You guys, something really important happened last week – a cat cafe opened here in Tallahassee. The Tally Cat Cafe, to be exact, and as you can guess, I absolutely had to be at their grand opening this past weekend. Heck, we even made reservations to make sure we had face time with the resident cats.
The cafe part of this establishment is on point: plenty of seating (with chairs that look the tiniest bit like they have cat ears) and a bar where you can sip and look into the cat room. The baristas were handling the rush like bosses, helping customers, whipping up beverages, handing out cat ears, and selling merch, all the while chatting with the people in line and making sure everyone was having a good time. 
I went for a Chai Kit-tea and a croissant (both were great), and my mom opted for a Cat-e Au Lait and a coffee donut (which I assume were good because they were gone in less than 5 minutes). My friends both opted for blended frozen something-or-others and seemed pleased with the results. 
While we waited for our session to start, we milled around the cafe, checking out the artwork (all available for sale), and peering into the cat room to see which fluffy felines were out and about. 
After a quick list of “dos and don’ts” and a round of hand sanitizer for everyone, we were allowed into the cat room, which is beverage and food friendly as long as you make sure the cats don’t steal any extra snacks from your plate/cup. It was really hard to keep my “MUST SNUGGLE” impulses in check, but I reined it in and took up a seated position on one of the many poufs available. I sipped my beverage and tried to let the cats come to me. I also may have set my croissant in the middle of the table in front of me to lure the kitties in; I figured if they were anything like mine they’d have to investigate.
This snuzzy beauty is Charlotte; she napped the whole hour we were in there and could not have cared less about the noisy, needy humans. I thought she was pretty clever – she had one of the best beds in the place and was high enough up most people couldn’t bother here. 
The indifferent calico below is Beatrice; she is chubby, a little grumpy, and full of sass – pretty much me in cat form. She was undoubtedly the queen of the cat room, and while she allowed us to adore her, she made sure that she moved to the next person after a minute or two to keep us from getting to full of ourselves. After watching her work the room, we decided that the single name “Beatrice” simply wasn’t enough for this regal creature, so we started referring to her as Lady Beatrice Wobblybottom of the Tallahassee Wobblybottoms. In all seriousness if I didn’t already have five cats of my own, I would adopt her in a second. Sass respects sass. 
While I was wishing I could adopt Lady Beatrice, my friend Cassie was having her heart stolen by this handsome guy. His name is Vlad, and he has one of the most beautiful plume tails I have ever seen. On top of his glossy coat and inky whiskers, he was a HUGE cuddle bug. Loved the ear and chin scratches and even gave me a kitty kiss on my cheek. 
It will probably come to no surprise to you that Vlad was adopted two days after we met him; we were a little sad that we wouldn’t be seeing him again, but happy that he found a fur-ever home. He and his owner were featured on the cafe’s Instagram page, and she looks like she is just as in love with him as we were. 
I won’t go into our interactions with every cat, but I will say that they were all really sweet playful babies. You think having all of those people around would be a bit much, but they were just so excited to be snuggled and make new friends.
Alas, after our hour was up we had to bid adieu to our new friends. I am hoping that I’ll have time to make another visit this weekend.
To find out more about the Tally Cat Cafe, you can check out their website or follow them on Facebook or Instagram. They also have information available on how to adopt or for any interested parties.
