I was really fascinated by the concept of the cat cafe, as written about at length by online culture magazine Vice. A cat cafe is not a cafe for cats, but a cafe for cat-lovers who come to socialize not just with each other but also the cafe’s coterie of resident cats.
Daily life in Japan — especially in its urban centres like Tokyo and Osaka, is highly isolated and very stressful. People live in very small apartments and are rarely allowed to have pets by their strict landlords, so many lonely singles do not even have a dog or cat to comfort them during troubled times.
Some enterprising Japanese businessmen have solved that problem, with the introduction of cat and dog cafes. For a small fee, pet-lovers who are not pet-owners can come and have some quality time with their favorite cats, without the long term commitment of owning one. You can feed, pet, and groom the cats just like a real owner, but do not have to deal with the messy work of cleaning out the litter box — best idea ever.
My flatmate and I are mums to three adopted strays, and while I love Chikkin, Tabby, and Nina and their affectionate cat ways, litter duty is something that I will always hate — so good job Japan! You have solved another one of the world’s problems :3
JPOP Manila 
Oh how wonderful, I love cats and I have several of my own.
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lol one of our cats is pregnant — would you like to keep some of the kittens? 🙂
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Of all names, why Nina? Bakla ba yan?
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LOL rael named her not me 😀 and she is gorgeous ❤ you want pics? 😀
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For some reason this makes me kinda sad. I mean, what happens to the cat if the part-time owner loses interest in it (ex. he/she gets a boyfriend/girlfriend or gets married or whatever)? Does it get passed to another part-owner? Anyway, those cats in the pictures look well-groomed and well-fed so I guess they’re doing ok. When I was in Osaka last November, I saw a homeless man with at least five cats on his cart. His pets were fat! I wonder what he feeds them.
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in japanese cat cafes the cafe owners are the “owners” and guests are merely “borrowing” them during their stay at the cafe 🙂 the cafe staff take care of the cats for the length of their feline lives 🙂
as for the vagrant with the incredibly well-kept cats, that’s actually not uncommon — even in manila 🙂 some homeless people keep pets for company, and their pets a higher priority than even themselves.
when they find discarded food, the cats or dogs eat first before the owners. i know it seems sad that they are out on the streets but they seem happy enough in each other’s company.
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