ONE year after they first opened their paws, Pause Cat Café is celebrating its first birthday.

The café, owned by Jaya Da Costa, sees on average 500 visitors per week to sample their cruelty free vegetarian and vegan menu, whilst frolicking with twelve of their friendly felines.

On the past year, owner and founder Jaya Da Costa said :“It’s been a learning curve, but it’s been fun, really fun. The cats have changed so much, they’ve really come out of their shells!”

Not only does Jaya provide a home to twelve cats, she also provides life and employability skills to some of her staff and volunteers;

“Some of my staff and volunteers with disabilities and learning difficulties say that it is hard to get both jobs and experience and I would like to give them the chance to gain these skills.”

For the next year of the Pause, Jaya hopes to expand the kitchen to make it accessible to provide more employability and life skills and has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help fund this.

The café also provides a variety of activities for its guests by frequently holding events such as a ‘Golden Oldies’ club, a colouring group and cat yoga to bring the community together.

The first birthday, which also fell on Random Act of Kindness Day, was the launch of the cafés kindness competition, which encourages people on social media to get involved and suggest why their friends had been kind and deserve to win a voucher for two to visit the café.