Written by Colin McEvoy | October 18, 2024 | SHARE
In the heart of Santiago, a cat café became an unexpected sanctuary, offering comfort and connection to a homesick Lehigh student missing her furry companions
Lehigh Launch is an experiential, integrative learning experience for first-year Lehigh University students, being offered in Chile for the first time this year. Faculty advisor Hugo Ceron-Anaya, associate professor of sociology, asked participating students to prepare chronicles about their experiences in Chile, which Global Lehigh will share throughout the semester. Below is a chronicle by Kirsten Jones '28.
My whole life I have been surrounded by animals. I grew up doing my homework with my rabbit in my lap, my cat at my feet, or my dog on the couch next to me. The idea of traveling so far away and having to go through so many different experiences without the silent comfort of my favorite companions was a tough one. For as long as I can remember, animals have always brought me comfort and happiness. When I arrived in Santiago, I was surprised to discover that my host family had a cat. That happiness I experienced at discovering this gave way to unease when the cat, Simone, tried to attack me multiple times. I wasn’t used to this kind of reaction from animals, I had never had one hate me so strongly. While comical, this only made me miss the joy that my own brought me more. But that longing was put at ease a few weeks later when our group was told about a cafe, a cat cafe, called La Casa De La Gata Horacia.
After school on August 29th, my friends and I decided to visit the cat cafe. After walking 20 minutes to get there, we arrived at this quaint little building on a street corner. While I was excited, nothing could prepare me for the pure bliss I was about to experience. We entered the cafe to be immediately greeted by two super friendly workers. The gentleman behind the counter explained to us how the whole thing worked. When I say us, I mean he spoke very fast paced Spanish that only Rai could understand, so really he explained to Rai who kindly translated for the rest of us.
Then the fun really began. We were led upstairs to our table, a table that was surrounded by free roaming cats of all shapes and sizes. They immediately started climbing in our laps and rubbing on our legs. Going into this I thought that the cats might be, as cats tend to be, uninterested but that was not the case. The cats were all, for the most part, very curious and friendly. Russell was the first to get one to climb in his lap. It was this sweet turtle shell with long hair. When it left Russell, it moved to Allie and curled up in her lap and fell deeply asleep. Then Phoebe had a little black cat in her lap and Lauren a gray cat with a mangled face from injury, but he was so sweet as he snuggled into her arms. When the food we ordered arrived, we had to defend Allie’s pizza from this one cat that was insistent it needed to have a slice. That is when this sweet little gray kitten climbed into my lap. It had previously been too busy playing to allow me to pet it, but it was now curled up in my lap. My heart melted. I now knew why the wall of adopted cats was so huge. How could you not want to take them home?
After finishing our food, it was time to go upstairs, where there were more cats just hanging out. The problem with this, I didn’t want to get up because the kitten was still asleep in my lap. I felt so relaxed and at home sitting there stroking its soft fur. When I finally decided I needed to get up, as my friends had already been upstairs for some time, I tried to stand. The kitten made absolutely no effort to get up. Since I most definitely did not have it in me to make the kitten wake up and get off, I picked it up. I carried my backpack in one hand and the kitten in the other and went up to join my friends. Up stairs was only more heaven. The cats were everywhere one was running on a wheel, one was climbing a cat tree, another in Lauren’s arms. We stayed till closing, my friends playing with all the cats, me holding the same little gray kitten as it slept in my arms.
When I left that cafe, I left feeling refreshed. I felt a little less longing for my own animals and most of all I felt happy. This cafe allowed me to find comfort in what I always had, animals. This is an experience that I will never forget. This cafe is not only awesome for people like me who just need the comfort of cats, but also for the cats as every cat there is a rescue. I will definitely be going back to visit with my new best friend and I hope that his or her photo makes it on that adopted wall someday.
Below are links to other Lehigh Launch Chile student chronicles: