UPDATE: June Holidays Special!
Inclusive of their usual operation hours (Scroll to bottom of the post), they are now open at these additional dates too!
Tuesday(2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd of June): 10am – 1pm
There will also be a Kiddie Cats Camp in June, which aims to educate children on proper and responsible cat care, as well as to change any misconceptions or stigmas they have about cats and show them why they are so easy to love! The camps are on:
Sign up here: http://thecatmuseum.com.sg/?page_id=627
The following consists of what you should expect at Lion City Kitty:
This post contains a rather complete rundown of Singapore’s first ever cat museum. Is it worth the entry fee of $9? Read and decide for yourselves! Lion City Kitty: The Cat Museum, Muses and Mansion officially opens on 9 January 2015.
I’m usually not the museum kind of person. In fact, I’m a museum’s worst nightmare because I love to touch everything in sight. Yet, this time I made a reservation for the sneak preview to Singapore’s first cat museum without any hesitation after I saw an article on it, because they had REAL CATS available for us to play with in the museum (pretty much like a cat cafe), and most of all, my boy is a ailurophile (this was one of the cool things I’ve learnt from my visit to the cat museum), i.e. a cat lover.
So, we paid Lion City Kitty a visit on its last day of its sneak preview on Sunday (28/12/2014). Do not expect anything much, like a large scale museum, such as that of the ArtScience museum, or Asian Civilization museum, with fancy entrances and an entire building dedicated just for them. This was pretty much what I envisioned before visiting the museum, and well.. I was very surprised when we arrived.
Nestled along Purvis Street, a few doors away from the ever popular French restuarant, Saveur, lies a flight of stairs in a random hole in the wall.
We would have totally missed the entrance to the museum if not of this little poster. Besides, even after seeing it, we were still pretty unsure if we should climb up the flight of stairs because it seems rather unorthodox to have such an entrance to a museum, according to the schema of our past visits to other museums on school excursions and what not. So, here’s the entrance, which we only decided to climb after being warmly welcomed by the greeter from the museum.
Quotes like these about cats can be seen all around the museum, and this was just one of the many we spotted on our way up.
When you reach the top of the flight of stairs, it is a really small space, where the staff from the museum would require you to remove your shoes to put them in the lockers provided. Do remember to prepare either a new $1 coin or old 50 cent coin for you to operate the lockers. The coins are fully refundable after you are done with the use. The removal of shoes is to ensure cleanliness and hygiene to keep the environment clean for the cats in the museum.
After removing your shoes, you would be led into a rather narrow path into the museum, where posters of cats are put up, and you would then arrive at the counter where you will have to pay the entrance fee of $9 per pax.
Some infographics about how to interact with cats before you enter the museum.
Here’s the map as an overview to the cosy cat museum:
Level 2: The Museum
Here, you would be introduced by the staff to the museum, as well as to the various artworks of felines and cats by artists, which are up for sale. Interesting stories about cats and their owners are also put up for your reading interest. For example,
The art pieces and photographs which are up for sale!
There are also nuggets of interesting facts available interspersed amongst the art pieces.
Cute kitty soft toys are also put on display, such as cosplaying cats in Elsa’s outfit and these cutie pies. That is about it for the 2nd level. As you proceed to the 3rd level, it is where all the community cats are being housed. These are cats that have been selected by the Cat Welfare Society to put up for adoption. This level is designed to allow people to socialize with these cats so that it is easy to find a match between the potential adopters and the little felines!
Level 3: The Muses Gallery
This level is set up to match the social mission of the museum to educate and encourage people to adopt cats, instead of buying them. It also exhibits posters that trace cat’s lineage throughout the Singapore history, from the Japanese occupation, colonial times and to the present day. They even have a huge map of Singapore, where cat owners are encouraged to pin a photo of their cats on their location of residence. They also have bite sized info on the various cat species found on that level!
Here’s a look at some of the cats on the 3rd level! From our experience from the various visits to the cat cafes at BKK and the one in Singapore, the time which we visited them at about 3pm, was their napping time because cats are nocturnal! Hence, some of the cats there were all fast asleep, or have that annoyed look because we woke them up specially to get a picture of them. Hahaha!
This cat was sleeping like a sleeping beauty because LOOK AT THAT. I would love to sleep forever on that furry mat too. This is the entirely black cat which I couldn’t quite catch it in color because it just looks like its silhouette.
Sleepy handsome cat.
Level 4: The Mansion
The Mansion houses the resident cats, including Harry, the cross-eyed cat, who happens to be the mascot of the museum because of its special appearance. Here, there are 9 cats who were rescued and have their background stories blown up on posters hanging on the walls of the museum on this level.
This level has all the toys and scratching posts, as well as cat nips, every cat in the world could ask for. There’s no wonder why it’s called The Mansion. Here’s a look at the resident kitties!
Here’s Harry who was sleeping soundly when we approached him. We didn’t realize it was Harry until he opened his eyes and we got the most pleasant surprise of our lives to find that he’s actually Harry and REALLY REALLY CROSS EYED. I’m so thankful that he woke up and held his pose for a good 10s, before snuggling back to sleep.
Angie, the Mainecoon, looking so pretty with her leopard prints. This is Brad, the resident grumpy cat who weighs a hefty 8kg, and sleeps whenever and where ever he wants.
And I guess we were lucky to have caught Georgie humping on Julia right in front of a crowd. Animal instincts right on point. Hahaha!
It is unfortunate that we were unable to get pictures of all the cats, nor have the chance to play with all of them because they were either fast asleep or there were just too many people surrounding them in a small area. We just had to wait around for the crowd to clear before playing with some of them, or head down to visit the cats at the Muses before heading up to the Mansion, or vice versa.
It was nevertheless a great experience at the Cat Museum, and I have never had such great fun visiting a museum. Paying just a mere fee of $9 to play with these cats, and to learn more about cats and their history was definitely worth the time and the money. This place is the perfect place for cat lovers to visit and hang out. Even for the non cat lovers, this museum may very well just change your opinion of cats! A word of caution though, it may get really crowded when it opens officially, and that may hamper your experience, a teeny bit.
Just thought this fun fact from the museum would be the perfect ending to this purr-fect experience that we’ve had at the museum. It’s just so difficult to pass up on the chance to use the word purr-fect eh?
How to get there?
8 Purvis Street
#02-02
Singapore 188587
Opening Hours (from 9 January 2015)
Fridays: 4:30pm – 7:30pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 12:00noon – 3:30pm, 4:30pm – 7:30pm (Closed from 3:30pm – 4:30pm for Kitty Kat Nap)
Entrance fee: S$9 (free for kids aged 6 & below)
Payment mode: Cash only
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