It's been about five months since Yay For Strays Cat Cafe opened at 1326 Ottawa Street and now the owner says her business is struggling.
The cafe is split into two separate sections with one side being the cafe where customers can purchase food, drinks, and merchandise, and a second section called the cat lounge, where the public can hang out with adoptable kittens provided through a partnership with the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society.
Chantelle Gaudette says when the doors first opened, her business was booming likely due to all of the publicity.
"Marketing is something that we also need to do just kind of on our part, however we have slowed down enormously, to the point where I've had to let some of our staff go unfortunately."
Gaudette says she's not giving up.
"We are going to work with our Small Business Centre of Windsor, who I have been working with the for the past couple years just planning the whole cat cafe out, and work with their team of marketing people who just help us market a little bit better."
She says since opening, around 30 cats have been adopted out.
"More so the numbers were definitely towards opening. There was a big flock of adoptions, but they are definitely slowing down, but they are continuously though still happening, but not as quickly as when we first opened. But that's okay because they're still happening and they're still more than we ever planned."
Gaudette she plans to have different themed nights that include bingo, crochet, board games, painting, meditation and more.
Yay For Strays is currently open seven days a week: Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday to Friday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
More information can be found here: yayforstrays.ca.