Coffee shop offers cat adoptions
COLUMBIA — Cat lovers had a new place to get some coffee and pastries while adopting a new pet on Tuesday.
The grand opening of Columbia’s Papa’s Cat Café welcomed potential pet owners.
A Cat Café combined a coffee shop with an adoption center for cats. Papa’s Cat Café had two rooms divided by a double door entrance to protect coffee shop customers from dander and cat hair. Husband and wife team Ryan Kennedy and MacKenzie Everett-Kennedy said they got the idea for their new business after visiting a Cat Café in Seoul, South Korea.
MacKenzie Everett-Kennedy said, “A lot of time when cats are adopted, they’re returned if the personality doesn’t match. In our environment, you get to know the cat better, so maybe it’s a better fit.”
The cat room had a limit of 20 furry friends with a Key West theme.
Ryan Kennedy said, “My favorite author for the longest time has been Ernest Hemingway. It just so happens that Ernest Hemingway loved cats. His nickname was Papa. My daughter calls me Papa. It just kind of all fell into place that we would decorate as an homage to Ernest Hemingway.”
Boone County Animal Care provides the café’s adoptable cats. Some of the cats have special needs.
Papa’s Cat Café is next door to the Columbia Walgreens at the corner of Providence Road and Broadway Street.
