When Linda Ramos was a little girl she was not allowed to have cats. She would always try to sneak cats into her home until she was caught by her mother.
“I always swore to my mom that I was going to have a million cats,” Ramos recalled. “A couple times here and there I would sneak some in the house, and my mom would be like, ‘Yeahhhh, no, we’re not keeping them,’ so we would just try and find homes for them.”
Now, Ramos is surrounded by cats every day as owner of the cat cafe.
Finding homes for the different cats always healed Ramos’ heart and made her passion for cats grow over time. As years had gone past and Ramos became an adult with a loving family of her own, she started to work with young children. She did occupational therapy in their homes until the pandemic hit and she was forced to stay indoors.
“We were no longer able to go in homes, because we were working with kids with high medical risk,” she said.
When quarantine hit it left Ramos in the house with her family and her cats. But as soon as quarantine was starting to die down she and her husband started to talk about owning a business. They thought, “ Well you know, if I have to run it, it has to be something I am passionate about which means it has to involve cats. He was like cats?! I said yeah a cat cafe.”
Ramos believed it was going to be a nice way to get people back interacting with others, especially considering the pandemic was over, and people do want to get out of the house and go places.
“People weren’t talking to each other, and no one was going out anymore and I thought when this passes over people are going to want to get back out,” she said.
“Opening up a cat cafe with food was not a part of the dream, but it was available, but we thought, ‘Why would we open up a place that has a kitchen and not at least give it a try.’ ”
As Ramos started to set up her cat cafe, she decided to partner up with 2nd Chance for Pets, and get all of her kittens from there. The cat cafe fosters the cats and tends to them on a daily basis, while 2nd Chance takes care of the applications and adoptions. Although some people fall in love with a cat and adopt them, you don’t have to plan on adopting to visit the cafe.
“Some people just come to play,” Ramos said. “Some people just come to be. You know, for therapy, we call it cat therapy. People will come in just to interact with the cats or bring their kids, but the people that come in to adopt, they fill out an application that goes directly to the rescue. They do it online or on their phone, and then the rescue takes it from there”
Senior, Hector Carreon has enjoyed visiting the cat cafe. Hector tends to go to the cat cafe often with his sister, and even adopted a kitten of his own.
“The adoption ran pretty smoothly, pretty easily. We just had to fill out some paperwork and stuff,” he said.
Speaking of the rescue, there is an upcoming adoption event where people can bring in their animals and dress them up in amazing costumes, in order for a chance to win the costume contest. There are also going to be different vendors and raffles people can sign up for. Dan Pierogies will also be coming out, and any donations will be all given to the rescue center. This rescue is held on October 6th in the back of the cat cafe.
“So if you have a dog or a cat that will go, like in a little stroller or something, you walk them around. This is a little parade, and you can dress them up in a costume” Ramos said.
Those are not just the only events in the cat cafe. The cat cafe also has two different clubs, a painting events, and book club, and people can come in and enjoy a nice snack and treat, and play with the different cats.
“And I don’t know how many people actually read the book or are just coming to hang out with the cats, but it’s a lot of fun” Ramos said.
The cat cafe has also been known to be a great place for studying. Someone can come in and enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and study in the cat room or go upstairs and study at one of the tables. Ramos even has a section at the top where you can overlook the cat room if you happen to be allergic and still want to look at the kittens.
One of the workers is actually allergic to cats and still has an amazing time working at the cafe. Sydney Vandersteeg manages the Instagram, while also making the different types of coffees and preparing the food.
“I really loved animals all my life, and I love coffee, so it’s just both of those there, and it’s a fun place to work,” Vandersteeg said.
Another worker named Ashley Curtis, loves working with cats and finds this to be her dream job. Ashley Curtis has had multiple cats in her past and even now, and she just loves to care for them.
“I’ve always been obsessed with cats since I was really little. I grew up with cats, and obviously I love coffee,” she said. “So this whole establishment just really spoke out to me. I came here to just visit on my birthday a couple years ago, and I asked to work here. So that was pretty awesome. It was pretty much my dream job.”
