Melbourne cat cafe
Melbourne cat cafe: Bookings only as new business opens with a rush of customers
Photo: A customer gets up close and personal with one of the cats.
Melbourne's new cat cafe is booked out for the next five days with people keen to have a coffee while socialising with 13 rescued felines.
Owner Anita Loughran and her partner were miserable in their corporate jobs and opted for a change.
She has always been a cat lover and not even an allergy could keep her away from them.
"I'm getting weekly injections. So it's all right. I manage," she said.
"I've always had cats, even with my allergies. It's never been able to stop me.
"We decided to start a cat cafe because it's fun and we think a lot of people get benefits out of it."
Although cat cafes are new in Australia, the first one opened in Taiwan in 1998, and they are now popular in Japan and a number of European countries.
Thirteen rescued cats live at the Cat Cafe Melbourne and they have plenty of space to roam and play with visitors.
"The rooms are full of cat scratching frames, toys, tunnels, hidey-holes," Ms Loughran said.
"We've got shelves up on the wall so they can jump if they want to get up high.
"[In the early morning] they're a little bit playful because they've had their breakfast so you'll see people playing with the cats. There's probably a few on laps as well."
Photo: Customers can drink coffee and play with cats at Cat Cafe Melbourne.
Some of the visitors do not have their own cats, but most do.
The people who pay to spend time with these cats range from kids over eight years of age - young children are not allowed in for their own safety - to "older gentlemen".
The cafe is open seven days a week, 11 hours a day and people pay $10 an hour for the privilege of spending time with these cats.
And if the cafe's felines have had enough attention, there are spaces just for them.
"They do have their private litter room so if they've had enough they can escape," Ms Loughran said.
"We gradually built up... getting used to people coming through.
"We had early bird events so the cats could get used to it and they love the attention."
Ms Loughran said there was a big difference between cat people and dog people, who are usually more outgoing and social with their pets.
"I think cat people are kind of more reserved and because there aren't really any social groups for them at the moment," she said.
"Sometimes they get a bit of a bad rap for being a crazy cat person.
"Hopefully this is a good place for them to express themselves."
But do not expect to be able to walk up to the Queen Street cafe and get in without a booking.
"All we can tell people at this point in time is no walk-ins. Please book ahead," she said.
Source ABC News October 7th, 2014, Kathy Lord
