The Cat Lounge, Dublin's first cat café, has announced that it will be closing at the end of next month.

The news was announced in an open letter shared on Facebook by the café's owner, Georgina O'Neill, on Tuesday. She announced that, unfortunately, the café will be closing on August 31, 2018. Ms O'Neill explained that, since they opened on October 10 last year, they have "had major success and have enjoyed every minute of it". The post continued:

"We have housed 55 cats from our vets and rescues and rehomed most of them. "We have helped raise funds for our associated rescues and have shown people that cats are not to be treated badly but are to be loved and cared for as much as any other animal, we have even converted a few cat haters! "This is what I set out to do, I wanted to change peoples mind and I wanted to help the rescues the best way I could. "Unfortunately, cats alone in a business is not enough to cover costs and I have suffered some very big debts trying to keep going, telling myself that it will get better. "It hasn’t gotten better, and I have had to make the very hard decision to close Cat Lounge."

She went on to thank the staff members for "looking after the cats and giving them all the love and cuddles they deserved", as well as the customers and the rescues they have worked with: Luckys Cat Rescue, North Dublin Cat Rescue and Cats Protection. She ended the post by saying:

"A massive thank you to our vets Cara Vet Group, they have been extremely valuable to us and have kept all our lounge cats healthy and did everything they could possibly do for us, an amazing team! "On a personal note, I am heartbroken this must happen, but I know it is for the best. I will continue to work towards opening a café but that might be a few years away. "I will continue to help the rescues any way I can and for the love of cats I hope you do too. "Thank you for the support over the years, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Without followers, Cat Lounge would be nothing and we would not have helped so many cats."