Newly opened cat café in Oxford, UK, has no cats (at the moment)

NEWS AND COMMENT: I don't think that we should be too critical of the Mac Kitten Coffee Shop. But they have just opened and they are described as a cat café which is normally quite a popular concept but sadly they have no cats. That is a major problem for a cat café!

Mac Kitten Coffer Shop. Picture by the Oxford Mail.

They are based near the Plain Roundabout. It opened on 9th February 2024 with customers claiming to be excited to be able to visit the establishment and interact with the cats.

But it's not clear yet when the cats will arrive. It may be a month before they are installed at the café. Note: we are not told where the cats are coming from but the usual M.O. is to take cats from a cat shelter based locally and to offer those cats for adoption to visitors to the café which is a nice way of working in partnership with a cat shelter. It should help to attract adopters and promote the local animal shelter.

It has to be said, though, that it is not easy to run a cat café because you've got maybe half a dozen or more cats confined to a strange place (initially) meeting strange people. 

You have to keep them inside that place safely and of course you have to look after half a dozen or more cats which is no mean feat while running a café which in itself is not that easy.

There are probably insurance issues to deal with which means added overheads which probably means adding to the price of the items sold. The workforce need to be au fait with looking after cats. They need to be cat lovers really. There are potential complications.

I don't want to be a wet blanket about this project but my gut feeling is that worldwide cat café's have not been a blinding success perhaps for the reasons mentioned above.

Nonetheless, I wish them the very best particularly if it enhances the prospect of people adopting rescue cats. 

The RSPCA, have claimed recently that their rescue centres are full up because of an increase in people abandoning their cats to the centres post-pandemic with a a parallel decrease in the number of people adopting cats. 

The reason? The cost of living crisis. Family budgets are tight. People are realising that it is not cheap to look after a domestic cat properly.

The Lib Dem candidate for Cowley Ward, Scott Urban, said: "A warm welcome to Mac Kitten Coffee Shop on Cowley Road. Do pop along and say hi! (Actual cats arriving next month.)”

The café was said to be impeccably clean and very welcoming. It would just be nice if there were some cats to welcome clients as well.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.