I liked the one in Hongdae because it seemed clean and the cats seemed healthy, but it's a bit far from me. I discovered a new on in Mokdong, near Hongik Hospital and decided to visit. Through the glass entrance door it looked really nice, with some cute looking cats wandering around. Once the door opened, though, it just went downhill from there. The first thing that hit me was the smell of cat urine. The second thing I noticed was the sheer number of cats. One wall has pictures of the regular cats and their names. There are 30 regular cats, but there are also more that are perhaps being used as breeders? I'm not sure. At any rate, there are almost 40 cats there, including some mother cats with kittens, closed off from the rest of the place. This is not a big place. It probably seats about 20 to 30 people at most. There are a couple of giant, unneutered males wandering around, hence the urine smell; I suspect the males spray everywhere. A small, thin cat came over to see me and when I petted him, he was wet with urine. I looked around at the other cats and most of them had sores or missing chunks of hair. It was terrible. The man and woman running the cafe seemed not to notice the smell or the condition of the cats. The woman obviously really loves cats, but most of them are in terrible condition and the man actually kicked one of the cats out of his way. I left there feeling disgusted by the obvious lack of care for the cats, and for the smell of cat urine on my clothes. I feel bad for those cats. I sincerely wanted to take the friendly little cat with me. I don't think I could ever bring myself to go back there. There are just too many cats, not enough room, and the cats are sick. I wonder if these places are monitored or inspected at all? Anyway, I guess I'll just to back to Hongdae or maybe try out this new place in Shincheon. I wouldn't recommend the place in Mokdong though; it'll just make you sad.
