**WE MADE IT!!!! WE ARE NOW 100% FUNDED!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!**

The aim of this fundraiser is to raise money to open a Café in London that will provide a home for homeless, abused or unwanted cats, and a safe haven for people who loved the Street Cat Named Bob series, and other like minded individuals to come in and have tea, coffee and refreshments whilst being surrounded by Cats. This fundraiser is a non-profit campaign and some of the proceeds from the cafe will go towards our selected Charities!

Hello Everyone! My name is James Bowen, and I am the author of the 'Street cat named Bob' book series. I have been fortunate enough to have had my life turned around by the wonderful Bob, and our story, thanks to our supporters. For those of you unfamiliar with my story, I was homeless and struggling with substance abuse, before I met a little ginger, stray tom cat, whom I have named Bob, who has helped me realise that there are more things in life to focus on than drugs. He helped me overcome addiction, by being a loyal and compassionate companion, and giving me something other than myself to look after. He has simply become my best friend, and has looked after me just as much as I have him. 

We are now looking to open a cat café with cats that have been rescued for the café, to give more abandoned kitties a loving home.

Bob’s World Café is a run business and we will be doing courses on animal welfare from licensed vets and for other causes like The Big Issue. The cafe will be located in London, most likely somewhere commercially based like Islington or Hackney / Homerton area. We are right now looking to have 7-10 cats in the café and we won’t be serving hot food as it cannot be prepared with animals around for various health and safety reasons. 

This project is so important to us, simply because as a success that started with a charity, we want to help other charities that need the support. As some of you might know, Bob came to me during my time of need selling the big issue. Now that mine and Bob's life has been transformed, we want to help other people that need it. Not only will the Cafe be a safe place for people and abused or unwanted cats, but some of the proceeds will go towards The Big Issue Foundations (obviously) and Quick Reads, a  book charity that helps individuals with literacy issues and with learning to read. I myself, waved my royalties for the Quick reads series in order to benefit this charity. We are also going to be the first place to offer free treatment courses and other seminars as well as neutering advice and help with animal care. The Village Vet will be giving lectures on animal welfare and sponsor rehoming cats through their cat charities. I want to continue being able to help less fortunate people like this, but it is not something that I can do alone.

Where you come in;

We cannot do this without you. Me and Bob have been so lucky to receive your support over the years, and now we urgently need you again. We are looking to create a safe haven for not only Cats that need the love, but for the people who love cats too. By having this café, we offer you the opportunity to interact with James and Bob, and contribute to helping abandoned pets in London.

The money we raise with this campaign will be used towards opening our own cat café from the ground up. We will also be donating towards a rotation of our supporting charities, such as The Big Issue foundation and Quick reads.

We want to be in full re-construction of the premises by late July this year and we aim to open by November 2015 - January 2016. Our plan is also to have all the Street Cat Bob brand merchandise available to buy from us and from an online store at our website.

Crowdfunding is an absolutely wonderful way to include our fans to the project. Not only do we want our community to feel being a part of this process, we invite you to give us feedback and ideas and help us perfect our concept. We want to know what kind of cat café you would like to visit. We want to do this together with all of You, our amazing and loving fans! Also opening a cat cafe is very costly indeed so we do need the financial help as well. Also the more people get behind the project, the easier it will be convincing city official and other legal entities of our project. Crowdfunding is a great tool that gives the people the power to choose what kind of cafe’s, business’s or other ventures are set up in their home towns or cities.

We have a wide array of perks / rewards for you to choose from. We will be updating the designs in the upcoming days / weeks and we will be adding more perks for you shortly.