Coffee and kittens have Edmontonians purring

Edmontonians were feline the love on the weekend.

A pop-up cat café brought hundreds of cat lovers to Edmonton's Galerie CAVA for some coffee and cuddling.

Cat cafés first started popping up in Asian countries in the late 1990s. Local organizers Sarah Hoyles and Aaron Getz decided to test the waters here in Edmonton.

"We put the tickets on sale, and within a day they were sold out," said Hoyles. "That's 300 tickets. That means 300 people coming in to cuddle cats."

There were nearly 20 cats to cuddle. All are up for adoption through two local rescue organizations, SAFE Team and Zoe's Animal Rescue.

Cindy Poon bought a ticket for the event in hopes of finding a cat of her own.

She spent the one-hour session cuddling kittens and looking for the perfect match.

"It's fantastic, I want to live here," she said. "Fingers crossed I find a good candidate."

This was the second sold-out cat café Hoyles has organized. And with the success of the first two, she's already started planning the next.

"The very nature of a pop-up is that we pop up where you least expect it. So yes, there are plans for the future. We're thinking every three to four months."