Within the first year of the cafe’s opening, 1,346 cats had been adopted.
Melody is sitting on a small couch. The 6-year-old’s face is a picture of bliss as she strokes a black-and-white kitten snuggled up to her leg. A white kitten is curled up next to her back. More than a dozen kittens are dashing back and forth in front of her. A few adults are sitting on the floor—either alone or with their children—playing with the tumbling, running, furry felines.
This is just another day at Purrfect Day Cat Cafe, a new business concept that is popping up across the country, where people can come in, play with kittens, adopt them, grab a beer, or just sit and enjoy a cup of coffee while watching the kitties romp in a glass-enclosed room.
Louisville entrepreneur Chuck Patton opened the city’s first cat cafe in August 2018 on Bardstown Road in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood. Since then, thousands have walked through its doors, many leaving with a new, four-legged friend.
The initial goal was to complete 300 adoptions in the cafe’s first year. From Aug. 8, 2018, to Aug. 8, 2019, 1,346 cats and kittens were relocated to new homes. By October 2019, nearly 2,000 cats had been adopted.
“It’s a testament—not only to our city, but to our state and the support we’ve been getting,” Patton said. “We get people from all across the state that just come here to visit. We’re changing the premise that cats can’t get adopted.”
All adoptions are processed by the Kentucky Humane Society, the cafe’s sole provider of adoptable felines.
“It’s been an amazing partnership, and we had no idea it would be this successful,” said Andrea Blair, the public relations and marketing director for KHS. “What’s interesting is that we are a medium-sized city. When you look at our market, we are not Chicago or New York or Los Angeles. It’s absolutely incredible how successful this has been and how much our community has embraced the cafe and cat adoptions.”
All adoption fees go to KHS. They start at $85 and go up to $120, based on the age of the cat. All cats are spayed or neutered, microchipped, treated for fleas, administered their first round of vaccinations, and dewormed.
The cat adoptions are the nonprofit side of Purrfect Day Cat Cafe. The business makes its profits from the cafe side as well as the fees to visit the kitten room. Each 50-minute session is $10 Monday through Thursday and $12 Friday through Sunday.
“This is a business model called a social enterprise model,” Patton said. “It’s a for-profit business in business to do good.”
Patton said the cafe also donates customer tips to KHS as well as donations from those who don’t want to adopt but still want to help in some way.
The monetary gifts definitely help, but Blair said the partnership with the cafe has had far-reaching benefits.
“One of the coolest things is how the cat cafe has been able to increase the Kentucky Humane Society’s life-saving ability,” she said. “In the last 12 months, we have helped animals, not only in Jefferson County, but in 21 counties throughout Kentucky. That has really helped us increase our ability to take in cats that are at risk for euthanasia at rural shelters.”
Even though the cafe completes 120-188 adoptions a month, Patton doesn’t see a saturation point.
“The vision of the cafe was not for it to be a place where your traditional cat lover is,” he said. “We want this to be where animal lovers and community-minded people want to go. The reason why is because we knew that the success of the cafe—both for adoptions and for our ability to be around longer—is purely based on how many people come in. So we get a lot of people who come in and say, ‘I want to adopt,’ and then you get a lot of people who come in and say, ‘Oh, I don’t think I’m ready to adopt,’ but then they meet the forever love of their life.”
Lexi Lou, who moved to Louisville from Lexington last year, is one of the latter people. Though she was a self-proclaimed cat lady with five cats at home, Lou would visit the cafe just to work on her computer and enjoy the sights of kittens playing.
“I never thought I would become a regular at a cat cafe,” she said. “But it was something about when I went for the very first time … I just felt safe there. I felt welcomed. Yes, there are plenty of places where I can go and use their Wi-Fi, but you can’t go and cuddle kittens at the same time you’re doing work.”
Then she saw Taco, a small kitten with a big attitude.
“I see this little nugget, and on my lunch break, I go into the lounge and love on him,” Lou said. “He would walk up to the big cats and smack them in the face. There was something about his attitude that [indicated] he wanted nothing to do with me, but I wanted everything to do with him.”
Lou’s cat menagerie grew to six that day.
“Now, Taco owns the place and doesn’t pay bills,” she said.
Lou continues her weekly visits to the cafe, utilizing the location’s various common areas—including an outdoor patio—to work on her computer and sip one of many beverages offered at the bar.
Some patrons have cat allergies. However, the kitten room’s separate HVAC system keeps the air in the common areas allergy-free. So, it’s much like a regular cafe—just with kittens!
“You’re still in a safe environment and still go and enjoy the cafe part of things and look at kittens on the other side of the glass,” Lou said. “You can still go and have a beer. You can still go and have a glass of wine. You can sit on the patio, and you can still mingle.”
The cafe also has space for private parties, trivia parties, and kitten yoga classes, among other activities.
Lou said the cafe couldn’t have opened at a better time.
“It’s been a positive thing for the Highlands area,” she said. “Granted, I’ve only been here a year and some change, but I think it’s been a good impact for that area.
“And where can you go wrong with cuddling some cats? The fact that you can do that for $10 to $20 makes it cheaper than therapy.”