A nice cup of coffee, a comfy couch and a room full of feline friends looking for their fur-ever homes. That is what you can expect when you walk through the doors of Omaha's very first cat cafe, Felius.
Felius founder Bre Phelan says she got the idea for a cat cafe after travelling and seeing how popular they were in other cities. "I fell in love with them, and I thought to myself, 'I love Omaha so much, we are such an amazing, vibrant city and I would really love to bring that experience to our doorstep.'"
Phelan says the cafe is a fun, unique way to humanely help Omaha's cat population. "We're really hoping to reduce euthanasia rates, and really kind of take a look and flip the cat adoption experience on its head. Make it something that's gonna be really enjoyable for the animal, putting their welfare first, so they can roam, free of cages."
Felius will get cats from the local foster-based rescue Wags to Riches, which Phelan says is a perfect match. "They don't have a physical location. So, we're able to take on a lot of the cats they might not necessarily have the capacity for and allow them to live in our space while we find them the perfect match."
Phelan says of the roughly 2.2 million cats euthanized each year in the U.S., about 80 percent of them could have been saved, which is why they are intent on reducing euthanasia rates here in Omaha. "We wanna make sure that we are communicating this mission out and by having a no-kill facility we're helping to propagate that mission and ensure that we're saving as many cats lives as we possibly can."
Once open in May, Felius will make a home for itself in the newly branded Quarters District, which lies between Dodge and Leavenworth and 20th and 28th streets. Felius will be nestled on 24th Street between Harney and St. Mary's Ave. Customers can observe the cats from a large window outside, or step inside the building and pay a small fee to access the cats up close and personal.
For more information, you can visit Felius' website or Facebook page.
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