Feeling stressed? Fancy a coffee or scone while a cat curls up on your lap? Then the Frisky Business Palm Springs Cat Café is the purr-fect place for you.
The first cat café in the Coachella Valley opened in December, allowing customers to read, catch up on some work or simply relax—while enjoying the company of friendly felines.
In the “cat lounge,” you can chill out on colorful comfy couches, or use tables and chairs in the company of cats roaming freely—walking, playing, making friends or sleeping. But mind your feet, because there are cats on the floor, along with cat toys, cat beds, scratching posts and more.
Order your food and drink in the room next to the cat lounge. You are welcome to bring your orders into the lounge—but don’t feed the cats! If you don’t want to share physical space with the cats, you can always watch them through the windows. You can also buy items such as cat-themed greeting cards, which are handmade by local artists.
Adriana Reyes, a morning visitor to the café, feels that cats can calm us, lower our stress level and offer companionship.
“Cuddling them helps me emotionally,” she said. “I work in the performing arts, which is stressful. Cats can sense when we’re tense, and they try to heal us with their purring. I came here before work; now I feel so relaxed and serene.”
The café also brings together cats from the Palm Springs Animal Shelter with people who can offer them loving forever homes.
“It’s a great opportunity for the cats to be highlighted there, since some people find it difficult or depressing to see hundreds of animals at shelters,” said PSAS executive director Dan Rossi. “It’s also an easier process for some people to go to a café where they have fewer cats to view, and have one-on-one facetime with them.”
In the café environment, the cats are not caged like they would be at a shelter, and they are therefore under less stress. They arrive at the café microchipped and vaccinated, spayed or neutered—in other words, medically cleared and ready to go to a new home.
On a recent visit, the feline population of Frisky Business included two black-and-white cats whose owner recently passed away. They were still anxious and huddled up together—with a big ginger and pure white cat napping nearby.
Shianne May, operations director at the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, introduced me to some other kitties.
“Eighteen-month-old Leita Ford is a very friendly, small, black-and-tan cat who was adopted but returned to the shelter because her owner had to move, and she couldn’t find affordable housing that takes pets,” May said. “Then there’s Penelope, a 2-year-old orange tabby whose owner passed away.”
She tells me about Ian, an 8-year-old gray-and-white fluffy cat with beautiful green eyes, who came from a mobile-home park as a stray cat.
“The manager of the park doesn’t want cats around,” May said.
You may also meet Baba, a 10-year-old who has been adopted twice, but has been returned to the shelter because he was too shy around humans—but he loves other cats.
But why did Claire Rogers and her partner, photographer Sonny Von Cleveland, decide to open Frisky Business? Rogers said she got the idea after visiting a cat café in Charleston, S.C.
“I saw so many stray cats in the area that I decided to open the café,” Rogers said. “I realized it was a great concept to help cats and at the same time do a job I love, so I put it in the back of my mind. I’ve always had a passion for cats, and when I realized there were so many stray cats in Coachella Valley, I knew Palm Springs was the place where I wanted to open it.”
Rogers was born in England and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Rogers, like many people, was forced by the pandemic to re-evaluate and make changes.
“During COVID, I couldn’t see my family, so I was looking for a place without Vancouver’s rainy and gloomy weather,” she said. “I’ve been visiting here every year since I was 19 years old. It has natural beauty and is mid-century modern. I love waking up to the sunshine, surrounded by the mountains, and it’s also only two hours (by plane) from Vancouver.”
Rogers said she has always loved cats. “I had my first cat, Garfield, when I was 6 years old. Since I was an only child, they were my companions, They are my fur babies.”
“I saw so many stray cats in the area that I decided to open the café. I realized it was a great concept to help cats and at the same time do a job I love.”
Frisky Business Cat Cafe owner Claire Rogers
Rogers said she used to work as a high-level director at a large corporation—but the stress led to anxiety, depression, burnout and finally panic attacks, which lasted for 18 months.
“It was the darkest period of my life,” she said.
She then spent five years traveling around the world as a motivational speaker and mindset coach, talking about mental health and changing her life.
Rogers and Von Cleveland, however, went through a lot of stress to finally get Frisky Business open. Not only was it a challenge to find a space that would allow cats; they had to deal with an enormous amount of red tape thanks to the city of Palm Springs.
“I kept hitting brick walls for 16 months, but finally found the perfect place,” Rogers says. “… It’s all about community and helping our feline friends.”
Her goal is to get 1,000 cats adopted in the cafe’s first year.
Frisky Business Palm Springs Cat Café is located at 4781 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Suite F, in Palm Springs. Advance reservations are recommended. For hours, prices and more information, visit www.friskybusinesscatcafe.com.
Love this! 👍🐱