FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — For a lot of us, a favorite place to eat is a matter of the food and also who we see there.
Friday brought the lunch rush at Sonic Drive-In on Franklin's Battlewood Street.
"Red likes the chicken strip, don't ya Red?" said one customer, talking to his dog in the passenger seat.
"Powerade Slush with Nerds!" customer Georgie Everhart said, sitting in the backseat of her family's car at Sonic.
"Their soft pretzel!" customer Lynlee Lamphron said, waiting on food at a picnic table with her dad.
Here, there's also an old friend all these people come to see.
"That'd be Tater Tot!" customer Stephanie Kolakowski said.
"Tater Tot the cat!" added Georgie.
"You can't get too close to her, but she kinda owns the street over here," Stephanie continued.
"She doesn't like to be picked up, I don't think," customer Sophia Ayala said.
"Usually cats are like that," Lynlee said. "But she's really cute!"
"I do love cats, so it's kinda the highlight for me," Stephanie said.
Tater Tot is a little stray cat that showed up at Sonic years ago and made the place home. All the people coming and going made her family. Customers donate food to her. Sonic staff take her to the vet. The Williamson County Animal Center gave her a little shelter. Tater Tot has become something of a tradition for this little lunch time, dinner time rush community.
"I like that she's a community cat," Georgie said.
"She might be this street's most famous cat," Stephanie smiled. "We're going to make sure she has somewhere to be at all times."
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