Comfort Cat Cafe: Saving Old Cats and Starting Young Lives

Saving old cats

The sad fact is that 554,000 cats are euthanized every year in California. Most of those cats are perfectly healthy and would make wonderful pets, they just weren’t lucky enough to be found in time. A cat’s life span can be 15-20 years, but there are rarely any cats in shelters that are older than 8 years old. That’s where the Comfort Cat Café comes in. We’d like to give the old folks a chance to live and thrive in a comfortable, well-kept environment. The Comfort Cat Café will be acting as a final home for friendly old cats who want nothing more than to sit in the sun and be petted and adored. We are applying to be a nonprofit organization.

Starting Young Lives

First, a little background- when Amanda’s son was a baby, he had a rare blood cancer. She gave up her voice over career to focus on him, and thankfully he miraculously survived. Unfortunately, the chemo took his hearing and left him with a permanent case of “chemo brain.” The school system wanted to give up on him, but the family was lucky enough to discover a school for kids with learning disabilities. Now that her son has graduated they want to give back to that community. They want to give special needs young adults some on the job training, so they’ll have real skills that will be useful, like how to run a cash register, or how to greet a customer. After they volunteer at the Comfort Cat Cafe for a total of 20-30 hours, we will then be happy to be a reference and will provide them with a letter of recommendation they can use in their job search.

The Cafe

We want both the people and the cats to be happy and comfortable, so we want it to look like walking into someone’s living room- overstuffed chairs and couches everywhere lined with soft blankets and pillows. Since older cats can get a bit messy sometimes, we need to have a washer and dryer on site to whisk away and sanitize any soiled blankets or pillows. We also need a GIANT air filter, because we really want people to see the Cafe, not smell it. A strong vacuum cleaner is also a must.

Contrary to other cat cafe models, we will NOT require reservations. Customers will pay a $20/hr fee to enter. They will given a nametag with their out time on it, and clocks will be posted around the Cafe. When their time is up, they can purchase another hour if they so desire. We will also be offering weekly and monthly memberships, and special rates for students. We want to create a relaxed, free flowing atmosphere where anyone can feel free to pop in and check on their favorite Cafe denizen.

Since the cats are on the premises, the law says we aren’t allowed to prepare food on site. However, we hope to pair up with a nearby eatery and will sell prepackaged foods and drinks ourselves. We’d also like to reach out to local artisans and sell any of their cat themed merch. This entire enterprise focuses giving back to the community.

So please help us save old cats and start young lives.