At the Brooklyn Cat Café, what you look like doesn’t matter. The foster animals here know it’s what’s on the inside that counts. I have to be completely honest. This story made me do a double-take. It’s definitely one of the most amazing (and heartwarming) things I’ve come across.
The Brooklyn Cat Café is the first of its kind in Brooklyn, New York. It was founded by Anne Levin in 2016 and is run completely by kindhearted volunteers.
“I started Brooklyn Cat Café as a way to have an adoption space that allowed us to have anywhere from 20-25 cats for fostering in this location,” Levin told Barcroft Animals.
People are invited to come in, grab a coffee and spend time with the many friendly cats. Within its first year of business, the café had already found loving homes for 300 homeless felines.
If you wanna take a tour (which I’m totally sure you do), here’s a quick look:
At one point during their operation, Levin and café volunteers took in a tiny, black kitten named Ebony. Unfortunately, the poor baby had been diagnosed with Feline Leukemia Virus and couldn’t be around any of the other cats.
Levin said, “She was so desperately lonely, and so we were looking for a small animal that could be a companion.”
Ebony found that companion in Ivory, a loving white rescue rat.
“Ebony and Ivory quickly became quick friends. Ebony did end up having leukemia, so she had a very short life— only 5 months. But her life was immeasurably enriched by having a friend and companion to play with and snuggle up with.”
After Ebony passed away, Ivory was now all alone. The loving rat was already used to felines, so the café staff decided to put him in their kitten “terrarium” to see how he would do. Like Ebony, the other kittens were completely smitten with the rat. For their part, the Mamas also seemed grateful; they were happy to have him occupy the babies while they took a much-needed rest.
After a long and happy, kitten-filled life, Ivory also passed away. The kittens missed their funny-looking friend, and the café also felt noticeably emptier without the little guy around.
Levin contacted Help All Little Things (HALT), a New Jersey-based rescue, and adopted another pair of café rats that had been socialized with kitties— and now, Remy and Emile are carrying on Ivory’s kitten-caring legacy.
“Because the rats are not scared of the kittens, they don’t run away and the cats don’t hunt them,” Levin told the Huffington Post.
In the interview with Barcroft Animals, she says, “They have a great time hanging out with the kittens. It turns out that Emile especially has become very paternal. He likes to groom and kind of comfort the kittens. “
“Remy just likes to play with them and share their food.”
“Everyone always likes to see some kind of cross-species relationship. I think it gives us hope that we can all get along.”
See it to believe it for yourself!
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