What is a Cat Cafe?

A cat cafe in the US is a hybrid business combining a traditional coffee or snack shop with a cage-free lounge area where patrons can interact with and/ or adopt rescue cats.

How Do They Work?

To meet strict health code regulations, food and drinks are typically prepared and served in a separate area from where the cats live. Visitors then enter a designated "cat lounge".

Guests usually pay a small cover charge or hourly fee. This money helps pay for cat care, toys, and operating costs.

Most US cat cafés partner with local animal shelters and rescues. The cats live in the open, social environment of the lounge until an approved visitor adopts them and takes them to a permanent home.

Cafés enforce rules to protect the animals, such as banning flash photography, not waking sleeping cats, and requiring guests to sanitize their hands before entering.

What’s the point? A cat cafe gives people a place to hang out with rescue cats while enjoying a drink or a snack, helping these animals find permanent homes.

The Benefits!

Socializing animals: Cafes keep cats in open, comfortable rooms instead of cages. This lets their real personalities shine, making them more attractive to future owners.

Partnering with shelters: Most shops work with local rescue groups to house stray or surrendered cats, helping reduce shelter overcrowding.

Low-pressure meetings: Visitors can interact naturally with the animals, which often leads to successful adoptions.

Mental health boost: Spending just a few minutes petting an animal can lower stress hormones and boost mood-enhancing chemicals like serotonin.

Pet ownership alternative: Many people visit because their landlords ban pets, their schedules are too busy for a full-time pet, or they simply miss having an animal around.

FAQ’s

Questions we get about our Cafe:

Question: What’s the point of your cafe?

Answer: The point of our cafe is to help assist the animal shelter from overcrowding and provide a safe place that is cage free for the cats of Onslow County, and to help bring out and show case their personalities for successful adoptions to forever homes. We are our own independent organization; we are only affiliated with Onslow County Animal Shelter to assist them with cat adoptions.

Question: Why don’t you serve coffee?

Answer: We are currently working in the planning and buildout phase of our coffee bar. There is a lot that we have to comply with to make this happen. We currently do sell pre-packaged food and drinks until we can get through all the red tape and start building the coffee bar. We do not mind what-so-ever that you bring your own coffee, food, or snacks. We ask that if you do bring your own; that it has a covered lid and that you do understand that eating or drinking with the animals is at your own risk.

Question: Why wont the cats come to me?

Answer: We cannot guarantee that the cats will come up to you. Some will and some wont. It depends on if you are standing (which some don’t like), or whether you are in a chair (Some may come to you but may not get in your lap). We do recommend that you get on their level on the floor, low and slow, they are more likely to come see you and be more social.

If you don’t want to get on the floor with them, then we cannot make any guarantee they will interact with you.

With every visitor(s) we do try to encourage them to interact with everyone with toys, hard treats, and treat spoons.

Question: Is it free?

Answer: No, we are not free. Our partner sets the adoption fee, which we have to turn back over to them. We do not make money off the adoption fee.

What we do charge is an entry fee to the cat lounge area and our merchandise. That fee pays for the food, litter, cleaning supplies, distilled water for the cats, treats, toys, and cat related furniture and electricity.

Question: Why are your prices so high?

Answer: We are self-funded. As we are not funded by any outside organizations; overhead cost, cost of the health, safety, cleaning regiment, specific animal furniture to conform to regulations, and more, are all at the owner’s expense. We feel that our prices are fair, reasonable, fit the cost of the business at its current state. As thing progress, we will re-evaluate and make appropriate changes at that time.

Question: Can you take my cat?

Answer: Short answer is no we cannot intake cats ourselves for the cafe. Due to health and safety of the animals and the organization we are partnered with, we cannot intake cats ourselves to the cafe.

Question: Do you have to book online or can you walk-in?

Answer: No, you do not have to book online. However, it is highly recommended that you pre-book online so that you do not have to wait long periods if you walk-in during high traffic times.

Question: How many cats do you have?

Answer: Our license allows us to have up to 12 at capacity. On any given day we typically have at a minimum of around 4 cats and up to a maximum of 12 cats. In the event that we are in a high adoption period, that number can change rapidly. We ask that you be understanding to the fact that it takes time and coordination efforts on many people’s behalf to evaluate, prepare, transport, receive and condition an animal to the stressors of moving from the shelter to our cafe. We also ask for understanding from our patrons that adoption volume vary from day to day and can be very unpredictable.

Question: Why aren’t you like other cat cafes?

Answer: While our fundamentals are the same, we don’t want to be like everyone else. We chose to make our cat cafe our way and not the way everyone else does. What’s the fun in that?

Question: Do you accept donations?

Answer: Yes, we do accept donations. Clumping kitty litter, wet and dry treats, Purina Cat Chow, canned cat foods, plastic litter scoops, cat toys etc. When we accumulate a lot of donations, we do share the donations with other rescues and organizations.

Question: Can I come and study, read, or just hang out in the cafe area?

Answer: Absolutely! We encourage everyone to come and hang out. Whether it’s to read, study, work, or even play games or just to relax in your own little way in a clam, cozy, quiet atmosphere.

For any other questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions…please feel free to speak with us directly. We are more than accommodating and eager to hear what you have to say!