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| Collaboration with Octoberfly. Illustration Credit to Octoberfly |
There are only two reasons why are you here:
- Curious about Cat Cafe
- Didn't fully enjoy yourself in Cat Cafe
Second reason perhaps the main reason why are you here and I agree that because I also had some unpleasant moment for the first time I visited there. Whenever I visited cat cafe, I realized that at least half of the visitors failed to interact with the cats such that they just came here to have their drink and conversation with living cats walking around instead of interacting with the cat. That is pretty awkward. Here, I would introduce you some easy methods to get the cats attentions either they will come to your seats and eventually they might play with you.
Before that we need to know the nature of the cats.
Cat's Nature 101:
They are BOSSY because it is very hard to command the cat by using our mouths and they just simply enjoy doing whatever they like and based on their mood. There is no way human being can train a cat as obedient as the dog therefore dog claimed the title as "MAN BEST FRIEND". In history, ancient Egyptians worshipped Cat as God so we really need to use a different approach to interact with the cats. Consider that you are new to cat cafe and you're a stranger to the cat, it is unlikely that a stranger will get their attention by appearance or event the stranger approach them without some tricks.
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| They just simply don't care |
They are CURIOUS just like children. My experience in cat cafe that all the cats will still look at you for the 1st two minutes in the cat cafe. It is true that I am a stranger to them but they are still curious enough to know what am I until they realize that I am an ordinary human, they will return to their bossy mood as usual. This nature is very important because this is a key aspect to interact with them.
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| "Whose white paw is that?" |
"What is inside the box?"
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| What is this stick? Can I touch it? Can I smell it? Can I bite it? ~MEOW~ |
They are PREDATOR by considering that Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Jaguar and Cheetah are part of the CAT family. In another word, cat likes hunting too. When they hunt, just like its other family members, it will use paws/claws first. Once it got the "prey" then its tried to chew it. The video below I will show you that I lure the cat with the "mouse" and please observe its body behaviour.
As you can see, it enjoys hunting. It didn't capture the "mouse" immediately although it was very close. It prefer the exact timing to catch the "mouse" when the "mouse" decided to run. In another words, it don't really like free "prey". With a little intelligent guess, if you understand both of its curious and predator nature, you are a few steps near to know how to play with the cat.
Rethink about PETTING
Those cats here are not shy like strayed cats, most of them won't run away even though you approach them. Most probably, you will think that petting them is a good way to interact with them as shown in the picture below:
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| PS. Don't get fooled by its facial expression that it enjoys petting, it wasn't. |
Sadly to inform you that they don't really enjoy much with this conventional petting. It is alright to pet this way a little while but not frequently as some theory suggested that this way of petting will induce electrostatic that make the cat uncomfortable. In extream case, the cat would become defensive mood by scratching you with its claw.
When you are using this method, please recalled that the proper way is pet it from its head to its back not the other way round.
The FIRST CONTACT
As mentioned above, conventional petting is a bad choice to do your first move. A better approach is move your finger close to its nose. Let it smell your finger as shown in the illustration below:
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| Credit to Octoberfly |
There are a few reasons why this FIRST CONTACT is so important.
- You want it to be familiar with your body smell. As somehow, you might give the cat a shock with your foreign smell especially you suddenly touch it from nowhere. Most of the time, it flee or just defensive mode, it scratch you.
- A test whether do you get its approval to play with you.
If it dislike you, it just turns its head then went to other places as simple as that. On the other hand, either it directed your finger to its neck or it just simply bite it. Yes BITE but in a friendly bite. How about it directed the finger to its neck? It just tell you to massage its neck. Cat enjoyed massage on its neck and its head, they enjoy these massage more than the conventional petting.
Body Area to be AVOIDED
So I assume you received its approval to touch the cat so you may perform a little petting but a lot of massage. Massage the head, the neck, region around its ears and some cats enjoy the body part near its tail (not the tail).
There are some area should be avoided, as the cat felt that those region are vulnerable which are its paw and its stomach. When you touched its paws, it will immediately move its paw away from you. When you touch its stomach, it will immediately look at you. So just focus on the head and its neck, to be specific, scratch it. If you want a reference to learn how to pet/massage the cat, this video is very helpful.
What if you're a newbie, you have no idea whether you know the cat enjoy your massage skill hence you need to learn the basic body language.
Body Language: The TAIL
Let's talk about the human interaction. Sometime, you realize that the body language express the emotion better than the facial expression. Similarly, cats express their emotion directly through their tail even though you can observe its curious look and its "does not care" look as shown in the previous picture. The most common tail movement is its tail was wagging.
When you pet/massage the car and you saw its tail was wagging, you better stop. It can be interpreted as unhappy, uncomfortable or angry. Most people didn't have experience with cat and confused with the physical expression of a dog, they will misinterpret the wagging movement as happy, comfortable and enjoyable which is totally opposite meaning to the cat. Once again, just want to prove that how uncomfortable was the cat when I tried to pet it in the most conventional way as shown in the video below:
What did you observed above?
The most obvious will be the cat's tail suddenly wagging around.
What mistake had I done?
First, my finger come out of nowhere and then touched it.
I gave it a SHOCK.
When I touched it, I am using the conventional petting method.
I further make it feel uncomfortable.
Thank goodness, it didn't scratch me.
On the other hand, it likes you when its tail will be erected. Yeap, become straight and sometime just slightly curved/bent.
What if FIRST CONTACT FAILED?
If they decided to move away from you during the first contact, your only option will be luring them to your place. There are many ways to lure them, it just depend on how long it last. I can recommend four methods:
Method I: FOOD
The most effective of all methods. This is not ordinary food, it is WET FOOD such as Tuna instead of Dry Food. Most Cat Cafe allowed visitors to purchase wet food to feed the cat. A picture worth a thousands words, how about two pictures:
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| Get READY for WET FOOD |
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| FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME! |
Yeap, a can of wet food basically attracted 60% of the cats to approach you so it is super effective to attract all cats. The drawback is you need to recall both of their BOSSY and PREDATOR. You should expect that the cat will not give up, and jump to get the food. Necessary, it will try to grab the food with its claw and if they missed, the claw will hit you. Another scenario will be, sudden jumping shocked you such that you dropped the food, then the cat will just eat the food, you will be ignored once again.
Another health concern is if you didn't distribute the food evenly, they might get obese so personally I don't prefer to use wet food to lure them unless you have experience, you can handle more than 10 cats at a time.
Method II: "Strange" Object
As mentioned in the above, cats are as curious as children. If you brought your bag, about 1-2 of them, will pay a visit there by exploring what is inside in the "strange" object.
Through internet, the cheapest way to make a home for cats are boxes. So you might bring a small box to lure them. They may not really interested to stranger but they are definitely interested to "strange" object.
Here is my trick whenever I visited the only cat cafe (link: 貓の茶房) in my neighbourhood, I will order hot dog. Why??? The hot dog is fresh and it is packed in a box. Each time I order it, it will attract some cats.
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| What is this??? |
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| I smell something !!! |
First of all, it is a box and secondly the fresh hot dog attracted their nose in a longer range. So before opening the box, I would spend a few minutes to observe the cat's interaction. Just like dog, they will use the nose to find the source.
Once I opened it, the smell may attract it but the look may not. Therefore it is a lot safer than purchase a wet food for cats. Most of the time, my hot dog only attracted a cat each time. The joy is they approach you or to be precise they are approaching the food. Of course, it is also depend whether the cafe served hot dog for human.
Other than boxes, another good item would be a keyboard. Unused keyboard also attract some cat to take a short nap there. Or at least, they will stand on top of it for a few secs.
Method III: TOYS
Some cat cafe might lend visitors some cat's toys like an artificial paws or a "mouse". As compared to the above methods, toys required some tricks and skills. Recalled their nature again:
Last but not least, both of the photo and video were prepared by me however those sketch and illustration were prepared by Miss Octoberfly. If you enjoy her sketch, feel free to follow her in tumblr as shown in the link below.
- They are curious and also a predator.
- They are not really interested to play with strangers.
Hence, you need to set up the game for the cat such that it look like it is hunting a "prey" without your intervention. Allowed me to show you a failed example:
This cat just awake. As you can see, it would look at my notebook and then my
"mouse" attracted its attention. It jumped down and tried to hunt it by following it. However, once it made a U-turn and realized that I was the person who set up the "prey", immediately it ignored me and it just "throw" away the "mouse". See, that's what I called its Bossy nature.
"mouse" attracted its attention. It jumped down and tried to hunt it by following it. However, once it made a U-turn and realized that I was the person who set up the "prey", immediately it ignored me and it just "throw" away the "mouse". See, that's what I called its Bossy nature.
When you are playing toys, rule number 1 is never let the cat know the connection between the "prey" and you. In another words, it will be better to set up the game where you have some furniture covered you away from the cat's sight. Therefore, you can play toys with the cats in an open area. Here are a few example:
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| It just saw a white paw, it didn't know it was you |
As you can see, I will use furniture or curtain to hide my connection with the "prey" and most of the time, I planned to set up the "prey" appear out of nowhere. When the cat were excited or in its playful mood, it will just lay down by showing its stomach then it will try to catch the "mouse".
When you interact with the cat, it was willing to show you the stomach is a very good sign because it show its vulnerable part to play with you or the "prey". Perhaps, that's its lazier but most playful state.
Method IV: Your Fingers
What if the cat cafe didn't provide toys or the toys were out of stock for lending, your last tool will be your own fingers. Using the same concept as mentioned in method III. tried to hide the connection between you and your finger as shown in the illustration below:
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| Credit to Octoberfly |
Frankly speaking, this method is working and the only RISK is it is likely to get scratch by the cat because this is a similar hunting game in Method III. When the cat hunt, initially it will just use its paws. However, as it keep losing to catch your finger, you might change its mind to use its claw for higher successful rate.
But still fun and excited tho, hahaha. My advice is just use this method a little while. In long run, you definitely get injured when it showed its claw. If you were unlucky, you might get injured for the first round.
So here are some tips before you visited a cat cafe.
I hope it is useful and you will enjoy interacting with the cats while enjoy your drinks in the cat cafe.
Please comments if you find any of these tips helpful and most important don't forget to share to your friends and family who plan to pay a visit there.
Collaboration with Octoberfly
Last but not least, both of the photo and video were prepared by me however those sketch and illustration were prepared by Miss Octoberfly. If you enjoy her sketch, feel free to follow her in tumblr as shown in the link below.
She used to be a cat owner as well as a cat lover so I am very confident to collaborate with her to complete this blog.
This is the first time I do a collaboration blog.
Next Topic will be the last topic for Cat Cafe:
Cat Cafe: The Cat Business [The End]
