A Cat Cafe Is A Purrrrfect Way To Promote Cat Adoption

Let me start by saying I like domesticated pets. When my daughter was growing up, she had a cat as a pet. It was a nice creature. It introduced me to the world of litter boxes, fur balls and meowing for supper. I did envy how this feline could get all spaced out on catnip. I often wondered if there was a kitty catnip dealer somewhere roaming the neighborhood offering bags of catnip for cat treats.

“One can of treats gets you a large bag of the best catnip on the street.”
“Man, I only have half a can of treats. You're the one who got me hooked on this stuff. Come down and rub and roll around on just one catnip toy is what you said. Look at me now. I can't stop.”
“Tell you what I'll do. Half a can of treats and your plastic mouse toy.”
“You know how I love that mouse toy.”
“Hey, you're breaking my heart. Treats and a toy for your catnip fix.”
“Geeeze, it's a deal, I guess. You're such a pus... I mean rotten cat.”


There was an interesting story in the Huffington Post by Leigh Weingus. Cat lovers in Oakland, California have opened Cat Town Cafe. They've labeled it as a cross between coffee shop and cat adoption center.

This is an actual story. Below are excerpts from the story in bold. My valuable insights are in italics.

"Cat cafes are places where people go to hang out, have a drink, and of course, observe and play with cats," the Cat Town Cafe Indiegogo page explains.
Customers have the option of either walking in or making a reservation before their visit to Cat Town Cafe, where they order drinks and food and then walk into what Mashable describes as "an elaborate play area" to spend time with six to 12 cats at a time.

“Can I take your order?”
“Yes, I'll have a Cafe Mocha with one Siamese cat and a Persian kitten on the side.”
“Okay, it'll be up in five minutes or less.
“Thanks.”

The hope is that the Cat Town Cafe kitties will find forever families. Each cat is available for adoption, and the cafe gets them out of local shelters. The venture is an extension of Dunn's rescue organization, simply called Cat Town, which "[targets] the cats least likely to be adopted from Oakland's municipal shelter," its website reads. "Through our foster-based program, Cat Town allows sensitive cats to blossom and find great permanent homes."

I think this is a good idea. Anything is better than being in a pet prison like a shelter. I wouldn't try something like this in a drinking establishment. Bad things could happen to the cats during intense sporting events.

“Hey, let's catch the pigskin.”
“Wait a minute, that's a cat.”
“Whatever.”

Mashable notes Cat Town Cafe has been a huge success so far, with reservations completely booked for the first three weekends.

“This is kind of my dream vision of what Cat Town would be like,” Julie Sammons, a University of California, Berkeley employee told Time as she petted a resident. Other patrons took to Twitter to share photos.

I do wonder who cleans up the hairballs and litter box. I hope this isn't done in between times of fixing coffee and food. I can imagine people being late for work because a purring cat went to sleep on their lap.

“Sorry, I'm late for the meeting.”
“You better have a good excuse.”
“I was in the coffee shop and a cat fell asleep on my lap.”
“So?”
“It was purring?”
“Oh, now it makes sense.”

Cat Town is hardly where the U.S. cat cafe craze ends: New York had a pop-up cat cafe for a limited in April, and KitTea in San Francisco is set to open sometime in the next few months and Portland, Los Angeles, Denver, Denver, San Diego and Seattle all have cafes on the way.

It may play into an unfair stereotype if this type of cafe is next to an oriental restaurant. I can almost imagine the comments. Coffee and adopting cats just seem to go together. I also believe this coffee shop will never need to worry about a mouse infestation.

I wonder if this can be expanded to help adopt other animals. A snake cafe might not work too well, but who knows.

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