A new Japan export: "cat cafes" come to Austria

REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Cat 'Luca' sleeps in his basket as a waitress serves some food to customers in Vienna's first cat cafe May 7, 2012. After three years of negotiations with city officials over hygiene issues, Austria opened its first cat cafe last Friday. 'Cafe Neko', "Neko" meaning cat in Japanese, was opened by Vienna resident Takako Ishimitsu, 47, from Japan. Customers can stroke and interact with their five feline hosts, named Sonja, Thomas, Moritz, Luca and Momo, who all came from an animal shelter and now freely roam about the cafe and take naps. There's a slide show with more photos here.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: cats • Japan • pets • vienna

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http://serfer0.tumblr.com/ serfer0

Can someone Kickstarter one of these in Chicago pls? I can loan-out up to five cats to get you started.
- http://twitter.com/davidmang davidmang
  
  As a Chicagoan, I’m totally seconding this.
  
  On the plus side, we have Myopic Books in Wicker Park, and there’s a friendly cat or two wandering around the reading areas and bookshelves in there.
- http://profiles.google.com/alottes Ash L
  
  Basically every bike shop is a cat cafe
- niktemadur
  
  Heeeereeee kitty kitty kitty! Just wait till I figure out which one of my four has been pissing out of the box, and I’ll contribute to the cause.
  For the one that waltzes meowing into the bedroom at 4 am, well I’ve bought a water gun in his honor.
  - http://serfer0.tumblr.com/ serfer0
    
    Dude, any chance your cat could be diabetic? My guy, Gubby, started doing the same thing last year. Took him to the vet, turns out he’s diabetic.
    - niktemadur
      
      Thank you for the concern and the tip, but I’m relieved to say that it’s not that, whoever it is (and I have my suspicions narrowed down) pees at a weird angle, sometimes he misses the litter box wall and there’s a puddle on the floor nearby. Then there’s three litter boxes, and he always uses the smaller one. The rest of the house remains urine-free.
      - Guest
        
        Let me guess… it’s the fat one that hasn’t seen his own bits in years? Of course he always uses the smallest box!
bcsizemo

Mysteriously there always only 5 cats, yet a new one each week….
bobarctor

Something witty/toxoplasmosis/kopi luwak
Gbaji

This is a 1000% improvement over Austria’s cat dungeons.
snowmentality

Awwww, who’s a sleepy kitty paw-cat? *pets paw*

I would definitely go to a cat café!
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

That’s really cool and all, but shouldn’t these be called “cat friendly” cafes? From the headline, I was expecting a full-on feline hang-out, with cats smoking pipes and playing chess and reading Sartre and shit.
- petz79
  
  ”Cats reading Sartre”. Now that’s an idea for a Tumblr!
- twianto
  
  Sartre and shit
  
  I think they have the ‘shit’ part covered.
- twianto
  
  Sartre and shit
  
  I think they have the ‘shit’ part covered.
thatbaddog

Neko baba suru.
Kommkast

I do wonder what american food safety would say about this.. but to be honest it would be the cleanest place around since rats would be terrified to come anywhere near it.. And with that said, I cannot express how much want.
- retepslluerb
  
  Of course you shouldn’t just drop the cats in there and clean the box only once a day, but really. People who worry about this should never, ever eat anything that was industrially produced or what they didn’t purchase directly from a market stand thy trust.
  - EvilTerran
    
    Market stands? You know those vegetables are grown in horse poo?
    
    Horse poo, I tell you! HORSE POO!
    
    Excuse me, I have to go disinfect now. Out, damned spot…
http://riverlaw.myopenid.com/ riverlaw

Cats and their slow march to world domination. (they make it look easy)
Drabula

As a Yank ex-pat in the UK I love how dogs are allowed pretty much everywhere here. Pubs are twice the fun when there’s a couple dogs wandering around, but I’d prefer a cat cafe/pub. After my two cats died and it was impractical to get new ones I would have spent all day in such a cafe trying to pet the pain away.
TheMudshark

Funny. When I read about the cat cafes a few weeks ago, my first thought was: “That would never fly with health reagulations here in Vienna.”
krisindallas

probably not a good idea to position the cat basket just above a table of food.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Nothing wrong with mixing cats and food.
http://twitter.com/Marilyn_Res Marilyn Terrell

Those cat cafes may seem cute and harmless at first, but before you know it the cats are getting you to build shrines to them, like they did at Kagoshima: http://digitalnomad.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/12/the-cats-of-kagoshima/
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Have you ever been to a monkey temple? I don’t have many limits, but that was beyond them.
  - Marilyn Terrell
    
    I haven’t been and don’t plan to visit one unless I get to know the simple joys of a monkey knife fight.
electronicnonsense

I’ve been to plenty of mom & pop shops over the years with friendly cats living in them and they don’t make a big deal about it. Posers!
electronicnonsense

I’ve been to plenty of mom & pop shops over the years with friendly cats living in them and they don’t make a big deal about it. Posers!
- Guest
  
  Did they have a food service license? If not, it’s not a big deal.
Guest

Something tells me letting 5 dogs roam (and eventually waddle) freely in a restaurant wouldn’t work as well.