Pumpkin adores the attention he gets as the only orange tabby cat at The Caffeinated Cat Cafe. The 8-month-old cat is noticeably more hyper than the rest of the cafe cats and always greets customers with a meow, according to cafe owner Jaime Pierce. She emphasized that Pumpkin is much more than your run-of-the-mill cat. He is a natural-born leader.
“Pumpkin loves to run on the play wheel we have in the center of the room,” Pierce said. “He was the first cat to figure out how to run full speed on it. He’s taught many of the other cats too.”
Pumpkin and at least nine other cats reside at the cafe, which, after two years of tedious work with San Luis Obispo County, opened for business on Dec. 14.
Located in Grover Beach on the corner of West Grand Avenue and South 16th Street, Pierce aims to cultivate a stress-free environment where customers can play with cats and eventually adopt them.
The Caffeinated Cat Cafe is open every day of the week except Tuesdays and reservations can be booked online. Patrons can stay for 25- or 50-minute sessions. The cafe also offers monthly memberships and more information can be found on its website.
The cafe has two distinct rooms, where the cats spend their days traversing through a maze of play structures, couches and food bowls.
The cafe’s front room is a retail shop where patrons can buy stickers, clothing and other cat-related merchandise. This is also where drinks can be purchased through a self-serving machine.
The back room, littered with toys and blankets, is where customers relax and hang out with the cats.
Pierce, the owner of the cafe and a 2001 Cal Poly alum, noted it has sold out every event and facilitated twelve cat adoptions as of Jan. 13.
“It feels really exciting,” Pierce said. “It’s humbling, it’s amazing, our community has been so supportive and they are just showing up. The door opens constantly.”
All rescued cats at the cafe come from the business’ two partners—the Feline Network of the Central Coast and the Cal Poly Cat Program.
Founded in 2002, the Feline Network of the Central Coast is a nonprofit dedicated to the medical care and adoption of kittens and cats in the southern cities and towns of San Luis Obispo County, according to their website. They do not have a shelter and rely on a network of over 100 volunteers, including Pierce, to foster kittens for adoption.
The Cal Poly Cat Program is a nonprofit adoption shelter located on campus. Initially a senior project in 1992 by animal science senior Garrett Quindimil to trap feral cats, the organization has since expanded their mission to medical care and adoption.
“[The cafe] has been absolutely amazing for our kitties,” said Caroline Thomsen, an adoption coordinator for the Cal Poly Cat Program. “It has already helped several of our cats that have been with us for a while finally find their forever homes.”
Both organizations follow the trap-neuter-release (TNR) method for managing and rehabilitating feral cats that are not comfortable around humans. TNR programs will capture cats, spay or neuter them, and then release them back into the wild or into suitable barn homes.
Pumpkin and other kittens that are comfortable around humans are brought to the Caffeinated Cat Cafe after receiving all their vaccines and being tested for common feline viruses.
“If we know that a cat is more shy and nervous, we would ensure that they go to a calm and quiet home where they would be most comfortable,” Thomsen said. “We make sure to accommodate to each individual cat’s needs when adopting them out.”
The cafe hosts events like cookie decoration days, children’s storytime readings and community crochet nights. Pierce’s dreams of hosting events like these in a cat cafe began when she came across Hawaiian cat cafes in 2022.
How the cafe came to life
Pierce’s initial excitement was quickly quelled by the strenuous process of obtaining the proper permits and insurance from the county.
“Finding a location that would take cats; that was hard,” Pierce said. “Many owners just said no way. This whole county had never heard of [a cat cafe].”
The cafe’s initial success can be attributed in part to its community outreach efforts. Pierce accrued 168 supporters and $16,513 through a fundraising service called Kickstarter to support the cafe beyond its opening.
The first cat cafe ever in the United States, “Cat Town,” opened 11 years ago in Oakland, California.
Pierce’s cafe marks the 17th cat cafe to open in California. San Luis Obispo County is the 11th out of the 58 California counties to open a cat cafe. Today, there are over 250 cat cafes across the country according to Nancy Taylor, a blogger who researches cat cafes across America.
Launa Stettmeier is a patron who attended the cafe’s “Cookies, Cocoa, and Cats” event last month. Despite not being as much of a cat lover as her granddaughter Claire, Stettmeier still acknowledged the important role of a place like the Caffeinated Cat Cafe in a cat’s adoption.
“I think it is just really important to socialize them,” Stettmeier said, adding, “There’s nothing worse than a skittish cat that doesn’t want to come near you, or is afraid. Just giving them love is really important.”
When asked where she sees the cafe going next, Pierce said they might expand at some point. For now, just getting here was Pierce’s goal.
“I’m so over the top excited with how well it’s going and how positive everybody has been,” Pierce said. “There’s really been no negativity and I’m so grateful for that.”