Chico Cat Cafe

04/10/2026

Even though our doors are closed, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on everything the café taught me — not just about cats, but about people, trust, and community.

So much of what we created together in that space came from quietly observing how cats move through the world — how they build trust, how they take their time, how they choose when to engage.

I put some of those reflections into words here. It’s a little different than what I’ve shared before, but it’s deeply connected to everything the café stood for.

If you spent time with us, I think you’ll recognize some of these moments. 🐾

Every leadership book talks about trust, patience, and reading the room. None of them credit cats.

04/09/2026

350 + cats found their people within our walls. 60,000 people walked through our doors. And we couldn’t find a single landlord willing to let us do it again.

Here’s what we decided to do instead.

You were part of this. The quiet mornings. The full weekends. The cats who didn’t know yet they were about to be chosen. The something-in-the-air that made it feel like more than a place.

And even after we closed in September — you never really left.

The voicemails kept coming. The emails asking about reopening. People stopping by our old location, hoping to find us there. Tour groups. Cancelled events. The volunteers and fosters who raised their hands and said: I’m ready. Whenever you are.

And the ones who came just to love on the cats — no agenda, no adoption plan, just a need to be somewhere that felt real. We saw you. We knew you. We remembered your favorite cats.

And the adopters — the ones who walked in not knowing they were about to meet their person, and walked out changed. We carry every one of those stories.

This community never stopped believing in us. And we never stopped trying.

Since December, we met with nearly half a dozen landlords. We showed up prepared. We made the case. We believed each time it might be the one.

Some spaces didn’t fit. Others — and this is the harder truth — had landlords unwilling to consider an animal-centered space at all.

Over three years, together, we built something extraordinary:

🐾 350+ cats adopted
🐾 700+ events
🐾 60,000+ visits
🐾 9 rescue partnerships
🐾 Countless happy tears, quiet moments, and squeals of absolute delight

And the system still said no.

The proof is already here. The only thing missing is access.

So we decided to stop asking for one space — and start funding many.

🐈 Introducing: The CATS Foundation 🐈
Cultivating Alternative Transition Spaces

Jodi has founded The CATS Foundation — a California-based philanthropic initiative dedicated to funding the next 2.0 generation of alternative adoption pathways.

Through ✨ The Purrposeful Pathways Project ✨ we’ll offer micro-grants and scholarships to individuals and organizations creating:
• Pop-up adoption lounges
• Foster-based enrichment spaces
• Community adoption events
• And yes — new cat cafés built with everything 1.0 taught us

Our first California grant round opens Spring 2027. If you’ve been dreaming about building something like this — or know someone who has — we want to hear from you.

And if you want to help us fund more spaces and more ideas — that door is opening soon too.

The café couldn’t find its next space.

So we decided to help build many.

You were part of 1.0.

Now you’re part of what 2.0 makes possible. ❤️🐾

To our incredible staff, who showed up day after day with care, patience, and heart.
To our rescue partners, who trusted us with their cats through every season.
To our students and regulars, who made us part of their routines, their study breaks, their safe place.
Thank you.
You didn’t just support this space. You helped shape it. This Foundation exists because of you.

And to the cats of Chico — thank you for trusting us to find you your people, on your terms, in your own time. You were never just the residents.

You were the whole point. 🐾 We LOVE you all so much ❤️

If you were part of this — we want to hear your favorite memory. A cat you still think about. A moment that stayed with you. A photo if you have one.

We’ll go first.

The moment we keep returning to is a cat who had been shut down in a shelter — withdrawn, invisible, passed over — finally relaxing into themselves in a room full of strangers. Not because someone reached for them. But because the space itself was safe enough that they chose to open.

That’s the heart of everything we built together. And it’s exactly what The CATS Foundation exists to make possible — again and again, in as many places as we can.

Drop yours below. Let’s hold this chapter together before we step into the next one 😻🐈‍⬛🌈

04/07/2026

We've been a little quiet over here — but behind the scenes, we've been busy tending to some meaningful (and very exciting) projects that we can't wait to share more about soon. 🥰

In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more of this work on a few national podcasts — which feels like a really special step in bringing these ideas into a broader conversation. More on that soon.

In the meantime, we wanted to share something we're genuinely excited about closer to home. 🐾

Our friends at Purradise Ridge Cat Lounge are preparing to open their doors — just 20 minutes away — and we've been cheering them on as they bring this vision to life. It is something really special.

Spaces like this carry forward something we believe deeply: that connection, care, and community matter — and that cats deserve to be met in environments where they can truly be themselves.

Please show them some love as they get ready to open:
👉 Purradise Ridge Cat Lounge
👉 https://www.purradiseridgecatlounge.com/

More from us soon — and thank you, as always, for being part of the cat café magic 😻🐈‍⬛💫

1. Book a reservation online or walk in and get your ticket when you arrive. We strongly recommend booking ahead of time before the slots fill up. Reservation fees help pay for things like cat food and litter, rent, utilities, and staffing costs. Please do not bring any pets with you! 

01/21/2026

Meet Marmalade!

He came into the world quietly—one small orange kitten among a few others, surviving together on scraps near a school. Even then, there was something different about him. He was shy, yes, but never sharp. Never defensive. Just watching. Waiting. Hoping.

When gentle hands reached out, he answered immediately.

Marmalade is a cat who feels with his whole body. Touch is his language. Affection is his oxygen. Once he trusts you, he doesn’t simply accept love—he seeks it out with devotion. He will climb into your space, press his face against yours, lightly paw your cheek or hand, and remind you (softly, insistently) that connection matters. He gives kisses. He leans in. He stays.

He does not like to be alone. At night, if separated, he’ll sit outside the door and reach his paw underneath, quietly asking to be near you. Not out of fear—but because companionship is where he feels safest.

1-year-old medium hair Marmalade thrives with other cats. He was found among them, and he still carries that communal spirit. With his current feline companion, an older female, he play-wrestles, grooms, cuddles, and coexists in a constant, affectionate rhythm. He would be happiest in a home with another friendly cat—someone to chase, curl up with, and share the quiet hours.

Playfulness lives right beneath his tenderness. Headphones, cables, stray objects left on the floor—nothing escapes his curious paws. He is endlessly entertained by the world and eager to engage with it.

When he settles in for affection, the reward is extraordinary: deep, resonant purring that can last hours. He arches into your hand, presses his body against yours, and welcomes touch everywhere—chin, chest, belly, back—each stroke met with gratitude and trust. He doesn’t enjoy being picked up and prefers to stay grounded, but once settled beside you, he is all in.

Marmalade has never shown aggression. He hasn’t been exposed to dogs or children, but his gentle, social nature suggests a home that understands respect, softness, and patience will be the right fit.

He is not a cat who wants to simply live near you.
He wants to live with you.

If you’re looking for a companion who bonds deeply, loves fully, and believes—at his core—that life is better when shared… Marmalade is already reaching for you.

**Note: Chico Cat Café is currently closed and does not have cats onsite. All cats listed on our website (including Marmalade) are in foster homes and are available for adoption. Please contact us for all adoption and meet-and-greet inquiries.**

01/14/2026

✨ Chico Cat Café: A New Chapter Is Taking Shape ✨

For a while now, we’ve been quietly working behind the red curtain — listening, learning, and letting something new take shape.

And we’re finally ready to share a little of what’s coming.

Yes… Chico Cat Café will be reopening this year, and right now we’re aiming for spring. 🌸

Our nonprofit paperwork is moving forward, we’re weighing our options between a few locations next week, and the new version of Chico Cat Café is beginning to reveal itself.

But this isn’t just a reopening.

It’s a new chapter.

One of the most meaningful things to share is that Chico Cat Café has been accepted into a prestigious, nationally respected shelter-medicine and community-care program through UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine and Maddie’s Fund— a place where shelters, rescues, and changemakers from across the country gather to imagine better, kinder, more sustainable ways to care for cats.

To our knowledge, no cat café has ever been part of this program before — and that feels exactly right for Chico. What this means for our town is that the café you love is being gently re-imagined with the very best thinking in modern feline care, foster support, and adoption science guiding the way.

We’ll still be doing what we do best: curating quiet moments, soft paws, purring hearts, and the slow magic of cats and people finding each other. But we’ll be starting with weekend-focused hours, creating calmer, more intentional, more cat-centered experiences.

This year also brings something new: a big partnership with Chico State — with local programs, classes, and collaborations designed to bring students and the community into deeper connection with cats, care, and each other. The kind of programs that make ears swivel and tails twinkle. 🐾✨

And yes… there are a lot more surprises waiting in our whiskers, things we’ll share when the timing is just right.

We’re also honored to be launching this next phase — Chico Cat Café 2.0 — alongside Neighborhood Cat Advocates, whose work through Pawprints Thrift Boutique and the Pawprints Spay & Neuter Clinic has already changed so many lives in our region. Together, we’re building something that blends adoption, education, and community in ways Chico hasn’t seen before and we want you to be a part of it 🥰

Because we’re becoming a nonprofit, another door is opening too: VOLUNTEERS! Soon we’ll be inviting cat lovers, helpers, and dreamers to step inside and be part of this story — with training and onboarding details coming very soon.

Thank you for waiting with us.

Thank you for believing in us.

We can’t wait to welcome you — and the cats — back into this next chapter.

Are you ready for it? Hang tight – grab our paws – and HOLD ON Chico! 💛🐾

12/24/2025

🎄 From Our Hearts (and Paws) to Yours 🤍

As this year gently comes to a close, we want to pause and say thank you—from the cats who’ve curled up in your laps, the fosters who opened their homes, the rescues who trusted us, and the humans who showed up again and again with love.

Chico Cat Café has always been more than a place. It’s been a community built on compassion, patience, second chances, and the belief that cats (and people) thrive when surrounded by care. None of what this space has been—or what it’s quietly becoming—would exist without you.

While our doors are temporarily closed, our hearts are very much open. Behind the scenes, we’re tending the roots, listening closely, and reimagining what’s possible. The next chapter is being shaped with intention, guided by everything this community has taught us—and by what the cats need most.

Thank you for supporting us through this pause, for trusting the process, and for holding space with us as we prepare to step into the new year.

From our cats, our fosters, our rescue partners, and our entire extended café family—

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and here’s to a hopeful, love-filled New Year. ✨🐾😽🎄🎁

12/10/2025

ADOPTIONS #354 & #355: Bobby Batman & beloved sister Brown Toes (aka Gertrude)

✨ A Double Happy Ending for Bobby Batman & Brown Toes! ✨

Some adoption stories feel like destiny finally clicking into place… and this one is pure magic.

Bobby Batman and his beloved sister Brown Toes (affectionately known as Gertrude) have officially gone to their forever home together — two hearts that have never lived a day apart will continue their story side by side. 💛🖤

Bobby Batman began life shy and unsure, a gentle little soul in rough shape who needed time, medication, and steady love to remember the world could be kind. Slowly, sweetly, he transformed into the softest-hearted shadow-cat — loyal, tender, playful, and endlessly endearing. His tiny white fang tips gave him a bat-like grin, but it’s his quiet affection that truly steals hearts.

His sister Brown Toes blossomed too — a warm, honey-toned tabby girl with a freckled cheek and a spirit that radiates comfort. She is grounding, cuddly, curious, and steady… the kind of cat who can calm a whole room simply by stretching out in a sunbeam. She and Bobby have been a pair since kittenhood — playmates, nap buddies, and inseparable companions through every chapter of their lives.

Their bond is something rare and beautiful. They understand each other in ways only siblings do. They check on each other, curl around each other, and share the kind of trust forged over a lifetime of growing up side-by-side. And now, thanks to their wonderful adopters, they get to keep that connection forever. 🌟

Today, they step into a new home filled with love, windows to watch the world, soft laps to curl up on, and humans who saw their magic instantly. Their foster family — who loved them into the confident, thriving cats they are — is overjoyed to see them begin this next adventure together, exactly as it should be.

💛 Congratulations, Bobby Batman & Brown Toes.
Your forever has finally found you — in stereo, just the way you were meant to be 😻😻🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

12/10/2025

ADOPTION #353: White Toes (aka Twinkle Toes)

✨ Twinkle Toes Has Found Her Forever Home — And a Heart in Need of Healing ✨

Some adoption stories feel written by fate, and Twinkle Toes’ is one of them. 💛🐾

Our sweet White Toes—affectionately known as Twinkle Toes—has officially gone home with a loving woman who recently said goodbye to her cherished elderly cat. Her heart was still tender, still adjusting to the quiet that follows loss… until she met Twinkle Toes.

In that soft, gentle way that only certain cats possess, Twinkle walked right into the quiet and filled it with warmth again. She pressed her velvety head into her future mom’s hand, purred her soft, steady purr… and yes, she even gave one of her signature drooly love showers that she saves only for people she truly trusts. That was it—two hearts recognized each other. A perfect, quiet bond was formed.

Twinkle Toes has come such a long way from being left behind during an eviction to becoming a cuddly, affectionate girl who melts into laps, watches the world through sunny windows, and brings a little sparkle wherever she goes. She is loving, playful, busy, sassy in the sweetest way, and deeply connected to her people. Once she feels safe, she gives her whole heart—and her new mom felt that instantly.

Today, Twinkle begins the next beautiful chapter of her life in a home filled with tenderness, memory, and brand-new love.

And her new mom begins hers with a companion who understands quiet moments, shared healing, and the gentle re-opening of a heart.

Shine bright in your forever home, Twinkle Toes.
You were meant for each other. 💫🐾

12/06/2025

🦇😸Batman says “WAIT!…The PAWP-UP is TODAY?” 😸🦇

Judging by his face Bobby Batman just realized that TODAY is our kitten PAWP-UP ADOPTION FAIRE - he cannot believe that you’re not here yet! 😂🐾

This handsome little bay boy is ready for his close up…and maybe even ready to meet his forever family. (He promises to not relocate into your shadows…unless you want him to).

Come meet Batman and all of the other adorable kitties waiting for love, snuggles, and fresh starts!

📍Where: PawPrints Spay & Neuter Clinic
2607 Esplanade, Chico
⏰ Happening NOW! 10am-3pm
💛$5 Suggested Donation to NCA

✨Kittens and fabulous adult cats!
✨No reservations needed!
✨Your next best friend might have tiny bat fangs 🧛

PAWP-on in today - Batman is watching the door …. very dramatically 😂🐾

12/05/2025

🐾 TOMORROW is the Day! Our Kitten PAWP-UP ADOPTION FAIRE is Almost Here! 😻✨

Kittens. Shenanigans. Heart-melting moments. Are you ready?
Neighborhood Cat Advocates is overflowing with some of the SWEETEST little purrballs in the county, and tomorrow they’ll all be gathered for one cozy, joy-filled celebration of whiskers, wonder, and new beginnings.

And while Chico Cat Café prepares for our next chapter, we’re bringing the magic off-site — and YOU are invited. 💛

📍 WHERE: PawPrints Spay & Neuter Clinic, 2607 Esplanade, Chico
⏰ WHEN: Saturday, December 6th • 10am–3pm
💛 SUGGESTED DONATION: $5 to PawPrints (for sharing their beautiful space with us!)

✨ WHY THIS EVENT MATTERS
This has been an unbelievable kitten season for NCA — hundreds of unplanned litters, constant calls for help, and an entire community of fosters stepping up to protect and prepare these babies for their forever homes. They’ve blossomed from a local TNR effort into a lifesaving network that now includes:
• PawPrints Spay/Neuter Clinic
• PawPrints Thrift Boutique
• A foster network bursting with adorable adoptables

And together — YOU, Chico Cat Café, and NCA — have helped 100+ cats and kittens find loving homes this year. 🥳💛

🐾 WHAT YOU’LL FIND TOMORROW:
• Walk-ins welcome — no reservations needed
• Kittens + a few fabulous adults ready to charm your socks off
• Volunteers ready to help you find your perfect match
• On-site adoption applications (no same-day adoptions)

All cats are (unless noted):
✔ Vaccinated (initial doses)
✔ Spayed/neutered
✔ Litter box trained
✔ Dewormed, deflea’ed
✔ Triple tested (FeLV, FIV, HW)
✔ Microchipped
✔ Extremely adorable

Please sanitize before snuggling — our kitties thank you with tiny purrs. 💛

✨ A NOTE FROM US AS WE BUILD THE CAFE’S NEXT CHAPTER
While our café is temporarily closed as we prepare to move into a bigger, brighter space, these pop-up events are what keep our mission beating strong. Your visits and your support mean the world as we work behind the scenes to build Chico Cat Café’s next era — one filled with more space, more programs, more community magic, and more cats finding homes.

💫 IT’S YOUR LAST CHANCE THIS YEAR!
This will be our final Pawp-Up of 2025 — so if you’ve been dreaming of kitten snuggles or hoping to meet “the one,” tomorrow is your moment.

🐾 PAWP-ON IN Tomorrow, Saturday December 6th, from 10am–3pm!

Your new furry family member just might be waiting for you. 💕😻

We can’t wait to see you there!

12/05/2025

✨🐾 CAT STORIES: Adoption Faire Preview — Volume XVI🐾
Each of these sweet souls carries a story…
and this Saturday, you might meet the one who chooses you.
(See pinned post for all event details.)

💛 Meet the kittens of Volume XVI — a curated collection of playful spirits, cuddle bugs, shoulder-jumpers, biscuit-makers, and old souls in tiny bodies. Each has blossomed in foster care, each has a personality all their own, and each is ready for a forever home where their next chapter can begin.

Scroll through their portraits + stories below…
and if one tugs at your heart, trust that little pull. That’s how the best matches begin.
We can’t wait to see you Saturday, December 6th from 10a-3p!🫶🐾