Silke Jasso
Chicago’s second cat cafe was slated to open later this month at 1746 W. North Ave. However, after arriving on the property today it looks like The Windy Kitty Cat Cafe and Lounge may have to push back its opening date.
Videos by Rare
On Tuesday, the lounge’s owner, Jenny Tiner, posted a video and some photos on her Facebook page with the caption, “Heart is truly broken over this. Why?” The video shows the damage that had been done sometime between late Sunday and early Monday.
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The glass door has been completely smashed in and all three of the storefront windows were tagged with graffiti. Tiner’s business idea was funded by an online fundraising campaign and raised more than $6,400 to open their cafe. So she plans on raising the money to fix the damages in the same way.
Tiner mentioned to DNAinfo that she is having to do it this way due to her insurance deductible being so high that the cost of repairing the door is less than the deductible. The only solution she sees is to crowd source $1,975 to replace the glass in the front door.
Tiner has not yet filed a police report but she is utterly heartbroken about the whole thing, on her YouCaring campaign she said, “I am so sad for so many reasons. It worries me on so many levels and about a range of different things and on top of that just the idea that someone would do this to anyone trying to do good in the world and make their own way in the world is just ugly.”
Launched on Monday, the campaign to repair the door has raised $170 from 5 supporters. One thing that she has learned from this is that she definitely needs to scrape up more money for a better security system. “I will be going above and beyond what I thought was enough already, to protect the living beauties soon to be inside. Such a shame that I even have to worry,” Tiner posted on YouCaring.
The Windy Kitty plans to offer customers coffee from local brewers, food from local bakers, and free Internet access. While doing that, visitors will also share the space with a group of adoptable cats through Roscoe Village-based Alive Rescue.
No word yet on whether or not she will have to push back to grand opening party she had originally planned for Halloween.
