It was a busy month for us at The Cat Cafe in April. We sent six cats home, and while we’ll miss all of the cats who went home, we’re glad we were able to do it. We’re happy that Fig, Tallulah, Oscar, Fang, Seiko, and Charlie found good homes.

In addition, our customers contributed $328 to The Rescue House. We are glad that our customers are helping this organization achieve its mission of finding homes for cats.

With lots of cats going home, lots of cats come in to join the clowder at The Cat Cafe. And we’d like you to meet them.

First up is Twyla. She’s a relatively small cat, and she can be shy. In her foster home, she took a while to come out of hiding. Right now, she explores the playpen in The Cat Cafe after hours, so your best chance at seeing her is going to be through our live stream. But when this two year old tuxie gets used to you, she’s very loving.

Arriving at The Cat Cafe on the same day as Twyla and from the same foster home is Levi. This four year old lived a rough life. He needed serious medical attention to recover from his time on the streets of National City. But he recovered, and he loves to show his gratitude towards people as soon as he meets them.

Maggie’s journey was longer, with her coming in from Downey. After giving birth to a litter of kittens, Maggie ended up at a high kill shelter. Fortunately, she and her kittens found help before they got euthanized. Now, Maggie likes to show off her fluffy tail when things are quiet and calm in the playpen.

Poor Sophie has been through a lot lately. This eight year old was loved by her person for many years. But then, her person had to go to an assisted living center, and Sophie couldn’t come along. So she went to a foster home, and then joined us at The Cat Cafe.

Blanco also has endured a lot in his two years. He loved his people, and didn’t understand why they pushed him out of his home. Then, when they moved, they left Blanco to fend for himself. Normally, this is a death sentence for a deaf cat like Blanco. But, The Rescue House took him in and and brought him to The Cat Cafe.

Finally, we come to the last two cats to join our clowder at The Cat Cafe. These two one year olds are a bonded pair, so they have to go home together. Say hello to Fred and George. How can you tell these two orange boys apart? Fred’s a little smaller than his brother George.

Both Fred and George are blind. We don’t know how they lost their eyes, but they don’t let it slow them down. You will often see these two chasing toys all over the playpen.

We love having special needs cats join us at The Cat Cafe. We like the opportunity to show our customers how they’re great companions for the right people.

Come on in and meet the newest members of the clowder and say hello to some of your old favorites. We’d love to see you here at The Cat Cafe.

It was a busy month for adoptions at The Cat Cafe. We sent home seven cats. We will miss having Gemma, Glory, Jasper, Gibby, Sonny, Lady, and Gigi around. But we’re glad that they went to good homes. That’s what we’re looking to help our partners at The Rescue House accomplish — get adoptable cats into good homes.

In addition to sending these cats home, thanks to the generosity of our customers, The Cat Cafe raised $474 for The Rescue House.

We’re really happy to have sent so many cats home in March, and we’re glad our customers are so generous not just to us, but to our rescue partner.

Another thing we’re happy about is that we’ve finally worked out how to get a reliable live stream of our playpen to our customers. As you know, we dropped the live stream that was provided to us by a company hoping to highlight their product. We didn’t like how technical issues made it unreliable. So we set out to do it on our own. And it took quite a bit of work, but we made it happen.

While our live stream is much more reliable, it’s still subject to occasional glitches. We fix those as quickly as we can. And nothing beats an in person visit to The Cat Cafe anyway!

When you visit us in person, you’ll want to say hello to the three latest cats to join the clowder at The Cat Cafe.

Angela is the oldest and biggest cat to join the clowder here at The Cat Cafe. She’s three years old, and she’s going to need some help losing weight. She’s very friendly, and that’s one of the reasons why she’s overweight. Despite living outside, Angela was getting lots of meals. She would go from home to home to get food, so instead of the normal two meals a day, she was getting more like five or six!

Some people ask us how we can tell the difference between our two black cats. We tell them that Fang, who joined the clowder at The Cat Cafe more recently, is smaller and has a white whisker. This house panther is a year old, and he’s very friendly. He spent next to no time getting used to the playpen. And now, he spends a lot of time in laps.

The third cat to join the clowder at The Cat Cafe is Bellamy. She’s also a year old, and yes, she is small. But she makes up for that with her tortitude. You’ll find this inquisitive tortie wandering around the playpen, looking for people to interact with. Get her going with a wand toy, and it’s a lot of fun.

We look forward to introducing you to the three latest members of our clowder here at The Cat Cafe. See you soon!

 

We had a lot of adoptions recently, with five cats going home over three days. We won’t see Jasper, Gibby, Gigi, Lady, or Sonny in the playpen at The Cat Cafe any more. But we’re glad they went to good homes.

The Rescue House did a very good job in making sure that we had cats waiting to bring in to take their spots. It only took two days for them to bring in cats to bring in enough cats to fill out the clowder.

We here at The Cat Cafe have gotten good at placing bonded pairs. So it only makes sense that The Rescue House would bring us another bonded pair. Meet Niebla and Seiko.

Seven year old Niebla loves to find a spot on a cat tree and wait there until she sees someone she wants to interact with. When she does, she’ll talk to you with her unique meow. And if you respond, she may hop into your lap to say hello.

Her nine year old sister Seiko is more reserved. But give her a chance, and she’ll be happy to hop into your lap and purr. Seiko also likes to play hide and seek, popping out to greet you from under a blanket or pillow.

Frankie is five years old, and he was trying to make a life on the streets by the beach. A kind person saw him, and learned he’s a friendly cat. Frankie is very grateful for this, and he loves to show affection to people he meets. And does he ever love being pet!

At three years old, Charlie is the youngest of the cats in this group to join our clowder. He’s an active cat, and very curious. He’s hard to get a picture of, because he won’t stay still and he wants to sniff the camera! Another unique thing about Charlie is his tail. There’s a little kink in the tail about half way down it.

We’re glad we have a full clowder of cats for you to meet at The Cat Cafe. We’d love for you to come on by and see them!

With a number of cats getting adopted recently, we needed to work with our partner The Rescue House to bring new cats in. Let’s introduce you to the four latest cats to join The Cat Cafe.

First up is Oscar. This two year old boy lived in a feral colony in El Centro. He developed an upper respiratory infection, and the person caring for the colony took him in to treat him. Oscar started liking being around people, and his caretakers decided to make him an indoor cat.

You’ll find Oscar even people he doesn’t know with head bonks. He loves to play, which is important because he needs to lose a little weight.

With the number of bonded pairs we’ve had at The Cat Cafe, it only makes sense for us to bring in another one. Lady and Sonny are about two years old, and they’ve been through a lot in their relatively short lives.

Lady lost her litter of kittens, and started caring for another litter who had lost their mother. A kind person noticed this, and they looked for help. Fortunately, The Rescue House was able to step in and help.

You’ll find Lady is a little reserved initially, and she’s cautious around people she doesn’t know well. This isn’t surprising, because she had to take care of her litter as well as her brother. And that meant she had to be cautious. But when she gets to know you, she’s friendly and enjoys interacting with you.

Sonny is a lot more outgoing initially. While his sister initially found a spot to relax in and stayed there, Sonny started investigating the playpen in The Cat Cafe immediately. He enjoys playing with toys, and he’ll let you know that he wants to play.

These two siblings look a lot alike, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. But they make it a little easier to tell them apart than some of the siblings we’ve had in here. Sonny has a little white spot on his chest.

And now we’ll tell you about the fourth new member of The Cat Cafe clowder, Gibby. A kind person who takes care of a feral colony saw her, and noticed that she was very friendly. They decided that she was a stray, not a feral, and decided to try to help her. After The Rescue House learned about this one year old gir, they helped with her care. And then, Gibby made her way to The Cat Cafe.

We hope you’ll come on in and meet the four new members of our clowder or spend time hanging out with some favorites who have been around for a while! Who knows, maybe you’ll fall in love and decide to take one of them home.

In the month of February, The Cat Cafe sent three cats home. We sent home a long term resident, Monty. We definitely miss Monty and his loud yowls that would set off the sound monitor. After a while, we started to call him our Wookie cat because he sounded like Chewbacca from Star Wars. But we’re glad this special cat went home.

In addition to Monty, we sent the bonded pair of Josie and Mozart home. It’s always interesting to see what happens when people visit The Cat Cafe looking to adopt. Initially, this pair’s adopters thought they’d adopt Fig. But it turned out Josie and Mozart were the two cats for them.

We’re also glad that our customers who weren’t able to take a cat home donated $362 to The Rescue House. The money they’ll receive will help pay for food, medical care, and other needs for the cats in their care.

With some cats leaving, we’ve got new cats to introduce you to at The Cat Cafe. Two cats came in, and we’re looking for a third one to join them. For now, we’ll introduce you to Cornflake and Stella.

Cornflake was part of a feral colony living in an industrial area. His caretaker noticed that he was more receptive to human interaction than the other cats. They decided to give Cornflake a chance to live a better life inside. And this eight month old boy took it.

He loves the sound of a food can opening, and will run right to the food dish when he hears that sound. Cornflake does well with other cats and he loves to talk to people he knows and trusts.

The other cat who joined us at The Cat Cafe is Stella. Stella came from a feral colony in Hemet. She was severely malnourished and had mites when she was trapped to be spayed. During the time she spent with people to get healthy enough for that surgery, she started liking and trusting people.

There’s a feisty side to this one year old tortie, but you’d expect nothing less. When she does get to know and like you, she’ll start to talk a lot. And she gets along with other cats very well. The welcoming committee of Jayden and Justine walked right up to her and she didn’t fuss too much.

Come by and meet these two new members of the clowder here at The Cat Cafe. We look forward to welcoming you in soon!

We were excited to move into our third year of operations at The Cat Cafe. Many people said we wouldn’t last a year. We’re glad we proved them wrong. And we are very happy to be the fourth oldest continuously operating cat cafe in the United States.

One of the things that we really enjoy at The Cat Cafe is sending cats home. And with the holidays just concluding in January, and with us having so many paired siblings, it’s not a surprise at all that it’s taking longer to find homes for our cats. That’s fine by us. We’ll make sure they’re happy here at The Cat Cafe until the right person comes along.

In January, we sent one cat home. And Bertie didn’t end up going very far from his foster home. We’re sure you’ve heard the term foster failure before. This means that someone who fostered a cat ended up deciding that their foster home should be their cat’s permanent home.

Bertie wasn’t a foster failure, but they did keep it in the family. Bertie went home with a relative of his foster. So that works out well for the entire family.

In addition to sending Bertie home in January, we raised $347 for The Rescue House. Thanks for your generosity!

And there are two more cats who we’ve taken in here at The Cat Cafe from The Rescue House We’d like to introduce you to Gigi and Tallulah. Because these two cats are getting used to the space, you may not see them much. But every day, they get more and more confident. We’re sure they’ll be joining us in the cat playpen soon.

Before she was rescued, Gigi tried to fend for herself and wasn’t very successful at it. But after her rescue, she received the attention and care she needed. And soon, she blossomed. She’s still a little wary of people she doesn’t know well. This one year old girl does like to head bonk and receive pets from people she knows. She’s mellow and calm, so someone looking for a mellow and relaxed cat will be a good match.

You’re more likely to see Tallulah out and about. She’s also about a year old, and she came to us from the Imperial Valley. Tallulah’s started getting comfortable here, and she likes to explore the cat playpen after hours. If we maintain the calm and relaxed environment we strive for, Tallulah will start hanging out with us during the day.

We’d love to have you come by to welcome the two latest arrivals to The Cat Cafe and to hang out with your old friends! We look forward to seeing you soon.

One of the challenges we face at The Cat Cafe is that we have to serve our drinks in non-recyclable cups. It just doesn’t work for us to serve our drinks in reusable cups. Plus, with a dozen cats roaming around, even if we could serve drinks in ceramic mugs, it wouldn’t be too long before we had none left. After all, cats love to push things off tables!

We do look to reduce our environmental impact in other ways. For example, we make sure that we recycle what we can. And we’re happy to announce that we have signed up with Arcadia Power so that all of our electricity comes from non-polluting sources.

Since we signed up with Arcadia Power in August, we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by four tons. That’s about the same as what driving a gasoline powered car creates over the course of a year.

If you’re interested in reducing your carbon footprint at no charge, you can sign up with Arcadia Power. It’s free to sign up to get half of your power from clean sources. If you want to join us at The Cat Cafe in getting 100 percent of your electricity from clean sources, you’ll pay a small surcharge.

In addition to this news, we wanted to share with you information about our two latest additions to the clowder at The Cat Cafe. Say hello to the bonded pair of of Josie and Mozart. These two eight month old cats took a few days to start to wander into the playpen. But now, they love hanging out with customers during the day.

Mozart is a gray tabby, and he’s the more outgoing and social of the two. When he gets to know you, he loves to do little rolls. Be sure not to pet his belly, because it’s really tempting! But he doesn’t like that.

Josie is a little more shy, but she’s very friendly as well. Once she becomes comfortable with you, she will cock her head and raise her rear way up into the air. And she’s got a cute little meow that she uses to tell you to keep petting her.

We’d love to see you come in to visit Josie and Mozart and hang out with some old friends. And you can feel a little better knowing that the power that makes your drink comes from a non-polluting source here at The Cat Cafe.

December tends to be a busy month for The Cat Cafe. We get a lot of visitors coming for the Holiday Bowl as well as visitors who want to make San Diego a part of their holiday season plans. And of course, San Diego residents make the trip in to relax with furry friends. Purr therapy is a great way to reduce the stress of the holiday season!

Some of our visitors decided to give one of the cats they met the best present they could ask for — a forever home. The Cat Cafe sent five cats home in December. We’ll miss Manuel, Gracie, Roxy, Sadie, and Gidget. But we’re glad they’ve found good homes. And we’re happy all of the follow up calls were positive.

In addition to sending five cats home in December, The Cat Cafe raised $287 for The Rescue House. We’re glad we were able to raise this money to help them continue to add to the more than 13,000 cats they’ve saved since they started operating in 1999.

When cats go home, new cats arrive. And we’re glad to have welcomed in Jayden, Justine, and Bertie. Interestingly enough, all of these cats arrived during our cats on mats sessions.

Jayden and Justine are brother and sister. While they’re not considered a bonded pair, we’d like to send them home together. When Jayden went to the vet for a check up, Justine was looking for her brother all day. And here’s how you know they’re brother and sister. She greeted him when he came back, and when he tried to show affection to her, she gave him a swat.

These two one year old cats were found along with their siblings in a shed by a kind person. One of the vets The Rescue House learned about these cats. Thanks to adopters like the five who took home cats in December, The Rescue House had space to bring them in.

Bertie is also a relatively young cat, at about eight months. He’s an inquisitive and friendly cat. Soon after his arrival at The Cat Cafe, he was sniffing the other cats and rubbing noses with them, so it’s clear he likes other cats. Bertie also likes people, and quickly started asking for pets and chin scratches.

Come on in to meet the three latest arrivals here at The Cat Cafe and say hi to some old friends.

November is an interesting month for businesses in downtown San Diego. A lot of people travel for the Thanksgiving holiday so we lose a lot of local business. But, we also gain a lot of business because of people visiting San Diego from out of town.Because of the generosity of these visitors, The Cat Cafe raised $304 to help The Rescue House continue to find homes for adoptable cats.

In addition, The Cat Cafe sent two cats home in the month of November. Nellie went to a home where the two cats there also came from The Cat Cafe. And Zara took her extra toes with her to a home where she will leave paw prints all over the hearts of her adopters.

We’re glad we were able to send these two cats home and to help our partner continue to help find good homes for cats. These two adoptions took us to 263 adoptions since we opened our doors in January 2015.

As cats leave, we always bring in additional animals so that we can make sure we send as many cats home as possible. We’re glad that we were able to help out with some of the cats that came from a hoarding situation. An individual had close to 100 black cats in their home. When Department of Animal Services arrived to help, they found that many of the cats were blind due to inbreeding.

We’ve got four of those cats, and three of them are blind. But that didn’t stop them from running around the playpen here at The Cat Cafe. These four sisters started exploring their surroundings almost immediately after being released. One of the four cats, Ricochet, sees fine. Her sisters are named Lotus, Nikki, and Vicki. These three can’t see but it doesn’t slow them down.

You’ll have a hard time telling them apart, but what you won’t miss is their fun nature. When you see these cats playing, you’d never believe that they’re blind.

Come on in to see the new arrivals and to enjoy a visit with old friends. We look forward to seeing you at The Cat Cafe soon!

For those of you who have been with us since we started, you may remember a time when The Cat Cafe looked like this.

We have to say, we’re a little embarrassed by this. The person who wrote the place needed a woman’s touch was right. But that’s what happens when you get a contractor, a day laborer, and a person who’s motivated to open together. Everyone wants a functional, and not necessarily attractive, solution.

We’re happy to say that we’ve done a lot to enhance the customer experience at The Cat Cafe. Now, the interior looks like this.

We don’t think there’s anyone who can say the second picture isn’t a lot more pleasing aesthetically. We’re glad to have made these enhancements to the customer experience.

Why are we telling you this? Because the rising cost of doing business is forcing us to make some changes. We’ve been proud of having customers to purchase an item as their admission to get in to interact with the cats.

Unfortunately, with the costs of doing business rising, this system just does not generate the revenue needed to continue operations. And that is why we are shifting to an entry fee system.

We’ve looked into the admission policies of cat cafes throughout the country. We’ve found that admissions go as high as $25 for cat cafes in Los Angeles and San Francisco. A newly opened cat cafe in Boston is charging $15 for an hour of time with their cats. And their cats are not adoptable nor do they serve any food or drink.

We also surveyed customers of The Cat Cafe to get your thoughts. We appreciated your feedback and it was critical in our decision making.

Effective December 1, The Cat Cafe will switch to an admission fee system. We will charge $6 per person to enter the cat playpen. This fee will include a food or drink item. We feel this will help us generate the revenue needed to continue sending cats to good homes while maintaining a reasonable price for visitors.

To make things more economical for our frequent visitors, we will be selling memberships for unlimited admissions and a food or drink item. Memberships will cost $25 for a monthly pass and $200 for an annual pass.

Those of us at The Cat Cafe understand this is a big change. It’s not something we take lightly. We hope our customers understand we need to do this in order to continue operating.

You are welcome to contact us with your views on this change. We appreciate your continued support.