Korea's Dog and Cat Cafe

I remember being sat in London a few months before coming to Korea and watching the TV as the legend that is Karl Pilkington travelled to a variety of countries. If you know who Karl Pilkington is you don’t need to be told that he approaches  places with less enthusiasm than a teenager in a knitting circle (this is less than 0% in case you were wondering) but even his annoyed comments as he traveled through Japan couldn’t dull my excitement and wonderment at seeing him go to a cafe with a concept I’d never seen before. A cat café .
As mentioned many times, we looooove animals (yes I’m using bad English to explain my love, the level of love we have warrants it) so knowing there was a place that I could combine my two loves; animals and coffee made my little head spin.
I jumped on the internet and researched how, when and where I could see such a magical thing. Obviously, as is the way with most bizarre and amazing things, it seemed they were only in Japan. What better excuse to pop over to Tokyo than to see what Starbucks would look like if a crazy cat lady owned it.
The cat café was put on a ‘to – do ‘ list , as so many things in my life are and I started researching Korea and the city of Daegu that we’d chosen to live in. This is where I hit upon a magical piece of information. There were cat cafes in Korea. Better than that, there was cat cafes in Daegu….even better than these two things…there was also dog cafés! Can you guess what Lee and I did on our first weekend in Daegu?
Since arriving in Daegu almost two years ago we have become recurring customers at the aptly named ‘dog cat café’. I have written many articles about it for varies Expat magazines but I thought it was about time that I shared one of my favourite Korean past times with my lovely followers (i.e my mother…Hi mum!)
So how does this place work? Well once you track it down, which is harder than you’d think in an ever changing city such as Daegu (details at the bottom of the page), you pay a one off fee of 7,000 won (£3.50) , choose form the array of drinks which are surprisingly good and pick your room. The main reception where you pay and where you can put your items in a locker is also the kitty cat floor so we normally start there.
The reason I’d advice starting with the cat’s instead of the dogs is because it’s not only closest to the drinks desk but some of the cats aren’t exactly ones for endless affection. I’ve never had a pet (yes I know, it’s shocking) but I’ve grown up around Lee’s cats and I know that cats are maybe the most sassy mammals in the animal kingdom. If a cat doesn’t want a stroke, they won’t be stroked. This doesn’t mean they will try to attack you if you touch them but they are masters at avoiding being touched, normally by hiding near the roof or choosing their hiding places smartly. If you are a cat owner you will completely understand what a cat that can have cuddles at any opportunity will eventually become, a diva. So why bother? Well since we can’t have animals in our flats in Korea it is lovely and relaxing just to be around animals. This in fact is the reason for these establishments. Many young Koreans live with their parents until they are married so they can’t have pets of their own and even when you get a place of your own in Korea they are normally too small for furry critters.
These places are a great place to chat with friends but the main reason to go is that when one cat does choose you to be his or her cuddle giver for the day, its maybe the best feeling in the world. Lee seems to give off some pheromones that animals love since we’ve never been to a cat café that hasn’t involved at least 10 cats trying to get a piece of him. This one fellow (below) took an extra special liking to Lee and decided to try and lick his face for an hour. He was a happy chap, until, to his dismay, it sneezed in his face. I found this ‘roll on the floor’, side split-tingly funny.
Once you’ve spent some times with the cats you can take off the stylish slippers you’ve had to wear to visit the cats and head upstairs to the doggies.
I recently watched an episode of the TV show ‘Parks and Recreation’ with my friend. In one scene the group decide to think of what dog breeds suit them the best. My friend laughed and asked me what I thought we’d be to which I quickly rambled off every person we knew and what canine they would be. Embarrassingly this is the kind of thing I’d thought about many times before* . The reason for this pointless story is for you to get an understanding of how much we love dogs and how therefore the dog café is our Disneyland.

One of my favourite photos. This little dude is pure evil

You head in, sit on the floor and these lovely doggies jump all over you , stupidly excited to have new friends. I know you shouldn’t have favourites but I do have a soft spot for the pug Mando (which means dumpling in Korean) and the giant white fluff ball that is Banana.
If you ever need a pick me up this is definitely the place to go. The dogs are well cared for and the love they have for the owners is evident. I have also been happy to see the owners walking the dogs around Daegu many times so it’s nice to know they get some exercise.
At the end of the day these are just rooms with coffee and a spattering of animals but I love them to bits. The recent pop up attempt at a cat café in New York (which you can read about here) makes me feel a little bit saner since it’s obviously not just us that loves these places.
Mark my words, dog and cat cafes are definitely the future. All we have to do now is go an experience the sheep café’s in Seoul and we will have tried our hand at all the animal based café’s Korea has to offer.

My lovely friend Jess visited us and I dragged her along too.

Me covered in dogs. A very happy person

Where to visit:
We have been to two different dog café’s. One in Seoul – Gangnam which you can read about here on this fantastic blog ‘Cute in Korea‘ and one in Daegu which is also a cat café….
Address:
[Catdog Cafe] 120-16 Dongseongno 3(sam)-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu, South Korea
070-7757-4445
The café is in downtown Daegu and located very near to the stage. If you are stood facing the stage you will see two roads leading away from it. You need to walk down the road that has Mc Donald’s on it until you come to the first left hand turn (about 20 meters down).
After you turn left, walk another 30 meters and you should see the large sign advertising the dog and cat café on the right hand side.

*Lee would be a giant Golden Retriever and I’d be a Pug/French bulldog …in case you were wondering.

Have you been to a dog/cat café? What did you think? Would you go again? Would you like one in your own country? Were they well treated? Let us know what you think.