No, I don’t actually want you to adopt from Cat Café Studio.
I’m not here to promote our social enterprise.
I never wished for that. In fact, this question – ‘Why adopt a cat from Cat Café Studio? – feels wrong on so many levels.
What I really want is for you to adopt a cat (or rather, cats; I have reasons for that.) Adopt from the building you live in, adopt from that street you pass by on your way to work, adopt from that trip you took where you found a cat in distress (yes, you can transport cats from different cities or countries.) Adopt through a local feeder, adopt from a kind rescuer friend, adopt from that neighbour who has too many cats to handle, adopt from a nearby NGO or shelter.
Bottom line: Just Adopt.
The first-ever batch of Cat Café Studio cats are sitting in my home right now, some, sadly, have passed away. The second batch is with my mother in Pathankot, Punjab, living their best lives (because my mom spoils them like crazy.)
Did I have a choice of age, sex, color, size, shape, or form when I rescued these cats? No, I didn’t. I only had an urge to pick up ‘the little one’ I saw on the street, the one with barely any chance of survival if I just kept on walking. My system has a wonderfully annoying way of letting my heart take over when my mind is on overdrive, trying to rationalise everything and throw out my desires. Though I often had no means, no resources, or even the money to handle these rescues, my curious mind was always on over-charge:
With each rescue, the questions piled up, and the answers were always gloriously surprising. I won’t say I always found a way – nah, not even close. But with each rescue came a solid piece of knowledge or lesson, sometimes a harsh one. With every adoption, my heart warmed up larger and crazier, and with each goal to save an animal, I had the privilege to meet several invisible heroes in the city, some of which stand as my dearest friends today. Years later, I read an animal adoption poster featuring an adorable ginger cat with a pretty lady and it That’s when it hit me: these cats are not being rescued by me; they are rescuing me. Wow!
When Charu and Jason joined my so-called arbitrary mission, we took on more rescues, leaving our small house in Versova rather cramped. Then my mother offered to foster a few of our overflowing cats. She was my first “foster fail.” (I didn’t even know that term back then, but Taronish from ‘World For All’ explained it to me and I found it rather amusing.) Before long, we moved some of our cats to our office space, which was tiny, but we managed to co-exist – often with our work interrupted by sandpit cleaning, feeding cycles, and random cat fights in the middle of crazed edit deadlines.
As the Zcyphher team grew, so did their love for these furry babies who graced us with all their sass and flare. That’s when Sasha got adopted by Ajit Nair, one of our senior video editors, who couldn’t help falling head over heels for her. Then Mamta Bahirvani (Head of Marketing and PR) took three of our kittens, as she couldn’t bare to see them get adopted by anyone else. Shaanib Shaikh (senior cinematographer and editor) took another cat and soon after rescued another kitten from Lokhandwala back roads. Soon after, Mihir came by the office to meet our cats (we were constantly posting about them on Facebook by then.) He adopted Butterscotch (now called Lowkey) and, at the end of the adoption process, asked if we had any vacancy at Zcyphher. And I said yes.
As fate has it, he turned out to be the first social media manager of Cat Café Studio – except Cat Café Studio didn’t even exist yet when we hired him. Each cat led us to more humans – excuse me, more ‘Hoomans’ (a term Mihir coined for humans who love animals, now part of our own urban dictionary) – and each new Hooman brought more curious questions and deeper friendships. We rarely knew where we were headed; we simply took it one rescue and one adoption at a time. And trust me, that alone was exhausting enough.
So, back to the bigger question: “Why adopt from Cat Café Studio?”
You don’t have to do anything crazy or brash like I did. Yes, I made mistakes, some of them still haunt me. But back in 2008, when I first started rescuing and adopting, information about pet care was sparse, minimal awareness, and only a handful of cat food brands in the market. Hell, my first cat was given milk for heaven’s sake, a lesson I learnt a very hard way, by cleaning diarrhea for a week (a topic for another blog, trust me.)
Yet here we are in 2025, and as both a community and an industry, we have made tremendous strides, with growth continuing to rise exponentially.
Empathy is becoming contagious; people are looking down at the streets while walking (finally!). Conversations about pets are spilling everywhere, sometimes loudly consuming rooms. We have excellent veterinarians in most cities, growing numbers of animal NGOs and shelters, feeders are more respected, rescuers are in abundance, and affordable medical care is widely available. Pet food brands are thriving. Toys and accessories are everywhere (my first cat toy was handmade with Pepsi bottle caps and random feathers I found on the streets) and these days you can get cat food from Zepto or Blinkit – Dunzo even. We might soon see a Zomato for cats and dogs. (If you want this business idea, be my guest and run with it.)
Basically, you don’t have to repeat the mistakes I or many others made a decade ago. Today, there’s someone to guide you through it all. Someone to suggest which surgeon to go to if your cat needs a dental extraction, or which veterinarian is nearest to you. Now you have brands that cater to different nutritional needs, even if your cat has a sensitive gut, there are at least six specialised food brands to choose from.
It’s a flourishing time for our feline friends. We have pet sitters for those well-deserved vacations, and cat boarding facilities are booming (Trudy D’Souza, Marketing Head – Strategy and Operations at Cat Café Studio, runs the beautiful Meow Manor in Powai – go figure!). We even have animal welfare officers you can consult if your building association tries to stop you from feeding stray cats or dogs (which, by the way, is your right under the Animal Welfare Board of India and your duty as a responsible citizen). We have even seen Mrs. Maneka Gandhi (an eight-time Parliamentarian) personally call several building chairpersons and secretaries in Mumbai to reprimand them for their unkind behaviour (yes, she’s that cool.)
Indians are no longer content just scrolling through funny cat videos; they want to experience that delight in real life. It’s a remarkable time of growth, transition, and much-needed change.
Why this urgency to adopt?
Just look around you. Just step out of your comfort zones and see the reality on our streets. India is in a dire state from the overpopulation of cats and dogs and these are domestic animals, mind you.
Literally speaking (copy paste from google), a domestic animal, by definition, is an animal that has been tamed and raised by humans for companionship (dogs, cats) or for food or work (cattle, chickens, horses, camels).
Domestication started roughly 15,000 years ago with dogs. These animals have been genetically altered over generations to be better suited for life with humans, resulting in increased tameness and altered physical features compared to their wild counterparts.
So when you throw a dog or cat out on the street to fend for itself, deprived of human affection and care, it gradually becomes feral, struggling to revert to a wild state, which is out of character for them. This leads to broader social issues like aggressive dogs and feral cats. Yet, from my experience, even the most aggressive dog or feral cat can, over time, be brought back to its domesticated, loving self with proper food, care, love, and a safe environment. ‘Safe’ is the golden word here.
Cats and dogs can often be compared to children in the sense of their primal need for consistent care, attention, affection, and occasionally discipline. While looking after pets is typically much simpler than raising a child, their chances of survival without human involvement are rather slim.
Why two cats instead of one?
We encourage first-time adopters to adopt two cats, not just one. Think about it, don’t you need a companion in life? Someone to live with, share meals, watch movies, and go out on fun dates or parties?
Well, so do animals. Sure, we like to think we can be everything to our pets, but they really do benefit from a buddy of their own species: someone to play (and sometimes squabble) with, to sleep beside, share food, and to assist you in making some unbearably hilarious content for Instagram.
I learned this the hard way. Around 2009, I had a cat named Darkus, 6months old, black and stunningly gorgeous. After he recovered from all his sicknesses, he was healthy and flourishing. He demanded my attention 24/7. He was this insanely hyper kitten, almost like he was wired up on coffee. I couldn’t sleep, and my night shifts at Pixion were at an all-time high. He was adorable, but I knew I was doing something wrong.
A few months later, I rescued a 1-month-old kitten named Qro, who was frail and nearly drowning on a road divider in Juhu during heavy rains. He survived miraculously, and about a week later, I let him out of his cage to see how Darkus would react. After two weeks of hisses and swats, I came home one night to find them both sleeping together. It was one of the best moments ever in my life, I probably took a hundred pictures.
From that day on, they were inseparable. Darkus didn’t need me as much anymore, we all slept peacefully at night, and I would watch them go full King Kong vs. Godzilla on each other (as Jason puts it, when they got older and still behaved like kittens).
Qro and Darkus passed away eventually, but I always feel a little less sad thinking about them, because I know they are still together somewhere.
Today, I have six cats at home, most of them disabled, but I don’t struggle to keep them safe or happy, they take care of each other. As long as I am there to let them snuggle in bed at night, stay on top of their medical needs, give them good nutrition, and play with them once a day, they are content. This is not me telling you to adopt six cats, no, not at all (remember my heart and mind disorder.) But when you finally let your heart rule your mind, be open to new information and maybe consider that two might actually be better than one.
So adopt from Cat Café Studio because…
we offer guided adoptions, detailed information (we have an adoption manual for you to study), and genuine assistance at every stage (pre and post adoption process). If you want to find a cat (or cats) that suit your lifestyle, temperament, and behavioural patterns, we are here to have that conversation. We will be transparent about how much a pet’s upkeep actually costs, and we will answer all your questions. Once you adopt from us, we won’t just vanish. You can still reach out to us with any questions that pop up. That’s why we have our beautiful Cat Café Studio Alumni program, where we encourage all past adopters to meet up over coffee and cat talk, because damn, we cat people can yap forever.
Do not adopt if you’re bored with life, or your job sucks, or you think a pet will ‘spice things up.’ Do not adopt just because your parents never let you have a pet as a kid (find other ways to get back at them). Do not adopt because your girlfriend loves cats (just bring her to Cat Café Studio for a visit.) Do not adopt because everyone at work has a cat.
Adopt a cat when you’re able to see your environment more clearly, when you awareness is heightened, when you realise that saving one life matters and that it takes an animal off the streets. Do it when you feel responsible and ready to be a Hooman, when the urge is too strong to ignore.
And trust me, on this path of self-exploration, if you ever see a distressed, vulnerable cat or kitten on the street and your heart says ‘Don’t walk away,’ then pick that cat up and take it home. Even then, you can call us. We will happily guide you on how to complete your beautiful rescue story.
That’s still a win for us at Cat Café Studio.
