Unique Wolverhampton cat cafe welcomes customers to meet furry friends after a series of challenges - here's what to expect
It's taken a long time and had more than a few challenges, but a Wolverhampton cat cafe is now up and running and welcoming guests to come and meet its furry inhabitants.
The purpose-built upstairs level of the Qattery on Victoria Street in Wolverhampton has been officially welcoming guests in to meet the 15 cats since the start of August.
Guests are able to book 30 minute slots at the cafe for £5, with a drink included, and can sit with the cats, all of whom are rescue cats from Qatar who were brought over by Qattery owner Debbie Morgan when she moved back to the UK.
There's a real variety of the types of cat in the cafe, from shy and retiring tabbies to more active and vocal tom cats, and a walk around the cafe finds plenty of nooks and crannies where the cats have places to sleep and play, as well as tables and seats for people to sit on.
Ms Morgan said there had been numerous challenges to get the cafe up and running, including getting the right permissions and legislation in place to have the cats in the building, and had had to push back the original opening date of the end of June to ensure it could happen.
She said that it had been good to get the cafe open and had found that there had been a lot of interest from the public since opening.
She said: "We've been here since April 23 when we completely revamped the upstairs area and were able to open properly on August 1 and it's been doing well, with a lot of people being interested in the cafe.
"The cats seem very happy as well and that's good as, to be honest, I was a little bit worried, but people have left us some lovely feedback and the cats seem to be comfortable and seem to really play to the crowd.
"I think that this cafe works because people love cats and will come and spend time here and the difference is that they're all my cats and they've been spoiled by me, so they're very friendly and people can pet them quite easily and they will come out to play."
Ms Morgan said that all the cats had make an impression, with Jasper being a particular attraction as a white cat with piercing blue eyes, while the long haired cats had also made an impression.
She also said that while it had been a good start, there were still issues to tackle around funding and being able to keep it viable and cover the costs, as well as raise attention.
She said: "We could do with more funding as we're talking about staffing levels because we don't know how many more people we'll need, plus we're trying to work out the customer base we've got.
"That includes how frequently people come in and what time they'll come and we've already changed the opening times back to 10am because we found that we'd have four or five staff on board at 9am and we'd have maybe two or three customers.
"Unbelievably, there's still people who aren't aware of us and don't realise that the cafe is down stairs and the cat cafe is upstairs, so there's a few things we're trying to work on and adjust to get more customers in."
While there have been a few struggles and a bit of an adjustment, Ms Morgan said she was delighted to have the cafe open and have a place for people to come and be around her cats, and said she hoped that it would help encourage more people to come to Wolverhampton.
She said: "I think that with everything going on in Wolverhampton, it's another thing which will make the city centre more attractive for people to come to.
"If people love cats and want to come visit them, then they can come down, have a drink and fuss over the cats."
