新加坡首个“猫咪博物馆”

Singapore has recently opened its first cat museum. The Lion City Kitty museum celebrates the equally diverse history of Singapore's feline residents. It also doubles up as an adoption centre.

Located at the aptly named Purvis Street in the heart of Singapore's city centre, the three-storey Lion City Kitty museum features multi-media exhibits that showcase a variety of cat themed artwork and various items of feline kitsch.

Visitors can interact and play with real cats on the two upper floors of the museum, the Muse Gallery and The Mansion.

The museum is the brainchild of Jessica Seet, a former local radio news presenter and a cat lover herself.

"There are a few cat museums in the world, but I believe the Lion City Kitty, the cat museum of Singapore is the very first museum with live animals. And I didn't want a museum where people just come to see arts and crafts, I really wanted people to understand there was an inspiration behind the art and the inspiration is really the beautiful animals. Lion City Kitty is the term we coined for the local kitty cats that live right here in Singapore," she said.

The real inspiration for the museum and its live residents is to change the public mindset towards cats and foster a stronger interest in local breeds.

To achieve that, Seet works in collaboration with the Singapore Cat Welfare Society (CWS). The organisation brings in rescued or abandoned cats to stay in the Muse Gallery, an entire floor dedicated to the cats available for adoption, for a three month rotation period.

"I think we have changed the perspective of some people. Previously they may have thought that it would be a better idea to buy exotic cats, because they are more exclusive and expensive as opposed to local cats, and also people realise how easy it is to take care of a cat," said Sya Shukor, Cat Welfare Society.
 
Potential adopters can also get to know the cat's temperament.

"It's very different from the cat café that we have around here, because it is a non profit organisation, it's more about educating the people, teaching them how local kitties are, and how not to just buy, we can adopt too, save a life and adopt instead of buying," she said.

To celebrate Singapore's 50th anniversary, Seet has set a goal for fifty of the Lion City cats to get adopted by August 9 this year, which is Singapore's National Day.

Seet also hopes to expand into cat therapy programmes in the near future.

The museum will work with the Cat Welfare Society to provide cats identified with a calm personality as therapy cats. These cats would visit patients at hospitals and senior homes.