Keep a Cat, a cafe in Kaohsiung, allows people to hang out with more than 30 cats while sipping coffee and snacks.
The cafe is a place for cat lovers to forge a bond with the cats through a variety of games and toys that the restaurant offers, while enjoying food and drinks in the meantime, shop owner and cofounder Huang Ssu-yu (黃思瑜) said.
“Adult cats have less chances of adoption than kittens, so we hope that the dining experiences created in the restaurant can allow all cats to connect with customers, rather than to be judged solely by their age,” she said.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
“Unlike regular animal shelters, customers who hope to adopt one cat or more do not have to go through the troublesome process of filling out a survey form, but can simply bring their four-legged friends home after having spent some quality time with them,” Huang added.
“We hope customers can come and spend time with the cat they like two to three times before they adopt,” she said, adding the cafe could also arrange house visits and advise new pet owners on how to create a cat-friendly environment.
There is no requirement for the adopter to report back on the cat’s well-being, Huang said, so as to not place strains on the new owner.
She opened the shop with her friend Sun Jung (孫榕). Huang and Sun were roommates during college and started raising stray cats together. Due to their limited knowledge at the time, many of their attempts to connect strays and potential adopters did not work out, they said. They then came to the idea of a cat adoption cafe, which they founded together in Kaohsiung in 2017.
All their cats have to undergo checkups for contagious diseases and are quarantined period of two to three weeks to confirm their health status, Huang said, adding that all the cats available for adoption are healthy.
In two years, about 130 cats have been adopted, and the likelihood of owners returning cats to the cafe is low because owners have spent time with their future pets before taking them home, Sun said.
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