All the Rage: Cat Cafés

Currently all the rage in big Asian cities where people live in cramped apartments that may not allow residents to own pets, cat cafes mix café culture with friendly felines. These quirky spots allow you to pet, play with and generally be amused by cats while visiting with friends and sipping a latte. Patrons are charged a separate premium for the time they spend inside, so you’re essentially “renting” a pet for a short period of time. Most cafés charge by the hour. You get all the benefits of pet ownership — chiefly, stress relief — without any of the responsibility.

The curious phenomenon first appeared in Taiwan in 1998 and has spread through Japan, starting with Osaka in 2004. Today, the greater Tokyo area is home to an astounding 70 cat cafés, including the incredibly popular first café, Neko no Mise. Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore have cat cafés.

Cat cafés are spreading to other parts of the world, too. They’ve become popular throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. Oakland, Calif., claims the honor of opening the first cat café in the United States with Cat Town Café, which opened this past October.

As with most other cat cafés, the felines are provided by a local animal shelter, which allows potential adopters to hang out with a bunch of cats and potentially take one home. The cafés are decked out with a combination of furniture for humans and felines, and the cats do what cats do best — nap, play with toys or generally ignore the onslaught of human interlopers. They’ll sometimes cuddle with patrons, too. And the cafés are not just attracting crazy cat ladies — patrons span all walks of life.

More cat cafés are popping up across the United States, and many are enlisting the help of would-be patrons through crowd-funding campaigns like Indiegogo and Kickstarter.