In September of 2018, Felius Cat Café opened their doors to provide a unique adoption experience to Omaha.
Patrons are able to reserve time slots to play with both cats and kittens alike. They can also purchase a cup of coffee or adopt one of the feline friends they meet. Being a nonprofit shelter, Felius requires an application, personal references and a virtual home visit for any potential adoption, said shelter manager Jessica Hoien.
“It’s a little more detailed than some places are,” Hoien said. “It really ensures that cats in our care are going to their perfect home”
Since opening, Felius has adopted out over 400 cats so far – even with pandemic occurring in 2020. Volunteer Amanda Guidero, who joined Felius shortly after they opened, said they had to adapt to the times to help the cats.
“I had a long-term foster who was at my house for six months,” Guidero said. “[During COVID-19,] I had to have potential adopters meet the cat in my home, which was hard. We followed a lot of protocols. I had an antibiotic sanitizer at the door, people took off their shoes and tried to keep myself as safe as possible as well as the folks who came. Luckily, she found a fabulous adopter.”
While Felius had to close their doors for 112 days during the height of the pandemic, they were still able to adopt out more than 50 cats during that time. A major reason for how they managed to have so many cats adopted was because of their foster home volunteers, Guidero said.
“This is a really special experience because you get to interact with the cats and see their personalities,” Guidero said. “What people don’t see behind the scenes is every one of these cats has been in foster. We have dealt with all sorts of health problems, we stay awake at night making sure they’re okay, we make sure they’re vetted, so each cat has been loved by a foster.”
Felius has over 100 volunteers who either foster the rescue cats or spend time in the kitten adoption room, helping the cats and the visitors feel more comfortable. They also have volunteers who participate in their TNR (trap, neuter, release) program where they are trained to capture feral cats, spay and neuter them, and then release them back to their colony.
Due to many of the spay and neuter facilities being closed, there is an expectation there will be a higher than usual number of kittens in the upcoming months. Felius expects that there will be many more kittens in and out of the kitten adoption room for the upcoming months.
