House Cat Cafes

I read about this new craze in jezebel.com an online periodical for hip young women.  The writer gushed on and on about being away from home and missing her beloved kitties so much that she traipsed across half of Paris (I think it was Paris) to find a cat café.

Which is what?  An opportunity to take tea and scones or pastries in a room full of cats.  You will pay a fee for both. 

The cafes had to be designed differently from a "regular" café in that an airlock is needed to keep them inside; fur repellent fabrics are required and there must be ample platforms and ladders for Miss Kitty's enjoyment. 

It is believed this unusual sort of tea shop came out of Osaka, Japan, where very few people are allowed to have a pet in their apartment.  Instead they schedule and book kitty time.  This seems tragically sad to me ... to have to book time with an animal because it can't live with you.

But in other locations, the cat population changes because visitors fall in love and adopt a particular cat.  Much more practical and humane way to do things. 

Even if a cat café did open in our neighborhood, I wouldn't bother to go because we have two cats - no point in going out looking for trouble which is what it would be if Richie ever spotted a cat café.  It's embarrassing to have to drag a grown man away by an ear.  But the cats would laugh...