Experience | NYC Purina One Cat Cafe

The baby kitty I really loved~

From my previous post, you may already tell I love cats! So when my friends started posting news about Cat Cafe coming to NYC, I immediately asked around seeing if anyone would go with me to check it out. Hearing from people that went already that the wait is about 2 hours, many declined or they really did have work. 

Going solo didn't faze me, so I arrived at 10 AM (I planned to come at 9:30 latest but I was having too much fun editing a lookbook video for YouTube), and the line already looped around twice. The first hour went by quickly and I was halfway there. However, after that I was stuck there for an hour and a half with little progress. I also realized, that on the other side of the door was ANOTHER line. That's how popular this pop up cafe was. The employee even mention how the weekend would be even more hectic. 

He slept at the top so no one can get to him :P

Hello~

He has such cute round eyes, like a cartoon~

Finally after a total of 3 hour wait, I made it in! To get into the actual cat cafe, I went through another set of door that separates the food area from the play area. Once inside, cats were dashing around with humans right at their heels, trying to play with them or pet them. There were also lots of cat toys placed around to let people entertain the cats. While some played, some slept under coffee tables or on top of their play tower.

Don't touch my eyebrows!

What's great is, the North Shore Animal League rescue workers are standing around, giving us tips, advice and facts about the cats. They told me the cats names, their personalities, age, if they have been adopted yet or not. They also educated me on some cat health facts and such. That's what made this experience so unique, it's not just for us to come relax and play with the cats, we actually learn about them in case we decide to adopt one. It also shows how healthy cats are like - playful, energetic, beautiful and soft fur and bright eyes which I noticed all the cats to have.

They explained that there were sixteen cats, but they rotate it so it's a few cats out at a time to allow the cats to rest. Which explains why people had appointment time to come in, it's when the cat they were interested in would be out. The cats they chose for this pop up shop were selected based on how social and people friendly they were. All the cats loved to be petted, scratched and LOVED the camera! It was really cute how they would run their faces towards are camera.

It's only been the second day, and they told me so many of the cats were adopted they had to bring out more cat photos on the table of new cats available for adoption. I'm really glad that many of the cats will get to go to a new loving home after this four day event. Unfortunately for me, the one I really loved was adopted right there, but I'm glad for her. She was a 6 month old beauty!

To give everyone a chance to get in, they ask us to limit ourselves to one hour each, but no one was really living. I thought that as a bit unfair, but when I was in there I really understand why. It was cat heaven, where you can play with so many cats with different personalities and was just so relaxing. However, it was times up for me when my memory card was maxed out with videos and photos of the cats.

Before leaving, I wanted to try out their cat'acchino or latte as I heard they would draw cat faces on it. However, the machine was down so I just tried out their drip coffee and got a banana walnut muffin. The cafe area is nice and cozy with wooden chairs and tables, and chalkboard wall where they wrote the menu with cat drawing running along the border.

Thee dining area is separate from the play area, not only for sanitary and human health reason, but for the cats' wellbeing as well. If the coffee trips, and the cat starts licking it, it can be poisonous and fatal. So I'm glad that did that, for both species sake. I think it would also burn the cat if someone knocks it over by accident!

Overall, it's a really relaxing and enjoyable event, if you can stand the 2-3 hour wait. I would say it's more worth it for those that really wants to adopt one of the cats since you can play with them for an hour to see if it's personality suits you. Or if you want to learn about cats from the rescue workers. They also had different demos, lectures and events each day to further your knowledge on cats. It also made me realize I really want to do pet photography! :) So if anyone has any pets I may photograph, please let me know!!!

I really hope they will one day make it a permanent cafe. Doing it as food is hard with the health department, so instead they should make it a pet food shop or maybe a bookstore (but choose cats that don't scratch to be played with or they'll never have any books for sale :P)