Kelowna’s first cat cafe is set to open Thursday, and is promising a purr-fectly calming experience.
Catelowna will open in the heart of Kelowna at 1441 Ellis St., and aims to provide a one-of-a-kind oasis around a revolving crew of feline friends and their guests.
Ashley Karnes, the founder and owner of Catelowna, decided to bring the increasingly popular concept to Kelowna in 2019, right before COVID struck.
“I always worked with rescue centres, have adopted animals and I knew there were a lot of homeless animals in need of homes,” Karnes said.
“I was in between work, and I thought what do I want to do?”
Karnes is also a cook and said that when she was thinking about what she wanted to do, a light went off.
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“It’s the perfect marriage of my skillset,” she said.
After deciding she wanted to open up a cat cafe, she went to a number of similar operations in Canada and the U.S. and got an idea of what she wanted to bring to Kelowna.
Importantly, she wants the cats on site to be adoptable, unlike some other operations in the U.S., where the cats are residents of cafes.
“Adoption isn’t the expectation, but I will measure success in how many adoptions there are,” she said. “But I also want to provide a place where people who can’t have cats get the pet-therapy that’s synonymous with animals.”
She said animals and humans both contribute to one another’s wellness and she wants to see “a lot of smiles and provide a place where people can relax.”
There is a capacity limit so it is recommended that reservations are made to avoid disappointment and ensure the time and day desired is available.
Catelowna is partnered with several animal rescue centres, offering a loving and comfortable haven for their cats, allowing them to be viewed by potential adopters in a relaxed and stress-free setting.
Catelowna will operate hand in hand with the rescue’s adoption program, giving each cat a chance to find a forever home.
The first cat café opened in 1998 in Taiwan. The phenomenon then quickly spread to Japan at the beginning of the 21st century and landed in Europe in 2012, in Vienna. In Italy, the formula was first presented in 2014 in Turin.