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Traveling and can’t take your feline companion with you, but would like to enjoy some feline companionship – look for a cat café where you can enjoy a cup of tea or joe and relax petting a willing pussycat.
Miss Kitty, Susie’s feline friend, brought the cat cafes to Susie’s attention and is our guest pet patrol columnist for the week. Miss Kitty will be bringing feline travel information to us on occasion and she found an interesting topic in the cat cafes which are already operating in countries such as Japan, Korea and several European countries. She also found out that several places in the United States in Boston and San Francisco, are in the process of establishing cat cafes as well.
In Japan there are multiple cat cafes available, but efforts by animal activists could poison the punch because they feel that the concept stresses out the felines. They are trying to get a law passed that would prohibit the use of the cats in the cafes past 8 pm which is the prime time people come in to visit with the cats and have a relaxing pot of tea. One wonders if these “activists” would rather see these cats out on the street to fend for themselves or in a pound or shelter.
There are also cat cafes in Paris that offer similar advantages to patrons to relax and enjoy some feline companionship.
In the United States the issue is always the laws that prohibit animals from being around food service. These laws vary from state to state. Many places allow dogs or cats to be present in an outside seating area, but some states even prohibit this possibility. It is certainly time for reasonableness in this that allows well-behaved dogs or cats to be able to share a meal with their owners or visiting friends, whether outside or in a special area inside dedicated to this purpose.
The proposed location in San Francisco, KitTea, plans to partner with a local shelter to provide 10 cats that would be selected based on their personalities and level of socialization with both humans and other cats. One possible solution to satisfy existing laws would be to have the food in one room and the cats in another room. The patrons could buy their tea in one room and walk down the hall to visit with the cats.
The Boston cat café, Miaou, is also struggling with the regulations of having animals in the same facility where food is served. The café originally scheduled to open in 2013, is still on hold.
Susie and Miss Kitty are asking all of their human friends to help increase the awareness of the benefit of having our well-behaved and trained feline and canine friends able to join us in some degree at restaurants and as we travel on the road. Frankly there is more risk for food poisoning and catching a cold or virus from other humans in these places. Also more problems come from noisy human customers than from any dog or cat present. Coming up with reasonable rules that would apply throughout the country would go a long way to relieve this situation.
March 15, 2023
