Jeffrey Lucas, a longtime friend of KitKat, said the “funniest thing” he ever did with KitKat was “teach him Ukrainian.”
He taught the bodega cat two simple commands: De kit (Where’s the cat?) and Kit tam (Cat’s over there). Lucas recalled this while sitting at the end of the bar on Tuesday at Delirium, next to Randa’s Market, the liquor store that KitKat called home.
“He knew Ukrainian a little bit,” Lucas said, looking down at the bar. He and other Delirium patrons, who had gathered to remember their friend, raised a glass in the cat’s honor.
KitKat, nine years old, was found dying in the street on Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Numerous friends and neighbors said the cat was hit and killed by a Waymo autonomous vehicle.
Jeff Klein told Mission Local via email that he was driving eastbound on 16th Street with a friend on Monday at approximately 11:40 p.m. when he witnessed a Waymo swerved in front of them.
“Some folks on the sidewalk started yelling and grabbed the cat right out from under where the Waymo swerved from,” Klein wrote, who managed to snap a photo of the car before it drove away.
A 311 complaint filed at 12:51 a.m. on Tuesday morning alleged that a Waymo “hit the liquor store’s cat that was sitting in the sidewalk next to the transit lane” and that the autonomous car “did not even try to stop.”
Waymo did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s sad. Everyone’s heartbroken. I’ve been crying all fucking day and night,” said Jessica Chapdelaine, a bartender at Delirium who lives in an apartment above. “He’s the baby. He was everyone’s best friend and he was just the sweetest boy.”
Neighbors up and down 16th Street and across the Mission District are mourning. KitKat was a staple of Randa’s, a go-to for many starting or ending their nights at the bars near 16th and Valencia streets.
Customers went out of their way to pet KitKat or bring him treats, neighbors and friends said. His preferred sleeping spot at the liquor store was next to the heating vent below the beers and cold drinks, or on the chair next to store proprietor Mike Zeidan. The counter would also do for a nap.
On Tuesday evening, some 15 people gathered around an altar outside Randa’s Market at 3131 16th St. near Valencia Street. Passers-by paused to pay respects. Some embraced KitKat’s owner, Zeidan, in a hug. Others added offerings — Kit-Kat bars, small bottles of Cazadores tequila, ceramic cat figures, candles and bags of popcorn from the Roxie Theater next door — to the altar, which grew in size as the night went on.
An altar in memory of KitKat, who was allegedly killed by a Waymo this week, on Tuesday October. 28, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.
Others were more political in their offerings: “Kill a Waymo! Save a Cat!” read a sign placed on the altar. “Kitty cats, not killer cars,” yelled a woman as she walked by.
One man, whose girlfriend works next door at Wrap & Roll sandwiches, stood with friends next to the altar. “He was the authority. We’d all joke that he was everyone’s boss because he’d check on all the employees at the businesses here.”
“We’re all just really heartbroken,” the man added.
Chapdelaine the bartender said KitKat acted as a de facto security guard. “People would come in the shop and he would go follow them, make sure they didn’t steal nothing,” she said. “He’d go check the bars, make sure everything’s good. He was like our little security guard. He was our family.”
Neighbors and friends stopped by to pay respect, and bring an offering in memory of KitKat on Tuesday October. 28, 2025. Photo by Nik Altenberg.
The cat would greet her every time she left the building, she said.
Inside the Little Roxie, Anna Yarbrough remembered meeting KitKat when Zeidan first got him, just before the pandemic.
“He was calm and stoic,” said Yarbrough, who called the neighborhood mascot’s death “devastating.”
“Losing any pet by a man-made thing is very heartbreaking, especially a driverless car,” said Yarbrough.
The Waymo allegedly hit KitKat late Monday close to midnight, according to Sheau-Wha Mau, a bartender at Delirium.
At the time Mau was running karaoke. She walked outside and found KitKat lying on the sidewalk, alive and with a broken leg, spitting blood. The Waymo, she said, had already left.
A Waymo picks up two women behind the altar neighbors and friends made in memory of KitKat on Tuesday October. 28, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.
After a few minutes, Mau found a ride and took KitKat to a 24-hour veterinarian hospital at 18th and Arkansas streets. It was at this hospital where the “neighborhood ambassador,” as Mau called him, passed away. Zeidan arrived five minutes later.
Zeidan, for his part, said it was still too soon and too painful to talk about the accident.