{"id":358742,"date":"2023-08-18T12:38:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T15:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/cat-cafe-brings-pawsitivity-to-warscarred-gaza\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T16:56:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T19:56:33","slug":"cat-cafe-brings-pawsitivity-to-warscarred-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/cat-cafe-brings-pawsitivity-to-warscarred-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Cat cafe brings pawsitivity to warscarred Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaza – A cat cafe in the Gaza Strip aims to “cheer up” Palestinian residents and offer them a respite from the trials of daily life in the blockaded territory, its owner said.<\/p>\n

At the Meow Cat Cafe which opened this week in Gaza City, owner Nehma Maabad (pictured above<\/em>) set out food for a clowder of kittens.<\/p>\n

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An area to play with cats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Cats, for me, are a refuge that relieves me of psychological stress. So I thought of creating a project that combines serving people with something to cheer them up,” said the 50-year-old.<\/p>\n

Part of the space is kitted out with wooden platforms covered in astroturf for the cats to clamber onto, while feline murals and portraits adorn the walls.<\/p>\n

Meow is part of a growing global trend of cat cafes, but the circumstances in Gaza are unique.<\/p>\n

The territory has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007 and scars of repeated wars fought between Palestinian militants and Israel are visible across the city.<\/p>\n

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Cat decoraton and time to chat over coffee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Customers pay nearly ILS10 (USD2.65) per hour to play with the cats, which Maabad said covers their food as well as costly vet bills.<\/p>\n

Visiting the cafe, Manar Abu Samra said it was reasonably priced and she had told her friends and sisters about the new venture.<\/p>\n

“The quality of cats here is beautiful and sweet, so it’s a wonderful idea – despite its strangeness to society – and when I heard about it I felt happy,” she said.<\/p>\n

Pets are rare in Gaza although cats are ever-present, particularly around the port or fishmongers as they try to paw away some scraps.<\/p>\n

Maabad said she had cats at home to bring to Meow, while others came from friends.<\/p>\n

“The idea of the cafe was to have something nice with a cup of coffee,” she said.<\/p>\n

“A cat that you play with and it makes you smile and forget the pressures of life.”<\/p>\n

Any reproduction of this content is forbidden.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entrepreneur started Meow Cat Caf\u00e9 in Gaza Strip, where people can play with cats, relieve tension and drink coffee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2345,"featured_media":350806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3066],"tags":[44588,44589,31497,44590,2774,44591],"class_list":{"0":"post-358742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-cat-cafe","9":"tag-cat-caffee","10":"tag-gaza-en-2","11":"tag-gaza-cafe-cat","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-gaza-strip-daily-life"},"wps_subtitle":"Entrepreneur started Meow Cat Caf\u00e9 in Gaza Strip, where people can play with cats, relieve tension and drink coffee.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}