We spent the day at the cat café! -Affogato

Hello, Weirdos! Today was a great day! We organized an official WCLOCLE meet-up at affoGATO. Not familiar? affoGATO is a cat café in Cleveland (Tremont, to be specific). It is Cleveland's first cat café.  Cat cafes have been around for quite some time in places like Japan, but have just more recently become popular in the United States. According to Google, there are 72 cat cafes in the US, and 44 of those cafes opened up in just the past year! Cat cafes aim to provide a safe and welcoming environment for adoptable cats and to give cat lovers a place to come to relax and enjoy the company of felines. 
Let me tell you more about affoGATO, an official Weirdo Cat Lovers of Cleveland approved business! affoGATO opened on January 2nd, 2019. In less than a year, they have had 244 adoptions!! Their goal for the first year was 100, which they blew out of the water! All of the adoptable cats at affoGATO come from their partner shelter, the Cleveland APL. Since the café environment acts more like a person's home, it is a lot easier for shelter cats' true personalities to shine. It also gives the potential adopter an apt amount of time to observe the cat and see if their personalities are a good match for one another! affoGATO offers 1 one-hour session inside the cat lounge for $10. This cover charge is to help affoGATO keep up with the special costs of the cat lounge. affoGATO also offers a full service café! They have delicious coffee and espresso drinks and some sweet treats! And the décor- oh my it is a cat and cat lover's heaven! There are many shelves, cat walks, nooks, and soft and fuzzy crannies for the cats to enjoy. All of the artwork, books, and games inside the cat lounge is cat-themed. affoGATO is surely a place for a cat lover to visit at least once. 
If you want to learn more about affoGATO please visit their website! They do a great job of explaining the benefits of a cat café for the cats, the visitors, and the local community. 
https://www.affogatocatcafe.com/

If you missed out on this WCLOCLE meet-up, fear not, we will be scheduling more in 2020! Be sure to visit the WCLOCLE Facebook page to check for event posts and you can also check our website under "EVENTS."

​**Top group photo courtesy of page Mod Dawn Thomas- seen with WCLOCLE members Lisa Sample, Christine Munroe, Whitney Richards, and Barb Mondok**
**Bottom group photo courtesy of member Jen Braz- seen with members (top L to R) Russ Richards, Ramona Poole, Carrie Kellner, Robert Darkmatter, Cassandra Ungvarsky, Amber Tischler, Jen Braz, Kitty Tischler, Nicole holding resident cat Smeagol, (bottom L to R) Constance Mcgough, and Mary Flowers Arbogast.**