January 19, 2018
If you haven't visited a certain unique coffee shop in Ljubljana yet, and if you don't mind feline company (and perhaps even crave it), there’s still time to visit Cat Café in Prule, Ljubljana, before the only such place in the country closes its doors for good on January 31.
The place begun its cat’n’coffee business at the end of February 2015, with five cats and two humans, who got the idea from a similar café they once saw in Vienna.
However, in October 2017 the café banned children under the age of 10 due to the difficulties some youngsters had with following the rules of cat etiquette. Following its Facebook announcement of closure about a week ago, speculation soon began as to whether or not the under-10 ban had anything to do with the decision.
In order to dismiss such concerns, the owners explained to Dnevnik that the ban and closure were not related, and that café wasn't meant to be a long-term business venture from the very beginning. This is so because they didn't plan to give the cats away once they (the cats) got too old and needed to retire, but wanted to keep them instead.
The seven cats who currently liven up the café are thus staying with their owners, or other members of their family.
But if it wasn’t problems with children, why is the café closing?. There are two reasons, it seems. The first is that business wasn't doing as well as it perhaps could have done, due to the high costs of maintaining so many cats. Second, the owners are expecting a baby in March, and now want to focus on other things instead.
However, the couple are not willing to sell the venue, they told Dnevnik, but refused to reveal of any plans they might have for it in the future. A Kid Cafe, perhaps?
