Sip and Purr Cat Café Thrives Despite Pandemic

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On March 17, Sip and Purr Cat Café, located on the East Side of Milwaukee, had to shut its doors in response to the COVID-19 lockdown. What was next for the small café’s future was full of uncertainty. After its closure, Sip and Purr owner Katy McHugh posted on social media asking for donations from the community. That’s when her inbox became flooded with email after email, notifying her that people were sending in money.

“I started crying,” McHugh says. “I had no idea how much the community supported us. I'm still in shock.”

Sip and Purr Cat Café serves coffee and pastries that can be enjoyed with the company of adoptable cats, and, since its opening in 2018, has already helped 573 cats get adopted. Today, COVID-19 has forced the small business to rethink how they can safely continue to care for the cats and get customers in the door. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, McHugh decided it was best that the 10 cats inside the café remained there. They were cared for a few times daily by McHugh and other staff members. Then, McHugh decided to start doing one-on-one adoptions. Those looking to adopt would fill out an application online and meet McHugh at the café. During the mandatory lockdown, they were still able to get about 40 cats adopted.

After the café’s reopening in June, McHugh says they had a hard time even keeping cats at all because of how quickly they were being adopted. “I might be going out on a limb here, but I feel like people enjoy the time with the cats even more now,” McHugh says. “You don’t think about COVID when you’re in there. The cats don’t know. People come in here all the time and say, ‘Oh, it’s just so relaxing.’”

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Adapting to COVID-19

Instead of an hour inside the cat lounge, customers now get 45 minutes, and 15 minutes are dedicated to staff members sanitizing all surfaces. Additionally, there’s a smaller group allowed inside the lounge, operating at 25% capacity. “We've always done a lot of cleaning and sanitizing, but we just upped our game a little bit more and took away 75% of the people,” McHugh says. McHugh says that the new regulations have served as a learning lesson. “We might not go back to pre-COVID,” she adds.

All seating outside of the cat lounge has been taken out, replaced by stickers on the ground reminding people to stay six feet apart. Plexiglass on the bar divides staff members and customers when ordering their coffee. 

With less customers being allowed inside, McHugh has come up with innovative ways to support the café. On Oct. 2, she taught a workshop for children on how to care for cats. “I think it was really successful,” McHugh says. She hopes to do more events like this one in the future, especially since so many children are currently only learning virtually.

Sip and Purr added a small retail section where customers can buy cat food, litter, toys and more. “Adopters have always asked us, ‘What kind of food do you feed the cats?’ So now we can say, ‘Oh, we sell it back here,’ and they can do one-stop shopping,” she says. In order to cut costs, Sip and Purr has taken away their menu, having to cut their kitchen staff. The café still offers small pastries for customers. 

Community Support

Before COVID, McHugh says they never asked for donations. Now, Sip and Purr plans specified drive-through donation days where people can drop off cat supplies. “We did our first drive-through donation during COVID and, I’m not kidding, the whole café was all full of donations. It was crazy,” McHugh says.

She never realized just how much the community valued Sip and Purr until she received the outpour of support. Beyond just donations, people have even sent her personal cards expressing words of encouragement. “And then we’re like, ‘We can’t let this place go out of business; they’d kill us!’” she continues.

Because of how much customers have wanted to see the cats, and the high rate of adoptions, the cats would have no idea that the café has undergone changes. “We just did five adoptions in one day just a couple of days ago,” McHugh says. “And we are still getting these cats adopted at record speed.”

Sip and Purr takes in cats from all over the world. During the pandemic, McHugh hasn’t been able to travel to rescue cats like she normally does. However, she has recently started a scholarship adoption program in which Sip and Purr sponsors an international cat to assist in their veterinary care and rescue and travel fees. Donations to sponsor these international cats help to make the program possible. “The cats that we take into our scholarship adoption program—it’s the end of the line for them,” McHugh says. “They’ve exhausted every resource. They’re going to end up on the street or stay in a cage in the vet’s office forever.”

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Sip and Purr is currently taking in donations for their scholarship program on their website at sipandpurr.com/scholarship-program.

Prepared for the Future

McHugh’s anticipating another possible lockdown. This time around, she says, she’s more prepared. “I think another shutdown may be coming; however, this is what we did differently: now we are 100% essential because pet supplies are essential,” she says.

Now, they’d stay open for adoptions, and would provide all pastries and coffee to-go. “We have a plan now, so hopefully it won’t affect us, if we have a shutdown, as much as it did last time,” she continues.

In the beginning of the pandemic, she was worried at the possibility that they could go out of business. Today, she knows that the community will be there for them no matter what. “Our promise that we made to the community is, if we're still here, we will be here for the cats. And people would love that,” McHugh says. 

Regardless of the cold weather on its way, McHugh hopes to plan some outdoor events. Nero, one of the permanent cats living at Sip and Purr, will definitely make an appearance. “Nero likes putting on his little jacket and his little hat,” she says.

If you’d like to donate, go to the Sip and Purr website. 

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