Cat Café

A large number of people would have first been introduced to the unusual concept of a cat café from having watched Karl Pilkington visiting one in Tokyo. I thought it was utterly bizarre that people would pay to go to a café, buy a drink and then play with some cats. On our first trip to Japan we came across a cat café and could not believe how expensive it was. 

We currently live in Suzhou and stragely enough a cat café has opened down Pingjiang Lu. Why they decided to open a cat café I have no clue. I think it is great for the cat population of Suzhou. My husband and I were out for the day visiting the Suzhou Museum, needed a drink on our way back to the metro and found ourselves in the cat café. Inevitable really.

The cat café is a little tucked away and has a wide variety of cat themed products that you can buy. You can pay a fee to enter or you can buy a drink. Some of the drinks are cheaper than the entrance fee. Someone clearly went to business school. We decided it would be a bit of fun and something different. There were a lot of cats. There was a problem though. On the tables there were diagrams demonstrating how to pick up a cat without upsetting them. It's not a problem if the cats are awake or used to being handled.

The 3 cats that were awake had a couple of tactics for avoiding people. One sneaky cat would check if the coast was clear, assess the quickest route to the next scratching post and dodge the hands that wished to pet it even if it meant diving under tables, over cushions and around chairs. Another cat climbed to the heighest perch of a post and feigned sleep. The third cat would sit near you, with its back to you and after a few gentle strokes would try to bite or swipe you and then disappear to another part of the room. We named this delightful feline Grumpy Cat. You can see Grumpy Cat in the photo keeping a good 50cm distance, being grumpg and not making eye contact.

Adam picked up a couple of cats. So far so good. He sat down and placed the cat on his lap. One second later and the cat was gone. Three failed attempts and he gave up trying. Nearly every cat pretended to be asleep and avoided human contact. How long the business will last, I really don't know.