• Leah Krason
• A young guest at Queen City Cat Lounge joining in the play

Irene Liu and her partner were visiting Vermont from Chicago this summer when they found themselves missing their cats. It happens a lot, they said, so the couple try to visit a cat café or lounge wherever they go. As it turns out, their Burlington visit was purrfectly timed.

The Queen City Cat Lounge opened on July 28 in the Ethan Allen Shopping Center on North Avenue. Among the first visitors, Liu became particularly enamored with a black kitten named Ember.

"It's definitely cat therapy," said another inaugural visitor, Beth Glaspie.

The new business is co-owned by Kristina Madarang Stahl and Miche Faust. They get the kitties from Queen City Cats, a nonprofit founded by Faust that rescues strays. The cats are available for adoption — or just to hang out with and nuzzle. (The nonprofit also provides cats to Barre's Kitty Korner Café.)

For the cats, the lounge offers a temporary home filled with feline furniture, toys and enrichment activities. The goal is to encourage socialization with felines and humans and improve the cats' chances of adoption. Within days of opening, several kitties had already found new homes, according to Stahl, adding that they plan to host eight to 10 cats at a time.

The cat lounge was launched with private financing and a crowdfunding campaign. Its operating budget is buoyed by adoption fees and $15-an-hour "Cat Lounge Experience" appointments. Local artists and vendors also pay for shelf space in the lounge. Handmade toys by Jessie Lynn of the Crocheted Sunflower are available alongside Martha Hull's cute and sometimes scary magnets and prints.

Stahl and Faust envision the lounge as a community-oriented third space. They plan to host cat-welfare workshops and public events, including study sessions, date nights, yoga, and, of course, "paint and nip" classes.

To learn more, visit queencitycatlounge.com and queencitycatsvt.org.