Have you ever been to a cat cafe before?
I have been wanting, dreaming, and obsessing over going to a cat cafe since I knew such a magical happy place exists outside of Disneyland. I so wanted to go in when we walked by a few of them in Korea, but due to one thing or another, we had to skip it first but ended up not going to any. Boo 🙁
Imagine my delight when I discovered we had a cat cafe in my Singapore neighbourhood. Well, NOT area, but the fact that I didn’t need to take a plane to reach there was good enough to make me jump up and down and want to go there immediately, but it was past midnight when I read about it, and the cats must have been sleeping Fafa said.
I waited for a few hours. Then, the next day, I wore my Sunday best, packed my camera and went there.
The cat cafe, Neko No Niwa, was located on the second floor of a shophouse in Boat Quay, one of the drinking quarters of Singapore. I wonder whether there is an untapped middle-aged cat-loving drunken-guys market niche out there?
I took my shoes off, washed my hands, paid $12 and went to heaven. They were all so cute and fluffy and definitely with an attitude. The cafe itself was cozy and well-designed. My only problem was that my heaven was filled with other people who had been playing with the cats before I came. It didn’t feel nice to break their bonding moments, so I let them be.
I waited until one of the cats was free to be loved (crazy cat lady alert) and went to them.
I petted them and tried to make conversation with them cats. ALL OF THEM ignored me. I tried again, but this time using my mind, some of them walked away. I even contemplated sneaking out Baloo, the fluffiest one, but Fafa refused to cooperate. He said I should get my own instead of trying to steal pets from everywhere.
I talked to the cafe owner, Sam, who seemed more in love with these felines than I was. He told me that all the cats are adopted and how they have improved with care and love. He has also been trying to teach them tricks and to be comfortable with humans. Sweet guy, he deserves the cats, and the cats deserve him.
My one hour was up—60 minutes of constant happiness. We decided to go to let the younger crowd play with them.
He said they asked me to come over again on a weekday night when the cats were in a different mood, and it would be less crowded. That would be great. Less crowd means I would be the queen of the cats.
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