Pounce Cat Café: Why You Should Go To The South’s First Cat Café

Charleston, SC’s Pounce Cat Café is the South’s first cat cafe. If you’re a cat lover, find out why you need to go and what you need to know.

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I didn’t know that going to a cat cafe was on my bucket list until I found out Pounce Cat Cafe was in Charleston, SC.

As soon as I found out, I started reminding Pete daily … sometimes multiple times a day. “We’re going to the cat cafe in Charleston,” I would say, or a reminder: Don’t forget about the cat cafe.

Happy wife, happy life, right?

The first thing we did in Charleston was head right to Pounce Cat Cafe (283 Meeting St). But, I mean, it was on the same street as the parking lot we were in.

That was a coincidence. A cat-incidence, if you will.

Planning a trip to Charleston? Check out our Things To Do In Charleston, SC post to help you plan your trip.

Pounce Cat Cafe: Why You Should Go To The South’s First Cat Cafe

A cat cafe is exactly what you’re thinking it is. It’s a place where you go, drink, and pet cats.

It’s as phenomenal as it sounds.

But, actually, the place itself is pretty phenomenal.

Pounce Cat Cafe, the South’s first cat cafe, actually operates as a foster. When we were there, the cafe was fostering 17 cats. On average, one to two cats are adopted out of Pounce Cat Cafe every day.

That’s incredible.

You sit with the cats for an hour, play, and bond with them. It’s a great way to really get to know the cat’s personality and see if you guys mesh well together. Think of it like a test drive.

If you do and you fall in love with a fur baby, you can fill out the adoption paperwork right there at the cafe. It’s so simple.

If you want to go to the cat cafe, it’s $15 for an hour. Included in that $15 is a single alcoholic beverage or unlimited refills on a non-alcoholic beverage.

When it’s your turn, you take your beverages into the main part of the cafe, drink, and pet cats. That room is filled with cat toys, so you can really play with them. There are tons of beds for the cats to sleep, scratching posts, a binder filled with photos and descriptions of the cat’s background, and, of course, lots of seating for the patrons.

A limited number of patrons are allowed in each hour because the cafe doesn’t want to overwhelm the cats. So it’s encouraged, but not required, that you reserve your spot ahead of time online.

We didn’t do this because we weren’t exactly sure what time we were getting to Charleston. So we walked in about half past 12. There was availability for us at 1pm, so we sat in the cafe area — which serves drinks, pastries, and sells items for humans and cats — until it was time to pet the cats.

You can actually hang out in that cat-free area any time, even if you’re not there for the cats. There is a happy hour, so you might actually want to just drop in for a beverage because the prices are pretty reasonable.

But I would suggest going for the cats.

Sure, $15 to pet cats sounds a little silly. I mean, you can do that at the pet store for free. But once I realized that Pounce Cat Cafe acts as a foster, it felt like we were actually donating the money to support their cause. Feeding 17 cats can’t be cheap, so I was happy to give them some money to help with that. And I even got a good iced coffee out of it too.

Pounce Cat Cafe has a second location in Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is on our travel bucket list, so maybe another stop at a cat cafe is in our future.

Have you been to a cat cafe? Let us know about it in the comments.