Story Prose of "The Cat Who Sells Coffee"

A room with a simple and modern design, a cup of coffee, a cat in your arms, and a cozy afternoon.

Recently, the American "Forbes" magazine published an article saying that the cat cafe loved by the Japanese people has finally transformed into a "cat cafe loved by people all over the world." Since the opening of the first cat cafe "Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium" in London, England, in March 2014, the cute cats have been making rapid progress in California, New York, Singapore and other places, ushering in international success.

The healing cat waiter has gradually become another reason for young literary and artistic people to go to cafes.

Cat’s Healing

“This is the Persian cat Obai. It looks very fierce but is actually a kind of love. The Scottish Fold lying in the nest belongs to Xiao Tiantian, Obai. Goddess. That’s Little Q, the cheese cat, and Thunder, the ocelot cat with the highest IQ here.” Mi Ma, the owner of Tommy’s Famous Cat Shop, introduced several celebrity cats in the cafe to reporters. Cat’s female customer listened with interest while taking photos.

On a weekday afternoon, even though the temperature in Shanghai dropped sharply, the popularity of the Famous Cat Museum did not decrease by half. From time to time, students or white-collar workers enter the cafe to have fun and laugh with the famous cats. In the spacious store, customers can choose to sit at a table and enjoy their food quietly, or sit around on the floor and enjoy close contact with the cats.

The customers who are strangers to each other in the Famous Cat House are enjoying themselves and do not have a strong sense of restraint like in ordinary public places. Some customers sat around on the ground and tried to play the "cat's claws are always on" game with the Scottish Fold baby cat. Many customers held their beloved cat in their arms, drank coffee quietly and looked at it. Movies, chatting with companions, and dazing.

I originally thought that the customers here might be women who are crazy about cats, but in fact they cover all social classes. They may be fashion people or professionals from different backgrounds. For many customers who love cat cafes, it doesn’t matter what they eat or drink in the cat cafe. The most important thing is the unique warm and healing atmosphere of the cat cafe.

Professor Firgi Masaru from the Natural Life Sciences Research Assistance Center of Okayama University in Japan believes that when people and animals are together, there is no tension between people. In the eyes of many people, pets are as irreplaceable as family members.

Popular all over the world

It is understood that cat cafes were first born in Taipei in 1998 and became popular quickly after being introduced to Osaka, Japan in 2004. Nowadays, cat cafes are especially popular among Japanese people.

Japan is a country with a profound cat culture. In Japanese cultural traditions, cats are revered as "gods", guarding grain depots, ship cabins, and even the sericulture industry. In Tokushima Prefecture and other places in Japan, "cat shrines" are built for people to worship.

At the same time, the Japanese newspaper "Mainichi Shimbun" once said that the Japanese Yamato nation is the nation with the strongest sense of loneliness in the world. According to Iwa, a famous Japanese blogger, cats can help humans relieve tension and depression. This is what the struggling Japanese need most in the current economic downturn. Therefore, even maid cafes, which were very popular in Japan at that time, cannot match the popularity of cat cafes.

Driven by Japan, cat cafes have become popular in Asia, but it was not until last year that cat cafes finally entered the European and American markets and quickly captured the hearts of European and American customers.

In 2014, the number of cat cafes around the world increased significantly. In March 2014, when the website announced that the first cat cafe in London, England, "Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium" would be opening, it attracted 3,000 people to make reservations, causing the website to crash for a time. On the opening day, there were many cat lovers waiting outside the store early.

Since then, the "Cat City Coffee" opened in Oakland, California, in October, has also been widely welcomed by cat fans who like to drink coffee. There has been a constant flow of people every day since its opening.

Then the cat cafe "Meow Parlour" in New York also opened in December. Cat cafes are popping up in Denver, Portland, Ore., and San Diego. "Forbes" magazine even believes that this kind of coffee shop may soon become a new trend in the United States.

Unlike Japanese cat cafes, which aim to cure lonely patients and relieve human depression and stress, such cafes in the United States aim to find suitable adopters for cats. Both "Meow Parlour" and "Cat City Coffee" work with local animal rescue organizations in the hope of finding permanent homes for these cats.

Among the many cat cafes in Shanghai, you can find not only stores that continue the traditional healing route, but also innovators who have learned from Europe and the United States, which focus on adoption. In Tommy's House Famous Cat Center, which uses famous cats as a marketing point, many customers praise the cats for their graceful figure, elegant gait, and feeling comfortable to the touch as they are furry in their arms. Mima even created WeChat articles for each cat in the famous cat shop to introduce their respective personalities, interesting anecdotes and love stories, so that customers can be warmed and healed even though they are thousands of miles away.

Cat cafes are difficult to manage

As an operator who entered the cat cafe industry earlier in Shanghai, Mima said: "After 2012, there were more and more cat cafes opening in Shanghai. , the quality of the stores is also uneven. ”

At a cat cafe in Xuhui District, customers are greeted by a strong animal smell as soon as they enter. This cafe is small but has a lot of cats. After serving the meal, the reporter almost ate surrounded by the cats, and if he was not careful, he might share the food with the cats.

This may not be a problem for cat lovers, but it is a big test for customers who experience cat cafes for the first time. Customer Xiao Yan admitted to reporters that he was scared and at a loss when he saw the cat disappearing around him all the time, jumping up and down, and staring at his food eagerly.

In other areas, the problem with cat cafes is even more serious. According to reports, in Shenyang, Ms. Wang, a citizen, and her friends rushed to a cat-themed cafe. Unexpectedly, two meters away from the shop, they smelled a pungent smell of cat feces and urine. When I arrived at the door, the owner asked me to take off my shoes before entering. Inside the door was a duplex apartment. There was a mattress and a few chairs on the floor of the bedroom on the first floor, and seven or eight cats of different breeds were kept nearby. There are also several cats kept in cages on the second floor, and the smell is more pungent than that on the first floor. At this time, a cat suddenly squatted on the ground and vomited. The shop owner nervously stepped forward to check and explained: "Maybe it just chewed on the wicker chair and broke its stomach." After the cat vomited, it lay on the mattress, and soon vomited again.