- In a place where the only cats most people see are the stray ones at markets, Genki Cat Café's 26 felines have helped make the animal more widely accepted
- Regular customers like to sit and watch the cats come and go, with giant Maine Coon cats the leaders of the pack
As you eat your beef rice bowl at the small cafe, an outsize 16-year-old Maine Coon cat with long fur and a tail to match has every right to jump onto the table. Another cat, one adopted from Taipei's streets, might brush your leg.
These human-feline encounters are hardly random. The Genki Cat Cafe, in business for 20 years, lets 26 cats do as they wish. Customers in the one-room cafe just off Taipei's metro line know about its rule by cats, and the space easily fills up at weekends.
Taipei people, who typically prefer to keep dogs as pets, learn about cats literally in leaps and bounds as they play with the cafe's permanent residents.
"I felt a change set in when I came in," says Chen Pei-jung, an 18-year-old dog owner who visited the cat cafe for her first time in August. "The cats are so cute, and there's even a cat that stands guard at the door. I used to think cats would get scared and attack people, but the ones here are very kind. You can pet them and they're nice."
Older Taiwanese believe cats "carry evil spirits" and will tell their own children to avoid them " if nothing else because they might scratch " said Linda Arrigo, an American-born academic researcher who owns nine cats in suburban Taipei. Generally, a Taipei dweller might see cats only living as strays in the eaves of wet markets or on rooftops.
Dogs are more accepted in Taiwan because they mix with humans more proactively than a lot of cats do, Arrigo says. About 75 per cent of Taiwanese have never held a cat, she estimates, based on her own cats' encounters in public. "My view is that somebody who likes cats is very caring, because cats are more subtle in their behaviour," Arrigo says.
There are cat cafes around much of Asia these days, including at least one other in Taipei, but the 20-seat Genki Cat Cafe enjoys above average recognition after two decades of word of mouth referrals.
"My grandmother's home is near here and I happened to pass by once," says Patricia Lee, 21, a university design major from Taipei who keeps telling friends about that initial visit three years ago.
She has come 10 times since and spends up to five hours per sitting there. "We just watch the cats come and go," Lee says, during a visit with friends. "They generally like cats. There are a lot of cats and a friendly atmosphere. We feel relaxed."
Cafe owner Tsai Wen-chieh established the cafe as a marriage between his career in food and beverage and his passion " pets.
He was raised with dogs and cats as a child in Taipei and began keeping cats in Japan 30 years ago as a student. His family moved to a suburb of Tokyo, where his parents still live. They worked there in the restaurant business. Tsai, now 60, moved back to Taipei after a decade to operate a pet store specialising in cats.
Tsai and his wife, the cafe's chef and co-owner, raised or adopted all the cats. They look after the cats now in a living space behind the cafe. "I'm with the cats 24 hours a day," says Tsai. The prevalence of Maine Coons, the world's largest domestic cat breed, gets them extra attention.
Dogs need attention. You've got to walk them or accompany them. With a cat, just accompany it when you have the timeTsai Wen-chieh
An outing to Genki Cat Cafe starts with a ring of the doorbell, upon which guests are buzzed into a sealed-off anteroom that prevents the cats inside running outdoors. Before opening a second glass door into the cafe, customers spray hand steriliser and exchange shoes for paper slippers.
They pay a flat NT$250 (US$8) for all they can drink, and can order from a short menu of Japanese dishes if they wish. (Cats get their own food). In the quiet atmosphere " a lullaby-like musical track is playing " most customers split their time between talking among themselves and getting down on the floor to pet a cat, unless one hops onto their table.
Except for a few that sleep or hang out in a private comfort room behind a cat flap, the animals welcome attention. Purring is normal; meowing rare.
"All the people here like cats and the cats here like people, because we've let them hang out around people since they were small," Tsai says.
"The challenge is our theme, cats, whether they can get along in this kind of environment and with customers. If they (the cats) cannot make a connection, then customers will find it meaningless when they visit."
To keep the atmosphere calm, the cafe normally bars dogs, and children under 12. Only grown cats inhabit the cafe. Visitors are asked to avoid holding the cats in case of mishaps, such as a hard landing, when customers let go of them. Tail-pulling is against the rules.
Some customers have their favourites from among the cats, Tsai says. Lee, for example, likes a cream-coloured Maine Coon she calls Hu Bao-bao. A six-year-old, snow white Maine Coon named Gibbon captures attention by lounging on tables, bypassing the on-site catnapping boxes and scratching poles.
"Cats are wonderful animals, and the number of people who can accept them is growing," Tsai says. "Dogs need attention. You've got to walk them or accompany them. With a cat, just accompany it when you have the time."
Genki Cat Cafe, No. 281 Fuhua Road, Taipei. Reservation phone: +886 2 2835-3336 (reservations encouraged at weekends); facebook.com/genkicat
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