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Tag: cats

  • Ireland’s first cat lounge opens its doors

    Ireland’s first cat lounge opens its doors

    Ireland’s first highly-anticipated cat lounge opened its doors in Dublin earlier this month. Cara Croke and Megan Walsh paid a visit to speak to the woman behind it all. 

    Located in Smithfield Square, The Cat Lounge welcomed its first visitors on the 10th of October and has received a great response since.

    Owner and cat-lover Georgina O’Neill was inspired to open the lounge when she was shown photographs of a cat café in Japan back in 2014.

    Cara + cats
    Our reporter Cara Croke getting to know some of the residents of The Cat Lounge

    “I’d first heard about cat cafés when my brother visited one in Japan. I knew Ireland needed one and ever since then I planned to open my own here in Dublin,” said Georgina.

    Georgina explained she wanted the lounge to be a great place for those who can’t have pets at home due to living in an apartment or living with someone who has allergies.

    Cat lounge
    The Cat Lounge is located in Smithfield Dublin

    The lounge allows animal lovers to spend 90 minutes at a time with the kittens with a tea or coffee from their hot drinks machine. 

    So far, The Cat Lounge is home to eleven kittens from two litters. 

    “Six of the kittens are black and the rest a mix of tabby, white, and black and white. They were rescued from the local vet after they had been handed in to be euthanised.”

    Cat lounge sign

    Two of the eleven kittens have been named so far, with plans to name the rest through the help of social media. Georgina has hopes that some of the kittens will be adopted once they are six months old, however she has her concerns that the black litter will be harder to re-home.

    “The black cats find it harder to be re-homed because people can be so superstitious. People want interesting looking cats and for some reason they think black isn’t. I’m hoping the lounge will give potential owners an opportunity to come in and fall in love with the cat’s personalities.”

    For now, the kittens all live together in The Cat Lounge and are doted on daily by Georgina, her three staff, and cat-loving members of the public.

    Georgina says in the two weeks since opening, the response to the lounge has been fantastic, however, with mornings being the quietest time for visitors, they have plans to host events for charities during this time in the future.

    You can book your slot with the kittens at www.catlounge.ie for €15 per person.

     

    By Cara Croke and Megan Walsh.

  • Keeping pets safe at Halloween

    CC image courtesy of Crystal Agozzino on Flickr.
    CC image courtesy of Crystal Agozzino on Flickr.

    Halloween season is exciting for us humans but for pets, it can be a very distressing time of year.

    Household pets, mainly dogs, can get very agitated around Halloween time, due to the noise of fireworks and also by the flashes at night time.

    According to vet Peter Wedderburn, who is better known as ‘Pete the Vet’, the best thing for dogs at this time of year is to make sure that they have somewhere that they can go that is cosy and reasonably well protected by noise.

    “Basically you want somewhere where they can go and feel comfortable and chilled out, and if there is background noise and fireworks, they’re not bothered about them”, he says.

    Pete suggests that a typical ‘safe’ place for dogs would be a cupboard under the stairs, or a boiler room, where you can put plenty of bedding, a hot water bottle and some of their favourite toys.

    He also stresses the importance of dog pheromone, which can be bought in plug form.

    “When a bitch produces milk, she produces a scent that puppies find reassuring”, says Pete, “scientists have extracted that scent and have made an artificial form of it and put it into a vaporizer”.

    Pete, who is also Ireland AM’s resident vet, says that if dogs have this pheromone in the air around them, then they feel more comfortable and reassured.

    There is also an increased issue of cruelty towards animals around the Halloween period.

    “When there are young people out and messing around, where there is fire and fireworks then animals are vulnerable, so people should be aware of that”, says Pete.

    Even cats, who usually roam around, are at risk at this time of year. Like dogs, they can be also frightened by fireworks, but a more serious matter is reports of them being thrown into bonfires.

    Both cats and dogs are also at risk of blackcat fireworks been thrown at them by youths.

    “Keep cats in around Halloween because they can get into trouble, and make sure that your dog has an ID tag on it because it can get out and run away”, says Pete.

    Every year there are reports of people deliberately harming animals during the Halloween season

    Pete advises people that if they hear of, or see any cruelty to animals going on, to get some evidence and  report it.