SOLVED. Kids Picture Book about Too Many Cats in a Grocery Store being Given Away to homes. Read late 1990s/early 2000s. [s]

[Christopher Foster]

It is a picture book about a man who owns a grocery store and a cat lives there (or comes to live there). More and more cats come to live at the store until they are causing all kinds of trouble for customers, like knocking stuff over. I remember one page is a drawing of a cat popping out of the fish kept in the ice section and scaring a customer. The store owner decides to give away a cat with every bag of groceries purchased. One page is a customer (an older woman I believe) taking home 2 cats with 2 bags. The bags are brown paper bags. It ends with the store owner only keeping the original cat. I think the original cat was an orange tabby but I am not sure about it, sorry.

I remember the pictures take up the page or at least most of it.

It was a soft cover book (or at least my copy was).

I was born in 1993 so I'm guessing it was read to me in the late 90's or maybe early 2000s. I think it wasn't an older book when I read it because of the drawing style.

The book is in English, but I don't know where it was published.

I'm guessing it was not a super popular book because I have googled it like crazy and can't find it.

Thank you so much for any help you can provide!

[bookel]

So Many Cats! -
Beatrice Schenk De Regniers, ‎Ellen Weis Goldstrom · 1988
FOUND INSIDE – PAGE 26
Is that ten ? You're sure ? Well then , there must be more - two more— cats not yet accounted for . Here they are ! They followed me home from the grocery store . Dawn and Night . Night's black . Dawn's white

Google Books
cats too many grocery store

https://www.librarything.com/work/854418
Hmm maybe not, but shouldn't be hard to find.

[bookel]

Did you try searching Too Many Cats on LibraryThing? This is one of the titles.
https://www.amazon.com/many-cats-Leah...
https://www.librarything.com/work/288...
Too many cats / Killeen.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sho...
A review gives opening sentences and plot. It sounds like the book.

[Christopher Foster]

That's it! "Too Many Cats!" by Killeen. Thank you so much!!! I can't believe you found it so fast. It was driving me crazy not knowing. I can't thank you enough. I'm going to get it to read to my daughter now :)