(Natalia Duryagina / Shutterstock.com)
What’s better than a local coffee shop? One that serves coffee, teas, kitty themed sweets, and cat cuddles at the same time.
That’s exactly what Mac Tabby Cat Cafe in Charlotte, North Carolina does. The cafe and cat rescue mission just celebrated a special milestone with its 1,000th adoption on August 24, 2022. The cafe opened its first location in 2017 and began having an immediate impact on the lives of people and felines, reported the Charlotte Observer.
Mac Tabby actually serves as a foster home for rescued animals until a forever home can be found. That’s why this milestone adoption is so celebrated. Of course, the cats live separately from the food operation.
“Each cat has an entire story of how it wound up at Mac Tabby. We have been able to tell one thousand stories so far, and it’s the greatest honor,” Lori Konawalik, the owner of the cafe told the Charlotte Observer.
The honored kitten
Leo Wyatt was the special 5-month-old kitten who found his forever home. He and his brothers and sisters were brought in without their mother and they were bottle fed by a volunteer. This black and white bundle of cuteness was adopted by a family who recently lost their elderly cat.
“They fell in love with Leo Wyatt because looking at him makes them smile,” Konawalik said. “They think he looks a bit cartoon-like! Plus, they loved his personality and how he was a good balance of loving and playful. They knew he was the one.”
When the family came to pick him up, they didn’t know he was the 1,000th adoption. After the celebration, the family ended up taking two kittens home with them. Adoption number 1,001 is a white kitten named Reddi Whip.
Humble beginnings
Konawalik, who is a self-described cat lady, wanted to do more for the homeless cats of Charlotte according to WCNC. She heard about cat cafes that operated in other countries and decided to open one of her own,
With the help of 299 Kickstarter backers, Mac Tabby Cat Cafe opened its first location that eventually moved to its present home in NoDa and it was so successful that a second location in Concord was opened in 2021, according to the cafe’s website. Shortly after the opening of the Concord cafe, a new partnership began with the nonprofit Princeton’s Meow and even more cat adoptions followed.
How it works
Anyone who is a cat lover and is 7 or above can reserve an hour long cat lounge session for a small fee that allows them to cuddle the kiddies that roam freely, reported the Charlotte Observer. There are also private experiences available and a monthly “kitty time” for younger children.
Every cat at the cafe is available for adoption. Princeton’s Meow handles the approvals for the adoptions and a reasonable fee covers the cost of the initial health visit, vaccines, and the spaying or neutering.
“It takes a lot of caring humans to get each cat from where it starts to its forever home,” Konawalik said. “We are a small part of the greater good and are thankful to be able to spread goodness into the world in the very best way, one cat at a time. One thousand... and counting.”
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