Saskatoon’s Purrfect Cup Cat Café is celebrating a year of fur-bulous business in the city’s downtown.
Co-owner and manager, Sydney Sylvester, said they started planning for the café before COVID-19, which slowed them down.
“Finally COVID started to dwindle down and we figured that was the perfect time,” she said.
Sylvester’s fiancé and co-owner, Casey Swatlowski, said there were still lots of people in the city that were not aware of the café.
“We still get a lot of people who don't know,” he said.
“Every day almost half the people who come in haven't been here or just found out about us. We have so many new people that we're really looking forward to when most of the city does know about us and people, even if they don't want to adopt, just coming and playing with the kitties.”
He said the socialization opportunity for the cats was huge.
“Just like us they get restless every day, they need to play,” Swatlowski said.
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“Even if you feel guilty about not adopting the cat, you can feel good knowing that just coming and playing with them means a world of difference.”
Sylvester said there have been some very interesting moments when people in the city discover the café for the first time.
“During the sidewalk sale, people would come up to our booth and be like, ‘Oh, we have a cat cafe. Where's it?’ and I'm like, ‘Right behind me.’ And they wouldn't even finish talking to me, they would just come inside, ‘I need to go see some cats.’ So a lot of people are shocked when they first come in seeing all of the cats, they are literally free roaming. You are in their space. So I think it's a lot of it is not what people actually anticipate when they get here.”
She said the space was really for the animals.
“Basically this place is a big living room for them.”
There is a cost to visit with the cats, but there is no time limit, she said.
“You do get to just hang out with the cats if you want. We’ve had people hang out here for seven hours working on schoolwork.”
ADOPTION PROCESS
The cat café is about more than just playing with cats, it’s also an opportunity to meet one you want to take home, Sylvester said.
The cats roaming the café are from the Battleford Humane Society, and all are ready for adoption.
“The process is really simple. At no point do you ever have to go to Battleford, you just fill out an online application. The shelter gets back to us within a few days. Once you're approved, you get to take the cat for a one-week take-home trial, or longer if you need longer time,” she said.
“You take your kitty. You do your trial. If all goes well, you just finalize the adoption. If in the event that it doesn't work out, you just bring the kitty back here and they just get back put back in with their friends.”
For those that adopt a cat, they’ll get a gift bag with food, toys and some coupons for vet appointments and cat spas.
Sylvester said they’ve adopted out 69 cats so far.
UPGRADES PLANNED
After being in business for a year, the couple has some plans for changes to the café.
Swatlowski, who previously owned a business in Denver, said they’d like to expand the space.
“We're going to have a much larger kitchen cafe area,” he said. “So we’ll have soups and sandwiches and a lot more stuff that we can offer.”
The cats will also be getting more space to play, he said.
Sylvester said she’s looking forward to what the future will bring.
“He helped me learn a lot about business,” she said.
“He's still giving me tips and tricks and like what we should do and what we shouldn't do. For me, it's all about the cats. I just want to help homeless kitties.”
