On Wednesday, January 4, our guest was Steve Harms of Purr & Pour Cat Café (who also brought along a feline friend named Houdini). Originally from Boston, Steve graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and made his career in the chemical industry. After retiring, all of that changed. He laughed, “You can graduate from MIT and end up scooping poop.”

The Purr & Pour Cat Café on Front Street is home to about 15 cats at all times. Steve and his wife Patricia founded the business and have been operating it since 2019. Steve thanked us for our support of Purr & Pour (we keep their window decorated for the holidays) and explained why he and Patricia decided to open a cat café in the first place.

Purr & Pour supports St. Frances Animal Center and was inspired by a kitty (Mr. Biscuits) who spent two sad years in a shelter before Steve and Patricia adopted him. “Our mission is to get the cats adopted,” Steve said. The café works closely with St. Frances Animal Center to host cats in their cafe, where hopefully the cats will be adopted by customers. Purr & Pour has already placed over 300 cats! Surplus income is donated to St. Frances.

Besides placing cats in homes, the Cat Café is organizing a series of educational meetings about animal welfare issues in Georgetown.

The series begins this week: on January 11th and January 18th Purr & Pour will be holding an event from 4:30pm to 6:00pm. The event is called So You Want to be a Veterinerian. It will be presented by Dr. Katie Roe-Jarisch, DMV of Fidelis Animal Hospital. Dr. Katie will be presenting about her journey to be a vet and answering questions about what it takes to be a vet.

by Sage