There’s Such a Thing as a Cat Café?

I’m not a crazy cat lady or a cat collector (my husband and I have two cats – a reasonable number), but I feel like I can’t live without them. The last time I was without a cat for any period of time was when I was 12-13, when my cat Breeze was hit by a car, and I was so distraught my parents made me wait a year to get another.  When I was older and between apartments, I slept in the motor home in my parents’ driveway rather than get an apartment where I couldn’t have my cat. I was lucky to have that luxury. Some people have no choice but to be cat-less for a period of time.

Thus, I can understand the logic of a “cat cafe” in Japan, although I didn’t know they existed until I saw the article the other day. The idea of people stopping for a drink on the way home from work and paying to play with cats as a way of relaxing makes perfect sense to me (and cats and tea just go together, don’t they?). In a country where the apartments are very small and pets are generally prohibited, what is a cat lover to do?