Cat cafés are little eateries that are home to two or more felines that customers can play with as they drink coffee or eat pastries. The very first cat café made its debut in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998. Cat Flower Garden, as it was originally named, is now called Cat and Dog Café. People still travel there today to chill and play with furry friends. You can just grab a cup of Joe and a macaroon and enjoy the company.
Pictured above is the present-day atmosphere of the first ever cat café.
When the owners first started out, they wanted to share the happy feelings that their cats gave them. They have now added their three doggos to the mix for a more diverse bunch. It’s the perfect place to go if you want to procrastinate on a paper.
Where Can I Find A Cat Café?
After Cat Flower Garden received media coverage, cat cafés spread all over the globe. Now, you can find them in Taiwan, the Netherlands, Japan, and the United States. Yass. Odds are, if you live in a highly populated area, you have one near you. Also, if you have the travel bug and you’re going outside of the US, look up cat cafés in that area to see if you can hit one up while abroad.
Hawaiian Cat Café
For a one-day-only event on June 25, 2016, O’ahu got a taste of the cat café craze with the very first cat café to hit the islands. In collaboration with The Hawaiian Humane Society, Art + Flea, an urban market organization based in Honolulu, hosted “Neko Café:” a get-together that featured food and furry friends.
Cats were up for free adoption during the event—that’s right, FREE bundles of joy going to loving homes. What could be better than the ultimate study break surrounded by kittens? Sadly, even though the event was a success, there are no signs of a permanent cat café in Honolulu yet.
Cats Make Us Happy
Food makes people happy, cats make people happy—combining the two makes people extremely happy. Cats are service animals, just like dogs, and help lessen the psychological effects of mental health issues, terminal or extreme illness, and old age (or simply that cloud of stress from finals fast approaching). Not everyone is able to give a home to an animal, so cat cafés provide the bridge to college student happiness.
Cat cafés are such a good thing for us students. So pack up the organic chemistry textbook and take a trek to your local cat café for some solid study time and genuine laughs, because cats are the absolute best buddies.