We recently connected with Elizabeth Gallardo and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My name is Elizabeth Gallardo and I am the founder and owner of The Cat’s Meow Café. A cat café concept located in the Upper East side of Miami, FL. We are partnered with Miami-Dade Animal Services to support our efforts in helping place as many rescued cats into forever homes. The Cat’s Meow Café is a retail café/cat adoption lounge that allows guests to interact and connect with unique cat personalities. Through this experience, we hope to create a stronger bond between the adopter and the cat. We also host a variety of events like cat yoga, paint night, comedy night, and educational workshops.

As many in the welfare world, I grew up with pets all my life. Later on, I started fostering and participating in Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) efforts. At the time, our community did not have a cat café and the feline population in south Florida urgently needed a different platform to help them find forever homes. More importantly, a resource center or hub where people can ask questions, get inspired and begin to understand their feline friends on a deeper level.

Once I was ready to take on my dream of opening a cat Café in Miami, I traveled to other cat cafes, met with the owners, and did lots of research. Partnering with the county shelter was the easiest decision, they provide great resources for our homeless pet population, and our mission aligned perfectly. We opened our doors on March 7, 2020. Exactly one week before the world shut down due to the pandemic. Fast forward 2 1/2 years and 560+ adoptions later… and we’re still standing, but more importantly, evolving! Slowly, The Cat’s Meow Café is becoming that resource hub that this community desperately desired. At the end of the day, it benefits our feline friends the most and we are proud we’re able to provide a welcoming and safe space for humans and cats alike. Together with Miami-Dade Animal Services, we aim to reduce the number of abandoned and homeless cats in our community.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Elizabeth and I am the Founder of The Cat’s Meow Café. I am so excited to bring this concept to my hometown of Miami, FL and I’m looking forward to The Cat’s Meow Café becoming a local pioneer for our community cats.

Born and raised in Miami, daughter to Cuban and Ecuadorian parents with a background in Audio Engineering and Marketing, I’ve always had pets growing up and as an only child, I found great comfort in always having a cat to snuggle with. In my opinion, cats are the best pets and are too often misunderstood. I want to break that stigma, starting with our local community. I hope to inspire and create groups of individuals who take their love for cats and turn it into advocacy. Miami has over 300,000 homeless cats and it’s up to us to make a difference.

I first founded, @ifoster_305 on Instagram and began documenting/sharing my cat advocacy work in late 2016. In the beginning, I had many questions and was not aware of available resources that can help answer questions in certain situations. My biggest inspiration occurred when I came across two accounts that advocate for everything cats, @kittenxlady and @myfosterkittens. Hannah Shaw and Nikki Martinez provide tons of resources to help you get started or, in my case, giving me the confidence to take the next step in fostering and trap neuter return efforts. While out on the field in rescue, you tend to run into a lot of different scenarios and it’s extremely helpful to have a library of resources on hand to help guide you in the right direction.

In March of 2017, I decided to take my love of cats and translate it into action by pursuing a dream of founding The Cat’s Meow Café. A cat café with the purpose of providing a rich environment for adoptable cats looking for a forever home. After an invigorating weekend in New York during its inaugural Cat Camp Convention, I was more than inspired into taking the next steps to make this dream a reality. The work began as soon as I got home which included tons of research, networking, and traveling to different cat cafes around the nation, all while still working a full-time job. Starting a business is not easy but my passion to see this through has helped me get to this point. Not to mention all the amazing people who have lent a hand, donated, shared, and cheered us on along the way.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The moment I had the mission statement set and had successfully registered the business within the state, I quickly opened social media accounts for the business. The key was to start early and build a following by creating anticipation and sharing resources with our followers. Our goal from the beginning was to humanize our social media account as much as possible by being transparent with our followers while still providing happy and educational content.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We dealt with a lot of hurdles since the beginning. Because we were a new concept that many were unfamiliar with, a lot of education was involved when dealing with our designated city. Because of the unfamiliarity, zoning officials were trying to place us in a bucket to which we didn’t belong. After reaching out to the city mayor and organizing meetings with the zoning director and our lawyers, we were then able to get our plans approved. Once our plans were approved, we hit the ground running with construction. There were many delays in this process which pushed us back almost half a year. Even with the delays and opening a week before the pandemic, we’ve managed to stay open and have successfully placed over 560 cats into forever homes. None of this would have been possible if I wasn’t passionate and believed in our mission statement. Persistence, in this case, lead to resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: catsmeowmia.com
• Instagram: @thecatsmeowcafemia
• Facebook: @thecatsmeowcafemia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11353528/admin/
• Twitter: @catsmeowcafemia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC60QZWVJsX7YaS77dR9-oig
• Other: https://www.bonfire.com/store/the-cats-meow-cafe/

Image Credits
Headshot: Jorge Suarez Photography Cats: Sit.Snap.Save