PETPLS Pet Food and Supply — Restaurant in Richmond

They didn’t have a proper orientation of how to treat the cats. There is rules written on the website, however there should be a proper orientation in-person before entering the actual room.

There were couple who were feeding cats cake that was seemingly not cat-friendly food.

No warning when the couples were treating cats roughly (grabbing them hard / picking them up like a doll) and it wasn’t like the staff couldn’t see the situation from outside, as the walls were glass and staff was just across the room.

They shouldn’t let anyone leave their human food unattended that cats can just scavenge and eat it?? Human foods can be deadly to animals? No proper supervision during the session.

Some cats had matted fur, didn’t look like they were taken care of.

At the end of the session, we told the employee about the situation, but she was very nonchalant about the issue.

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Thank you for your reply.

I understand that you are not able to punish the customers and sometimes it’s hard to manage store. And I also agree that we need more people to stands up for unacceptable behaviour. But you should not word it as “It’s heartbreaking some people didn’t stood up for cats” as that is no position to police other customers, and there should have been staff constantly looking out for such behaviour instead of a customer that just came to visit for a session. You may not be able be punish them, however you are able to tell them and ask them to stop if you prioritized cat’s safety. And as I repeat again, this could have been prevented if someone was actually supervising.

I’m pointing out the lack of supervision for cat’s safety. It’s not customer’s job or right to police other customer’s behaviour, therefore there isn’t much for us to do anything other than gently telling them to keep their food themselves. We did attempt to take the foods away from cats if you look back in the video footage, and also telling the customer for leaving food/drink completely unattended. Same as foods, cats shouldn’t be completely unsupervised during the session. The question is, why didn’t any of staff noticed this? They shouldn’t busy doing other work, there should be someone specifically looking out.

I’m disappointed with the store blaming on other customer for not taking care of the cats. Thank you so much for responding and clarifying. Hopefully you are able to communicate the rules better in the future.

Thanks again for the reply and...

My boyfriend and I visited PETPLS Café and Supply on Sunday, October 1 for what I thought was my 5:00 PM reservation. Turns out, I had accidentally booked reservations for the day I purchased them (September 13) instead of October 1 😵‍💫 Remember to double and triple check the date of your reservation when you book online so you don't make the same mistake I did. (And please advise that PETPLS does not offer refunds for customer-responsible mistakes) Fortunately, there were 2 spots left for the 5:00 PM time slot and I was allowed to purchase them and enjoy time in the cat room. The business owners were understanding and patient with me when I had realized the mistake I made.

We were given disposable shoe covers and told the rules of the establishment before entering the cat room. Standard cat cafe rules, such as "do not pick up the cats" and "no flash photography." While we were in the cat room, the owners mostly stayed outside, but occasionally would come inside to wake up the cats to encourage play time and tell the customers a little bit about the cats. The cat room is quite small, so I understand why the owners prefer not to come in as to not crowd the customers and cats, but the lack of supervision does lead to some incidents.

For example, there was a customer in my time slot that did not respect a cat's boundaries and touched her paws, even after seeing my boyfriend pull away from her after accidentally touching her paw and almost getting scratched. This ended up in a scratch incident. The customer acted withdrawn for the rest of our time slot, even after receiving medical aid and an apology from one of the owners.

It should be common sense to respect a cat's boundaries while visiting a cat cafe, as some of the cats are rescues and may have past negative interactions with human beings. It's in the best interest of your safety and the cat's comfort. For the most part, the cats were very well-behaved and interacted positively with us. My boyfriend and I had a wonderful time, and he even bonded with the cat that scratched the other costumer. She put her head in his hand and showed him directly where she was comfortable being touched. She (Vava) was his favourite cat, and mine was Hashbrown.

Thank you for having us, PETPLS! We will...

Sorry but this cat cafe is giving me an unpleasant feeling.

-If you are looking for a cat cafe which does rescuing and adoptions, this is not the place you want to go. It is just a pet supply store/ cafe that uses rare purebred cats to make money.

-I don't know if this cat cafe is supporting a cat breeder/farm but what they did is promoting breeders rather than helping homeless pets.

-Absolutely not enough space for the cats ( at least 7 cats)

-There is no "safe zone" for the cats to rest. They are all forced to stay in the same area with the customers even when they are exhausted and stressed. The only place they could hide from humans is their litter box, which is not an appropriate resting area for them.

-The staff did not pay enough attention to the cat's energy and mental health. One of the cats was obviously terrified but it could only hide in the litter box for the whole day. The staff knew it but they wouldn't care about it.

-The Safety Guideline / Policy, which we signed before we entered the cat room, mentioned that customers should not pick up cats. However, we saw customers picking up cats and the staff just stood there without stopping / reminding them. Hi owner Thanks for the quick reply.

I know there were two small cat doors and thought those little doors were connected to a cat's resting area. However, one of the staff actually opened the door and showed us that there was only a litter box and there was a cat trying to hide beside the box.

It is your freedom of choice to open a cat rescuing cafe or bred cat cafe. I personally do not want to support cat breeding business therefore I was trying to let others who has the same thought know about it before going. It will be great if this cafe could help animals in need but it is not a must.

-Please keep those cats in your shop safe and healthy not matter what business you are trying to...