Inspired by her ardour for the furry animal, Naeema Mea’bed opened the “MEOW Cat Cafe” within the Gaza Strip this week, hoping to deliver cat lovers some pleasure, whereas boosting consciousness over pet elevating, which has grow to be more and more common within the area.

The cafe, the primary of its sort in Gaza, is totally cat-themed, with mirrors and flower vases, in addition to posters of the 14 resident cats which can be accessible for company, adults or kids, to play with. On Sunday, an extended queue of hopeful clients shaped, spurring Mea’bed to arrange extra tables and seats for households who had introduced their kids alongside for the feline expertise, costing $1.30 per half hour.

Parents are in a position to sit and observe their kids play with the cats by a glass partition as they sip their espresso. “The idea came from my childhood passion for cats since and I wanted to pass it on to people,” mentioned Mea’bed.

Cats, she mentioned, are a “natural anti-depressant.” “Many people like cats but they don’t know where to keep them or where to play with them, so I made this place for them, where they can come, be happy and relieve their stresses, even for just five minutes and then leave happily,” she mentioned.

The cafe is house primarily to Persian cats, but additionally Turkish angora and hybrid felines. For Hala Abu Maghaseeb, 14, who has up to now not satisfied her dad and mom to get her a pet cat, the cafe was a nice and welcome shock throughout her summer time faculty break.

“It is a nice project, I come to release stress. I love cats,” she mentioned. Some Gazans have been much less impressed, arguing on social media that almost all residents have been too impoverished to welcome such a challenge.

But cafe patron Rewa Abdel-Hadi, 20, defended it. “Cats are creatures who live with us and feel fear, hunger and poverty. Having people caring for them is a wonderful idea,” she mentioned.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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