With the high level of Dubliners now living in apartments and rented accommodation, the number of people unable to have their own cats is as high as it has ever been. Crazy Cats Café shall cater to both locals unable to have their own pets and tourists looking for a slightly different setting in which to enjoy their downtime. – Crazy Cats Café
THE WOMAN BEHIND the plans for Ireland’s first cat café (yes, you read that right – a cat café) is looking for your help in launching her business.
Georgina O’Neill is the woman behind Crazy Cats Café, which would serve not just tea and pastries, but also the chance to hang out with rescue cats.
She spoke to DailyEdge.ie about her plans for a Dublin café last October, and now she has ramped them up a notch. O’Neill has just launched her crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to help her raise enough funds to open the café, stock it with the necessary items, pay rent, and buy cat toys.
Raising money
Georgina said she needs to raise €50,000 to make her vision a reality, but as she is long-term unemployed, she has had difficulty raising sufficient capital on her own.
She says she has tried several options and also looked at what other cat cafés have done. Now she hoping that the thousands of cat lovers in Ireland will help her raise the funds.
The money pledged to the café will still go towards O’Neill’s fundraising even if the €50k goal isn’t reached. Georgina assured that should she fail to raise enough capital, and can’t open the café, everyone who donated will be fully refunded.
O’Neill was inspired by the cat cafés of Taiwan (the first one opened there in 1998), and how the craze has spread throughout North America and Europe.
Georgina wants to work with locally-based charities to re-home suitable rescue cats in the café.
What about hygiene?
According to O’Neill:
There is always a concern about food hygiene within any establishment and we realise that some people may be concerned about our delicious food and drinks coming into contact with our cats. To stop the cats raiding the fridge and getting their little paws on our goodies, the food storage, preparation and serving areas are going to be completely separate from our cat lounge where our visitors can enjoy all that we have to offer. Our cats will be restricted to designated areas away from food stuffs.
Will the cats be happy? O’Neill says that their welfare will be the café’s top priority, and that they will live in the café and have regular health checks (as well as their vaccinations, boosters and wormers).
O’Neill said in October that she plans to have the café open in September 2015, but this depends on raising the required funds. Find out more about her crowdfunding project here.
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