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It’s the cat’s meow in a purrfectly cozy setting at Yay for Strays, the newly opened cat café on Ottawa Street.
“We really wanted like a cosy, comfy feeling. We want you to feel like you’re at home when you’re here,” said Yay for Strays owner Chantelle Gaudette.
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“I am a cat lover. I truly love all animals,” Gaudette said. “I feel like the world has some negative people in it and it’s not in a good place right now.
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“So for me, when I’m with animals … (I) feel a sense of peace that I don’t have with anything else. They’re my everything.”
Gaudette says the shop is the first bricks-and-mortar cat café in Windsor.
The quirky space — with a café and gift shop at the front and a cat lounge at the back — had it’s official opening Saturday.
A steady stream of customers flooded the colourful space.
“I really actually like the décor,” said customer Ari Piekny, who stopped in for a cheesecake-in-a-cup dessert and some bonding time with the café’s felines.
“I’m getting like a grandma’s house kind of vibe. Like when you would go to your grandparent’s house at like age seven.
“Everything was like cosy. That’s what I’m getting from this.”
Several felines roam the lounge — all on loan and up for adoption from the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society — finding refuge in the escape room, napping on a cat condo or sprawled across the carpet waiting eagerly for someone to scratch their ears.
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There’s cushy sofas to lounge on, tables and chairs where one of the many board games can be played and a well-stocked library.
Gaudette’s brother Cole hung all the artwork and cat perches that fill the cat café walls.
Yay for Strays is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at 1326 Ottawa St.
Admission to the cat lounge is $7 for half an hour, $10 for an hour.
jkotsis@postmedia.com
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