Hi guys! Today I want to share an interesting experience I had at a certain café with some furry friends~ BookCatPin is primarily a book blog but since I'm also a cat lover, I thought I'd talk about my visit to the local cat café and share some pictures!
My sister invited me along because her friends had gifted her a reservation for her birthday. It was a long wait (her birthday was back in January and the reservation was for April lol). We ended up having to wait an extra hour because even though my sister's friend made the reservation for four, their online reservation system only registered one guest. The clerk acknowledged that this was a frequent error. I hope they correct this faulty system since honestly, I don't think most people would be as easy-going as we were and willing to wait when it wasn't our fault. It wasn't a huge problem but it was a tiny bit annoying?
Anyways, this place, known as Catfé, is situated on the second floor of a less-frequented mall. Catfé is divided into two halves- a small room where all the coffee and snack orders are handled and a larger room where you get to sit and enjoy the company and comfort of the cats. I really love this partition as it keeps the cats away from the heavy machines and foot traffic (for both sanitary and safety reasons).
The entrance fee is $5 to visit the cats (for an hour) while I believe an additional order of beverage or snack is required. This wasn't very clear and the menus weren't very clearly displayed so I hope they'll improve on that. On the upside, the employees were quite nice and look at the adorable treats and cute coffee art!!
After we got our orders, we entered the other side. Yes, finally, cats! There was one employee who went over the rules (very basic ones like don't pick the cats up, don't feed or chase after them, etc.). Then we signed a waiver, washed our hands and voila, KITTY TIME! This side of the room was huge with tables and lots of things like board games and books for the visitors and plenty of toys for each cat to play with. I was most impressed with the huge cat shelf on one wall. It was such a freeing space for the cats to roam around.
All the cats were friendly if not a bit dodgy. Most were sleeping but didn't mind being petted as long as you were gentle. The more feisty one, who happened to be my favourite lol, was identified by a red collar around his neck. For the one hour we were in there, we petted the cats and tried to engage them with toys. When my sister was chatting with her friends, I was still going around petting and taking pictures of/with them ;) It was fun!
For cat lovers who are just looking to spend some relaxing time in the company of cats, Catfé is the place to be. If you're someone who wants to adopt but have never done so, visiting Catfé is a great way to acquaint yourself with cats. However, if you're going to seriously look into adopting a cat, I would suggest going straight to an SPCA branch. This is because most of the cats at Catfé have adoption applications pending already. So even if you see a cat you really like, chances are he/she/they have already been claimed. (Unless you go on a Friday since Thursdays are the days when Catfé receive new cats from the SPCA. Higher chances of taking the one you want home but no guarantees.) Also, while $5 entrance fee isn't all that expensive, visiting SPCA branches is free.
So overall, overlooking some minor glitches, I'm quite impressed with Catfé's set up. They've successfully made over 70 cat adoptions so yayy! I think they're working for a really wonderful cause :D
So the above is my experience and personal opinion. If you'd like to visit Catfé, make sure you check out their website HERE for more info!
