Cat Cafés Are Popping Up Everywhere (And You Should Visit One Right Away To De-Stress)

There are worse ways to de-stress.

The semester has begun. Lectures, tutorials and assignments are coming at us in full force. The pressure is already mounting and we're going to need to be at our best to survive the next few months.

This is why I spent an hour petting kitties and drinking coffee last weekend. And another hour petting strange dogs.

As uni students, we have an unfortunate tendency to confuse inertia (sitting on the couch guiltily watching our seventeenth consecutive episode of whatever on Netflix) with actual relaxation. As I can attest, this doesn't actually help us de-stress. Relaxing, unfortunately, needs to be as deliberate as the work that got us stressed in the first place.

This is why cat cafés are so great: they take everything relaxing about a café, strip away all the people actually studying on their laptops and add... well, cats. It's a combo that's ensured the enduring success of the Catmosphere Café in Surry Hills and the upcoming opening of the new Sydney Cat Café in Paddington (which, full disclosure, I backed on Kickstarter and am really excited for.)

They're pandering to uni students and we love it.

Something about felis catus' laissez-faire attitude is infectious. Even if you're not immediately greeted by a lapful of purring fur, the atmosphere of the café melts away all your worries and stress. It's a safe place: everything is gonna be just fine.

I've long been an advocate of the company of our four-legged furry friends. Those of us who keep their company are scientifically proven to live longer, be happier and sleep better.

As my landlord is entirely unwilling to let me own even a single one of the seventy-two different pets I desire, cat cafés are an acceptable compromise. They get my money and I get hot beverages and cats.

Make no mistake: these cats are happy. Nobody is manhandling them or pulling their tails and all cats and kittens are rotated in shifts to ensure they get quality 'alone time'. What's more, every Catmosphere Catstronaut (yes, cat astronauts) is a rescue cat, and some are even available for adoption. They take their duty of care very seriously.

The soon-to-open Sydney Cat Café is set to operate under a similar policy and the Chatswood-based Café Purrfection operates under very rigorous ethical guidelines too. You should certainly investigate your local cat café before visiting, to ensure they do the same.

If you don't own a pet and you're not taking the time to de-stress with cats and coffee, you're really missing out.

For those of us who are too far from, or too broke for, constant cat café visits, there is still hope. The less structured and relaxed (but infinitely more enthusiastic) company of dogs can be found in parks all over the country and it's well worth taking an afternoon to pet a few dogs (with proper caution and respect, of course).

Personal favourites in Sydney are Harold Park in Glebe and Redfern Park (in, yes, Redfern), with honourable mentions going to Centennial Park and The Domain.

And if the cold deluge of water currently pretending to be 'weather' is too much for you, here's a 360-degree video of kittens and a live-feed of puppies to tide you over.

Anthony Pearce is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.

Photo: Facebook / Catmosphere Café.