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Toledo Blade: From dive bar to cat cafe, felines rule Adams Street location (Jan. 10, 2025)
From its rich history as a feline haven during its days as the Camel Bar to its new life as RubyCats, Toledo’s first cat café, 618 Adams Street has come full circle as a sanctuary for cats and community.
“I was beside myself when I found out that 618 Adams St. was once a haven for cats and was even nicknamed the ‘cat bar’ by folks in the neighborhood,” Tallie Carter, founder and executive director of RubyCats, shared with Toledo Blade. “After seriously considering two other buildings that didn’t work out, I was beginning to get frustrated, but it seemed so serendipitous to me that this place would once again be a feline refuge. It just seemed meant to be.”
Joyce Jacobs, who purchased the Camel Bar around 1971 after having worked there for years, became legendary for caring for dozens of stray cats in and around the bar.
Mrs. Jacobs estimated that she spent $250 a month on cat food, an amount equivalent to about $666 today. “Look, I don’t smoke, so that’s a couple of bucks I don’t blow,” she told Ms. de Boer. “If you’re loose at Jacobson’s or Hudson’s [department stores], you could easily spend $250 on one article of clothing. I’d rather spend it on cats.”
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