Purrfect Day Cat Café is a unique space that allows guests to grab a Pawfee, Meowcohol, or Pawstrie and then enter the kitty lounge to play and socialize with the feline friends.
All the cats and kittens in the kitty lounge are available for adoption. The cats are sourced from Kenton County Animal Services, Cincinnati Animal Care and PAWS Humane Center, covering the Northern Kentucky, Cincinnati and Lawrenceburg Indiana areas. The café focuses on the motto “cuddles, not cages.”
Being able to play with the cats and spend time with them before deciding to adopt promotes higher adoption rates, co-owner Chuck Patton said.
Purrfect Day is Northern Kentucky’s first cat café, opening on Nov. 13, 2020, amid the pandemic. Even with COVID-19, the café hosted 21,700 visitors in 2021 and had 740 adoptions. Patton said they are projected to do 1,000-1,100 adoptions in 2022.
Patton stumbled upon the idea to open a cat café while vacationing in Charleston, South Carolina. He and his wife, Tricia, found themselves at Pounce cat café that had a four-and-a-half-hour wait in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday. Patton called the experience his “next venture epiphany.”
Patton and his wife decided to open the first Purrfect Day Cat Café in Louisville, where they live. Their Louisville location was doing more adoptions than any other café around the U.S.
About three years later, Patton said he was approached by Kenton County Animal Services to bring the concept to Northern Kentucky.
“One of my passions about this is being able to marry an entrepreneur business model to an impact,” Patton said. “Business can have a purpose and a cause.”
The importance of the 1,000 adoptions for Patton is recognition of the staff’s hard work to make it possible.
“To be able to achieve that over the struggle we have had, I just wanted it so badly for our staff,” Patton said. “The amount of struggles they have gone through during the pandemic, opening a new business is tough enough. The highest award from 1,000 is for them, and wow, we never thought we’d be able to do those numbers. It’s a big win for them, something they can internalize.”
The kitty lounge takes reservations for an allotted 50-minute session with the cats. All ages are welcome in the kitty lounge. An adult must accompany those under the age of 13, and Fridays and Saturdays after 6 p.m. are reserved for ages 18 and over.
If you are looking into adopting, morning sessions will have the most available cats. If you are just looking to play with the furry felines, you can book at any time. Cats get adopted quickly; staff can assist you with information on the available kitties and the adoption application.
One thing Patton notes as necessary is the café is not just for people looking to adopt. Seventy percent of the visitors the cafe receives are there for the experience.
“Socializing the cats is just as important as adopting,” Patton said. “It’s Important to educate on things. Whether you buy a coffee or Meowmosa, it impacts our ability to stay open and help with the adoptions. It’s $15 for an hour in the kitty lounge. That’s standard across all cat cafes. Without it, we can’t operate. So, come in and have a beer. You are going to make an impact. We aren’t a place you visit only to adopt.”
