When Kristin Cowan comes to work each day she doesn’t have much time to relax.
Her days are full of cleaning, lots of it. Assuring that most of her “employees” have a clean place to go to the bathroom is essential. Making sure they are healthy and that none of them have made a mess of the garbage overnight barely makes a dent in her to-do list.
Cowan ditched a full-time office job and, along with co-owner Adam Patterson, opened Mount Purrnon Cat Cafe + Wine Bar in Old Town in 2020. The cafe takes a new approach to cat adoption. They’ll celebrate the cafe’s fourth anniversary on August 1.
“I was always like, oh, wouldn’t it be cool if we could go to a place where you’d hang out with cats and drink wine?” Cowan said.
The small business houses upwards of 20 cats at any given time, providing a unique environment for locals and tourists to interact with felines searching for their forever homes.
Walking into Mount Purrnon, patrons first encounter a cafe area offering a variety of coffees, grilled cheeses and wines. There are a handful of tables and chairs, allowing the business to host wine tastings and other events as a way to bring in extra income to support the cats’ care.
The cats have “free reign” of the second floor, where customers can pet, play with and snuggle them for a small fee. A variety of hiding areas are available for the shyer cats, while others just frolic around the space and will not hesitate to jump into an open lap.
“We’re here to give the cats a place to go so they can get adopted and show their real personalities,” Cowan said.
Cowan said many of the cats brought to Mount Purrnon are the “hottest messes.” They have trouble getting adopted, whether because of disability, old age or something else.
Mount Purrnon has partnered with a private rescue that pulls cats from overcrowded, high-kill shelters on the East Coast, providing a low-stakes place for the cats to find their next chapter.
Just last week, Mount Purrnon welcomed a cat who had her eyes removed and was completely blind. She was adopted within three days — a common story for the business, which has adopted out nearly 900 cats since its opening.
On average, cats stay in Mount Purrnon’s care for about three weeks before finding their new homes. Very few are returned.
“We do take the application process seriously, and that’s why I’m actually more proud of our return rate than our adoption rate because our return rate is really low,” Patterson said. “And I think that says we’re nailing it 98% or 97% of the time.”
It’s a draining job, both physically and emotionally, but Cowan said even the worst days have positives.
“Crazy cat lady just means you have a big heart and you care about living creatures, probably more than yourself,” Cowan said. “And you might be a little eccentric and your hobbies revolve around your cat children, but my business and life revolve around my cat children. No regrets, because it’s fun that way. I’d rather live my life loving what I do than just getting through it.”
