A local woman has started a fundraiser in hopes of raising support for Ciao Meow Cafe, which she hopes will become Athens’ first cat cafe.
The cafe, which will serve food and coffee while allowing customers to hang out with furry feline friends, will also serve as an adoption center, according to the Ciao Meow website.
Cat cafes, which initially caught on in Japan, have popped up in various U.S. cities over the past couple years, including hipster hotspots like San Francisco, Brooklyn and Portland, OR.
The woman behind the local project, who prefers to remain anonymous “since I still am working full time and prefer my company not know my plans right now,” says she is “still in the beginning stages of planning for the cafe.”
She’s currently selling “Black Cats=Good Luck Charms” T-shirts via a fundraising site to raise money for the cafe.
The description on the T-shirt sale reads:
An Athens townie who loves animals wants to start her own cat café, so this is the first of her ventures to raise money to put toward a business plan that will hopefully make her dream a reality. A shirt that promotes black cats as good luck charms seems like a good way to get started… because black cats are good luck, right?! They may get a bad rep, especially around Halloween, but we all know fur color is just fur color and black cats have a striking beauty that’s all their own.
I think I speak for all local cat lovers when I say: This is going to be amazing.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.