The Stray Cat Cafe.

This past Saturday, The Human Male and I went to a fundraiser for The Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation at the Stray Cat Café. I’ve mentioned/swooned over The Lost Dog Café in the past, and the Stray Cat is similar—owned by the same folks that own Lost Dog, and actually just a few doors down from the original Lost Dog Deli (we recently found out the one that we’ve been getting take-out from is relatively brand-new). And though slightly smaller and renamed to suit cat lovers, much of the menu is the same—and equally as delicious.

The best part of the Stray Cat is its décor. One one side of the long, narrow restaurant are great cat paintings. The other wall is lined with pictures of the cats that have been adopted from the rescue. All are in black frames in a couple of different sizes, lined up right next to one another. It looks really cool, and it’s so neat to see all of those sweet faces and know they found loving homes.

When we got to the restaurant, we were greeted by Matt Damon. No, really! Here’s his picture. Matt Damon is a true charmer. He looked at me with his big head and I had to pet him. And then he rolled over and had to pet him more. I told him he was more handsome than the original Matt Damon, and one of his people said “He IS the original Matt Damon!” Duly noted.

They had some neat raffle prizes and great silent auction items. The coolest was to bid on having your dog painted on the wall of the Lost Dog Café. The Deli was recently renovated, and they have these terrific paintings all over their walls of dogs doing different things, like flying planes. The Human Male and I had to bid on that. I have a strict one-bid rule with silent auctions, and we were outbid by A LOT. As we were leaving, one woman was at the table making her bid and jokingly said “I’m ready to put down my life savings to get my dog on the wall.” As cool as it’d be to have Alice on the wall, I’m just not as dedicated—I’d like to have enough money so that I can actually eat at the Lost Dog. At least we helped drive the price up!

All in all, it was a really nice, low-key, super tasty night. And from what it sounds like, The Lost Dog and Cat Rescue raised just over $2,100. Nice! Just think about how many more cats they could put on their walls with that…