Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« For the First Time Ever, Mitt Romne… | The New Seattle Theater Fringe Fest… »

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Cats I Am Indifferent to Cats

Posted by Cienna Madrid on Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 12:34 PM

Some historians consider it my only flaw. And it is why Japan would never embrace me as their leader. Via BBC:

Whisker by whisker, cats have begun to replace coffee as the top draw in cafés across Japan.

In a country where many citizens do not have the time or space to care for creatures, “cat cafés” provide the experience of having a pet without the responsibility or hassle of ownership (not to mention the logistics of getting a cat into a carry-on).

Though the first cat café, named Cat Flower Garden, opened in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998, the concept blossomed in Japan, where nearly 150 such spots have opened in the past decade, mostly in the country’s capital of Tokyo. Visiting with kitties does not come cheap, however. At Calico, one of Tokyo’s most popular cat cafes, one hour of cuddling costs 900 yen [$10.90/hr], with 200 yen [$2.42] for each additional 15 minutes. Drinks cost an extra 200 yen each, but are slightly cheaper than the 400 yen grande lattes available at the feline-free Starbucks.

If cafes replaced cats with guns and coffee with vodka Red Bulls, this concept could really take off in the US.

Cat nip, ciennasmommy.

FacebookShare

Comments (27) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

that is cheap for anything in Tokyo :)

Posted by JonnoN on April 4, 2012 at 12:36 PM

You may be indifferent to cats now, but you have a long life ahead of you. They will get to you one day, mark my words.

Posted by gloomy gus on April 4, 2012 at 12:38 PM

It's OK to be indifferent to cats. Most of them are pretty indifferent to us, too.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on April 4, 2012 at 12:41 PM

I really must offer purrs and head-butts for "cat nip."

Posted by rob!

on April 4, 2012 at 12:42 PM

As long as you don't hate them. THAT would be a personality defect.

Posted by Matt from Denver on April 4, 2012 at 12:42 PM

I feel about cats the way Bukowski felt about people: "I don't hate them, I just feel better when they're not around".

Posted by Fnarf

on April 4, 2012 at 12:58 PM

How 'bout cats AND guns? I'd pay five bucks for a syrupy bucket of latte-snot if it came with a try at shooting a cat. And a Benadryl.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on April 4, 2012 at 1:01 PM

We have used bookstores filled with cats, who needs cafes?

Posted by thatsnotright on April 4, 2012 at 1:20 PM

Man, I need my fix, I'll just go hang out at Ophelia's Books in Fremont. They've got three or four cats just roaming the store, who LURVE attention.

Posted by Ruke on April 4, 2012 at 1:20 PM

Never admit you don't like cats around cat people. They will either try to infect you with the cat madness or begin incessantly talking about cats until you're forced into retreat.

Posted by balderdash

on April 4, 2012 at 1:24 PM

Set up a shop like that with corgis, and I'd start drinking whatever they served.

Posted by usagi on April 4, 2012 at 1:29 PM

Am I the only one that would love a cat-cafe that sold vodka-Red-Bulls?

Posted by algorhythm99 on April 4, 2012 at 1:43 PM

Cats were indifferent first. Cats ftw.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 4, 2012 at 2:01 PM

Cienna grew up with cats. We always had several. They would show up and take over our house, with their pushy coy cuteness and claws. One used to shit in our bathtub EVERY FUCKING DAY. Cienna speaks from a Learned Position.
LIke Gods and Religion, it doesn't matter what you love or find comfort in dressing up, pretending it loves you back, I just don't think that anything that shits in one's literal or figurative garden should be hoisted on anyone. Except latte drinkers.

Posted by ciennasmommy

on April 4, 2012 at 2:29 PM

#6 - I'm sure you knew this already, but Bukowski LOVED cats in his later years. As did Twain, Hemingway, W.S. Burroughs. Hitler apparently liked dogs.....

(I like dogs, too :>)

Posted by catsnbanjos on April 4, 2012 at 2:52 PM

strangers shouldn't try and cuddle with my cat - he goes into a purring trance and tries to bite your face. you have to know what you're doing.

Posted by Max Solomon on April 4, 2012 at 3:01 PM

This is why I like my services to have dogs that I can visit. I'm not ready for a dog, but when I get my hair cut or get a massage, free snuggles!

Posted by royalpigeon on April 4, 2012 at 3:22 PM

If I have to read one more WiS ftw post I'm going to grab a cat and break it's neck.

Posted by heywhatsit!? on April 4, 2012 at 3:26 PM

This historian* considers your indifference to cats your greatest strength, Cienna.

*I am not a historian.

Posted by Mike on April 4, 2012 at 3:35 PM

My god I've found my calling.

Posted by lizlemon on April 4, 2012 at 3:48 PM

@15, good for them. But an affection for cats also means an affection or at least a tolerance for cat HAIR, and that ain't never gonna happen. I also don't think much of cat shit, but all my cat-loving friends apparently adore the stuff, since they can hardly wait to go collect it. And their houses stink of it.

The closest I want to get to cat shit is Susan Mudgett's famous "Deep Shit Cookies", which are light-and-dark roll cookies, filled with a few curls of spaghetti for "roundworms", served in a litter box full of Grape Nuts cereal, with a litter scoop and a few squirts of Hershey's syrup for extra joy. Put it on the floor at your next party, and casually pick one up and eat it while you're talking to that special person you want to impress. Just make sure the cat doesn't get to it before you.

http://bertc.com/subfive/recipes/deepshi…

Posted by Fnarf

on April 4, 2012 at 3:49 PM

$10 an hour to pet a pussy?

That's gotta be the cheapest cat house in Tokyo!

Ba'Ding!

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on April 4, 2012 at 3:57 PM

I've always felt that cats were a bit on the whorish side. Now they're being pimped by humans. But are dogs pimpable?
Animal welfare aside, this could be good for the environment if it takes off. But then, most space efficiencies that start in Japan, end in Japan.

Posted by doloresdaphne on April 4, 2012 at 4:19 PM

I'm bookmarking that recipe for future use. That is too awesome.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on April 4, 2012 at 4:56 PM

@24, I've seen people get seriously shaken up by it. Such joy.

Posted by Fnarf

on April 4, 2012 at 5:14 PM

The Japanese love cats in cafes, but Americans would indeed go for something more like a Bro-fe, with arm wrestling competitions, fake tanning cubicles, sports, vodka red bulls, and plenty of awesome tribal tattoos.

Posted by Theoretical