Who We Are

Paws was born after Elaine struggled with her mental health and decided enough was enough. After deciding it was time to do what she loved, Elaine set about working out a way to incorporate cats and her family into a job. She joked about a Cat Cafe idea being the ideal location to come and feel calm and relaxed away from all the usual hustle and bustle of life. She soon realised that was exactly what she wanted. After making the decision, Lauren her daughter, joined the team as Paws Manager and after 18 months of planning and finding a suitable location - Paws opened it's doors.

Meet the Team

On your visit you are likely to meet some of our core team members, here are their stories!

Owner

Elaine Lucas

Elaine the founder and owner of Paws Cat Cafe. As previously mentioned Elaine struggled with mental health which led her to this amazing journey. She experienced anxiety at her previous job in insurance and after 10 years began to find it boring, repetitive and draining. Elaine had always been a Cat lover, growing up with cats since she was a child and having her own in adulthood. She always described her cats as her personal therapy, calming and non judgemental and loving.

Elaine’s current cat count is 5 at home – Simba, Nala, Shadow, Patch and Joey.

Manager

Lauren Young

Lauren is Elaine’s eldest daughter and has always been an avid animal lover. Her first pet being a rabbit and as a child looking after many family pets, including hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats and their family dog Comet.
As soon as the Cat Cafe started to become a reality it seemed like a dream job and the position was quite literally made for her.
Unfortunately at the moment Lauren doesn’t have any animals at home but visits the family home regularly to see the cat (and dog) family.

Sophie Young

Sophie is Elaine’s youngest daughter. While she no longer works here full time she has been involved with Paws since the start, she now mostly enjoys popping in on her days off and still helps out occasionally.

She has often assisted with rescues that we have been called out to – one of which resulted in her adopting her own fur-baby Sebastian, who we rescued off the streets during lockdown. Sebastian was checked over at the vets and was not chipped or neutered and after speaking to locals it turns out he has been living in the area for a while all alone. He is now a loving lap cat and loving have 100% of the love and attention Sophie gives him.

Supervisor

Megan J

Megan joined the Paws family in 2019 as a Volunteer. She had some previous experience in food and catering and had a keen love for Cats – obviously! Her own cat Kiara is 5 years old now and is an adorable ball of energy. Megan joined part time in February 2020, just before we entered the first of the Covid Lockdowns. This ended up being really helpful as it allowed Megan to continue working with us and the Cats while we had to close. As of March 2022 Megan has joined the team full time – she will always deny she has a favorite cat – but if you know her like we do – we all know it’s Blossom!

Cat Assistant

Maddie

Maddie joined the Paws team in October 2023 when she moved to the local area straight from Uni after studying Visual Effects. She began with us as a volunteer helping out for weekly shifts and soon connected with all the cats.

In May 2024 we were looking to expand the team and with Maddie looking for a job and just having passed her driving test she was the purr-fect candi-date.
She now works here part time and back at her family home in Cornwall has 3 cats - Boo, Meow and Casper!

Meet the Cats

Once the idea of a Cat Cafe came about it was time to work out just how the cats could fit into all this in the best way. We decided that we wanted to make a difference and rescue cats who may be finding it harder to find homes or had specific needs. All of our Cats were rescued and most came from Romney House Cat Rescue.
If you want to sponsor any one of our feline friends and learn more please scroll down.

Pride

Pride and Princess were taken to the rescue center out of love by an ex-soldier who was sadly unable to keep them due to his situation. Because they were indoor cats who were so loved they were perfect for us here.

Tweeny

Tweeny is also a cat

Princess

Toothless

Toothless came to Paws with her brother Hiccup. We rescued these two gorgeous cats from a farm when they were just 4 months old after they were found with their litter siblings. The people on the farm couldn’t afford to have them all neutered and they were fast approaching the age where they would all start breeding themselves which would have caused many more issues for these kittens. They had been living feral so it was very hard work catching them all.

Sara

Sara is the Queen of Sass! She has such a little attitude and has come so far from when we rescued her. Poor Sara was rather neglected by her previous family who knew nothing about cats and left her to feed herself, resulting in her thinking she needs to scavenge and steal food.

Maple

Jasper

Luna

These four had such a bumpy start starting out as feral and living a rough life on the streets, they are taking a long time to start trusting people. Luna has the brightest green eyes and loves little fluffy toys, she even treats them like her babies and likes to sing to them and stash them in secret places.

Mango

Lily

Lily was rescued with her 3 siblings Harry, Hermione and Luna, they had such a bumpy start starting out as feral and living a rough life on the streets, they are taking a long time to start trusting people. Lily now is very settled but can be a bit shy but she loves Dreamies particularly in a puzzle feeder and she can also be very playful.

Kitty

Kitty and her daughter were rescued by us when their owner became too unwell to look after them. Because of this they went a couple of months with very little socialization so at first we were worried they might be a bit nervous here. But Kitty settled in immediately.

Kitkat

Kitkat was brought to Paws during the first Corona virus lockdown. His owners could no longer keep him due to the personal situations the pandemic had caused. He took a little while to settle in here and make some friends as he kept wanting to be the boss, but Frank quickly shut that down!

Hermione

Hermione came to Paws with her siblings Harry, Lily and Luna These four had such a bumpy start starting out as feral and living a rough life on the streets, they are taking a long time to start trusting people. Now Hermione is in her forever home she is gaining in confidence, she loves playing with string toys and will always love a treat from you! She is now the bravest of her siblings and will even let you nose boop if you’re slow.

Hiccup

Hiccup came to Paws with his little sister Toothless. We rescued these two gorgeous cats from a farm when they were just 4 months old after they were found with their litter siblings. The people on the farm couldn’t afford to have them all neutered and they were fast approaching the age where they would all start breeding themselves which would have caused many more issues for these kittens. They had been living feral so it was very hard work catching them all.

Ally

Ally and her mum Kitty were rescued by us when their owner became too unwell to look after them. Because of this they went a couple of months with very little socialization so at first we were worried they might be a bit nervous here. But Ally adjusted very quickly by copying her mum.

Frank

What can I say about Frank? Well...He likes to think he rules the roost, but maybe that's because he can't hear anyone else! Frank is deaf, but that does not stop him being our biggest troublemaker he somehow manages to get himself into and everything!

Bluebell

Bluebell and her sister Blossom, were born to a very young mom who struggled to care for her huge litter of 9 kittens, due to this they were partially hand reared at the rescue center. After being hand reared these two needed a lotta extra love and attention, and they sure do get it here. Bluebell is a very loving adventurous cat who likes to surprise people by jumping up onto their laps!

Harry

Harry came to us with his siblings, Hermione, Lily and Luna. These four had such a bumpy start starting out as feral and living a rough life on the streets, they are taking their time trusting people. Now having found his forever Harry enjoys playing and does love a treat or two, he does tend to hiss sometime but we think this is because he doesn’t know how to meow yet.

Blossom

Blossom and her sister Bluebell were born to a very young mom who struggled to care for her huge litter of 9 kittens, due to this they were partially hand reared at the rescue center. After being hand reared these two needed a lotta extra love and attention, and they sure do get it here.

Belle