Cats are often said to have nine lives. Ruth Wang and Brendan Morrison may not have lived quite that many, but they decided to open a cat cafe together after wandering several other paths.

Wang studied physical therapy before becoming a barista and then pursuing a career as an artist. Morrison spent a decade as a martial arts performer and YouTube personality before working in car sales.

They hope their next chapter — opening Howard County’s first cat cafe — will be a lasting one. “We want this to be a lifelong business for this community,” Morrison said.

From dream to reality

When I visited in mid-August, the future Luna Cat Collective was an empty shell, with leaky pipes and wires hanging from the ceiling. By the end of the year, however, Wang and Morrison hope to transform the sprawling, 4,775-square-foot former office space in Ellicott City into one of the largest cat cafes on the East Coast.

The couple landed on the project after lots of soul searching. Morrison spent years touring the world as a professional martial arts “tricker,” performing kicks, flips and other stunts. He even built up an online following with a YouTube page, “Mastering Tricking,” that still counts more than 88,000 subscribers. But after a reconstructed knee and ankle, a pin in his wrist and a torn Achilles tendon, his body was begging him to retire. He decided to try car sales instead.

Wang, meanwhile, once dreamed of being a physical therapist but realized the work would be too physically taxing for someone with her small stature. When her mother, Bridget Wang, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2018, she took a job at Starbucks so she could have the flexibility to visit or care for her whenever she needed to.

It was advice from mom, who died in March 2020, that ultimately convinced Ruth Wang to start her own business. “She just told me, what’s most important is that you do what makes you happy, and you do what will give you the most joy in your life,” she said.

At first, she thought that might be art, and focused on painting wildlife and nature scenes. She and Morrison adopted two cats, Aurora and Astraea, to keep Wang company as she worked. But she was left unsatisfied by painting as a career pursuit.

The two had always joked that opening a cat cafe would be their retirement plan. With Wang’s mother’s words in mind, they began to think about what it would take to make the idea a reality.

“I was like, you know, why don’t we actually try and see if we can?” Wang said. “Because it was either open this business or buy a house, right? The housing market is not great.”

She and Morrrison visited cat cafes around the country for inspiration, taking note of what worked well and what didn’t. They noticed that some cafes didn’t seem to give their cats enough space or an opportunity to retreat from humans if they were feeling overstimulated. Others struggled financially because they only charged for coffee and pastries.

Bells and whistles

With Luna Cat Collective, Wang and Morrison decided they would invest upfront in high-quality amenities and thoughtful design touches so they wouldn’t have to make improvements later. They hired Baltimore-based EastWing Architects to design a space in the Normandy Shopping Center that’s divided into two main areas: a cafe side and a cat lounge, separated by a vestibule to keep cats and allergens from escaping.

To keep things clean — no small feat for a business that could house as many as 35 cats — they decided to buy air filters and washable rugs. Visitors will be asked to wear grippy socks, slippers or shoe covers to keep from tracking dirt into the space. A floor-level sink will make bathing the cats easier.

The cafe will also have a private room just for the cats. “We want to make sure they have a space they can escape to if they need to,” Wang said.

Though Morrison and Wang are doing some of the handiwork themselves, building wooden cat wheels and painting murals, the special touches haven’t been cheap: The couple says they’ve already spent six figures on the project. An inheritance from Wang’s mom paid for much of the work, and they have launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise another $150,000.

Unlike some cat cafes, which charge for specialty drinks, Luna Cat Collective will serve complimentary coffee and tea — no baristas involved — and instead will charge customers for the time they spend in the cafe and cat lounge. Fees will range from $30 for 45 minutes to $115 for a full day of kitty companionship. Visitors who only want access to the cafe can pay $25 for two hours or $40 for four hours.

All of the cats will be adoptable through Small Miracles Cat & Dog Rescue, an animal shelter based in Ellicott City.

Wang and Morrison hope to open the cafe by December. Though it’s a new chapter, the business will include reminders of their past: an art gallery on the cafe side, for instance, and trick classes for cats (no jumps and flips — but Morrison does plan to teach them how to run on a cat wheel and navigate obstacles).

“This is really fun for us to actually do a business together, because we’ve both done our individual kind of things,” Wang said, “and now to come together and create this space together is really, really nice.”

Got a news tip? Contact reporter Amanda Yeager at ayeager@baltsun.com, 443-790-1738 or @amandacyeager on X.