Frequently Asked Questions

---

Yes, online reservations are HIGHLY recommended. There is only a small chance that we will have any available seating. If you're lucky enough to walk in and get a spot, you will still need to register online at our Front Desk.

Once your reservation is made—there are NO cancellations accepted. We will gladly reschedule if 24 hours notice is given prior to visit. 

If you are 15 minutes late for your time slot, it will be given away without a refund. 

Fees for entry into BaristaCats help sustain the cost for care as they take up residence at BaristaCats until they find their furrever home. 

Overall maintenance as well as necessary supplies, staffing, toys, etc are directly funded with the help of your visiting fee and any additional donations. 

100% of our adoption fee does go back to the Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin, so we heavily rely on donations to keep our organization going.

You are helping provide a safe space and happy quality of life for these kitties until they find their furrever homes and for that, BaristaCats thanks you!

Yes! 

In addition to having the opportunity to play with adorable cats in a cozy

environment, currently all but 1 of our feline friends at BaristaCat Café are seeking a furrever homes. 

Adoption is made available through our partnership with The Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin in Janesville. You can learn more about the adoption here or on their website at petsgohome.org 

Yes, for a few reasons!

We don't make any profit at all from adoptions of the cats. Every cent goes right back to the HSSW.

Our Reservation charge is what keeps our doors open and the kitties spoiled so you can see their true personalities shine!

We also do not have a private viewing room, so when you come to visit a kitty, you are there to visit all the kitties! You may have a kitty in mind, but will that be the one that actually jumps into your lap and steals your heart? Only a proper visit will tell!

BaristaCats Café will have up to 20 cats at any given time. Currently, all but 1 kitty in the Pawlor is looking for their furrever home!

To keep everyone, including our cats, comfortable and safe, we only allowed 15 people in at a time (per hour), so we strongly encourage you to make an online reservation ahead of time.

Well, if you're asking if 20 cats smell like cats, then yea, it probably will, but that doesn't mean it's going to smell BAD!

We clean multiple times a day, and provide the cats with their own private accommodations. You're coming into the Pawlor at your own risk, as per the required Waiver, but we would never allow our cafe to smell bad or be a place we wouldn't eat ourselves.

If you do smell something questionable, PLEASE let us know right away and we will tend to it immediately. Even if it is a faint odor, we want to know so we can do something about it!

No, sorry! 

Unfortunately, for the safety of our café and cats, your furry friend will need to stay home (as much as we’d love to meet them!). 

If you’re looking to add to your fur family, we’ll talk to you about your cat at home and help you decide which of our adoptable cats could be a good match.

Service Animals are only allowed in the front entry of our Café, away from the cats due to the significant risk of injury to the Service Animal from a cat that with an unknown fear of other animals.

It's in cats nature to protect their space and feel comfortable with the setting they are in. Although our cats are hand picked by HSSW to be social and friendly cats, it doesn't mean they have been properly socialized with Service Animals, especially dogs. This means the presence of a Service Animal would fundamentally alter the operation of the Pawlor and could possibly create a dangerous situation for both parities.

Our cats are free roaming, and to ensure the safe operation of our business we must insist that all outside animals to BaristaCats Café are not allowed in the Pawlor.

I'm so sorry, but this is not the proper environment to bring stray kitties. All of our cats have already been spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and checked by a vet to ensure their health before they come to the café thanks to our wonderful PAWtnership with the HSSW.

We have multiple wonderful rescues and shelters in the area that are better equipped to handle a kitty off the streets. The Humane Society of Southern Wisconsin can take kitties found in Rock County, but there is also Touched By a Paw and Lakeland Animal Shelter who accept kitties found in Walworth County.  Please make sure to call ahead to ensure they have room and will be able to care for them properly.

If you have to reschedule, give us a call or send us a message! We WILL find a better time/day for you. Please do not just let it go. We can fill your slot easily for some else to enjoy the kitties. 

We CANNOT however refund your money. Unfortunately, we do not refund—only reschedule, so please make sure you have a day in mind or we can also issue a gift card for future use. 

Yes! 

Children are always allowed, but with adult supervision. Any child left unsupervised will be given an espresso and a free kitten 🐾

Just kitten! But furreal… watch them.. because they get grabby! 

Any minor under 12 must be accompanied by a 1 minor: 1 adult ratio, and must have their Waiver signed and submitted by a Legal Guardian.

Minors over 13 are allowed to come as long as there is at least 1 adult per every 3 minors (so, at least 1 per reservation of 4), and will still need to have their Waiver filled out by a Legal Guardian.

We want to stress that although this is a fun place to bring your children, we are not a petting zoo.

These kitties come straight from the Shelter System and although we can speculate where they came from and what happened, many of them are simply overwhelmed by small children, and small children also seem to get overwhelmed by the sheer delight that is 20 cats all in one place.

This environment is supposed to be a safe and secure place for the cats to get comfortable and show off their personalities with the hope they can find a FURRever home, and they have a really hard time doing that if they feel they have to hide.

There's a reason Cat Cafe's aren't easy to open, and a huge part of that is because we walk a fine line with our licensing. 

In order to keep our license, even after signing the Waiver, you must pick up your order from our front desk and take it back to your spot in the Pawlor yourself. 

Thank you for understanding!

We value quality over quantity, and if we offered to-go orders, it would be chaos at the front desk, and there's just not that much room for people to hang out there.

You're free to come in and check out our merch, but we can't have people loitering in the lobby for too long.

Second and most importantly, there's multiple other coffee shops in the immediate area that need your support. We aren't here to compete with anyone, we're here to bring people together and offer a whole experience.

Things happen and we want to be understanding, but this is still a business and it's about the wellbeing of our cats. 

We will have to change our standard entry fee to anyone who signed up for a Donation Event and still would like entry.

Excellent question!

Send us a message in the Contact Us page, or give our cafe a call during regular business hours! We're happy and willing to come up with a plan that can mutually benefit all of us.

That depends on the purpose of your visit!

In the mornings, they're ready to play since they've been alone all night, afternoon tends to be nap time, and in the evenings they either ready for more play, or they're exhausted from the day. 

You pick your preference! Some people are coming to do some work, while some others are there to play. Either way, they probably are just going to do whatever they want anyway.

People with allergies to cats must accept the risks of just entering the front door. Everyone is an individual and reacts differently to their allergies, so if you'd like to take a peek, you're free to come by, but we highly recommend you do not enter the Pawlor if you are sensitive to cats. 

Unfortunately not FURRend.

We can't be too careful about the safety of our kitties. Not only can they be easily fed too many treats that can make them sick, but we don't all value kitties the same way, and some people have ill intentions.

You're welcome to donate your sealed bags of treats to us, and purchase treats to feed the kitties from our front desk!

Absolutely!

Please see our Reservations page for more information on our Paw-ty Rates! You will not be able to book via our standard Reservation System, so please reach out to us via the provided link on the page so we can assist you with plannning the PURRfect PAWty!

We are currently fully staffed, but when we are hiring again, our Volunteers get the first pick since they already know the in's and out's of Cafe life and have have direct experience working with us and the kitties!