Harmony, a gray tabby shorthair cat, was found abandoned in a dumpster at just 2 months old.
Sweet yet shy and quiet, she was brought to Red Rose Animal Rescue in Rochester, where she turned 1 year old and had yet to be adopted.
Then Harmony was brought to the Pawsific NorthWest Cat Cafe in Olympia. Two months after the cat cafe opened in May, two customers applied to adopt Harmony the day they met her.
The Pawsific NorthWest Cat Cafe is the county's first and only cat cafe and one of less than 250 cat cafes in the country. Part cat adoption center and part cafe, customers can meet — and adopt — about a dozen cats and kittens like Harmony provided by from local cat rescue operations.
"You're actually getting to see their personalities and actually getting to play with them and see how they act with other cats, see how they act with you and your kids," owner and manager Tiffany Weitzel told The Olympian. "So I feel like it actually kind of accelerates the process of getting them adopted."
With a $15 reservation, customers get a drink and 50 minutes with the cats. Customers without a reservation can still place orders and view the cats from the dining and children's areas just outside of the so-called cat room.
Among the menu items: sweet and savory treats, smoothies, tea and coffee such as one Cat-ppuchino. Even some of the artwork on display in the cat cafe is cat-themed.
Like the cats, the artwork and part of the menu are local too. Olympia Coffee Roasters is just one of the vendors in the community whom the cat cafe works with, Weitzel said.
"I feel like this should kind of become the norm for how you adopt and how animals are saved," Weitzel said.
How did the cat cafe start?
When Weitzel started fostering cats with Red Rose Animal Rescue in August 2022, the plan was to foster only two at a time. But soon, two became 10, then 15, then 20.
"I had no idea when I got into fostering the need that there is in our community," Weitzel said. "All these cats come from here."
Weitzel wanted to meet this need. For about a year and a half, she worked with Red Rose Animal Rescue to run adoptions out of her own home in Tumwater. The room Weitzel used looked like the cat cafe's cat room.
But her at-home cat room became too time-consuming and expensive, so Weitzel looked for alternatives. One was a cat cafe, and Weitzel decided to end almost 20 years of work as an intensive care unit and emergency room nurse to open it.
"This one involves just as much caffeine, just as much coffee," Weitzel said with a laugh. "But there's a lot more serotonin, a lot less adrenaline with the kitties."
The cats and kittens of the Pawsific NorthWest Cat Cafe come from Red Rose Animal Rescue, Oly Camp Kitties, Passionate PussyCats Feline Rescue, Feisty Felines and Hava Heart.
Rescues like these do not get funding in Washington state, Weitzel said. Between applying for grants, fostering and more, rescuers struggle to both adopt out and find enough money to continue doing so.
By adopting out for rescues, the cat cafe relieves that struggle.
"The more kittens that we can get adopted, then the more kittens we can say yes to," Jeremy Jones, a Red Rose Animal Rescue foster and one of the cat cafe's two volunteers, told The Olympian.
All fees for adopting a cat go to the rescues each cat is from. Of the $15 reservation, $5 goes to the customer's drink, and $10 goes to food, litter, supplies and the cat cafe's other expenses.
Weitzel averaged about 20 to 30 adoptions per month from her at-home cat room. In the two months it has been open, the cat cafe has adopted out over 80 cats and kittens. Weitzel wants to increase that number to an average of 50 adoptions per month.
"It'd be great for the rescues, it'd be great for our community to be able to move and safely home that many cats and kittens," Weitzel said.
How is the cat cafe run?
To cats and kittens, the Pawsific NorthWest Cat Cafe is their play space.
But before any cat can play, each goes through a check-up. After a cat comes in from a rescue, staff check it for colds, infections or other sicknesses. The rescues also spay, neuter and vaccinate each cat before sending it to the cat cafe.
"[The cat cafe] gives us a spot to actually send the kittens to once they've had their spay and neuter and they're healthy and everything," Jones said.
Before entering the cat room at the top of each hour, customers must follow four steps.
First, wait for staff to let them inside. Second, cover their shoes with cat cafe-provided booties. Third, wash their hands. And fourth, follow the rules: no running, no yelling, no throwing, no picking cats up, no waking up sleeping cats, no chasing cats, no restraining cats and no food — though yes to drinks.
The booties and hand-washing are part of the cat cafe's efforts to keep the cat room — and its cats — clean. Staff disinfect the cat room in the morning, evening and between reservations. And on Tuesdays, the only day the cat cafe is closed, the cat room is deep-cleaned ceiling-to-floor by a three-person crew.
"Everything stays really, really clean," Weitzel said. "It's just a little more enjoyable for people not to have to worry about that kind of stuff coming in."
As many as 12 customers can enter the cat room at once. Awaiting them inside are between 12 and 15 cats, mostly kittens, relaxing among cat toys, towers, tunnels, houses and cushions. Two resident cats, Phoenix and Felony, watch over the rest, stopping the occasional catfight or cuddling with the cats that need it.
To adopt a cat, customers apply by scanning its corresponding rescue's QR code, all of which are posted on a wall of the cat room. Once the rescue approves their application, customers can pick their cats up from the cat cafe and bring them home.
The cat cafe does not list its cats online.
"My big thing is not wanting people to put an application for a cat that they haven't met yet. I don't want people to fall in love with a photo and then come here and find out that that's not the cat for them," Weitzel said. "So it's easier to come in here first and meet the cats and see who really clicks with you. Cats are really good at picking their people."
The Pawsific NorthWest Cat Cafe is open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays through Saturdays; from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays; and from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays.
Reservations start 30 minutes after the cat cafe opens. Customers can book online or walk in, though the cat room may not have space for walk-in reservations. Children under 6 years old cannot enter the cat room, and an adult must accompany any child under 13 years old.
Grace Joyce and her partner married a couple of months ago and were looking for a pet they could call their own. When they visited the cat cafe on July 20, they found Harmony, no longer as shy or quiet after two months there.
"She was super cuddly with us," Joyce told The Olympian. "Super sweet."
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