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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Cat Museum, Muses & Mansion in Singapore - Review

I recently visited the Singapore Cat Museum because I love cats and because I wanted to see whether this kind of "cat business" is actually good for cats.

Are they treated well? Are they in good health? Isn't it too hectic for them?

The Cat Museum in Singapore is located on 8 Purvis Street, Singapore. Though Purvis street is pretty small, the Cat Museum was not easy to find. We asked a few shopkeepers, but none of them knew about a cat museum. Even the shopkeeper a few doors away never heard of a cat museum! However, eventually we found it. The sign on the door is rather small, so don't walk too fast :-)


The Cat Museum is open on Fridays from 4.30pm to 7.30pm and Saturdays/Sundays from 12pm to 7.30pm. The museum is closed from 3.30pm to 4.30pm for "Kitty Kat Nap". The entrance fee is SGD 9 per person and you can stay as long as you want.

There are 3 floors with cats: the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor of the building. When we arrived, the 2nd floor was fully packed, so we decided to go to the 4th floor first.



Cat Museum 4th floor

The 4th floor is the territory of the nine cats of the Cat Museum's owner. The hectic atmosphere on this floor made me a little upset. All of the cats were very adorable but extremely passive from the moment we arrived until the moment we left, while many people were bugging them all the time. There was only one cat that seemed to enjoy playing with human visitors.

I don't know if these cats are really fine with the large number of visitors. Some of them seemed to be totally relaxed, but others seemed to be a bit uncomfortable. 

One of the staff members told me that the cats were passive because they keep the room cold, so the cats get into "hibernation mode". The same person also told me that they get more active when the people are not around and that they don't mind people touching them everywhere (tail, legs etc.) while they sleep or eat. If that's really the case, these cats are really quite exceptional.

Luckily the place is only open from Friday to Sunday, so the cats have at least 4 days a week to live their well-deserved peaceful cat life :)

Cat Museum 3rd floor

This is the territory of the adoption cats. All of them are selected with the help of the Cat Welfare Society. They only select "social cats", which are usually cats that lived with humans before.

The adoption cats were in general much more active than the cats on the 4th floor, and none of them scratched or hissed at people. Only the cat with an eye infection seemed to be a bit stressed, especially when too many people touched her and put their smartphones (and faces) too close to her.

The 3rd floor also has a room with kittens. The youngest kittens were just a few weeks old. I had to wait a while before I could enter to kitten room, because the room was totally packed, but I could get in after 15 minutes waiting.

The kittens seemed to be fine with all the people sitting on the floor. The staff actively tried to "sell" the kittens by telling people how cute cats are. Not really my style, because yes, kittens are cute, but you have a cat for many years (let's say 10-20 years). They require a lot of care (dirty litter boxes...) and there are pretty high costs incurred. It's definitely not just cuteness and fun. So I hope they also tell people about the consequences of having a cat when people are seriously considering to adopt one.

Cat Museum 2nd floor

The 2nd floor is the entrance floor with the ticket counter and lockers for shoes. Besides that, there is a room with a very nice collection of cat-related art works, paintings, drawings and dolls. There was also a mother cat with three 3-weeks old kittens, one young himalaya and one other young cat.

We went to this floor less than one hour before closing time and luckily the room was practically empty (in contrary to when we arrived). 

Two very friendly employees talked to us about the cats and they seemed to be real cat lovers. It was good to be able to have a bit more interaction with the staff and to be able to see some cats in a more peaceful environment. It seemed like the cats on this floor were comfortable. Probably they like it when there are not too many people around (touching them in cat-unfriendly ways).


Other things...

Decoration - Most visitors did not pay attention to the many cat drawings and art works on the walls, but I think they are really great and it's clear that the owner put a lot of effort in decorating the place.


 

Employees - The staff members were very friendly and clearly love cats. They answered my questions in a very friendly and patient manner. If the museum cats are stressed or uncomfortable, it is definitely not because of the staff's lack of effort or love for cats. However, to my opinion, more knowledge and experience is required to really know what's good for the cats. Also, more staff would be needed to keep an eye on all the visitors. Or the number of visitors should be limited.

Hygiene - There was hand sanitizer on every floor and the lady at the counter friendly requested to use it before entering each room. Visitors also need to take off their shoes. All rooms were surprisingly clean. The litter boxes and food areas were also very clean. With so many cats around, cleaning the three floors must be a tough job. So, well done!

Children - There were some very young visitors who clearly did not know how to handle the cats. The staff tried to teach the kids to treat the cats with care, but some parents were a bit too ignorant to my opinion. 

Adoption policy - I asked how easy it is to find a new home for the adoption cats and the staff told me that it's quite easy. Before people can adopt a cat, the Cat Welfare Society will check if their home is "cat-friendly".
Concerns & Suggestions

All of the museum cats were extremely adorable and I still really like the idea of a cat museum, but the Singapore Cat Museum was not what I expected. 

The first reason is that some of the visitors had no idea how to treat cats and I observed too much cat unfriendly behavior. Some visitors disturbed sleeping and eating cats. They did not understand that cats don't want to play with toys while they are eating and that cats don't like to be woken up for a photo session. Some of the cats clearly felt uncomfortable or even offended (hissing).

The 'rules' were printed on the wall, but easy to miss or neglect.


My suggestion would be to educate visitors before they enter. For example through a short video or short class. You can't expect people to know how to treat cats. This is the responsibility of the Cat Museum.

The second reason is that there were just too many visitors at the same time. The staff was unable able to make sure that the cats were treated well. The number of visitors should be limited and I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if the place would be less crowded.


The third and final reason is the space. I think the cats need more hiding spots. The cats that tried to hide were still bothered by people. A good example would be cat cafe "The Company of Cats", which provides a "cats-only" room where visitors are not allowed to enter. In addition, there were quite many cats in the rooms on the 3rd and 4th floor. I saw several fights in less than one hour and several cats only walked underneath the furniture. I am afraid there are some territory issues.


I am open to other opinions and would be happy to hear about your experiences, so please do not hesitate to leave a comment or contact me at thestickercat@gmail.com.