Today we’d like to introduce you to Renee Reed.
Renee, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am an Aggie, a Houstonian and most importantly a lifelong cat companion. I’m a CPA and a business consultant. I have worked with many entrepreneurs and have been truly inspired seeing what one can accomplish with passion, hard work and drive when you believe in your vision and the benefit it can provide the community.
The mission of finding homes for adoptable cats is near and dear to my heart. I moved to the east Houston neighborhood of Eado three years ago and found myself living among a quickly multiplying population of community cats. I received support from HOPE (Homeless & Orphaned Pet Endeavor) and learned the necessary TNR (Tag Neuter and Release) skills to successfully and compassionately prevent overpopulation. There were several stray cats in the area that I knew would make really great pets so I started to find homes for them. This was about the same time that I learned of the cat café concept, which was just starting to expand to the US using the Japan cat cafes as a model, but with adoptions. I started visiting cat cafes in different cities and knew immediately that this was my calling.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many challenges along the way. Cat cafes are still very new, as the first cat café in Houston, I have had to navigate what the city, mainly Health Department, would allow since it is against code to have animals in restaurants in Houston. The original vision was for the café to be constructed from a shipping container and this was to be completed simultaneously with the opening of the cat cottage in April. I had to cut my losses and make a direction change after hitting numerous road-blocks with the shipping container. Our café will now reside within a food truck, which will be open for business late December / early January. Fortunately, we were able to obtain a temporary permit from the city to allow us to provide beverages and snacks while we await completion of the truck where we can offer full espresso menu and food. It has been a challenge opening without this integral part of the concept, but thankfully we have a lot of cat lovers in Houston that like what we are doing and keep coming back even though they can’t yet enjoy cappuccinos or meowcchiatos.
Please tell us about El Gato Coffeehouse Cat Cafe.
El Gato Coffeehouse is the first cat cafe in Houston and is partnered with the Houston Humane Society. All of our resident cats are adaptable and we do the adoption in-house. While we adopt cats of all ages we particularly like to focus on older cats that get overlooked in the shelter environment. We offer an alternative to a shelter, which is a comfortable environment for both our cats and our guests that allows our guest to get to know the cats in a stress-free, cage-free setting. Our guests help to socialize the adoptable cats and our cats provide calming cat-therapy to our guests, as spending time with cats lower stress-levels and blood pressure.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I got my first cat, Taffy, at age 7. This was the first cat for our family to ever have so it took much convincing to bring Taffy into our household especially with a brother that turned out to have cat allergies. But like cats do, Taffy quickly found her way into everyone’s heart and made her mark on our family.
Pricing:
- cover is $10 ($9 for students and seniors) and $7 for kids
Contact Info:
- Address: 508 Pecore St Ste A
Houston, TX 77009 - Website: elgatocoffeehouse.com
- Phone: 832-968-3006
- Email: info@elgatocoffeehouse.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elgatocoffeehouse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Elgatocoffeehouse/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElGatoCatCafe
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/el-gato-coffeehouse-and-cat-cottage-houston-3
- Other: https://www.snapchat.com/add/elgatocoffee
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
