Pandemic pastimes: The fluffy space of Karma Kat Cafe
A cat sits inside a pet bed in Karma Kat Café, 612 E Broadway St., Monday, March 25, 2019.
Need a fluffy place away from the dreary world of the pandemic? Karma Kat Cafe just might be that escape.
Located at 612 E. Broadway St., the business is part retail, coffee lounge, animal rescue and pet adoption service. Owner Mystie Beckwith said she has seen more students than ever at the café recently.
“(Students) need things to do that are safe, and our adoption rates are way up,” Beckwith said. “I think people are a little bit lonely, so they're looking for a companion.”
In this week’s edition of Pandemic Pastimes, Central Michigan Life explores the offerings from Karma Kat during the pandemic.
Study with cats
The café is still offering one of its main functions: sessions in the cat room. These sessions are $8 for students, who can stay for at least one hour, Beckwith said. People might be asked to leave after one hour if the room hits its capacity limit of eight people.
Beckwith said there are more cats there then they ever had, currently at around 26 of them.
Kittie-themed events
Small scale events are being slowly re-introduced to Karma Kat. Beckwith said two events the café did before the pandemic were recently brought back: Yoga with Cats and Bingo with Cats. These events will be held once a month,
Next week, there will be a Crafts with Cats event where people will be painting pumpkins. Beckwith said there will be large pumpkins to paint with the supplies offered at the café.
The event will happen four different times:
· Oct. 23 at 4 p.m.
· Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.
· Oct. 30 at 4 p.m.
· Oct. 31 at 6 p.m.
A plethora of video content
For those not looking to leave the house to enjoy some kittens, Beckwith said videos are uploaded onto the café’s Facebook page three times a week. These videos are to highlight cats that are up for adoption as well as to show the environment of Karma Kat, she said.
Beckwith also uses the videos to show the journey of rescuing cats or raising a litter of kittens. Karma Kat recently launched a Tik Tok as well, which can be found at @karmakatcafemp.
Pandemic pastimes is a weekly article series with suggestions of activities and events CMU students can partake in during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have any local suggestions, please reach out to news@cm-life.com.
