Purrfect! Britain's first cat cafe opens in England'Narnia'
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Totnes, in south Devon, has long had the reputation of being one of Britain’s most “hippyish” towns.
It is a haven of holistic therapy, organic food and independent retail and its town sign was famously graffitied with the words “Twinned with Narnia”.
Last year, when the coffee giant Costa threatened to open a branch in Totnes, almost 6,000 residents signed a petition against it causing the chain to pull out.
By contrast this June, when former wildlife hospital owner Liz Dyas decided to open a “cat cafe” there, it was welcomed with open arms.
The cat cafe phenomenon began in Asia with the world’s first opening in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. They are now hugely popular in Japan where living conditions are often too cramped for pet ownership.
Customers pay an hourly fee that allows them to relax with a drink and a cat to stroke: a form of on-site pet rental-meets-pet therapy.
n Tokyo alone there are now 39 cat cafes and the UK looks set to pick up on the trend. A London venture, Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, is in the planning stages but, in the meantime, Liz has become Britain’s first cat cafe owner.
“The cats are my own,” says Liz. “I chose cats that were friendly, inquisitive and sociable. We were able to ensure that in the critical stage, eight weeks before opening, they were given a lot of positive human contact. The cats are now so friendly and used to people that they will often rush up to greet new customers immediately.”
Totnes Cats Cafe is open from 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
The rest of the time the Cats Cafe’s Rolo, Lilac, Glee, Jet, Felix and Mango live with Liz, which means she spends a lot of time carrying cats in baskets:“But they associate the baskets with fun now, not with vet trips.”
The cafe itself is a bright room with comfy seats, cat toys, and a bar where cakes and coffee are available.
A double electric door system means there’s no possibility of feline escape on to Totnes’s busy Fore Street, and the six moggies have a giant climbing wall on which to amuse themselves (and patrons).
Customers sit and order drinks and snacks and wait for the cats to interact with them. “They’ll often get talking to each other as well, because of the common bond of cats,” says Liz.
That said, one of the cats, Lilac, does have a reputation as a bit of a thief: “She went off with a lady’s purse recently.”
A session at the cafe costs £2 for half an hour and most people stay from 30 minutes to a couple of hours. Liz divides customers into several distinct types, including “university students missing their cat at home” as well as “people in sheltered accommodation” or “people living in high rise flats” and “people with a partner who is allergic to cat fur”.
Liz has been working with animals for more than 25 years. She has done a lot of research into cats and says positive contact with them has “great therapeutic value”.
However the animal welfare charity Cats Protection has criticised the cafe, saying it “firmly believes this kind of environment is not suitable for domestic cats” and that the cats “will become stressed as a result of being in a confined space with a continually changing group of people”.
John Bradshaw, who has written a book that will be published soon called Cat Sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed, says: “It is rare for six unrelated cats to live harmoniously in one confined space.
"Social stress is common in multi-cat households and often goes unnoticed by owners.
"The interior of the cafe seems quite small and I would consider it essential for the cats’ welfare that they be allowed additional space where they can withdraw from the visitors whenever they choose.”
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Hmmm, the decription sounds ... abit wrong
Customers pay an hourly fee that allows them to relax with a drink and a cat to stroke: a form of on-site pet rental-meets-pet therapy.
Well, in Singapore, there are places that ppl pay to relax with a drink and something else to stroke
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Originally posted by ^Acid^ aka s|aO^eH~:
Hmmm, the decription sounds ... abit wrong
Well, in Singapore, there are places that ppl pay to relax with a drink and something else to stroke
You meant to say.. being stroked.