It’s finally time, ladies and gents. My personal heaven is finally opening in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. No, I’m not talking about a “Build-Your-Own-Celebrity” store (so I could finally take home my very own young-DiCaprio-faced, sculpted-Tatum-bodied hunk with the angelic voice of Harry Styles. Science hasn’t advanced that far quite yet).
I’m talking about Pounce Cat Café. For those of you who don’t know what Pounce Cat Café is, or even what a cat café is in general, I’m here to be your trusted guide.
We’ll start with what a cat café is. The title is pretty self-explanatory, but hey, Walmart isn’t a place you go to buy walls, so I’ll explain it. Basically, a cat café is a café where people go and pay a small fee per hour to hang out with some adorable cats with the option of food or drink. It’s kind of like a rent-a-cat for people who can’t have them where they live or just want to spend an hour surrounded by a bunch of them. They originated in Asia and have gradually made their way through Europe and South America, finally making it’s way to the U.S. in 2014 when The Cat Town Café opened its doors in Oakland, CA.
So now that you understand what a cat café is, you’re totally excited for one to open in Charleston, S.C., right? Right! It’s called Pounce Cat Café and it will be opening its doors at 283 Meeting Street on November 25th. Pounce is spearheaded by Ashley Brooks and Annaliese Hughes, two ladies with a passion for cats, wine, and a shared dream that brings the two together.
Pounce Cat Café will be open every day except Tuesdays and will be run on a reservation system, as most cat cafés are. They will carry about 20 cats/kittens at a time from the Charleston Animal Society, all adoptable on site, so if you come in for some coffee and cat cuddles and see the most perfect kitty you’ve ever laid your eyes on, you can bring them home that day. The reservation fee for the cat room at the café will be $15 per hour/per person and comes with unlimited coffee or tea, or choice of one house beer or house wine. You want a cookie while you watch kittens chase a ball around? No problem! Pounce will offer bakery items for sale, brought in every morning from a partner, Wildflour Bakery, so you never have to worry about finding cat hair in your cookies. Sounds like the perfect way to spend an hour, right? Cat cafés give cats an amazing opportunity to spend the time waiting to be adopted in a wide open space with toys and love, versus in a cage alone, and get to socialize with other cats, making them more comfortable in home environments with other animals.
Just to get you all as pumped for the opening day as I am, here are some photos from the releasing of the cats into the café space so they can get acclimated before the opening day.
Above you see the van from Charleston Animal Society delivering the 21 kittens to Pounce.
Shown above is the pre-release setup.
Here you see the moment the kittens were released (AKA, a historic moment for Pounce).
They immediately accepted their mission to be the cutest creatures in the world and play their hearts out.
The adorable kittens quickly gathered quite a crowd of onlookers who just had to stop for a closer peek.
So get ready, because once those doors open, there's no telling how high on the cuteness scale these cats will get. Go online and reserve your spot while you still have the chance, and get ready to be one of the first visitors to the south's first cat café.
