A flat white with a cat

Cat lovers rejoice! Canberra may not have Melbourne’s Cashmere Cat Cafe or Sydney’s Catmosphere, but we do have a coffee cart alongside a cat shelter, so that’s close enough.

The Street Cat Alliance in Crace is opening a coffee cart (with doughnuts) this weekend and – as a self-proclaimed crazy cat lady – watching kittens while sipping a cuppa sounds heavenly.

You can even op-shop while you’re cat-watching, because a new thrift shop is also opening this weekend alongside the existing cat lovers’ market.

All proceeds go to the volunteer-run Street Cat Alliance, and its president, Vanessa Parton, said the coffee cart was a big hit.

“We’ve only had it operational one day and it was amazing, everyone loved it,” Vanessa said.

“You can actually just sit and have a coffee and enjoy the space and watch the kittens play, but it’s not buying time per se to spend time with cats like you do in a kitten cafe.”

Felines and frothy cappuccinos sound fun, but there’s a serious side to this self-funded venture: homeless cats need forever homes.

In industrial areas like Fyshwick, Hume and Mitchell, there are a number of homeless cats residing together in colonies.

The Street Cat Alliance aims to humanely reduce the population of street cats in the Canberra region through its fostering program and its Trap-Neuter-Return program.

So if you want to help a worthy cause, order a coffee – or a cat.

The moggies won’t be rubbing up against your legs à la the interactive cat cafe in Surry Hills, but they will be visible from your lounge.

“It’s going to be a little bit tricky to let people have cuddles but if it’s relatively quiet, we’ll be able to do it,” Vanessa said.

“We’re not able to bring them out if there are hordes of people there. There might be times where we can get kittens out, but you can certainly interact with them through the enclosures like we do on open days.”

Vanessa’s street cats may also soon help the elderly, with some local nursing homes and retirement villages approaching the Street Cat Alliance to arrange visits.

“Because they miss their cats,” Vanessa said. “They can’t have cats in their centres so we are looking at increasing our hours to weekdays to accommodate visits.”

The new thrift shop, Rescued and Re-homed, was as a result of a successful garage sale.

“It was just phenomenal and people loved it,” Vanessa said. “We thought, okay let’s do this because people can come buy a coffee at the same time as thrifting. The space is just amazing and people love it, it’s so peaceful and calming.”

Vanessa and her team bring different cats and kittens in each day and this weekend they’ll have a new litter.

“I won’t put our kittens out public facing unless they’re vaccinated for welfare reasons,” she said.

“I had one litter vaccinated yesterday and they’ll be there on the weekend with their mama. I’ve got another litter, but they only came in yesterday so I’ll see how they are. They are relatively socialised already because they’ve been with somebody for a couple of weeks.”

The Street Cat Alliance is open 10am–3pm on Saturday and Sunday at 80 Bellenden Street, Crace. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram. More info: canberrastreetcatalliance.org