Feline fanatics!
Earlier this year, 604 Now reported that Vancouver may be getting its very own Cat Café in the near future. The founder of Catfé, Michelle Furbacher is getting the ball rolling by launching a crowd-funding campaign to support the business.
Furbacher has always had a love of cats and got the idea for opening a feline-inspired café after seeing a video of one located in Japan.
The crowd-funding campaign was launched on April 13th and will be open until June 6th. In that time, Furbacher hopes to raise $50,000 to go towards opening the very first cat café in Vancouver. She describes it as: “one part café, one part foster home for cats, and all parts community gathering space for cat lovers.”
Furbacher is partnering up with the Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association (VOKRA) to give adoptable cats the opportunity to interact with people at the Catfé and maybe find their fur-ever homes. The main goal of the business is to act as a foster home for orphaned cats and give them exposure to the public who may decide to adopt them. It also gives cat-lovers who aren’t able to have pets, the opportunity to spend some quality time with the kitties.
Besides cat companionship, the café will offer visitors drinks and snacks, WIFI access, a library of books, board games and a lounge area. There will be two separate buildings with entrances to the Catfé, one where the food and beverages will be served and the other with the cat area—in order to comply with Vancouver Coastal Health’s food safety regulations.
The crowd-funding page for Catfé states: “Upon entering the cat area, there will be a sanitation station where all patrons must wash and disinfect their hands before coming into contact with kitties. As well, all cats will be screened for illness before coming to live at the cafe, to ensure the health and safety of the animals. The litter box room will be separate from the visitors and will have a heavy-duty ventilation system installed. Litter boxes, floors and all surfaces will have a strict cleaning regimen. We have been consulting with other animal shelters to determine best practices for litter box ventilation, waste disposal, and cleaning methods.”
Cat cafés are a big hit in Japan and are slowly making their way to North America, with plans underway to open similar cafés in Montreal, Oakland and San Francisco.
If you’d like to see one in Vancouver, check out the crowd-funding page for Catfé.
Written by: Meagan Gill
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Michelle Furbacher