Visiting the Orlando Cat Cafe - 2023/04/02

Welcome to the Orlando Cat Cafe! Florida's First Cat Cafe and Where The Cool Cats Hang Out! 
Our friend Nicole loves loves loves cats, and every Sunday she volunteers at the Orlando Cat Cafe. The kids have really wanted to go see them, so before we leave Orlando until October, we've definitely got to go check it out!

Located about 4 miles west of Disney's Animal Kingdom in the city of Clermont, is the Cat Cafe! 

Next door is a coffee shop with lots of treats and beverages, but it's the cats that are the real draw for us. Through a window, you can see into the kitty play area. Reservations are recommended and it is $10 for adults and $8 for children per hour. The night before, Ian told me that he hopes there's an orange cat and a gray cat with stripes. We'll see what different kitties they have here buddy. 

Looking through the window, I can already see an orange cat! 

Up to 15 people can enter each hour, with the earliest being 10am on weekends. Earlier can be better because these cats like to take naps after getting out a lot of energy in the mornings. 

Nicole came and welcomed us right at 10am, going over the do's and don'ts. 

Welcome! 

Hi there! 

All the cats here are from the Florida SPCA and looking for their forever homes. There's between 12-20+ cats here in the play area. In the back of the room, there's a door with a cat flap where the cats can go if they want to be by themselves. Any cats in the play area are here because they want to be. 

Right away we were greeted by a sweet cat named Coco. 

She's the longest resident of the Cat Cafe, having been here for 8 months. She's so sweet, so I'm surprised someone hasn't picked her up. But that looks like a gray cat with stripes to me Ian. 

And not long after we found Starkist, a playful orange cat. He's 5 months old, so he's still got a little bit of kitten in him. 

Mmm, they love the attention. 

There's plenty of toys and ribbons to entertain the cats. Moo Cow is a little older, but he'll still play a bit. 

So many cats!

Alli and Pearl. Both just loving the time together. 

My favorite was Molly. Cats here get a blue collar if they're boys. Red collars if they're girls. And a special collar if they are a little fiesty. Molly was definitely that, but playfully so. At least with people. We watched her wrestle a couple other cats who didn't give her the space she wanted. 

In what felt like way too short a time, the hour we'd reserved had come to an end. Ian was asking if we could do another hour, but the next group is already fully booked. We'll have to try to get over here again. We're reminded that the cats live here, and we're just visiting. 

But luckily, many of them only live here for a short time. I heard a couple different groups asking about the process to adopt one of the cats. Since 2016, the Cat Cafe has helped over 2000 felines find their forever homes. 

I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Orlando Cat Cafe if you're a cat lover, especially if you're a cat lover who for whatever reason can't have a cat, like my kids. My wife Theresa is allergic and it wouldn't really fit our lifestyle, so no cats for us. 

Alli - Mommy, I found a cat we can bring home for you!