Purrfect Cat Cafe, Penang

As I sip my caramel latte and begin to write this post, I feel soft fur tickling my feet. A tail flicks and touches the screen of my tablet. Over the music, I hear the odd meow.

Nope, I’m not cat-sitting for a new Malay friend. I’m sat in Penang’s Purrfect Cat Cafe, the first of its kind in Penang.

When I walked past this place on my first day in the city, my breath caught in my chest and I knew that if I only did one thing whilst in Penang, it had to be this.

Sure enough, the next morning, I woke up and informed my new friend Joe that we were going to be getting breakfast at Purrfect. Luckily for me, he is a cat person and agreed without any persuasion.

Purrfect Cat Cafe is located in the heart of George Town, right next to the Camera Museum and a stone’s throw away from the Tipsy Tiger Part Hostel, where most young backpackers stay during their time in Penang.

The ground floor of Purrfect Cat Cafe is a shop dedicated to all kinds of pussy paraphernalia. From keyrings to crop tops, paintings to journals, you are sure to find the perfect gift for a cat lover in here!

To get to the actual cat cafe, an entrance fee of 13RM is required, which includes a free bottled drink. Although I’ve never paid an entrance fee to a cafe before, I didn’t mind paying this one – cats are expensive to look after! After paying the fee, Joe and I decided to order some food. Purrfect only serves snacks, so I opted for chicken nuggets with chilli sauce and he went for the same, plus fries.

With the entrance paid and the food ordered, we were ready! We took off our shoes and washed our hands before ascending the stairs to the cafe. The moment we opened the sliding door, we were greeted by about 6 excited young cats that can’t have been older than a few months. Most of them were Bengals with beautiful leopard-print coats and amber eyes, but there was also an orange Persian that had been shaved everywhere apart from his head and little booties, as well as a couple of other fluffies with inside-out ears.

As we sipped our drinks, we played with some of the Bengals, which were so animated and friendly! As was expected, most of the older cats lounged around, occasionally flicking their tails or stretching out their backs – until our food arrived that is!

Marble, an American Short Hair that had made a point of ignoring our attempts at friendship, suddenly wanted to be our BFF as she clambered all over us in a bid to get at the chicken! As cute as it was having 9 cats climbing on me, it was impossible to eat and so after a few minutes of watching us struggle, the waitress shooed the kitties away and shut the door to prevent them from getting to us again.

However, as soon as we finished we resumed playing with the Bengals. I was particularly amused by one that kept running around in a human-sized hamster wheel, and by the fluffy white booties on the otherwise bald Persian, Orange.

The combination of good food, fast Wi-Fi, friendly staff, simple yet cute decor and abundance of furry felines made a great impression on me, hence being back here less than 24 hours later writing this post. If you love cats and you find yourself in Penang, I cannot recommend Purrfect Cat Cafe enough.

Have you ever been to a cat cafe? If so, where? Or better still, another type of animal cafe? Let me know in the comments section!