I’ve got some great news. After much negotiation and visiting the site multiple times to make sure that it worked and we can make sure that the facilities will work with all of the modifications that are needed, the lease for The Cat Cafe has been approved!

This means we can move forward with a number of things. First, we can move forward with the submission of plans for the renovation that’s needed. In order to make sure that our plans comply with city code, we need to have them drawn by a professional draftsman — that’s not me. As the person who is doing the drawing said, you’re good at coming up with the plan for The Cat Cafe and the design you want to put in. I’m good at putting it on paper.

Second, it means that we can move forward with the construction of the coffee cart. That’s something we’ve had to hold off on until we were sure the space was secured. Now that we have the space, and we can do the renovations, we can move forward on that.

I can only guess what you are thinking. “That’s great! But when will you open? You were talking about opening July 1 and we really wanted to make sure we visited. Now when is your opening date?”

One of the things you have to do when you operate a business is learn from your mistakes. The Cat Cafe — okay, I — made a mistake when I gave a specific date for opening. As much as I wanted to make that date, I underestimated the time and effort needed to get a new concept approved by the appropriate regulatory agencies.

I won’t make that mistake again. Instead of giving you a specific date for the opening of The Cat Cafe, I will just say that the new projected opening date is in the fall of 2014. That may mean that The Cat Cafe may not be the first one in the United States, but that’s not what’s important. What is important is making sure it’s done right and we help save adoptable cats.

Thanks for all your support and patience. I can’t wait to welcome you to The Cat Cafe.

Hi, everyone! I wanted to share some news with you. The Cat Cafe had a space identified from the very beginning, but I didn’t want to sign the lease until I was sure that the San Diego County Health Department would sign off on the concept. I had a couple of meetings with them in order to:

• Explain the concept of a cat cafe to them
• Make sure that the separation of the cats from the area where the food and beverages are served meets the requirements of the health code

Not surprisingly, their initial reaction was to say no. But after explaining the concept and stressing that the animals will be completely separated from the area where food and beverages will be served, I got the okay.  It took multiple revisions to the plans. I guess that’s what should be expected when you’re introducing a new concept to regulators and they want to make sure that your idea complies with all the regulations.

But now that this is complete, I’ve gone ahead and signed the lease. I’m confident it will be approved and then I can count down the days until I move in, and start the build out process.

The Cat Cafe doesn’t get this far without your support and help.

That’s why I want to give all of our supporters a big thank you.