Coffee, Cats and Cuddles Together At Last!

Calgary has a cat cafe! It’s called Regal Cat Cafe and I can’t wait to tell you about it. Do you like cats? Of course you do. Do you also like coffee? Of course you also do. What about sipping coffee while chilling with a room full of cats? Adoptable cats! Regal Cat Cafe has both of those things. They opened its doors back in 2017 and have since become quite the attraction for locals and for tourists to visit. “Have you been to the cat cafe?” is a popular question here in Calgary. It is wheelchair accessible, too.

All of the cats you can visit are up for adoption through the MEOW Foundation. The MEOW Foundation is a no-kill shelter in Calgary for abandoned and rescued cats, and they do some truly great work. Make sure to visit the MEOW Foundation thrift store.

All The Details

Open daily from 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM.

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Easily accessible by foot, the Sunnyside c-train station is only a short walk away.

Regal Cat Cafe Price

To visit the cats It’s $10 for 45 minutes, per person.

You can bring your snacks and drinks in with you to hang out with cats in the Kitty Kingdom, while you figure out which one you’re going to adopt.

Parking?

Paid parking is available in the Kensington building parking garage (entrance through the back alley). Street and lot parking is also available throughout Kensington.

How Does It Work?

The cat cafe runs on a timed schedule as they can only fit 16 people in the room at one time, so they use an online reservation system. Book your cat cafe visit online. Yes you can drop-in and visit the cats, but due to popularity (especially on weekends), you may not be able to get inside if everything is booked up, or if they’re hosting an event such as a birthday or cat yoga. You’re always welcome to sit in the cafe side and stare at the kitties through the glass!

After paying for your time slot and filling out the consent form, you’ll be given a badge. Once the time begins that you booked, head on inside! Bring your food and drinks with you. There is a locker room (locks are free to use) and a sink to wash up before you go inside the area with the cats.

Before visiting the cats, you’ll need to read and follow all of the posted rules.

No, you can’t bring your own cat. No, no laser pointers either.

Open the doors slowly! Don’t want to hit anyone, or let cats out.

There’s always at least one staff member inside the cat area to answer questions, and to keep an eye on things. One of the rules people commonly break is picking up the cats. Not supposed to do that! Don’t forget. They won’t 🙂

The main kitty room is also kept really clean. There are a couple food/water dishes, but the majority of cat stuff is behind a wall. You won’t find cat litter or anything strewn all about, just cat toys. The cats are free to roam as they please in and out of the rooms. As well, there are plenty of cat shelves and platforms for them to use. Cats love being higher up, being able to keep an eye on their surroundings, so plenty of access has been provided for them to do just that.

The cats range in ages from a couple months to a few years, in all sorts of colours and fluffy levels. Plus, they’ve all been vaccinated and micro chipped.

Another thing to remember, you’re not allowed to pick the cats up. All of the cats at Regal Cat Cafe have been socialized and groomed to be happy and chill in their environment, but just like people, not everyone likes being picked up or touched in certain places. If they want to jump up on your lap, hey that’s cool, just let them decide that’s what they want to do.

The cat’s haven’t been declawed (never do that), so there is a risk they’ll swat or even resort to biting you if you’re doing something they don’t like. Hang out, be cool hunny bunny, don’t force their hand/paw.

Rest assured, Regal and MEOW aren’t going to place into the cafe a kitty that isn’t a perfect fit for that kind of environment.

The cats tend to either all be running around crazy excited or curious, or sleeping and being lazy bums. Usually happens after eating, with cats, with people, with anyone haha. If the cats are too busy snoozing, come back another time! They get a new batch of rescue kitties every 3 weeks or so.

As things are now, we didn’t see a single fight. The cats will probably be adopted out fast enough that top cats won’t last very long either. Here’s hoping, anyway!

About The Cafe

Staffed by PURRistas, it contains all sorts of cat themed goodies and snacks that you might expect to find at a cafe. There is also an assortment of non-edible trinkets, toys, clothing, tea, and other goodies you can buy. Macarons taste better if they’re shaped like a cat. Almost everything you see is for sale in the cafe.

The cafe area has separate ventilation to the area with cats. The cats don’t even get transferred through the cafe when being taken out for adoption – they’ve done their due diligence in settings this operation up. There are lots of windows, so you can totally just hangout outside and watch them.

In Conclusion

Regal cat cafe is a blessing to our city and to all of the homeless kitties out there.

It’s a fun place to visit for any reason any time, but in particular it makes good date night or place to take the kids, so long as you aren’t allergic to cats.