[URBAN NOTE] On the first cat café in Vancouver and the continuing lack in Toronto

[rfmcdonald]

CTV reported earlier this week that Vancouver is getting its first cat café.

Vancouver cat lovers take note: The city’s very first cat café is coming to town.

The ‘breaking mews’ came July 10, when cat lover and blogger Michelle Furbacher posted the announcement on her blog.

“It’s official — the City of Vancouver has approved our permit application, and we will be starting construction and renovations in the next couple of weeks!” Furbacher wrote. “Thanks everyone for your ongoing support!”

The Catfé will open sometime in October at International Village Mall, 88 West Pender St.

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“Catfé will be part cafe, part foster home for cats, and altogether a community gathering space for cat lovers of Vancouver in need of some quality kitty time,” Furbacher writes.

Torontoist's Sheena Goodyear, meanwhile, looked at Toronto's continuing lack of said, noting the issues of the two leading candidates.

Since [Jennifer Morozowich] launched her Indiegogo campaign in June 2014 [for her Kitty Cat Café], Morozowich has come across a series of obstacles, the biggest being financial.

“One thing I’ve learned through this process is the amount of money required is not enough. You need to look at your budget and then get a shit-ton more on top of that,” Morozowich tells Torontoist.

It’s a lesson Jeff Ro and Ashkan Rahimi have learned all too well. The duo raised $12,921 of their $70,000 goal on Indiegogo last year for the cat café Pet Me Meow. But between lawyers, crowdfunding perks, marketing, and a pop-up cafe in June 2014, those funds have been depleted.

“All of the money that was fundraised was just re-invested back into all the costs that were associated with getting the campaign off the ground,” Rahimi says. “At this time, we’ve been really trying to explore investment opportunities.”

Rahimi and Ro are working with Startup Toronto to find compatible investors to get Pet Me Meow off the ground. Getting a bank loan for a café in the city is almost impossible in today’s business landscape, Rahimi says.