The nation’s first cat cafe, called Cat Town Cafe, has opened in Oakland, California, The Associated Press reports.

The cat cafe offers visitors the opportunity to mingle with cats while sipping on coffee, but the business is as much about finding homes for cats as it is about catering to cat-loving coffee drinkers.

“Most of them have been at the shelter for four months or more. So as much as this is a super fun experience, it’s really a mission-driven project to get the cats out of the shelter and into great homes,” Ann Dunn, founder of Cat Town Oakland, told The AP.

According to Broomfield Enterprise, Oakland’s new cat cafe was inspired by similar shops in Japan. Cat cafes are extremely popular in Japan because large numbers of people live in buildings that do not allow pets. As a result, people will pay money to spend time playing with cats at cat cafes.

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