We’re
proud to be a pet friendly community here at the Berkeley Central
Apartments—and it makes us even prouder to be located in a neighborhood that
shares the same values.
You
might’ve heard rumblings about the popularity of “Cat Cafes” in farawar places
like Japan. But it seems that this novel type of new business is now making its
way into the Bay Area. By the end of this year, the Berkeley area should be
home to not one but two cat cafes. Both Oakland’s Cat Town Café and San
Francisco’s KitTea are currently finalizing locations.
Not
only will you be able to play with cats at these cat cafes—you’ll also be
supporting a charitable cause. Both cafes, in fact, will be affiliated with local
animal rescue organizations.
Ann
Dunn, founder of the Cat Town rescue and longtime Oakland volunteer is
optimistic that these new cafes will encourage customers to become cat owners
themselves:
“The only reason we’re doing this
is to get cats out of cages and get them adopted quickly,” she said. “You
couldn’t choose a worse environment for a cat than a shelter. So many
cats have a cage reaction, and you have no idea what the cat is really
like. All you see is their fear.”
“Ann and Cat Town already have
three years of experience of being a rescue, on top of the years of experience
working with Oakland Animal Services. So I feel like we have the rescue thing
locked down. So, if we have a kitten who’s having a problem adjusting at the
cafe, we have so many foster homes standing by who can take over.