Cat cafe, Tabby Teas, plans to reopen soon. Although they don’t have a set date, they aim to reopen at the start of October.
Due to a cat arriving with cat flu, the cafe has been closed since 22 July; most of their cats were rescues from Mill House Animal Sanctuary.
Their website says: “We’re sorry to say that this shelter has had problems with maintaining animal health.
“In our attempt to rescue cats we have inadvertently brought cat flu into our home”.
The cafe was originally meant to reopen in early, and then moved to late September. They said, in a statement: “The cleaning process and refurbishing are taking a lot longer than we thought.”
It continued: “We are also waiting on test results for the new cats and for them to have their full vaccine courses as we need to take these steps to ensure they aren’t carrying anything contagious”.
The reopening has now moved to October because: “getting the cafe ready and finding suitable cats is proving much more difficult than we thought.
”Rescues are overrun and too busy to work with us or haven’t got suitable indoor cats as they mostly get in strays.”
Although none of Tabby Tea’s cats were severely affected, there was a risk of them being carriers.
This led to the decision to rehome them, to stop the risk of a new cat contracting it.
The cats, they explained, are the priority, and this decision was deemed the best for all involved. The past few months involved deep cleaning, rehoming and finding new cats.
The cafe was a much-loved place by many.
Lola Flora, a second-year Medicine student at the University of Sheffield, said: “I loved stroking all the cats because I miss my pets loads when I’m at uni”
“The cats were obviously really cute and there were lots of toys you could use to play with them”.
When contacted about their reopening, Tabby Teas explained they will only be allowing a ‘small number’ of people in at a time.
This is because they are still in the process of finding new cats – so there will be a limited number to start with.
For any recent updates about the reopening, keep an eye on their website and social media: Tabby Teas website and Tabby Teas instagram.
We reached out to people who have visited the cafe.
Martha Morris, a second-year Digital Media student at the University of Sheffield explained: “My visit to Tabby Teas was a comforting break from my busy uni schedule”
“The staff knew all the cats, their quirks and personalities…overall I’d recommend it to any cat lover”.
Image credit – Martha Morris
