Community Corner
Stretch Like a Feline at Catfé Lounge ‘Purrlates’ Classes
Bring your yoga mat to the Ferndale Catfé Lounge.
Ferndale, MI — What could be more purr-fect than the opportunity to get fit while also helping the Ferndale Catfé Lounge provide more homes to stray cats and kittens?
The classes with instructor Miranda Mayuiers are called — wait for it — “Purrlates,” and they’re offered at 9 a.m. on Saturdays at Catfé Lounge, located at 821 Livernois St., in Ferndale. There’s no fee, but a $15 donation is suggested.
Adoptable cats and kittens will loll around while you’re doing the “elephant,” the “swan” and other pilates moves.
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Cats being cats, you’ll have to work around the felines, which will sometimes take over the mat, Mayuiers told WXYZ-TV.
“It's a lot of fun. It keeps class exciting,” she said. “This class is all word of mouth and Facebook posts and we've been really fortunate that it's been doing so well.”
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More information is found here.
The Catfé Lounge opened last year. The concept in Ferndale differs from some other cat cafés around the world.
The Ferndale Cat Shelter doesn’t have physical facilities for homeless pets, so the Catfé Lounge gives people the opportunity to get to know adoptable cats and kittens while they sip java and surf the internet.
The world’s first cat café, Cat Flower Garden, reportedly opened in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998, and the concept has also flourished in Japan. In Tokyo, stressed-out office workers seeking respite from the world’s most crowded concrete jungle can stop by dozens of animal cafés that harbor a variety of animals — cats, of course, but also falcons, iguanas and many other species.
The idea quickly caught on. In Moscow, the Cats and People cat café opened this spring. There, cat lovers can not only bring their pets in for a cup of tea, but also rent and play with them in another room.
The first U.S. cat café in a permanent space — Cat Town Café — opened in November 2104 in Oakland, CA. A pop-up cat café opened in New York in April for a limited run, and others were expected in Portland, Los Angeles, Denver, San Diego and Denver.
Image credit: Catfé Lounge Facebook page
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