Two of the cats living at Kelowna's cat cafe and adoption centre, Catelowna.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

In less than seven months, Kelowna's cat cafe Catelowna is about to celebrate its one-hundredth adoption.

Owner and manager Ashley Karns says this adoption will be a massive milestone for the business.

“I would have never thought we would be here so soon, just shy of seven months from opening,” she told iNFOnews.ca, Feb. 2. “More and more people are finding out about us as a good place to adopt from.”

The cafe takes in rescue cats from several smaller rescue centres without access to large-scale public funding.

Karns said she was inspired to open the cafe when she was in between jobs and looking for a new purpose.

“After working as a volunteer in lots of rescue centres and seeing how utterly inundated they were with abandoned and neglected animals... I wanted to help somehow to find all these homeless pets and homeless animals homes and to try and find out the best way that humans could meet those animals and really connect.”

Over the past seven months, the business has received significant positive feedback from customers.

“We've created, I've got to say, a beautiful space. It's the ultimate cat playground,” Karns said. “It's also just really comfortable for humans to come and hang out in.

Inside Catelowna in Kelowna.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

“A lot of people have called it a spa or a sanctuary and just really relaxing. It’s been quite a few different groups of people who walk out of here with a very relaxed smile on their face.”

The cafe houses 30 rescued kitties at a time. 

The newbies are shown the ropes by Catelowna’s very first residents Wolseley and Pepper.

“They make all the other cats that come in feel comfortable and Wolseley has this magic thing he does... we were calling him Dr. Wolseley because he's kind of like the cat psychiatrist around here,” Karns said.

The resulting atmosphere is relaxing for anyone who enters, she said, but none of it would have been possible without the help of the community.

“We just really appreciate the community support and every visit does help rescue. Our success is success for the rescues that we work with.”

More information about Catelowna can be found here.

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