A companionable cat makes perfect dinner partner

IENJOYED a recent story in The Oldie magazine, about the popularity of cat cafés in Britain. I don’t know of any cat cafés here in Cape Town. Maybe there are several that I have yet to discover. A cat café, for those who do not know, is simply a café with several resident cats available to keep the customers company if they should like that.

There’s no shortage of patrons at London’s many cat cafés.

Apparently the most popular, called Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, has a waiting list three weeks long, and if you want to have a cat on your lap for an hour while you enjoy your high tea, you have to book it in advance too.

I’m pretty sure there would be howls of protest from health freaks if a local eatery allowed cats to wander around fraternising with the patrons.

I, for one, can fully understand the charm of having a cat as company during a meal.

Cats are peaceful companions; they don’t bounce up and down like dogs and they don’t insist on chattering about their recent operation during the meal.

They’re perfectly content to sit next to you in companionable silence, which is something very rare in humans these days.

Most important of all, they don’t glance at their smartphones every two minutes in case there’s a conversation more important than yours.

I do know of one or two eateries where there are resident cats, but they’re kept in the background, rather than being a featured attraction of the place.

If you happen to frequent such a place, watch how the diners vie with each other for the attention of the cat, slyly dropping tasty morsels under the table in an effort to attract its attention.

There are probably health regulations about allowing animals into areas where food is being prepared and served, but I don’t see that these should present a problem.

If you advertise your eatery as a “Cat Café”, anybody who dislikes cats can simply stay away.

If you’re a vegetarian, nobody forces you to eat in a steak house.

Modern governments, at all levels, tend to feel obliged to impose their own nanny values on everybody.

I have mentioned before that I find it sad that so many retirement homes do not allow pets.

The usual excuse for this is that the owners die and leave the pets with nobody to care for them. In the case of cats this is simply nonsense. I know of several retirement home cats that have simply adopted new friends when their owners died.

In fact, at one such retirement village there’s quite fierce competition among the residents for the privilege of having the cat to visit.

A notice on the community board urges residents not to feed Tibby, as she is growing unhealthily overweight.

She’s good company, a constant talking point and she makes the elderly residents happy.

Last Laugh

An elderly patient went to his doctor and asked: “Doctor, what would you recommend for excessive wind?”

The doctor thought for a moment and then replied: “Well, you could buy a kite.”