In most cafes and teahouses around the world, the customer is king. Not so in this teahouse in the Polish city of Lodz, where human customers happily play second fiddle to the star attraction: the cats.
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00:00This is Ola. She lives in a teahouse in the Polish city of Łódź.
00:04She might not know it, but this party is being thrown in her honour.
00:08Today is Ola's 10th birthday.
00:10The owner of the teahouse, Kocie Oci, or Cat's Eyes, rescued her in 2015.
00:16Ola had been abandoned.
00:18Now, however, Ola is the queen and the teahouse is her kingdom.
00:22She is the smallest cat in the house, but here she rules over all the other cats.
00:27She was able to take care of all the other sisters.
00:32She also quarrels with the other cats, if something doesn't fit.
00:40Ola is a very special cat.
00:43This party could quite possibly qualify as the quietest birthday party in Poland.
00:48That's because cats don't like loud noise or sudden movements, and Ola's guests respect that.
00:55Everyone is speaking calmly while enjoying tea, cake and the company of the six cats who live here.
01:02The birthday girl and her feline friends are enjoying all the attention.
01:06And the cat treats.
01:19There are tens of thousands of stray cats in Poland.
01:23Many of them have been abandoned by their owners.
01:26This teahouse is home to six rescue cats.
01:29Here they can do what they like, sleep on tables, jump on cupboards,
01:34walk along custom-built shelves or hop on an empty chair and settle down for a nap.
01:49Since the teahouse first opened ten years ago, it has been dedicated to all things feline.
01:55Some guests donated figurines or pictures of their favourite cats.
01:59The teahouse also offers workshops for those who want to better understand cat behaviour.
02:19People fall in love with the cats here and return time and again to spend time with them.
02:24But these are not the only love stories playing out in this teahouse.
02:28Arek used to come here not only to play with Lisa the cat, but to see Marta too.
02:49Now, Marta and Arek work here side by side.
02:53It's time for Ola's next birthday treat – a walk outside.
02:58She's the only one of the six cats that's not afraid of the city noise.
03:02And just like inside the teahouse, it's Ola, and not her human companion,
03:08who makes the decisions and decides where to go.
03:11So, maybe there is more than a grain of truth in the old saying that cats don't have owners.
03:17They have staff.