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People have been confused. They’ve been confused about what a cat café is. They’ve been asking me, “Matt, what the *meow* is a cat café?”

Simply put, a cat café is a coffeehouse full of cats. You go in, order a cup of coffee, maybe a croissant if you’re feeling pastry, and proceed to play with the cats who call the café home. The cats who populate our space will be from local shelters and rescues, and they will be up for adoption.

Cat culture has been something of a phenomenon in the recent years, so the Seattle Meowtropolitan team is excited to create a space to promote it. Even if it sounds a completely novel idea to you, cat cafés have been around for years. Just not yet in North America. The idea came about in Taiwan (where founders Andrew and Louisa are from) and picked up popularity in Japan and China. Now, cat cafés are finally opening in North America. We have been in touch with others, including Kittea in San Francisco, Cat Town in Oakland, and Catfé in Vancouver. Seattle Meowtropolitan will be among these cat café pioneers when we open, likely in late-2015.

Our vision is to have a fantasy-themed space (think Game of Thrones) where you will play with the cats. We want to put it somewhere easily accessible so we can build a community hub for cat people. Hopefully we can find a space in Capitol Hill, or somewhere near there. How soon we open will depend on community support. We will largely depend on crowd-funding, so follow us closely. We will launch our Kickstarter campaign in September.

In the mean time, if you need more evidence that this is a good idea (as if my words aren’t convincing enough), take a look at these successful ones around the world:

• http://ladydinahs.com/
• http://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/14ld27/today_i_visited_a_cat_cafe_in_toyko_was/
• http://catcafemelbourne.com/
• http://taipeicatcafes.wordpress.com/

Remember to keep following the progress of Seattle Meowtropolitan!