For anyone who’s ever wanted a cat but couldn’t have one, I have news for you.
Oregon’s first cat cafe is coming together in Portland — a place that houses all the cats you could ever want to pet and you don’t even have to empty out the litter box.
Kristen Castillo, owner of Purringtons Cat Lounge, announced that she signed a three-year lease on NE Martin Luther King Boulevard.
PDX Eater reports the place will be divided into cat and non-cat sections, so that you can have your coffee, beer or wine without fur. Customers will pay an hourly rate to spend time with the felines for “purr therapy.”
Cat cafes originally became popular in Southeast Asia, starting in the late 1990s. Japan alone has more than 150 cat cafes opened in the past 10 years. The concept is still pretty new to the United States: There are two in San Francisco and Purina ONE hosted a pop-up cafe in New York.
Purringtons is partnered with the cat shelter and humane society Cat Adoption Team as a satellite adoption center, so any kitty coming through the door is spayed or neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and has a clean bill of health. That said, you can’t bring any furry friends from the outside or feed the Purrington cats anything outside of their diet.
The new cafe is slated to open in December.
