CAT CAFÉ RESEARCH PROJECT
As a sociologist, and a person who loves cats, I am interested in the social significance of cat cafés as social spaces and their connections to the larger cat rescue community. In summer 2023 and 2024, I received Gore Summer Research Grants from Westminster University to study the experiences, motivations, and connections that cat cafés and cat café owners have with the broader rescue and shelter community. The purpose of my research is to document adoption-centered cat cafés a decade after they started in the United States and to highlight the work being done to support cats and to get them adopted.
My research on cat cafés is framed from a sociological perspective. I am interested in these relatively new social spaces, how these spaces facilitate adoption and the visibility of cats, and the connections that cat cafés and cat café owners have with the larger cat community.
Research Question
What are some of the experiences, motivations, and connections that cat cafés and cat café owners have with the broader rescue and shelter community?
METHODS
interview + visual sociology + ethnography
My research uses in-person interviews with cat café owners, site visits, and photo documentation of these social spaces. I used purposive and snowball sampling to identify cat cafés for this study. Purposive sampling refers to sampling based on participants meeting certain criteria. Simply put, I recruited participants who own adoption-centered cat cafés, which are the common model in the United States. I also used snowball sampling, and cat café owners often suggested other cat café owners and cafés that should be included in the project.
My study includes a total of ten cat cafés – seven in the United States and three international sites. Cat cafés outside of the United States were selected based on their adoption-centered models, which are much less frequent outside the United States. I also chose international sites that are located in cities where I travel for teaching or research.
PARTICIPATING CAT CAFÉS
Cat Café Interview Questions
- How did you become interested in opening a cat café? What did the process look like for you? What were the reactions of people closest to you?
- As you were conceptualizing your cat café, did you contact other cat cafés or use other cat cafés as a model for your café? If so, which cat cafés inspired or influenced you?
- What were the biggest challenges to opening a cat café? Were there any part of the process that were easier than you expected?
- Were you previously involved in the cat community through fostering, rescue or TNVR?
- What networks, organizations, or people do you currently rely on for support?
- Do you work primarily with formal organizations, or do you rely on informal networks to identify and support the cats at your café?
- How do you select the cats that are at your cat café? Are they friendlies, special needs, senior cats, or kittens?
- How do you gain the trust of cats that don’t know you? In other words, how do you socialize cats?
- How do you see your role within the larger animal welfare/shelter community?
- What role does social media play in operating a cat café?
- What is the one thing you wish people knew about adopting cats?