A look at Ailuromania Cafe – the UAE’s first cat cafe

Society’s fascination with furry felines has reached a fever pitch, amplified by daily online viral videos, fanciful Twitter feeds and celebrity kitties including the film star Grumpy Cat and Karl Lagerfeld’s Choupette, who has her own Instagram account.

But while the UAE has a steady stream of stray cats to adopt and an obsessive national love of coffee, the country has been so far left out of the latest trend, which combines the love of animals with cafe culture. That is all about to change in Dubai, where Saudi-born sisters Iman and Allaa Ahmed Al Aulaqi are opening Ailuromania Cafe – the UAE’s first cat cafe – at the end of the month.

In the meantime, Iman is introducing a few of her core team members, ET (sphynx), Mocha (Siamese), Snow, Mo and Jumbo (Persians), to their new home in Jumeirah, where she hopes to attract the kind of fanatical devotion found in cat cafes in other locations, including Paris, Portland, San Diego, New York and Yokohama, Japan.

“I’ve only chosen cats that are sociable, ones that will adapt to the surroundings easily,” says Iman, 23, as she lifts the green-eyed sphynx that is wearing a snugly pink sweater. The cat struggles free from her embrace and leaps onto a fully wrapped couch in the still-unfurnished cafe.

“We call him ET because he looks like the character from the movie,” says Iman. “Sphynx tend to feel very cold, so she wears a sweater. And she loves to snuggle around the neck to keep warm. She is like a parrot.”

The young entrepreneur, who recently graduated from American University in Dubai, has five cats of her own and has fostered more than 12 in the past two years.

Last year, when she was contemplating a start-up, a friend sent her images of a cat cafe in Korea and that struck her as the perfect match for her career goals.

“I’m just combining my obsession with cats with my desire to be a businesswoman,” says the finance graduate. “It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

Original article by Afshan Ahmed

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A look at Ailuromania Cafe – the UAE’s first cat cafe