The Scratching Post, a cat and board game café, is set to open in Champaign in Fall 2024. The cat lounge will be nearly 1,000 square feet and will also serve as a foster home for over 30 cats.
Rebecca Minick, manager of The Scratching Post, said the inspiration for creating The Scratching Post came from The Catcade, a cat lounge, rescue and arcade hybrid located in Chicago.
“It’s a really new business model to the U.S. that hasn’t really been perfected yet,” Minick said via email. “I knew I didn’t want to do anything quite like anything I’d seen yet.”
The café will separate the lounge from the board game section, installing separate HVAC systems for each side. Access to the lounge area will be available through reservations, allowing visitors to rotate through three different cat rooms.
The Scratching Post will be partnering with CATsNAP, a rescue in Champaign, to provide The Scratching Post with foster cats. The cats at the café will also be available for adoption should customers develop a bond with them, according to The Scratching Post’s website.
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The cats will all be required to meet a list of health requirements prior to coming to the lounge. The café also plans to have daily wellness checks for the cats and cleaning schedules to ensure the area is sanitized.
The Scratching Post has a Kickstarter campaign running through Jan. 2, 2025, where people can contribute to building the café and getting rewards.
Luna Takahashi, senior in LAS, said it was her first time hearing the news about the café.
“This is my first time hearing about it, and I think that’s like something new and fun,” Takahashi said. “I’m sad that I’m leaving.”
Angelica Ordonez, junior in FAA, said she heard about the café from a Reddit post. Ordonez herself has a cat on campus and said she thinks other students would benefit from interactions with animals if unable to have their own.
“Not enough people have enough time to dedicate to a pet … if someone wanted to be able to interact with a pet or go and calm down to spend time with animals, a cat café would be really cool, because they would be able to do that without having to risk (grades),” Ordonez said.
