rodent control, we don't sell food and our coffee is takeaway only, pretty hard for him to sneeze on your flat white that way. Everyone else loves Callaway".

The Ministry for Primary Industries also replied to Wormald's Facebook post.

"There are no rules against having pet animals in restaurants/cafes, as long as they stay out of the area where food is made or handled, and as long as any food stored in public areas is covered or protected," MPI's post said.

Wormald said Callaway had received a lot of attention over the matter, and he had even been contacted by Australian media outlets.

"Callaway has been loving the attention and he's our little mascot. I'm never going to let him go, I'll chain myself up to him until I let people take him away form the shop. He's just as important as the records," he said.

The beloved cat has been with Wormald for four years.

"He was 12 to 13 years old and deaf when we got him. We have loved him and he's always been the shop cat and he's always been our mascot," he said.

Vinyl Records had to close early today because they had been inundated with phone calls about Callaway.

"We might print some pictures of Callaway and get him to sign them with his paw print," Wormald said.

He also said he wanted the complainant to get in touch so he could thank him for the free publicity.