CATS in a café might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but one entrepreneur from Gwent has had her life transformed thanks to felines.

Hollie Bowler-Brown lives in Newport with her husband and cats Eric, Lana and Zelda as well as three foster kittens.

The 27-year-old has a background in IT and public relations, but her career was interrupted by severe depression. She says her pet cats were a big part of her recovery.

“I have always been a cat lover and I grew up around cats and always loved the company of cats. My own cats have always been a great source of comfort and have given me a reason to get out of bed really.”

Now Mrs Bowler-Brown has opened the Feline Good Cat Café in Cardiff which is proving to be a huge success and has helped her overcome her depression.

The craze for cat cafés began in Taiwan in 1998 when the Cat Garden opened its doors in Taipei. The café became a tourist attraction and the idea soon spread to Japan then the rest of the world. It was visiting one of these cafés that changed Mrs Bowler-Brown’s life.

“I visited a cat café in London in 2014,” Mrs Bowler-Brown said. “At the time I was off work with an episode of depression and I felt really at home and relaxed there.

“I started looking into opening a café in Wales but it was nothing more than a pipe dream. Then all of a sudden the dream became a business plan, then became a social media account and then £8,000 raised via crowd funding to where we are today.”

She crowdfunded for the cafe through an Indiegogo campaign, which raised the money needed for the venture. Since they opened five weeks ago there has been a huge amount of interest in, what is, Wales’ first cat café.

Mrs Bowler-Brown added: “I fully expected us to be fully booked for the first weekend, but now we are at the fourth weekend and we’re fully booked this weekend.

“We are overwhelmed by the public response to the café. Our Facebook reviews have all been positive, so people are enjoying themselves and they love our cats and can see how well they are looked after, and it means a lot to me.

“My husband is really supportive. At the beginning everyone was like ‘What?’ but they have seen how passionate I am about it and how it has evolved and they saw how I was getting better from depression because they could see I had something to focus on. They visit regularly which is lovely.”

People can book sessions to visit the café online and people get to spend an hour and a half with the cats. They are proud that they are one of the few cafés in the UK that allow people under 16 years of age to visit.

The cats are all rescue cats and are happy in the café surroundings, which is where they live permanently. They are monitored by CCTV and the café has pet-proof burglar alarms should anyone try to break in.

“All of our cats are rescues from Mittens Cat Rescue,” Mrs Bowler-Brown explains, “which I do volunteer work for in the Newport area. The cats were all in my home from about eight-weeks-old until they were about eight months old.

“We wanted to raise them all and have a smaller colony than other cafes, when people visit they notice how well the cats get on, and that’s because I had them in a home environment from a young age.

“They were exposed to things like televisions, children, dogs, vacuum cleaners and loud noises and I think that is why they have thrived in the café. The cats really enjoy being with people and they very much want to be with the visitors.

“There is a cat wheel in the café which I got from a woman in Cwmbran and that has been a real focal point. People love seeing the cats walking and running on the wheel.”

Not all cat lovers are able to own their own furry friend, but cat cafés mean they can spend time in the company of cats.

The café sells loose leaf teas, coffees, milkshakes and freshly prepared sandwiches, cakes and luxurious chocolate ganache cups, so you can have your kitty fix and a treat at the same time.

They currently have six members of staff, known as kitty buddies, and six cats with two more cats joining the team in a few weeks. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes including daily welfare checks for the cats and their social media presence has been a large part of the business’ success.

“In the future we want to refine what we are doing and make sure we are doing it perfectly. We want to set a benchmark for animal welfare and the next thing I want to get involved in is the Welsh Assembly debate on the laws about running over the cats and giving them the same status as a dog.

“Then we are going to look at where we will go to next. If we expand we will look at coming to Newport.”

Feline Good is located in Meridian Court, just off the Gabalfa interchange, in Cardiff. Find out more or book a table at felinegoodcafe.com.

Booking is recommended.