After years of visiting shelters and pet stores, Tonya Williams wanted to find a more open and comfortable way to get cats adopted.
She opened the first Cat Cafe in St. Charles in November of 2022. The Cat Zen Cafe and Lounge is on Main Street and houses roughly 20 adoptable cats at a time plus three resident kitties.
“When I visited a few cat cafes I thought it was a genius idea to have kitties in an open space, where they can free roam, they can be comfortable, relaxed, and people can come in and get a feel for their personality,” Williams explained.
The cafe acts as a community foster for Smelly Cat Rescue. While the cats are at the cafe, they get exposure to people and other cats instead of being stuck in cages in a shelter. Williams’ favorite part of the cafe, other than getting to go to work with cats all day, is helping the cats find homes. “When they come here, seeing them blossom and open up once they know they’re safe, they’re loved, they’re spoiled,” she said.
People are welcome to come in and get to know the kittens and cats to find their new family members. But Williams also pointed out that the cafe is open to more than just adoptions.
“Some people come in and think that they have to be interested in adopting a cat to visit the lounge and that’s absolutely not the case. You can come and visit and support the kitties, support the business, just by interacting and hanging out with them.”
Two regulars, Alyssa Moses and Zach West, come to the lounge two to three times a week. They both have gone to other cat cafes but prefer to come to the Cat Zen Cafe and Lounge. “I feel like this one just has more of a friendly feel, not that the others are bad, this one’s just my favorite,” Moses said.
West told us that he appreciates how the cafe works with other small businesses. He said, “They do a lot of like collaborations with local stuff like that, and I really like that it builds like she said, a community for people to come to and everything.”
The Cat Zen Cafe and Lounge is a beautiful space full of loving and playful kittens who are looking for fur-ever homes. For anyone who needs some kitten cuddles or is starting to look for a new family member, the cafe is the place to go.
And for university students, a quick tip, the cafe offers a 10% discount when you show your school ID.
