BUFFALO, N.Y. — If John Mayer's viral New Year's Eve moment from a cat café in Tokyo made you want to visit one for yourself, you're in luck. You don't have to go all the way to Japan.
2 On Your Side visited Buckminster's Cat Café on Niagara Street on Thursday and found a happy family enjoying the company of seven kittens up for adoption.
"This is our Christmas gift because I'm a cat lover," Melina Smith said.
"Eating food with cats is a dream come true for me," said Melinda's 13-year-old granddaughter, Miley. "I love animals, and I'll do anything I can to help, so when I found that they have an adoption center here, I'm like that's the best way that somebody can adopt a cat."
Molly Hutton opened Buckminster's a little more than four years ago and named it after her own cat.
"At the time Buffalo didn't have a cat café, and for a long time I had been visiting cat cafés as I travel, so I had an idea of the kind of place I wanted to create," she said.
She partnered with Second Chance Sheltering Network. To date, they have adopted 796 cats out of the café.
Unlike the business John Mayer visited in Tokyo, Buckminster's has separate areas for the café and the cats.
"People can eat in the cat zone though," Hutton explained. "We prepare it out here, and then carry it in to them. So you can eat in with the cats, but it's just a little different."
There's no pressure or expectation to adopt when you visit. But if you do, you're in good company.
Hutton says she expects to surpass 1,000 cats adopted this year.
"Yeah, I think in 2024 we would hit a thousand," she said. "That's my goal."
If you want to spend time with cats when you visit Buckminster's, there is a small fee, and it's best to reserve the cat zone in advance on their website.