Come for a coffee, leave with a cat: The purrfect idea, say this pair

Coffee, cats, chats (or meows) and more.

Colin Williams and Josh Eddy are opening Newfoundland and Labrador's first cat café — the Mad Catter — in August on Duckworth Street, in the former location of the Bird House, ironically enough. 

However it's not a bring your own cat operation.

"All the cats in the café will be up for adoption," Williams told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show.

"So people can't actually bring their own cat unfortunately, which is the common question we get. Just for the health and safety of our animals and yours, it is just our cats that are allowed in there."

• Adoption rates growing at Atlantic Canada's first cat lounge

The cat lounge and coffee shop will be separated in case you're not a cat person, but you can also lounge with the felines if that's something you're interested in.

"You can grab your cup of coffee and you can take it to go and just look in the windows at the cats if you want," Williams said.

"Or you can take your coffee and then go into the cat lounge and hang out with some cats for a while."

Lots of cats need new homes

Williams and his partner did research before deciding to pounce on the opportunity for the province's first cat cafè. While in Europe they had seen similar businesses with cats who actually lived in the shop.

"In North America they typically are adoptable. Any cat lover knows there's quite a number of cats in need of homes in St. John's, so we like the idea of being able to play a role in that as well," Williams said.

"It's a unique thing. It's something new, it's something exciting, something enjoyable to do. I'm a big cat lover myself. I have one cat, he's going to be eight soon, but it's nice to go in and interact with these animals."

The pair have a working timeline.

"We are still waiting on our final permits for everything to move forward with the little bit of renovation and work that we have to do," Williams said.

"But for now we're going with early August."