First, I love the concept. All about the concept of getting an hour of reserved time in a room full of cats for 8.00 an hour, as I'm a cat owner and lover myself. You get to spend that time with 9 other humans and around 10 cats or so (and wonderful cats I might add) in a very clean room with many areas and places to sit. What a wonderful way to get cats in front of potential human adopters. And, it does sound wonderful to get some food and drink from the downstairs café and bring it upstairs to the cat room so you can nosh while petting said cats.
OK, here goes the bashing. The business model or, at least the execution last evening between 7pm and 8pm (last hour of visitation) was not a good one for the cats. First, we enter the café to let them know we have a reservation and are directed to go upstairs and we do. Once there, no one greets us, meaning no one is checking to see if we had reservations or just walked in off the street. We couldn't tell who was a visitor and who worked there for quite some time. Later we noticed that most of the time we were visiting (we visited only 50 minutes because it didn't seem necessary to use the whole allotted time), there were no staff present in the room. The other thing greatly noticed was that try as you may, you, as the visitor, are not going to be paying close enough attention that you have left your food and drink unattended and in reach of one of the cats. You're going to be busy playing with and visiting with the multiple cats. Case in point -- another visitor had to let me know that a cat was headed for my diet coke and I had to remove a chocolate brownie left unattended by another visitor from the reach of a cat. Neither of us human visitors are bad people, just caught up in the moment with all the cats.
My husband and I were the last ones to leave the room and it was unsupervised at that time. It occurred to me that it would have been quite easy for us to snatch up a cat and tuck it under our coat or slip it into a big purse and head out with no one noticing. Yes, we had to exit through the downstairs café, but still, no one would have noticed. (P.S. After discussing with the co-owner, Sue, she assured me staff is always alert and on the watch plus they have video cameras in operation so that's a relief to know.)
Sooooo, bottom line, I'm all about the kitties and their welfare. The cat room should have an employee in there at all times there are human visitors and they should closely monitor the food/drink situation if they are going to continue to allow food/drink. Surely, they know the consequences of a cat eating/drinking certain human foods. Should I even have to point out the fact that chocolate can be lethal to a cat?
Because of concerns for the cats' safety (health and welfare), I give one star until/unless the business model is rectified. To be fair, I've also written to the management with my concerns.
**** UPDATE **** I just had a very constructive conversation with Sue, the co-owner. She actively and warmly listened to my concerns about the safety of the cats, mainly concerned with 100 percent supervision of the Cat Loft during visiting hours and actively monitoring the visitors' food/beverages being in reach of the cats given some of its toxic nature to cats. I came away feeling assured that she heard my concerns, along with feedback from other visitors, and is open to making needed changes for the cats' safety. Therefore, I'm upgrading my review. I still intend on re-visiting soon so that I can give the highest grade.