Purring? Check. Coffee and cookies? Check. Adoption? Check!
What happens when you combine adorable, adoptable cats with a place that serves coffee, cookies and tea? You get the Charm Kitty Café, a relaxing new spot to have a little refreshment in feline company.
Located in Hampden at 3300 Clipper Mill Road, Charm Kitty Café is the first of its kind here. It’s the brainchild of Cam Tucker who visited similar cafés in other towns.
“I started to wonder why can’t we have something like this in Baltimore,” he says.
To make it happen, Cam had to find the right space, get Health Department approval, navigate the zoning process, and raise money. He also needed a shelter partner and found one in the Baltimore Humane Society, which is thrilled to have a new way to increase adoptions.
As a private no-kill shelter, the Baltimore Humane Society plays an important role in sheltering in our area. It can pull cats from open admission shelters, which are often filled to the brim with homeless cats. So, the Charm Kitty Café is another resource in the Humane Society’s tool kit.
Says its Executive Director Christine De Corse, “Having cats…here (at Charm Kitty Café) frees up space at the shelter, and it’s allowing us to save more cats.”
The Humane Society gives Charm Kitty Café 10 cats at a time, and they live in the café until they’re adopted.
Patrons are welcomed between 5:30 and 9:30 pm. They’re urged to make reservations online because there’s room for a maximum of 14 guests in the café at a time.
While there, they can enjoy coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and individually wrapped cat cookies, all while getting to know the kitties.
Some people just enjoy the mingling, but others are looking for a new forever friend, and as of this post, the café boasts 10 adoptions since its opening Sept. 30. Fantastic.
Once a cat is adopted, the Humane Society sends another to take its place.
With special events planned like cat yoga and a movie night, the café has a lot to offer cat lovers. Cam says “It’s just so much fun, and I’m trying to soak up every minute of it!”
If you want to get in on the fun, just make a reservation online at charmkittycafe.com.
And for a preview of what you’ll find when you get there, just watch this short video!
Pairing Yiddish and dogs may seem strange today, but it would have been even more unusual 100 years ago, said Burko, who received a doctorate in modern Jewish history from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
The dog park diehards tend to be more dog savvy and recognize the benefits of regular canine socialization and the "dog rules" of the park.
Miranda Mittleman, 28, is the author of two picture books, “We Are All Different” and “I Am Important,” with the third book in the “PAWS and THINK!” series scheduled to publish later this year, via indie press Mascot Books.
After a long, cold and lingering winter, it’s time to get out there and enjoy the springtime with your favorite canine companions.