Cat Café in Charleston provided a unique experience – as did some of the felines

We heard from a couple of Murrells Inlet friends about a cool place in Charleston – cool if you love cats, as this couple does.

The name is Pounce Cat Café + Wine Bar, on Meeting Street.

It advertises itself as the first cat café in the South. There is, we are told, at least one other cat café, Crumbs and Whiskers in Washington, D.C.

What is so unique about Pounce is the number of cats lazing around.

There were about 13 the day we visited, all of them rescues dropped off by the Charleston Animal Society and available for adoption.

The idea is that you visit Pounce, pay $15 to visit a cat room and have a glass of wine or beer or coffee or soda. A menu offers a few bakery goods.

If you fall in love with one of the furries, he or she is yours for the regular adoption fee.

We visited Pounce the other day and talked with a delightful young, blue-haired receptionist named Frances Moses, who just happened to be a Georgetown native.

Frances said Pounce had opened in December and as of Thursday had adopted out 492 cats, almost two a day.

Seeing the cats lying on cabinets and in cubby holes – a friendly new arrival called Honeysuckle perched on a window sill inside the front door – I mentioned that it reminded me of the Ernest Hemingway home in Key West, where dozens of six- and seven-toed cats enjoy a very comfortable life.

Frances immediately produced a photo of a similar six-toed cat that had recently been adopted.

I thought the cat would have gone quickly, but she said that wasn’t the case.

It was adopted, but “it had to go to a no-cat home (a home with no other cats) … When it growled it almost sounded like a lion.’’

Pounce had taken in some cats after Hurricane Irma devastated the Keys, but according to reports all 54 Hemingway cats survived the storm.

Ms. Moses had a little fun telling us about some of the specials going on at Pounce – a Happy Meower (Hour), a Sunday morning Meowmosa and, of course, Mewvie Night every Furriday. Be still my heart.

The play on words didn’t let up when Charleston was threatened by Hurricane Irma. Plywood covering the front window said: “Purricane Irma can’t whisker us away.”

As tempting as it was, we didn’t adopt a cat, sad to say. We already have one, Bo, and a dog, Wasabi. They both camp with us and I’m not sure our little pop-up could manage one more body, no matter how small.

But we still might have to take in a Mewvie Night some Furriday.

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Cat Café in Charleston provided a unique experience – as did some of the felines."