Since it has been operating in Lviv, Ukraine, for more than six years, The Cat Cafe Lviv has become highly important to everyone associated with it.
Serhii Oliinyk, proprietor of Cat Cafe Lviv, told The Dodo, “I have a small staff of very close people who have been working with me for several years and have become my closest friends. “Our fluffy residents appreciate people’s attention, therefore the cats have also become accustomed to these people who help to take care of them and who play with them when there are few guests.”
Twenty cats live at the cafe and like greeting guests and hanging out with them as they eat or take a break. For the inhabitants of Lviv, it has served as a refuge where they may escape the rigors of daily life and simply play with cats that are always delighted to see them.
Oliinyk is staying in Ukraine although many others are leaving because of the Russian invasion. He is staying at the cafe with his family.
Since they were 4 months old, “our cats have lived in [the] cat cafe,” claimed Oliinyk. They resemble a family. We came to the conclusion that we would never emigrate and that here was the only place where we could envision our futures.
The Cat Cafe Lviv has made the decision to remain open in the face of the invasion and all the ambiguity. They’ll keep offering a secure location where people can drop by and say hello to the kitties, something the people of Ukraine may require now more than ever.
