We recently adopted an 8 month old kitten from a cat cafe and she is really sweet. She was only there for 1 month but I wonder if that environment was at all questionable for her. Thoughts?
Hi Patty,
Questionable in what way? I'm not clear from your question if your concerns are about physical health or mental/emotional health. Physical health wise a cat cafe has to follow very strict regulations to follow health codes. You naturally can't have unvaccinated cats with fecal parasites wandering around where people are eating and drinking. And even from a business marketing perspective, as a cat cafe owner, you would want all of your cats looking as healthy as possible, because you're not going to be able to easily hide a cat that's not feeling well. From a mental and emotional perspective, I would think that a cat cafe would be a very positive and stimulating environment for many cats. It's obviously not going to be the ideal environment for every cat, especially not for those poorly adapted to stress or change, but for those who are well adapted and enjoy social environments, it's likely very positive. There are no cat cafes near me, but friends who have been to one say that they are very relaxing environments for humans. If relaxed cats are feeding off of relaxed humans and vice versa, it's mutually beneficial. Having spent time over the course of my life in pet stores, county and private shelters, and of course veterinary clinics, a cat cafe would remind me most of a private shelter, which is able to select their intakes and take good care of them. Of course, you could have a very poorly run cat cafe with health code violations, don't care well for their cats, etc. But then they won't be in business for long because these places have a great deal of public visibility and exposure.
@chris-vanderhoof Thank you for your detailed response. Yes, I had both physical and emotional concerns but she was only there for one month so I am hoping the distress was minimal.