Feline fanatics waited for up to two hours outside the first-of-its-kind Cat Cafe on the Lower East Side Thursday, just for a chance to play with adorable and adoptable kitties.
Cat-food maker Purina ONE and the North Shore Animal League opened what they are billing as the nation’s first such eatery, at 168 Bowery.
“I love the cats! I wish I could have an animal in the city,” said student Susanna Mazzoleni, 29, of Astoria. “Cat Cafe was on my bucket list of things to do. I waited for an hour and a half.”
The cafe will remain open through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day.
A cat-adoption truck is scheduled to roll up to the temporary coffee shop on Saturday. All the felines are spayed or neutered and ready for adoption.
“I would love if this were permanent, especially because the animals get adopted,” said Mazzoleni. “All of the cats were playing and jumping around.”
Cat cafes are big in Japan, where feline fanatics often have barriers to pet ownership because of building rules or just the small spaces where they live.
So instead of owning a feline of their own, animal lovers often go to cat cafes to sip their favorite beverage while rubbing paws with cats wandering freely around the store.
“We waited two hours. The line was about to go around the corner,” said Nathalie, a 26-year-old writer from Alphabet City.
“I’m not allowed to have cats in my apartment.”
By the afternoon, many of the furballs appeared to be worn out and wanted nothing more than a cat nap.
“I’m not sure how into it the cats are,” Nathalie said. “They just seem like they’re looking for things to hide under. We’re trying not to harass them.”
Organizers said they want to spread the word about feline health, and have no plans to make this a permanent shop. Not yet, at least.
“Certainly, it’s something we’d never say no to,” said Purina ONE spokeswoman Niky Roberts. “If there’s an appetite for that, it’s certainly something we’d be open to.”
Additional reporting by Laurel Babcock and David K. Li