Taipei Times
Date: Jan 29, 2017
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

Taiwan is believed to be the site of the world’s first cat cafe, with the concept spreading to Japan and other countries around the world. A few coffee shop owners in Taiwan are hoping to further expand this concept by attracting not only pet-loving customers, but also those who are willing to adopt one.

Hope (讀貓園-貓咪中途咖啡) is one of those shops. Unlike most cat cafes, Hope is also a halfway home for stray cats rescued from animal shelters. It was founded by a woman nicknamed “Leblanc” and her husband in 2013, after a couple of years of operating a cat hotel.

“I started providing a halfway home for stray cats about six years ago. Most pet shelters at the time had serious problems, especially with infectious diseases, so I decided to help cats from rescue shelters first,” she said. “My motto was ‘give hope to the most hopeless ones.’”

“However, it was a painful experience, after putting so much effort into taking care of stray cats from the shelters, spending so much time treating their diseases, and then seeing them die,” she said.    [FULL  STORY]