When Is a Stray Cat Not a Stray Cat?

You have to ask the cat

Photos by Bill Adler

Is it wrong for me to visit cat cafes, even though I have a cat? 

And when I do, should I remove all traces of other cats from my clothes before returning home?

While we ponder those vexing ethical questions, I want to tell you about a wondrous cat cafe, Yadorigi Cafe, in Yanaka, Tokyo, a Tokyo neighborhood known for its large population of homeless felines.

Two dozen formerly stray cats live in Yadorigi Cafe.

Customers who fall in love with these once-upon-a-time stray cats can adopt them. 

Run by an Italian-Japanese couple, the cafe offers a Japanese aesthetic with Italian cuisine. You can eat or drink tea or coffee while cats sit on your lap and zoom around you like comets orbiting the sun, and after you eat, it’s your turn to feed the cats. The cafe’s atmosphere is playful and soothing. 

When you see stray cats in the wild, you may feel conflicting emotions: sadness because cats must sleep on the cold ground in winter, and their soft fur becomes heavy with rain on bad-weather days. Stray cats have nobody to love them. But you may also watch stray cats with wonder and appreciation because they can roam wherever they want. 

Our cat, Kinmo, used to live in a park, and we worried that she’d hate living in a cramped Japanese apartment, but we discovered that she discovered that a soft, warm bed and all-day affection is better than the stray-cat life.

But perhaps Kinmo is atypical. 

To find out how other stray cats feel about being captured, uprooted from their homes, and forced to work at a cafe, I interviewed one of the Yadorigi cats. 

Bill: Do you miss your outdoor life?

Orange cat: I do.

Bill: Tell me more.

Orange cat: I was about to pounce on a mouse when a human suddenly swooped down and stole me from the only home I’d known.

Bill: Just like that? I thought that all the cats wandered into traps laced with cat treats.

Orange cat (after a minute of licking its fur): Get tricked into a trap—that didn’t happen.

Bill: I see. Isn’t being inside where it never rains or snows, you’re not bitten by mosquitos or chased by dogs better than living off handouts and mice?

Orange cat: Do you see those customers giving treats to the other cats? Those are cruel handouts. It’s worse now because it’s the same two treats all the time. At least when I was living on the street, people gave me a variety of snacks. 

Bill: You’re saying that the food here is subpar?

Orange cat: I’m saying that I have no freedom. 

Bill: I’ll ask the owner to return you to the street.

The orange cat stands and starts to walk away.

Bill: Where are you going?

The orange cat ends the interview by dashing to a middle-aged man holding a Ciao cat treat. 

While these are now indoor cats, they’ll always have strayness in their hearts. 

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If you enjoyed this newsletter, you might also like my other Substack newsletter, Fiction by Bill Adler, a biweekly short story publication.

Stray Cats of Japan publishes every other Sunday.