It is ironic or is that the wrong word. It is certainly a bit bizarre when a vandal or vandals daub across the shutters of London’s most famous cat café, Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, the words “Free the Cats”.
Somebody thinks that the cats at the cat café are prisoners. Or they believe that the cats are in a place similar to a cat shelter from whence they happen to have come (the cats at the café were selected from shelter cats). Perhaps the person who did this felt the cats were imprisoned and used. Anyway….
It’s ironic because before the cats were rescued and placed in a cat shelter they were free, free of a cat owner because for whatever reason they were unwanted or uncared for.
Therefore a cat who is free must be a feral or stray cat which is not the right state of affairs for a domestic cat. A domestic cat needs to live with a human who looks after him. That does not mean he is not free it just means that he is living with somebody by mutual agreement.
Let’s just say that the graffiti is misguided or do you agree with the sentiments expressed in the graffiti? What’s nice is that the owners of this well-known cat café, which was started off with a crowd funding campaign securing £109,000, have decided to try and find an aspiring artist with talent who can create a mural over the graffiti on the shutter which protects the frontage of this café.
That’s turning a negative into a positive which I like. If an artist comes forward and (s)he is selected, after he has created the work he’ll receive a years free VIP access to the Emporium.
Story from the Evening Standard.
Given the British culture of allowing cats to have an indoor/outdoor lifestyle, they might mistakenly think of the cats as being imprisoned.
How lovely that the cafe hope to find an aspiring artist to paint a mural over the graffiti. It’s the perfect response and can only win them more supporters.
Michele, your assessment is very neat and is almost certainly on the button. I suppose the question is: are the cats truly imprisoned?
I don’t consider them imprisoned. The cafe is situated in a busy area and I don’t think local traffic would be safe for the cats to go outside unsupervised. I’m sure the cats are living happier lives than they would in a shelter.
From what I understand, 8 of their 11 cats are related to each other and the remaining 3 were all friends with them at the shelter. I like that the cafe owners selected a group of cats already sociable with each other.
I’m curious to know what happens do the cats outside of business hours? Do they go home with the employees or does someone live with them at the cafe full time? I had a look on their web site but couldn’t seem to find that info.