New Zealand’s First Cat Cafe

“There’s nothing quite like sitting down to a cup of tea with a cat on your lap. These days, with the advent of cat cafes, you don’t even need your own cat to experience it”, writes Louisa Studman for the Korea Herald.

With the help of a Kickstarter campaign, New Zealanders Mike Jones and Vicky Chapman are set to open The Cat Lounge – New Zealand’s first cat cafe on Auckland’s North Shore.

“I first heard of the cat cafe concept about four or five years ago when a friend traveled to Japan. At the time, there was nothing like that available in the Western world,” said Jones.

Taiwan was the first country to open a cat cafe in 1998. However, the trend really blossomed in Japan and Korea.

Jones noted that the second most common language spoken among their cafe’s Facebook fans after English is Korean.

Living in the city can make it difficult to own your own cat. In these conditions, cat cafes provide an environment where people can relax and play with a pet, without having to worry about taking care of it full time.

“Not everyone can afford to take care of an animal for the length of their life and as society becomes more developed and responsible towards pets, people realize this and don’t rush into getting a pet as much as they used to”, said Jones.

“The cat cafe fills a void in cities where people don’t get to enjoy much nature, animals (or) peace.”

Most cats in cat cafes are rescued from animal shelters and the cats welfare is most important to the owners of the cafes.

Last year the first cat café in Oceania opened in Melbourne and it was only last month that Dubai got its first feline cafe.

Article Source: The Korea Herald, Louisa Studman, July 28, 2015

Image Source: Flickr – Iris