Taiwan is believed to be the site of the world’s first cat cafe, with the concept spreading to Japan and other countries around the world. A few coffee shop owners in Taiwan are hoping to further expand this concept by attracting not only pet-loving customers, but also those who are willing to adopt one.
Hope (讀貓園-貓咪中途咖啡) is one of those shops. Unlike most cat cafes, Hope is also a halfway home for stray cats rescued from animal shelters. It was founded by a woman nicknamed “Leblanc” and her husband in 2013, after a couple of years of operating a cat hotel.
“I started providing a halfway home for stray cats about six years ago. Most pet shelters at the time had serious problems, especially with infectious diseases, so I decided to help cats from rescue shelters first,” she said. “My motto was ‘give hope to the most hopeless ones.’”
“However, it was a painful experience, after putting so much effort into taking care of stray cats from the shelters, spending so much time treating their diseases, and then seeing them die,” she said.
Leblanc said feline distemper, also known as FPV or cat plague, is a highly contagious and fatal disease, so she and her husband created a “total separation” between healthy and sick cats.
They found an apartment and started their business of selling cat supplies and provisions on the first floor and operating a halfway home for cats on the second floor and a cat hotel on the third.
Leblanc said she started by picking up cats from a shelter when she had time, but “now sometimes the shelter would call me if they have too many cats.”
“I usually do not have a choice in selecting cats at the shelters,” she said.
“I take the ones that most people do not want, newborn kittens that shelters do not accept, and weak or sick cats, because no one will want to adopt a sick cat from the shelter,” she said.
While encouraging customers to adopt a cat from the shop, the couple carefully scrutinize prospective owners.
They must have “a suitable environment, and patience and a sense of responsibility to be able to take care of cats and not abandon them,” Leblanc said.
They should also be willing to have the cats neutered and implanted with a microchip at designated legal veterinary clinics, she said.
The shop had 66 cats adopted last year and 88 the year before, she said.
So far, the abandonment rate is zero, she said, although a few owners did give up and return cats to them.
It takes a lot of effort, mentally and physically, to run the halfway cafe, she said, but added that she and her husband feel lucky to have so many kind volunteers who regularly come to help take care of the cats, donate food and supplies, or even provide a home for the cats.
Several of the volunteers and pet owners have established a Hope for Animal Association to provide information and support each other.
“I really hope people think it through before they adopt a cat,” she said. “Or they could come here first as a customer to play [with the cats] or volunteer to learn” how to take care of them.
Located in a small alley in Taipei is another halfway coffee shop called Pet Halfway House and Cafe (浪浪別哭).
Founded in 2015, the first floor serves as a home for rescued dogs, while the second floor houses stray cats.
In a short video posted by the coffee shop on its Facebook page, which has collected more than 186,000 likes, founder Tan Jou (譚柔) said she opened the shop with her husband, Alan Liu (劉憲宗), two years ago.
“There are many vulnerable groups in this world that need help, but for us, we think animals are the most vulnerable ones, because they cannot argue for what they need,” Tan said.
Privately owned halfway homes often have to deal with the problem of a lack of exposure and platform, so they are often stuck with the animals and cannot help more strays find homes, Tan said in the video.
“So we came with the idea of opening a coffee shop, inviting people to come in, with no pressure, order a meal, and interact with the strays to increase the chances of their getting adopted,” she said.
The couple make use of social media to promote their idea, frequently posting pictures of the animals in their shop, writing stories highlighting their unique characteristics and sharing stories of animals that have found new homes, in hopes of attracting more people to visit them and provide a loving home for them.
The couple have strict requirements for people who are interested in adopting pets from them, including a willingness to spend time with the pets at the cafe, filling in a questionnaire, agreeing to an interview and home visit, paying NT$3,000 for medical fees and vaccination, getting microchip implantation for the pet, and signing an affidavit promising that they will not abandon the animal.
Tan said her shop has tried to invite more companies, shops or individuals to join it in becoming a halfway home for stray animals.
The shop has designed a sticker that people or companies can put on their doors to let people know they can adopt animals, while promoting these halfway homes on the shop’s Web site.
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