As many of you already know, when we left home in the US for South Korea we had to leave our two favorite fuzz balls at home. Izzy and Benny are in good hands though, but we miss them a lot. Instead of two cats running around we have children on weekdays and our boss on those days and all the rest. It's just not the same as two snuggly, meowing cats.
So I was super excited when we first moved here to find out that Korea has different kinds of cafes, some of which are cat and dog cafes. Well, we have known that there was in Choengju from the beginning and knew of its location in Shinae (that's downtown), but hadn't actually made it there yet. After going to lunch in Shinae with two friends from the UK we decided we'd check out the cat cafe. It was a good idea and we had a good time. You get a drink and a snack and you can hang out and play with the cats, all for 8,000 won each.
The whole concept of pet cafes is a very interesting considering the living situation of animals here and people's general disregard for animals and their well being. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that these cats were certainly not neutered, and possibly not spayed either. I wonder how they handle
that.
That said, I give you the cat cafe, Hello Cat, which is located on the 4th floor of a building in Shinae.
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| As you first walk inside the cat cafe, to the left is this board of cat pictures and what I am going to assume are profiles. In the same guesstimate I will assume that the small poster to the left is rules for while you are at the cafe. One of those rules being that you leave the cats with the yellow scarves alone (for whatever reason). |
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| This is the view looking toward the entrance of the cafe. There are double doors and there is a small area where you remove your shoes (as you do in many places) and to keep that cats from just escaping out the doors. The swing is a nice touch. :) |
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| These kitties were napping pretty much the whole time we were there, despite being bugged by all the girls. |
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| This is another view of the cat cafe after you turn left once you pass the swing. You can sit at tables near the window or visit their small library. If you look carefully you can see the white cat on the table near the tree. |
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| The cafe provides cat toys, so the kids were all running around with the little sticks trying to get their attention. |
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| This little girl was too cute. Since we were the weird foreigners in a novel place, I think we became a novelty too. All the kids were trying to practice their English and say hi. This little girl knew some English, but she got really shy when I started to ask her questions. We played with the kitten together for a little while. |
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| This is the view from our seats since we were on the 4th floor. Yes, that is a cat sleeping on the bed at the window. |
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| Zach made a friend! And that's my iced green tea latte. |
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| I think that everyone is happy with this arrangement. |
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| This little troublemaker was attempting to get into my bag. It was proposed that I should shove the rest of him in my bag and take him home with me. :) |
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| This was the cutest fuzzball. We went in and it was sleeping and when we left it was still sleeping. So precious! |
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| Everyone flocks to the cats, wherever they may go. By the way, check out the girl's weird shirt... |
Without further ado, I give you Sir Grumpy Fluff (my name, obviously). He was trying to escape and not succeeding. He was very much displeased with his lack of success.
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| Aww, look at that adorably grumpy face. |
We had a really fun time at the cafe though, we'll definitely have to visit again and hopefully I can get some more pictures. We need to check out the dog cafes too, but the closest one is in Daejeon. I'm sure we'll make it that way sometime in the near future.
