Jim Trenter was fed up with the mice chomping into grass seed bags at his business’ warehouse — until he heard about the new “working cat” program of the Animal Humane Society.

Despite the fact that “cats” and “working” rarely appear in the same sentence, he adopted two felines. They now live and labor in the warehouse, which is suddenly mouse-free.

“Best employees I have had!” joked Trenter, manager at Ramy Turf Products in St. Paul. “And you feel really good about it. You’re able to give a cat that might be euthanized a good place to live.”

That’s precisely the goal of this program, designed to find less conventional living arrangements — and a full-time job — for cats that aren’t a success on the adoption floor.