On Sunday, Aug. 11, Purrfect Day Cat Café reached its historic milestone, becoming the first cat café in the United States to have 10,000 cats adopted from its shop.
In tandem with the Kentucky Humane Society (KHS), the “purrfect” situation unfolded for the café and its owner/purrprietor, Chuck Patton, bringing in adoptable kittens and adult cats to the shop to make an impression on not only those in the city, but around the world.
“The biggest piece that I think needs to be said, beyond our appreciation for our partnership with the Kentucky Humane Society, is just an appreciation for the community,” Patton said. “Because they have supported this. They have been vocal about it. They have shared it. They have been incredible, and without them buying into what we're trying to do here and believing in it, we would not be at this number because there is this is now like 25-to-30,000 people a year coming in here, and some of them from all across the world, because it's kind of a tourism place, and that ultimately helps us to be able to fund what we're doing.”
Crossing the threshold wasn’t easy, but the idea to bring the café to life was almost instinctual for Patton, who said he began writing out business plans on napkins at another cat café in Charleston, South Carolina when he was told there would be a 4 hour wait for customers.
“‘What in the world is that? I don't know how a café is busy like that,’” Patton said. “And then she started telling me about how much of an impact that they were making, how they had to go outside of their counties in order to get more animals, and where they could do an outreach and save and things like that. So I just immediately started writing on napkins and saying, ‘I've got to do this. This is it. I finally found it,’ because I'm an animal lover and I have always had cats all my life. So I thought, no, I can really make this work.”
As for the level of success that his own café has had since its inception, there was no way he could have imagined being the first to reach such a milestone. Patton said as momentum began building, the help from KHS and Louisville’s community has helped ease the burden.
Patton said as KHS was putting cats and dogs up for adoption at a Feeders Supply location, he reached out to them to see about bringing cats to his café to allow for them to be adopted there.
“‘You know what? We're going to shoot for the stars. Let's see if we can get it,’” he said. “And of course, we did I think 10 the first day, 11 the next, nine the next. And we all had to go back to the drawing board and figure it out a little bit differently. But I had no idea it would end up lying down averaging now about 1700 a year.”
“Two words that I would use are surreal and humbling, because you work those plans, you try to do the best that you can, but to have people support you, like this community has, and collaborate with you, like Kentucky Humane Society does, and also buy into the vision like our staff does,” he said. “Those are crazy humbling experiences, and I am so appreciative of the entire team that has had to make this work. But it’s been amazing. It's been crazy that we reached that number.”
