Beloved Vancouver cat café fundraising to keep doors open

This photo from the Facebook Page for Catoro Pets, a cat cafe in Vancouver, shows two kitties that were up for adoption in August of 2022.

Catoro Café, which allows customers to play with rescued cats and offers adoption services, could be closing its doors due to financial struggles.

But thanks to generous donations from the cat-loving community, there's a strong paw-sibility the café could stay in business.

According to one of the managers, Victoria Vandenberghe, the beloved bubble tea shop has helped more than 850 cats get adopted since it opened in 2019.

"Seeing all the cats get adopted and the owners coming back and showing us pictures and hearing all the stories – it made me really sad that that might end," she said.

She and co-manager Sheena Divina have been working at the café since it opened more than three years ago.

"A very niche business like this has always had a lot of high costs. Just working with animals, it's 24/7 days," said Divina.

"It's kind of just come to the point where we may face closure if we're not able to raise some funds to pay for some of our past debts and upcoming vet bills," said Vandenberghe, adding that the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic also took a toll.

"We're not quite seeing the numbers like it was pre-COVID," she continued.

Customers, asked about the potential closure, told CTV News they were upset by the possibility.

"I come here a lot. I don't have a cat but I love hanging out with cats. So I was really sad to hear that because of COVID and all this kind of stuff, it might go out of business," said Mary Wu, a regular at the shop.

"It really sucks because these cats need to find a home and they provide a lot of comfort to a lot of visitors," added another customer Tommy Dinh.

As a last desperate measure to save its business, the café launched a GoFundMe on Thursday.

So far, it's raised more than $78,000 within just a few days, which is more than three-quarters of its goal.

"It's overwhelming. We're so appreciative of all the support we've already seen," said Divina.

"I think it really shows that people really care about this. Even if they don't come all the time, even if they've never been here, they know the value it has for the community," added Wu.

The shop says it's going to use the money to pay off its debts, vet bills and to purchase food and litter for the kitties.

It houses about 35 cats at a time and hopes to continue its service for years to come.

With less than a handful of cat cafes in the region, it's purr-ty clear the community wants this one to stay.