Cats Herd You

If you’re visiting St. Louis like I was last week, it’s a great opportunity to visit the Mauhaus cat cafe. Housed in a lovely historic building that dates back to 1900, this friendly cafe is full of light  and cats.

The sidewalk sign outside said it all. Hanging out with cats is a great stress reliever, and it’s nice when you’re far from home and your own cats.

When you enter the cat cafe  through the cafe, a large painting looks over you and the friendly barista. The two culinary cats in the painting are the Mauhaus permanent residents, Lorelai and Taylor. All of the other cats in the cafe are adoptable through Stray Haven Rescue.

Before going through the glass doors and into the cattery, you can order a drink or a pastry. They had the cutest cat-themed cookies!

The cattery itself is built to delight cats. One wall is made entirely of a shelf unit designed for the cats to traverse from floor to ceiling, or ceiling to floor in Taylor’s case in this photo. He had been sleeping above the front windows and used the shelf system and its cat-sized pass-throughs to work his way down to visit.

The middle of the room has an massive cat tree stretching from the floor to the tin ceiling made of wood matching the wall unit. The cat tree leads to a catwalk that spans the room.

The catwalk stretches from the wall with the wall unit across to the cat tree and then continues to the edge of the big windows. Can you spot the cat snoozing on the catwalk?

Huge windows make this space a bright and sunny one. Cats were happily snoozing on beds placed on the broad windowsills in the early afternoon sunshine during my visit.

This kitty is named Catfish. He is wearing a collar to warn you that his tummy is a trap. I thought that was an interesting way of informing cafe visitors which cats were amenable to tummy rubs.

Taylor, the permanent resident cat, likes tummy rubs. Isn’t that a happy face?

Little Binx was eager to play with a wand toy. You can see in the background that the built-in wall units include hiding spaces for the cats. From what an employee said, they also have a basement space, away from cafe visitors.

Drowsy Turbo looked anything but fast.

Visiting a cat cafe mid-day means you are entering during cat siesta time and will find drowsy kitties. Cats crepuscular animals, meaning they are most active in the twilight morning and evening, and cafe cats can’t resist their genetically programmed urge to sleep during the middle of the day. It doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in your company. Pollo Loco, with typical cat priorities, was very interested in what kind of goodies he could find on the table.

Mauhaus is the most architecturally beautiful cat cafe I’ve visited, and one of the friendliest, too. They are a great stop when you are visiting St. Louis.