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Catitude building in West Columbia.<\/p>\n
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It started with a trip to Sonic. Maria Garcia and Jaime Andres Ortega couldn\u2019t help but notice the stray kittens in the dumpster of the fast food restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to trap them and we just couldn\u2019t because they kept running,\u201d Garcia recalled.<\/p>\n
It was then they got the idea for a cat caf\u00e9, a place that kittens and cats could meet prospective owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to do something to help the kitties because cats have lower adoption rates,\u201d she said. \u201cThey also have high euthanization rates, and we figured this could be a good thing to do to find kitties good homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the\u00a0American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized each year. Of that 1.5 million, 860,000 of them are cats while 670,000 of them are dogs.<\/p>\n
The cafe called Catitude opened at 118 State Street\u00a0in West Columbia in November 2017. For $15 admission, guests get to enjoy cat-inspired beverages and treats as they play with the cats upstairs. If guests feel a connection with one of the cats, adoption is an option. But the business is about much more than entertainment while drinking and eating \u2013 it\u2019s about giving the cats inside a second chance at a home.<\/p>\n
The shelter cats at Catitude are from PETSinc in West Columbia. Garcia, who serves as vice president of Catitude, says she and Ortega partnered with PETSinc because it is a no kill shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why we wanted to partner with PETSinc. is because they are a smaller shelter and they\u2019re also a no kill,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThe wonderful thing about them is that once we empty them out of kitties or they just have more room, they pull from kill shelters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caroline Tart, the kennel administrator at PETSinc, sees the benefits of the cat caf\u00e9 environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can get socialized. People can see how they act in a, you know, an atmosphere, basically like their house, whereas here they\u2019re all in a shelter,\u201d said Tart.<\/p>\n
While the cats wait for their forever home, Garcia makes sure their stay at Catitude is just as comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been kitties we bring here that they don\u2019t think they\u2019ll do well in their general population rooms,” Garcia said. “But they do well here because we have a big enough space where if they don\u2019t like other cats they have room to be away from them and it\u2019s more of a home environment versus a shelter.”<\/p>\n
For more information on Catitude, visit the website at www.catitudecatcafe.com.<\/p>\n
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Maria Garcia is the vice president of Catitude.<\/p>\n
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Cats have plenty of toys to play with at the Catitude cat cafe.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Catitude, cat lovers can hang out with kittens and cats that are awaiting adoption. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":12949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"It started with a trip to Sonic. Maria Garcia and Jaime Andres Ortega couldn\u2019t help but notice the stray kitties in the dumpster.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe tried to trap them and we just couldn\u2019t because they kept running,\u201d Ms. Garcia recalled.\r\n\r\nIt was then they got the idea for a cat caf\u00e9.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe wanted to do something to help the kitties \u2018cause cats have lower adoption rates,\u201d she said. \u201cThey also have high euthanization rates, and we figured this could be a good thing to do to find kitties good homes.\u201d\r\n\r\nAccording to the\u00a0American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized each year. Of that 1.5 million, 860,000 of them are cats while\u00a0670,000 of them\u00a0are dogs.\r\n\r\nCatitude opened at 118 State Street\u00a0in West Columbia in November 2017. For $15 admission, guests get to enjoy cat-inspired beverages and treats as they play with the cats upstairs. If guests feel a connection with one of the cats, adoption is an option. But the business is about much more than entertainment while drinking and eating \u2013 it\u2019s about giving the cats inside a second chance at a home.\r\n\r\nThe shelter cats at Catitude are from PETSinc in West Columbia. Garcia, who serves as vice president of Catitude, says she and Ortega partnered with PETSinc because of they\u2019re a no kill shelter.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe reason why we wanted to partner with PETSinc. is because they are a smaller shelter and they\u2019re also a no kill,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThe wonderful thing about them is that once we empty them out kitties or they just have any room, they pull from kill shelters.\u201d\r\n\r\nCaroline Tart, the kennel administrator at PETSinc, sees the benefits of the cat caf\u00e9 environment.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey can get socialized. People can see how they act in a, you know, atmosphere, basically like their house, whereas here they\u2019re all in a shelter,\u201d said Tart.\r\n\r\nWhile the cats wait for their forever home, Garcia makes sure their stay at Catitude is just a comfortable.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere have been kitties we bring here that they don\u2019t think they\u2019ll do well in their general population rooms. But they do well here because we have a big enough space where if they don\u2019t like other cats they have room to be away from them and it\u2019s more of a home environment versus a shelter,\u201d said Garcia.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFor more information on Catitude, you can visit their website at www.catitudecatcafe.com.","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[96,76,77,119,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12544"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13998,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12544\/revisions\/13998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}