On a recent trip to Tallahassee, Florida, I stopped into the Tally Cat Cafe, a new cat cafe. Although the cafe has only been open since. May. It turned out to be a very special visit.

The Tally Cat Cafe opened at the end of May, so it has only been open for about 3 months. I was curious to see the place in part because it’s a cat cafe, but also because I grew up in Tallahasee and remember the storefront now occupied by the cat cafe as a pet supply store. Funny how things come full circle, isn’t it?

Walking in, the place looks nothing like a pet supply store. The cafe area that you enter first is painted a startling black, making the peach tones of the walls of the cattery really noticeable through the large viewing windows.  It’s an interesting contrast of the modern look of the cafe and the softer, more Southern colors of the cattery.

I paid for a drink and my entry fee, then headed down a short hallway to cattery. Like most cat cafes, there are doors to enter the hallway and then doors to enter the cattery to prevent escape artist cats from making a run for it.

The cattery itself is arranged with catification along the walls and mostly open space throughout the middle of the room.

As with most cat cafes, there is a closed door leading to what I imagine is some kind of a utility room that holds the litter boxes. The arches to the litter area had cat-shaped decorative molding. I noticed the light turn on when a cat ran inside, so it appeared there was some kind of a motion sensor in the room to minimize electricity use and also allow the cats to do their business without having to go in the dark. That’s a clever idea you could use in a litterbox area at home.

Without any other visitors, I was immediately surrounded by all of the cats who were interested in interacting with humans. I have been to cat cafes in the afternoon when all of the cats wanted to sleep, but I discovered that when you arrive first thing, the cats are a lot more interactive.

My new pro tip: Plan your cat cafe trips early in the cafe’s day for more interaction.

This also meant that when the barista brought my drink to me, I had a hard time being the first one to get to it. This little guy is a little young to be drinking coffee beverages!

The Tally Cat Cafe partners with the Leon County Humane Society. They are a no-kill rescue organization who pulls animals from other animal organizations who do euthanize for space, like the county’s animal control shelter. According to their web site, they don’t take animals from the public. So all of the cats in the cafe were rescued to save lives in other shelters in the area.

And the cat cafe has worked! In the first three months they were open, they adopted out 78 cats, which is amazing. The Leon County Humane Society reports that since January, the rescue organization has adopted out 101 cats and 151 kittens in total, which means 30% of their cat adoptions have come through the partnership with the cat cafe.

In fact, this little guy, Clooney, was adopted later the day I met him.

There’s a lot I don’t know about cat cafes that I would like to learn more about, including how the rescue organizations choose which cats are best suited to spend time in a cat cafe and which are better off at their adoption center.

Super-friendly cats like Clooney are obvious, but less-demonstrative but still very sweet cats, like Pamina, seem like they would be less certain choices. She took a while to warm up to me even though I was the only one in the cat cafe, sneaking up behind me repeatedly before letting me pet her.

She had the same opinion of kitten antics as she did of me, but the kittens weren’t as willing to let her sit by and watch.

From what I was able to learn, some of the cats who seemed kind of shy, like Duck, were new to the cafe and were probably still adjusting to the environment. Duck spent a lot of time watching me, but she always made sure she had an escape route in case I approached her with my grabby hands.

Elsa, the gray princess, put on her offended face every time I looked at her. Maybe this is why she has been at the cafe a while. Once she warmed up to me, she has the softest fur I’ve ever felt.

Garbanzo was all up in my business every time I turned around. He’s a very “me, me, pick me!” cat, and he was very curious about the sound my camera made.

He was also fascinated by my camera strap. People who have seen me at conferences will recognize this camera strap. I felt kind of bad taking such a fun toy away from him when it was time for me to to leave.

With his outgoing personality, you won’t be surprised to hear that Garbanzo was also adopted later the day I visited.

I love hearing about all the happy endings for the cats I met at the Tally Cat Cafe, and I really enjoyed my special visit there, too. If you happen to be in Tallahassee, be sure to drop in! There are new cat friends waiting to meet you.

When you see a big, purple bus with cat eyes on the front, it means one thing: The Acro-Cats have come to town!

I last saw them perform two years ago, but this time, but time they were traveling in a different bus, since the previous 1963 model was finally replaced in 2016 through a successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s also a great traveling billboard for the cats.

I was excited to hear that the cat circus was finally returning to Orlando, but the most exciting of all was getting to share it with a kitty-loving friend who had never seen them before.

The Acro-Cats Act

Samantha Martin, an animal trainer, travels the country with her cats, sharing the stories of how the different rescue cats in her group joined her family and show.

Some cats have mastered cute moves, while others show feats of great feline agility as they climb, balance, or leap through hoops.

Allie, one of the performers, is a great cat athlete, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest cat jump: 6 feet!

Some of the cats even do very circus-like tricks, like jumping through a hoop whose center is covered in paper.

One of the most fun things about the performance is when it doesn’t go quite as planned. As we all know, cats can have their own ideas about what to do and when to do it. At times, the feline performers wander offstage instead of performing.

When that happens, the show goes on with the other cats. Once the kitty returns to the stage from walkabout, they return to their jobs of performing.

It’s hard to believe how much how much dexterity and concentration these cats have.

I’m especially impressed that they perform these feats while a roomful of strangers is watching them, often behaving in ways that my cats would find alarming. For example, there was a woman sitting in the front row during our show who gave a horror-movie scream when a cat lost her footing and fell off a stool. My cats wouldn’t have come out from under the bed for an hour if I screamed like that, but the Acro-Cats are confident professionals, and the kitty jumped right back up to to continue.

The Rock Cats

One of the unique parts of the Acro-Cats show is their  all-cat rock band. It features various cats from the troupe performing on different instruments, like the bell…

… the xylophone…

…or the traditional rock band instruments like guitar, drums, piano, and cymbals. Yes, that’s a chicken playing the cymbals.

Of course, no band is complete without more cowbell, and they have that, too!

Acro-Cats Rescue

All of the Acro-Cats are rescue kitties, which makes these beautiful kitties extra-special.

Even more special, as the Acro-Cats travel around the United States, they foster kittens. When the kittens are old enough, they are adopted into loving homes among fans along the way.

While they were in Orlando, the Acro-Cats had two foster kittens with them. One was adopted the first night of the week of shows, and the second continued to make appearances in the show throughout the week. This little kitten was already doing basic tricks like jumping from one chair to another and sitting up on cue.

Look how small she is, and she is already trained to perform. That really is amazing!

Most of the foster kittens will find their way to loving homes, but a few will stay on with the troupe and become performers who travel themselves.

The Acro-Cats bring a wonderful, positive message about how capable cats are of learning and how much it can improve your bond with your cat to learn together. I left the show thinking “I can teach my cats to do that, too!”

Food trucks have been a big deal for a while. Here in Orlando, they were really, really popular a couple years ago, and there are fewer now.

But who could resist checking out a food truck with a cat theme? Not me! So I went out to see the Hello Kitty Cafe food truck.

Unlike most food trucks I have seen, this is more of an oversized, stretched van. Or a small camper. They don’t cook anything inside, so it doesn’t have the same size inside that food trucks that include various kitchen equipment.

They sell bottles of water shaped like bows and various cookies to eat. In addition to their foodstuffs, they also sell mugs and t-shirts.

I wanted to buy some of the special “Hello Kitty for President” cookies they promised to have, but I hadn’t counted on the size of the crowd. There were hundreds and hundreds of people lined up before the truck even opened for the morning!

I couldn’t spend my whole day waiting to buy a cookie, so I had to leave emptyhanded.

On the way back to my car, I spotted this car parked nearby. I suspect the owner of this car did stand through that whole line to buy special Hello Kitty memorabilia!

If you want to see the Hello Kitty  Cafe food truck near you, check out their upcoming events calendar on Facebook.