'I'm setting up Wolverhampton's first ever cat cafe after rescuing 19 cats in Qatar so that we can give them all the love they need'

The Qattery on Victoria Street in Wolverhampton is set to become the first cat cafe in the city, providing a place for people to enjoy a drink and the company of a number of different cats, all of whom are owned by cafe owner Debbie Morgan.

The work has been ongoing to transform the upstairs area of the cafe into a full blown habitat for up to 15 cats, with beds, climbing frames and other toys for the cats to play with inside the room.

Ms Morgan had opened up the downstairs cafe, which had previously been Cafe Royale, several weeks ago, and had been busy working alongside her husband Wayne and her sister Marie Morris to get the upstairs area ready and also get the various licences and paperwork sorted out.

She said the idea of the cafe had come from having brought 19 cats back with her from her time working in Qatar and looking at ways to look after the cats while also working full time.

She said: "I lived in Qatar for eight years as a nurse and I've been a rescuer for the last six years, rescuing many cats and a lot ended up staying with us and adopting us and I just couldn't bear to leave them alone in Qatar as they wouldn't have been able to survive.

"We had hand reared some of them and some of them were rescued from the street, so we brought all 19 of them back to the UK with us and we built an extension at the back of the house, sort of a 20 foot Catio, for them.

"However, because we've got to work and it costs a lot to keep the cats fed and watered, it's very expensive, so we decided to look at sanctuaries, so that way we could house them and give them the love they need.

"We looked around and saw this business was up for sale and looked at the options of a cat cafe, so we can spend time with them, we can be at work with them and they'll have all the love they need."

Marie said she had been talking to her sister about their shared love of cats and they both started to have the same idea about the cafe.

She said: "I've never had a moment where I haven't had an animal in my life and we know how cats are and how they feel and we just have a natural knowledge of how they behave and what their needs are.

"One of the main reasons for doing this was because it was like a lightbulb moment and came from an off the cuff remark about the situation of realising that the cats need the love and attention and they adore human interaction.

"Debbie made the remark about how she didn't know how she and her husband were going to manage working full time and how the cats would be on their own all day and they would be stressed and we then talked about taking the cats to work and that got us thinking about doing this."

Both Debbie and Marie said there had already been a great response to the planned cafe, with a lot of people booking in to have a 30 minute session with the cats, with each session costing £5.

The Qattery will also work differently to other cat cafes as the downstairs cafe will remain a cafe with no cats inside, while upstairs will be the cat cafe, set inside a room modelled on a shopping mall in Doha in Qatar, with painted ceilings.

Debbie said the original plan had been to open on June 29, but would likely be later due to delays in getting licences and other paperwork sorted out, but said the work was going well to get the cafe open.

Marie said there were many benefits to a cat cafe, both from the cat and the human perspective.

She said: "From the cat perspective, we know that they crave attention and that's something they're not getting at the moment with Debbie and her husband putting the hours in, so it'll be great for them as they'll have so much to do here and it'll be fantastic.

"From a human perspective, we want to offer a community feeling as the cafe which was here before had already implemented some of those things, like the autism cafe.

"This is a community and we want to give something back and show that we are Wolverhampton."