Phoenix Will Soon have its First Cat Cafe

0

Cat Cafe

If you love cats and coffee, then you’re in for a real treat! Phoenix will be getting its first cat café in early 2016. Cat café’s have been gaining solid popularity worldwide over the last few years. If you’ve seen the Katy Perry documentary ‘Part of Me,’ then you saw her visit one in Japan. She loves cats so much that her fans refer to themselves at Katy Cats. Maybe the California girl had something to do with the newfound popularity of sitting around, drinking a warm beverage while snuggling up with a furry feline?

According to Mental Floss, the first cat café popped up in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998. Who knew?! It was offered as a place for young, professional urban dwellers to hang out and unwind while gaining some of the psychological benefits of having a pet, without actually having to worry about the responsibilities that come with being a cat owner. Like cleaning the litter box {or the “glitter” box as we like to call it in our house. It just sounds fancier.}

Cat café’s gained popularity once they opened in Japan in 2005.  In April 2014 New York City became the first US city to open a cat café. While Japan offers the cafes for guests to enjoy playing with and “socializing” with the cats since most Japanese apartment buildings don’t allow pets, the US uses the cafes to exhibit pets that are up for adoption. The New York City café was a pop-up and worked in conjunction with the North Shore Animal League.

It has since closed, but permanent cat café’s are popping up in cities all over the country including San Francisco, Oakland, and Seattle. According to ABC15, our city’s first cat café, called La Gattara, plans to partner with a local shelter and will have 15 – 20 cats in the café at one time. Sounds purrfect to me!

The psychological benefits of owning a cat are great, and WebMD says the health benefits are even better! Owning a cat can:

  • Reduce your stress level and enhance your mood
  • Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol levels low {probably related to your enhanced mood}
  • And owning a cat has been shown to be good for your heart. Me – wow!

Apart from those benefits, cats are great companions. They can be adorable to play with and are very loyal. In fact, mine’s helping me write this article right now by walking all over my keyboard. She will even retrieve a ball for you, that’s if she’s in the mood, of course. She is still a cat and they are known to do their own thing.

If your family is looking for the perfect pet, adoption is a wonderful way to go, but there are several factors to consider before adding a pet to your family, including:

  • The cost of owning a pet from monthly expenses like food and litter, and less frequent expenses like vet bills.
  • The challenges such as the time, dedication and patience needed to train a pet {yes, even cats can be trained}
  • The time commitment since most cats and dogs can live well past 10 years old.

If you decide you can’t handle any of those points, then owning a pet may not be right for your family. If you decide you can handle all of those things and are looking to adopt a cat, then a cat café seems like the perfect place to meet a cat to me!

I’m a big advocate of pet adoption, especially since most shelters are overwhelmed with owner surrenders, strays and abandoned animals. But mostly because there is no other feeling in the world like knowing you saved an animal’s life.

While we eagerly await the opening of our first cat café, you may want to check out some east valley organizations such as Friends for Life, Desert Paws Rescue, and the Cat A Do Cat Co-op.

What do you think of the cat café? Will you go when it opens?

 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here