The purrrrfect blend

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/08/2016 (3529 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What would you like with your coffee?

Cream? Sugar?

Kittens?

Starting today, that will be an option in Winnipeg when Jennifer Laferriere opens the city’s first “cat café” in West Kildonan.

It will be a soft opening, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m., as there is currently no sign on the Kingsbury Avenue strip-mall space, which is also occupied by Laferriere’s dance school.

But there are 11 cats, including six three-month-old brothers, who on Friday were batting around stuffed toy mice and wrestling with their siblings.

“It won’t be 100 per cent what we want,” Laferriere said. “It will be basically cats and coffee for now. But the cats are the main attraction. They’re doing great. Everybody is getting along. There’s some hissing once in a while, but it’s been a really good adjustment.

“And they’ll just jump on you and snuggle. They’re very cuddly.”

Laferriere isn’t certain how Winnipeggers will respond. She has spent the last two months preparing to open the doors operating on the theory that, if you build it, they will come.

“Cat lovers just want to go,” she said. “They’d want to be part of it. There will be stuff for them (the cats) all over where they can play and eat. And people can come in and sit around, just to relax and enjoy the cats.”

Laferriere is going to call the café Fur Babies, and the plan is to charge customers $10 an hour to enjoy the company of cats through a partnership with Ksen’s Kittens rescue, a small foster-based adoption centre.

The café will eventually offer hot and cold beverages, and desserts will be available in a separate area. However, Laferriere stresses the main goal is to provide cat companionship with the hope of facilitating adoptions.

“You can’t have, like, a Tim Hortons with cats hanging around,” she said. “It’s limited.”

The lounge area is furnished with couches and chairs for humans and toys and beds for the four-legged furballs. At any given time, the café will have a dozen cats on site, plus a designated “kitten room.” If a customer takes to one of the felines, they can fill out a form to begin the adoption process.

Laferriere’s café comes at a time when the population of cat-themed cafés is growing like, well, cats. First established in Taiwan at the turn of the last century, the concept quickly took hold in Japan, where there are around 150 cat cafés and counting.

Now there’s Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium in London, Café Katzentempel in Munich, Le Café des Chats in Paris and La Gatoteca in Spain. In fact, the website Coffee With Cats — “Find a Cat at Your Destination” — lists 255 across 37 countries and 143 cities.

In the last two years, the trend spread to North America, where the Cat Town Cafe opened in Oakland in 2014. Canada now has cat cafés in Vancouver, Toronto and Quebec, which has four.

(Unlike other provinces, Quebec allows cats in the same space where food is served).

Laferriere believes Winnipeg is a strong cat-lovers’ market. When she first announced plans of the cat café on her Facebook page — she has more than 14,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts photos of her four cats — the response was overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s been crazy,” she said.

Michelle Ashcroft, a partner in Ksen’s Kittens along with Ksenia Klazura, sees Laferriere’s project as an ideal way to provide a service for both customers and homeless cats.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” Ashcroft said. “It’s a great environment for the cats. We specialize in cats that are pregnant or have just had kittens. They can be shy. But being around people brings out their personalities more. Quite often the shy ones are overlooked. It could give a lot of these guys a good chance to come out of their shells.”

The reasons for the emergence of cat cafés, Ashcroft believes, is the result of simple supply and demand. In most large cities, apartment dwellers aren’t allowed to keep pets. Many don’t have the time or space to care for them full time.

But the demand for a furry creature to ball up in your lap and purr is a constant human trait, she said.

“The therapeutic value that you can get from spending time with pets can’t be undervalued,” Ashcroft noted. “I think a lot of people are becoming more aware of what a pet can do emotionally. There’s something about an animal that doesn’t judge you and gives you love. And if you can’t have it in your home, (a café) is a good opportunity to spend some time with them.”

Added Laferriere: “People are opening them, and people are loving them. That’s why they’re catching on.”

But will the concept cat(ch) on in Winnipeg, though?

“I don’t know,” Ashcroft said. “Time will tell. But Winnipeg has a reputation of being a test market, right? But I do see huge potential there.”

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca