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Would you like a cat with that pumpkin spice latte?
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Cat Town Cafe became the first permanent cat cafe in the U.S. when it opened its doors last week in Oakland, California. Founded by cat lovers Adam Myatt and Ann Dunn, Cat Town Cafe is a “cross between a coffee shop and an adoption center,” according to Mashable.
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The concept of cat cafes started in Taiwan with the idea that customers can enjoy a hot beverage and get in some quality cat time.
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“Cat cafes are places where people go to hang out, have a drink, and of course, observe and play with cats,” the Cat Town Cafe Indiegogo page explains.
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Customers have the option of either walking in or making a reservation before their visit to Cat Town Cafe, where they order drinks and food and then walk into what Mashable describes as “an elaborate play area” to spend time with six to 12 cats at a time.
The hope is that the Cat Town Cafe kitties will find forever families. Each cat is available for adoption, and the cafe gets them out of local shelters. The venture is an extension of Dunn’s rescue organization, simply called Cat Town, which “[targets] the cats least likely to be adopted from Oakland’s municipal shelter,” its website reads. “Through our foster-based program, Cat Town allows sensitive cats to blossom and find great permanent homes.”
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Funds for the cafe came from an Indiegogo campaign that raised $40,000; another $20,000 was donated by Pet Food Express.
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Mashable notes Cat Town Cafe has been a huge success so far, with reservations completely booked for the first three weekends.
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“This is kind of my dream vision of what Cat Town would be like,” Julie Sammons, a University of California, Berkeley employee told Time as she petted a resident. Other patrons took to Twitter to share photos.
People watching at #cattowncafepic.twitter.com/FHIaFygpxA
— Vikram (@recordfamous) November 2, 2014
Cat Town is hardly where the U.S. cat cafe craze ends: New York had a pop-up cat cafe for a limited in April, and KitTea in San Francisco is set to open sometime in the next few months and Portland, Los Angeles, Denver, Denver, San Diego and Seattle all have cafes on the way.
