Your roommate has allergies, your landlord says no pets, you travel a LOT — but you so badly want to pet a cat. These creatures have gotten a bad rep for being aloof and dismissive, but as cat lovers know, these little ones can actually be super snuggly and playful – and love getting all the pets. They are cute and calming and so fun to watch as they do their daily parkour over all available surfaces. Read on to find out where to go in the Hoboken area and beyond to pet a cat + some tips and tricks on playing with them.
These Cafés are the Cat’s Meow
Any day is a good day to pet a cat, but rainy, snowy, and otherwise blech days are the best for visiting a cozy cat cafe. Most of them have excellent air filtration systems and smell fresh despite the many cats with litter boxes. All of them offer coffee and other treats for purchase. Some of the cafes maintain separate children’s hours. Needless to say, anyone with a severe allergy should make certain to have medication and a doctor’s approval before visiting one of these glorious respites from the cat-free world.
Brooklyn Cat Cafe | 76 Montague Street, New York
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This cafe is part of a volunteer-run adoption center run by Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition (BBAWC). This Brooklyn Heights cat cafe opened in 2016 to help fund the organization’s low-cost veterinary services and adoption support. They are the only non-profit cat cafe in New York City.
Meow Parlour | 46 Hester St, New York
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Located on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, this spot invites guests to come cuddle with kitties for a short half hour purr fix or to settle in for a serious cat-therapy session stretching as long as five hours. Drinks and sweet treats are available next door at the Macaron Parlour. The petting room is just the right size to make finding your lap easy on the roaming felines. The sleeping kittens are usually visible if not quite wakeful enough to play, and it is likely that just watching those furry balls slumber will do wonders for your catitude.
Read More: This Local Nonprofit Helps Stray Cats + Dogs in the Middle East
Koneko | 26 Clinton Street, New York
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Koneko (meaning “kitten”) is America’s first Japanese-inspired cat café. Also located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Koneko has an artisanal Japanese-influenced menu, house-made desserts, beer, wine, and sake along with adorable, pettable cats. Koneko’s mission is to find loving homes for cats pulled from the city’s “at-risk” list by their partner, Anjellicle Cats Rescue.
Rahwah Kitty Hall | 209 W Main St, Rahway
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A visit to Rahwah Kitty Hall requires an NJ Transit train trip from Hoboken with a transfer at Secaucus to catch the Northeast Corridor Line train to Rahway. That just-under-an-hour long train ride goes through cute Northern New Jersey small towns that are worth looking out the window to see. Their staff encourages guests to relax on a comfy couch with a book and it’s common knowledge that cats love to sleep smackdab on the open books that humans are reading.
Catsbury Park | 901 3rd Avenue, Asbury Park
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As the days get longer and hotter, a visit to Catsbury Park in Asbury Park is the purrfect way to round out a trip to the beach. This cat adoption center hosts a-meow-sing events like cat yoga, cat bingo, cat trivia, and cat crafts.
Each of these cat cafes charge an admission fee marked as a donation to their program. The visits are timed, so booking a petting session in advance is typically necessary. It is not unusual to observe an initial adoption conversation occurring in real-time as the most cuddly of the kittens breaks any remaining reserve in one of the cafe guests. There is quite a bit of signage in these cat cafes encouraging adoption, so prepare to stay strong if your goal is to pet only. In fact, cat lovers coming only to pet the purring pretties, not to take one home, may need to write a reminder on their hand before heading into one of the heavenly cat palaces.
Volunteer at a Shelter
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Most boroughs have a humane society and every one of them depends upon volunteers. Hoboken’s JerseyCats and Jersey City’s Metro Cat Rescue can often use help with fostering cats— especially sick, injured, elderly and kittens that need to be bottle fed.
See More: Animal Rescues in Northern New Jersey
Petting Cats is Good for You
Research has shown that petting cats benefits people’s health to the point that it extends our life expectancy! There are studies that suggest that the magic is in the release of oxytocin, the bonding hormone. Other cat-scientists report an increase in serotonin (feel good hormone) and a decrease in cortisol (stress hormone). Their presence alone calms the nervous system and lowers blood pressure. Plus, cats are generally just hilarious and mesmerizing as The Hoboken Girl team can tell you – you should see the flying cat circus on our morning video calls. Pretty much all cat exposure will leave you feline good.
Believe it or Not, They Like Us Too
Cats enjoy being petted as much as we like petting them. That they are solitary and independent animals is really just a myth. Although all cats have their own personalities and some are grumpy, most cats want to be petted. The cat cafes are, for the most part, homes to affection-seeking kitties. There are some exceptions as in the Brooklyn Cat Cafe’s color-coded collar tags that mark some cat residents as not wanting to be touched.
Truth be told, while cats do love human affection, they only like it on their terms, so be aware that there is such a thing as petting a cat correctly. Staff at the cat cafes will often provide a quick tutorial. You’ll want to allow one to come to you. The staff will ask guests not to pick up the cats but to allow them to seek you out – and they will.
