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Sunshine Kitty Catfe brings coffee and cats together in the best way

My first thought when I heard about a cat cafe was it was a place cats and their owners can go to meet up with other cat owners and buy coffee and cat food. I was surprised to learn that wasn’t it. A cat cafe is a place where people can go for their morning cup of coffee and just hang with feline friends (don’t worry…a glass wall separates the cats from people). The great thing about a cat cafe is there is also the option of adopting a cat from the cafe.

There are around 60 cat cafes in the US right now and St. Petersburg is next on the list with Sunshine Kitty Catfe. I talked to founder/CE-Meow Amanda “AJ” Jones and she gave me all the details for my latest Creative Loafing article.

An excerpt:

“The first cat cafe in the U.S. opened almost five years ago in Oakland, California. Since then, a number of them have debuted in other cities all over the country, including New York, Seattle, Atlanta, St. Louis and Orlando. 

St. Petersburg could be next.

We know, we know. A place called Downtown Tabby promised to introduce St. Pete to its first cat cafe back in 2015, which didn’t happen. However, a new joint, Sunshine Kitty Catfe, aims to make the long-awaited project a reality — fur-real.

Billed as a coffee shop with a twist, Sunshine Kitty is the brainchild of founder and “CE-Meow” (get it?) Amanda “AJ” Jones. Cat owners can’t take their own felines to the catfe for some catnip, but they can sip cups of joe in a calm locale while spending time with kitties they’ve never met.

They might even end up giving one a forever home.

“There will be a cat lounge where adoptable cats will live, and you can get to know them,” Jones said. “It’ll be like a big foster home for cats. People can come hang out with them.”

According to the registered nurse who works at St. Anthony’s Hospital, providing cats with a home-like environment decreases their stress, because this kind of setting is understandably more relaxing.”

To learn more about Sunshine Kitty, follow along for updates on IG and Facebook. Amanda has a t-shirt campaign on Bonfire right now to get the word out about the cafe. Interested in seeing how cat cafes work, go here to read the rest of the CL article.