The History of Cat Cafes

The Cat Cafe in Lviv stands strong and still is open during these difficult times everyday from 9:00 to 21:00!

To all the Cat Lovers out there, you can support them from all over the world.

You can find their Facebook Post on how to support the Cafe

here

Find the Cat Cafe Lviv in our Directory

What is a cat café?

A cat café, also called Kitty Cafe, is a classic café with the difference that cats stay in the guest room. The cats can move freely, and they have sleeping places, toys and retreats. People can come there to enjoy a nice time with the cats, have coffee, snacks and cakes, and in some cases adopt kittens.

There are some rules for operators to follow. These vary from country to country, and if you plan to open your own cat cafe, you must meet certain requirements. For this we will create a separate blog category.

Cats are not allowed in the kitchen and it needs to be ensured that they are healthy and vaccinated. In cat cafes there are menus with some small mostly vegetarian or vegan dishes, snacks, coffee and cakes. People who can’t keep a cat here have the opportunity to be in the company of cats, play with them or pet them – if they are up for it.
The lifestyle of cats is very variable, sometimes they sleep all day, and then you should let them sleep 🙂

What does a typical visit to the Cat Cafe look like?

As an example, visitors enter the cat cafe via a bell and a small extra hall. They have to wait behind an intermediate door before someone opens it from the inside so that no cat escapes into the street. The atmosphere there is wonderfully quiet and relaxed. All the people look remarkably happy and easily strike up a conversation with each other. They take photos of the cats, which is allowed without a flash, encourage them to play, rub their bellies or just watch them relaxing while enjoying delicious food and coffee.

Since when do Cat Cafes exist?

The idea originated in Taiwan, where the world’s very first cat café opened in 1998. Japan followed suit in 2004 with the opening of cat cafés in Osaka and Tokyo.

The idea behind it: Since many Japanese live in a very small space and are very busy at work, keeping pets is rather difficult. So the cat café quickly became a popular meeting place for many Japanese. A few years later, this trend also came to Germany. In 2013, the cat temple opened in Munich, the first cat café in Germany. This quickly developed into a franchise system. Four years later, the Katzentempel in Hamburg was added. Since the Katzentempel serves not only coffee and cake, but also breakfast and main courses, I would describe it more as a cat restaurant than a cat café.

In the cat temple, the cats come first, and you can see that at the latest when you enter the restaurant. It’s a paradise for cats, with lots of catwalks, several scratching posts, lots of places to retreat, toys and places to sleep.

Your cat dream comes true.

Just imagine – You are sitting in a café and while sipping your latte macchiato, you look around , suddenly someone lovingly brushes your legs, you look down and see a purring ball of fur waiting to be stroked by you. After all, you’re not sitting in just any café, but in a cat café. The trend, which originated in Japan, has now spread to almost the whole world. I went on a search and found cat cafés all over the world. Meow!

But if you think that in a cat café you can order a piece of cake and a cat to cuddle at your table, you’re wrong. You shouldn’t be disappointed if a cat doesn’t jump onto your lap as soon as you sit down. Since the cat café is the cats’ home, they move around freely and go about their daily activities. However, the chances of cuddling or playing with one or the other cat are quite high. And also absolutely desirable.

Advantages of a Cat Café.

A cat café offers old and young the opportunity to meet the animals in their familiar surroundings. This is because the cats live permanently in the cat café. Most of them have been taken from the animal shelter or even rescued from the street. Of course, the cats are medically examined beforehand. A cat café is thus not just a pastime for people, but offers homeless animals a new home.

In many big cities housings, keeping pets is not allowed. Or working people do not have the time to take care of their own animal. Cat cafés offer the opportunity to watch these animals and relax with a cosy cup of coffee from the industrial coffee machine. But children can also watch the cats, stroke them and play with them – if the cats want to. For children without pets, this is a great change.

How many Cat Cafes are there?

Alone in the United States are over 200 Cat Cafes, and many of them you can find in our Cat-Cafe Directory here on Cat-Cafes.com

With Tokyo alone holding 65 Cat Cafes, Japan is for sure one of the most cat loving countries.

The Cafes become more popular all over the world and their number grows insanely fast.

How to find a cat cafe near me?

You can find a cat cafe near you by using the Cat-Cafes.com Cat Cafe finder.