We’ve had a busy July at The Cat Cafe. We had the All Star Game red carpet parade pass right by us. The summer was also in full swing and that meant lots of visitors. And then of course there was the biggest event in San Diego, Comic-Con.

All of this activity meant that we didn’t adopt out as many cats as we typically do. During July, we sent three cats to their forever homes. We’ve had some days where we’ve adopted more cats out here at The Cat Cafe.

We don’t mind, though, because the goal is to make sure we highlight the cats here to as many people as possible. And we’ve got some challenging cats to place. Many people aren’t interested in adopting either of the senior bonded pairs we have. And we have a few cats who are particular about who they like and aren’t afraid to show it.

We’re happy that we added another member to the clowder at The Cat Cafe. Gabriel is going to fit right in with the current residents here and has already started to make himself at home.

In addition to being the newest member of the clowder, Gabriel is the youngest. He’s a year old. Gabriel had been adopted previously from San Diego Humane Society. However, because of an allergy a child developed, he was returned.

This active, 15 pound boy likes to interact with people, including respectful children, other cats, and cat friendly dogs. He’s already started running around the playpen. You can also see Gabriel chasing string toys and walking right up to people to introduce himself to them.

We don’t think a cat like this is likely to remain here for long. If you’re interested in meeting him, visit us soon. Gabriel and the other members of the clowder at The Cat Cafe will be glad you did.

For the duration of Comic-Con, we do things differently at The Cat Cafe. We allow access in 30 minute increments at specific times. We use a reservations system for time with the cats. And we also don’t do adoptions during the show.

As Karla Peterson of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote in her column about our first year, “even Iron Man wouldn’t walk through Comic-Con with a cat carrier.” That meant anyone who wanted to do an adoption needed to wait until after the show.

Berlioz’s potential adopter understood why this was necessary. Looking outside The Cat Cafe and seeing the crowds made it clear. So did the crowd that was in the playpen, even with a reservations system in place. Both the adopter and us wanted to complete the adoption, but we knew it would have to wait. Berlioz’s potential adopter was also working during the event. This meant that even if they could get the hotel to agree to allowing him to stay, getting supplies would be difficult.

That’s why we agreed to do the adoption on Sunday after Comic-Con ended. Berlioz could then go home with far less foot traffic outside The Cat Cafe to contend with. Doing this prevented Berlioz’s adopter from having to worry about supplies and lodging as well.

On Sunday after the show concluded, Berlioz’s adopter arrived right on time. They were so excited to adopt him that they didn’t mind arriving as we were cleaning around The Cat Cafe. We finished the paperwork quickly, and then we prepared Berlioz for the trip to his new home in the Los Angeles area.

Berlioz didn’t mind getting into the carrier, and he didn’t make a peep as his adopter took him to their car. And he’s settled in just fine.

We’re so happy we were able to complete this Comic-Con adoption! All of our adoptions are fun, but this one is extra special.

It’s always fun for us to have new cats arrive at The Cat Cafe. That’s for two reasons. First, it means that one of our adoptable cats went home. And, it’s always fun to have a new cat here to interact with.

It’s especially fun when we send a cat home who’s a character like Anastasia, and when the cat that comes in to take their place in the clowder at The Cat Cafe is a fun one. You can definitely say that Kate is a fun cat.

Kate arrived at San Diego Humane Society as an underweight a pregnant cat. The veterinarians there treated her and helped her gain weight during her pregnancy. Once she gave birth to her kittens, she proved herself to be a great mother. But now, it’s time for Kate to find a home of her own, and that’s why she came to The Cat Cafe.

Kate is very friendly and outgoing, and enjoys interacting with both people and other cats. She’s had to be told by some of the cats who were here before her at The Cat Cafe to take it a little slower. But besides that issue, she’s integrating into the clowder here just fine.

We’re sure she’ll do well in a home as an only cat, or as part of a mini-clowder.

Kate may be gone by the time Comic-Con rolls around in about a week. We wanted to remind you that during Comic-Con, we do things differently. We can’t allow people to make a purchase and head in to interact with the cats. Instead, we require reservations.

As you can imagine, with 130,000 additional visitors in downtown San Diego, we need to institute special procedures to handle it. We hope our regulars understand we’re changing policies during Comic-Con to avoid chaos.

Book your spot today to visit The Cat Cafe during Comic-Con. We will likely sell out during some popular times, so avoid disappointment and book now.

Thanks as always for your support of The Cat Cafe and we look forward to seeing you soon!

A couple of new cats have joined the clowder here at The Cat Cafe. With these two additions, we now have 13 cats, which is more than we typically have. But we’re sure that some of the kitties here will be the next adoption, so we’re not too worried about it.

Anastasia is the first new arrival to the clowder that we’ll introduce you to. We typically don’t get exotic breeds in. But Anastasia is a Himalayan mix. She’s very friendly with people, and she’s very vocal. Anastasia isn’t too sure about other cats, though. She tends to hiss and growl if she’s approached by another cat, so she would probably be best as an only cat.

If you’re looking for a cat who loves to be pet and who likes attention from her people, she’s your girl. This seven year old loves to talk, so you’ll never have to wonder where she is.

The other cat who joined the clowder at The Cat Cafe is Louise. She’s a six year old calico with a very sad story. Sadly, Louise’s person lost her housing and had to give her up. Her person did the right thing and gave Louise up, but both human and feline were sad about this.

Louise is a big girl, weighing 20 pounds. This six year old girl needs to go to a home where she’ll get the help she needs in losing weight. Obese cats are subject to the same diseases as obese people and we don’t want her to suffer from that.

We’d love for you to come meet these two new arrivals at The Cat Cafe and say hello to some of the cats who have been here for a while. There may be a longer than normal wait because of the All Star Game festivities this weekend. We appreciate your patience and will work to get you interacting with the cats as quickly as we can.

As you know, Comic-Con is just around the corner. Comic-Con will take place July 21-24. We here at The Cat Cafe are very excited to welcome all of the visitors who will descend on downtown San Diego.

Those of you who have visited before know that we typically allow people to enter the cat playpen after purchasing a drink. We have a limited number of reservations available during our peak times. But, our goal here at The Cat Cafe is to make sure we allow people to come to visit us on a spur of the moment basis.

During Comic-Con, however, that system becomes unworkable. If we were to do this, we would have extensive waits for just a few minutes with the cats. That’s not the experience we want to provide to our customers, both regular and visitors, so we’ve put a system in place to handle things more smoothly.

Many of you took advantage of our Comic-Con special last year, and we’re bringing it back to The Cat Cafe again. We made one change to the special based on customer feedback but it’s pretty much the same.

For $15, you will get half an hour of time with our friendly cats. This is down $5 from last year. You will also receive a food or drink item. And you can make additional purchases of our souvenirs if you choose to do so. This is something we changed, because many of our visitors left without a souvenir since they already had so many!

We will limit the amount of people who will be in the cat playpen to 15. We’re doing this to make sure the cats don’t get overwhelmed by the number of people they see. We’re also going to give them a 15 minute break after every 30 minute session. This way, they’ll be much more interactive than if we had people constantly coming through the playpen.

Ensure that you can escape the crowds of Comic-Con by booking your spot today. If you show up and there are spots available, we’ll sell them to you. However, last year, many of our sessions sold out. Avoid disappointment and make sure you book your session today!

We’ve had a lot of feedback from customers since we opened our doors in January 2015. One of the most common comments was that our decor could use an upgrade because it was boring. This shouldn’t be a surprise. A practically minded general manager and contractors can be expected to make this decision. It was more practical to leave the existing wall the same color and paint the others to match.

We here at The Cat Cafe listened to comments from customers about the decor and kept track of them. We didn’t really get a chance to implement the changes customers suggested as quickly as we would have liked. But we definitely knew we needed to improve the decor a little. That task was less of a focus than making sure we got the operations of The Cat Cafe up to speed.

Starting in February 2016, we started to improve the decor. Gone were the practical yet boring shelves that we had in place when we opened. We replaced those with a cat wall created by Urban Feline. We’re happy to say that added a lot of color to the room, and the cats love playing on the wall now.

After that, we worked with Elise McKenna to change the look of the opposite wall. It wouldn’t do any good to have one wall looking colorful and festive while the other wall was plain. And now, we’ve got two colorful and festive walls. Elise has done a great job of painting a cat themed wall for us.

Finally, while most of the customers here at The Cat Cafe really don’t care too much about the bathroom, we figured we could make it a little more interesting. While you’re going to be spending most of your time in the playpen, that doesn’t mean the bathroom has to be boring. And that is why we had an intern from High Tech High help us with the wall there.

Please come by and visit us to see these changes. Hopefully you enjoy them as much as we here at The Cat Cafe enjoyed bringing them to you!

Last week, we said good bye to long term resident Olivia as she went to her forever home. She definitely enjoyed her time here at The Cat Cafe and hopefully, she’ll have as much fun hopping to the top of cabinets and other high places as she did here with the Eiffel Tower replica.

Twin was not here as long, but we also said good bye to her as she went to her forever home. She was adopted by someone who was missing their cat, who they recently lost, and who was so taken by how Twin looked and acted like the cat they lost that they had to adopt her right away.

When we bid cats farewell like we did Olivia and Twin, we bring new cats in. And that is what we did with two really cool boys, Jackson and Gray Baby.

Jackson is a young guy, at a year and three months. He was found by a kind person who brought him in so that he could be cared for. Initially, Jackson was very shy and didn’t like being around people. But after lots of love and of course, being fed, he learned to trust people. Jackson now likes interacting with people, which is why you will find him actively soliciting attention from people in The Cat Cafe. He’s a great example of how a little love and patience can go a long way.

Gray Baby is a little older, at two years. He’s definitely not a shy one. He arrived at The Cat Cafe after being transferred in to San Diego Humane Society and then being at another facility. He didn’t like the cages there, so they decided that he might do better in the cage free environment we have here at The Cat Cafe. Gray Baby can be a little feisty, so it’s best to use a little caution when interacting with him. Wand toys are best if you want to be safe.

It’s always fun for us here at The Cat Cafe to both send cats to good home and to welcome new arrivals. Come on in and see these guys and the rest of our clowder.

We had a lot of adoptions last week. First Nixon and Onyx went home. Then it was time for Doobie to make that trip. And on one day, we had two adoptions, with Moxie and Tiny heading home from The Cat Cafe.

We of course are sad to see these guys go, but it means we had the chance to welcome a bunch of new cats. Four cats have joined The Cat Cafe clowder and we’ll introduce you to them.

We’ve done well with sending bonded pairs home at The Cat Cafe and that’s why we’re glad we got another one in. Say hello to Tiger and Smokey.

Tiger is eight years old, and he’s a big boy, weighing in at 14 pounds. That’s a little heavier than we like, so whoever takes him home is going to have to work on helping him drop a little weight. He’s a friendly and curious cat and it took almost no time before he started roaming through the playpen.

Smokey is a year younger and a little smaller than his brother. He also is carrying a little more weight than he should at 12 pounds. He’s very friendly, but he’s a little more shy. You may see only glimpses of him, but we’re hopeful that having his brother around will help bring him out of his shell.

Boogie came to us because her person got sick and could no longer care for her properly. She’s an 11 year old, 13 pound girl who is very playful and inquisitive. When you see this girl running around the playpen, you’ll quickly learn that despite being older, she’s got plenty of energy.

And then there is Twin. When she arrived, she immediately became the youngest cat here, at a little over a year. Sadly, Twin arrived at The Cat Cafe because the roommates of her person decided that they no longer wanted at cat. While we’re sad about that, we’re very happy to have her here because she’s a fun and lovable cat who enjoys attention.

In addition to these new arrivals, we’ve got six other cats who complete The Cat Cafe clowder. Come on in and say hello to them!

Recently at The Cat Cafe, we’ve sent a few members of our clowder to their new homes. We’ll miss having Princess Caroline, Nicholas, and Sebastian around, but we are glad that they found their forever homes!

After we sent these three cats home, San Diego Humane Society brought three new cats to us. They’re all boys, and we think you’ll enjoy seeing them around The Cat Cafe.

Since we sent one bonded pair home, it only makes sense that we would get another bonded pair in. Meet Nixon and Onyx.

Nixon is the bigger of the two, weighing nearly 16 pounds. He’s a three year old orange tabby, and he’s the more inquisitive and curious one of the two. You’ll see Nixon walking around the playpen, introducing himself to people, and hopping into their laps. He’s still getting used to the space, so after a while, he likes to go into the retreat, but it’s only for a little while.

Onyx is the smaller and more shy of the two cats. He likes to find a spot to hide, and he’ll stay there for most of the day. Generally that spot is out in the playpen, but sometimes he’ll find one in the retreat and spend his time there. This 14 pound boy likes attention, but be sure to be gentle and slow with him until he’s ready for it.

Tiny is the last of the three cats who joined the clowder at The Cat Cafe recently. Don’t let his name fool you. He’s a big boy, weighing 16 pounds. We think the reason why Tiny got his name is because of his tiny little meow. It’s the kind of meow you’d expect from a cat half his size!

Come on by to meet the latest arrivals at The Cat Cafe and to spend some time with some of our longer term residents!

Our partners at San Diego Humane Society have been working very hard to make sure that we have a good number of cats in. As we adopt cats out, they bring new ones in. And this week, they brought a couple of interesting cats in.

We really don’t get exotic cats in too often, and we know that you’ve seen how quickly the bengal mixes and one purebred bengal we’ve had in get adopted. They don’t spend much time with us, because people want to adopt them so quickly.

Moxie, however, is going to stay with us for a little longer. Unlike the other bengals, it takes some time before she becomes comfortable with new environments. She’s also been through a lot, having lost her brother, then her home, and then being unable to go to a person who wanted to take her but couldn’t because of living restrictions.

Moxie has been with us a couple of days, and she hasn’t come out into the playpen yet. That’s very different from the bengals we’ve had before, who were in the playpen within hours.

Those who are interested in potentially adopting Moxie are going to have to be patient. We will let her come out into the playpen to interact with customers at her own pace. Until that happens, she can’t be adopted.

While Sammy is not a bengal, he’s a really cool cat. He’s friendly, and enjoyed getting chin scratches within just a few minutes of arriving at The Cat Cafe. He’s also a senior cat, but don’t let that stop you from taking a look at this handsome grey boy.

We think Sammy may make it out into the playpen for you to interact with before Moxie does. One of the things that is important to remember about bengal cats like Moxie is that they can be stubborn.

Come on by, and enjoy spending time with Sammy, Moxie and the rest of the clowder at The Cat Cafe!