The Catcade is a cat rescue which give people the opportunity to play arcade games while hanging out with some feline friends.
Established in 2017 in Chicago Illinois, the co-founders Chris Gutierrez and Shelly Casey seek to offer a safe place for cats.
Along with an arcade, the place has a cozy lounge and café where visitors can relax with the cats, bring a laptop to do a little work, or sign up for a cat yoga session.
All the cats are free to roam all the rooms and all, but resident cat Leo, are available for adoption.
Rescuing cats
The aim of the Catcade is to “save all the cats”.
And this is helped by the fact that with regular visitors, and their fellow feline housemates, the cats are constantly being socialized.
This goes towards helping the cats get adopted out, as the friendlier the cat, the more likely a person won’t be able to leave them behind.
Once a cat is brought into the Catcade, they are vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and micro-chipped. This is to ensure they are ready for adoption as soon as the application is processed and reviewed.
But you don’t only have to have adoption in mind, the Catcade welcomes visitors and is transparent about the entry fee going directly to the running of the facility and the medical bills of the cats.
Good times at the Catcade
Ideally, the Catcade is what co-founder Chris calls a “temporary layover”.
Meaning that the best-case scenario is that all the cats eventually become adopted.
However, if not, the co-founders are committed to not leaving a single cat behind.
“Sassy and spicy, to old or special needs. We find homes for every last one.”, even if that home is the Catcade rescue itself.
They believe that no matter what, cats are not “disposable”, and they are not a “nuisance”, no matter how much the staff have to clean up after them!
And clearly, this sentiment is shared by others, as the facility has been a hit with cat lovers all over.
But there are always more cats to save.