Purr Joy! Cat Daddy Cat Cafe brings new excitement

Mohammad Saadeddin is greeted by the familiar warmth of a swarm of cats he helped raise whenever he enters his Cat Daddy Cat Cafe. 

 Saadeddin opened the cafe on North Main Street to give neighborhood cats a warm place to stay after caring for the stray cats behind his nearby restaurant, Noma Bistro. The cafe, which opened its doors on Jan. 16, has navigated its first weeks of business with a warm reception from the community.

“We really appreciate the people around here,” Saadeddin said. “They really show up and champion the cause. We are really happy to have the community over here be really receptive to cats. We have a problem here with stray cats, so hopefully we can help that out.”

Customers like Susan Leonard get to enjoy desserts, lemonade, coffee and teas much more while spending time with the dozen cats at the cafe. 

“The selection for the food is very lovely, the pastries and the coffees and teas,” Leonard said. “It is just a very happy place.”

Cat Daddy Cat Cafe employee Kat Hartley has seen Saadeddin’s passion for cats. 

“Mohammad is the original Cat Daddy,” she said. “His entire purpose was to help the cats in the neighborhood. All these cats’ moms were feral, and he essentially gained the cats’ trust. And by the time they were very pregnant, he would take them in and deliver the babies. The cats here were all hand-raised by him so he is very dedicated to these cats.” 

The cats at the establishment are not up for adoption. But Saadeddin has plans to work with adoption agencies in the future. The benefit of adopting from the cafe instead of another adoption agency is apparent, Leonard said.

“This place will be a better introduction than the typical shelter environment for people to let the cat choose them,” Leonard said. “They have this sensibility with us, and they pick up on us. This environment would allow a connection to be formed.”

 Saadeddin has experienced the difference of owning the cafe compared to Noma Bistro in these first weeks of being open. 

“When I get a headache from the restaurant, I can come here and just kind of relax,” Saadeddin said. “This is a completely different business because you have to worry about them every single minute. They are living souls, so you have to make sure they are being treated well and not overworked.”

Cat Daddy Cat Cafe is more focused on supporting the cats it houses than the business aspect of the cafe. 

“I do not want to make money off of this,” Saadeddin said. “I just want to have a good cat and have whatever money we get go to what the cats need.”

Saadeddin hopes the cat cafe will provide comfort to specific groups in the community.  

“Cats are very therapeutic,” Saadeddin said. “We are going to be doing work with the autistic community as well as the Alzheimer’s community to bring them here as a group to spend some time with the cats.”