Coffee with Kitties
Next time you’re in Vienna, drop by the Café Neko. Best go in the evening because some of the staff are snoozing all day.
Café Neko is Japanese for Cat Café. So, yes, it’s a Japanese cat café in the middle of Vienna, frequented by visitors from around the world.
The five felines, who prefer to play host in the evening are Sonja, Thomas, Moritz, Luca and Momo, all of whom came from the city shelter.
“I can do something good for the Vienna animal shelter, which I have been supporting for years,” cafe owner Takako Ishimitsu told the Daily Telegraph.
Ishimitsu moved to Vienna from Japan 20 years ago, and wanted to introduce some of her native culture to her new home. (There are 39 cat cafes in Tokyo.)
She said it took three years to negotiate the various hygiene issues involved in having cats in the café, but once it opened it quickly became a big hit with local people and tourists.
“One of our goals,” she said, “is to provide some happiness to people who cannot have cats on their own, because of their jobs or family members suffering from allergies.”
Here’s a BBC report:
And another from the Daily Telegraph: