For those of you that have been long-time followers of my blogs you just may recall a trip, I took to the Melbourne Cat Cafe way back in October 2017. You can read about that day here! On that day, I took my daughter for her birthday as she is a huge cat lover. And we visited again in 2018 also for the same Birthday customer. This year, we found out that there is a cat rescue centre located in Preston, Victoria that has a cat lounge where you can just hang out with the kitties. So despite having three cats at home, we made the trek out to the Maneki Neko Cat Rescue Cat Lounge.

As I have written in the past, cat cafe’s are a huge deal in Japan. And what started as a simple play space for people to play with cats soon evolved into owl cafes, snake cafes and even porcupine cafes. Theses are scattered all over the more tourist popular areas in cities like Tokyo. Here in Melbourne, the first cat cafe that opened was the one we visited over the previous two years. This new Cat Lounge was very similar in nature as it featured a front store that sold all things related to cats. Then there was a very large space full of arm chairs, couches and giant cat scratching posts. Along the high windows were shelves where the cats could lounge and bath in the sun.

The cafe itself didn’t actually serve any meals however I did notice a small fridge with drinks inside. Instead there was a blackboard with the name and number of a local cafe so you could order anything they had on offer and they would deliver it to you in the cat lounge. We didn’t take up this option but we did enjoy lunch later at the very same cafe.

The room also featured baskets of cat toys for you to entice the otherwise fairly relaxed cats. There were about 20 cats of varying ages in the main lounge and many relaxed on window sills and scratching posts. Others ran around us seeking attention and cuddles. Some were a little scared as they were new to the lounge – especially this smaller kittens. But overall, the mood of the lounge was really relaxed. We spoke in hushed tones, as did the other people visiting the lounge.

In a side room there were three cats in isoaltion. Unfortunately these guys had cat imune difficiency and were kept away from the other cats. You could still go in a play with them which was nice. There were plenty of water bowls and food containers located around the lounge space and all the cats seemed to be in great health.

The Maneki Neko Cat Rescue is just that! A cat rescue shelter for cats that come in from vets and even the RSPCA. All of the cats in the centre are up for adoption and you can spend some time getting to know the cats and their temperaments before you make the life-time decision to adopt a cat. I think that this is a great way to do it and avoids people making mistakes when choosing a cat that suits their lifestyle. The Maneki Neko Cat Rescue is open from Thursday to Sunday during the day and they take bookings for time in the Cat Lounge via their website here!