LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Purrfect Day Cat Cafe is part cafe, part adoption agency. That two-fold business model made it difficult to navigate the ever-changing coronavirus restrictions.
"It's been absolutely crazy," owner Chuck Patton said.
Instead of looking at big picture changes, he said he has started taking things on a day-by-day basis. When there were restrictions on indoor dining, he shut the cafe side down entirely. However, there were still cats and kittens that need a home, so he continued to keep the adoption visits going by appointment only.
"Our numbers are up significantly compared to what they were the year before, which is crazy because the number of visitors we have in there was literally cut in half," Patton said.
He adds that this is a trend we are seeing with pet adoptions across the board. As people are home more often, many find it to be the perfect time to add a new member to the family.
At the Louisville Purrfect Day Cat Cafe location, there were 1,851 cat adoptions in 2020. At the new location in Covington, there have been over 130 adoptions in less than a month and a half.
"It's on its way. We are just optimistic that once vaccines get out and once it gets warmer that we can duplicate the success that the team has achieved here in Covington," Patton said.
While the adoption side is going well, that is not what keeps the lights on.
"As we are struggling through this, we may have had times that are losses. We have a social enterprise model, in which we very much embrace our impact on the community," Patton said. "We also very much embrace the business side of it. If we don't keep the business side of it moving, then the other part of it doesn't happen."
The cafe's goal is that customers will play with the cats and kittens, fall in love with one, and adopt. There's been less foot traffic lately as the business operates at a reduced capacity. People can still come to play with the cats by booking an appointment. Patton encourages people to do so even if they don't adopt because it helps socialize the cats. That, in turn, makes the cats and kittens better around people once they are adopted.