Scotland's first 'pug cafe' hopes to help rescues find forever homes

Scotland’s first-ever “pug cafe” hopes to help its grumble of rescue pugs find their forever home.

Cuppapug, which already runs cafes in London and California, is on a mission to help find new homes for rescued pugs.

The business is about to officially open its first Scottish location in Edinburgh, giving dog lovers the chance to sip coffee, cuddle pugs and support rescue initiatives.

Customers are already raving about the location, with one saying: “It’s amazing here, yeah, we’ve been missing our dog back at home in Australia so it’s great to get some puppy love.”

“Oh, I love it, I love dogs, I don’t have my own, so that’s why I’m here,” another customer told STV News.

Cuppapug says it's on a mission to help find new homes for rescued pugs. — Cuppapug says it’s on a mission to help find new homes for rescued pugs. Police Scotland

Half of these dogs at the café are rescues, some of which had their owners pass away, and others have more distressing backgrounds, such as over-breeding or abuse.

The Cuppapug team pay for their medical bills and foster the pugs until they’re ready for a new home.

They say their mission is to educate visitors on responsible pug care.

Aaron Pieterse founded the business with his husband after rescuing their own pug.

“A lot of what we do here is educate people on the specific breed, if they’re looking to rescue a dog, really giving them the information around what it takes to own this dog as well,” he told STV News.

“So rescue has always been at the heart of Cuppapug, but also it’s just a nice place you can come for the hour and hug a pug with a coffee, I mean, it’s the best therapy I think as well.”

Cuppapug, which already runs cafes in London and California, says it's on a mission to help find new homes for rescued pugs. — Cuppapug, which already runs cafes in London and California, says it’s on a mission to help find new homes for rescued pugs. STV News

The money raised through the cafe pays for the pup’s care, and when the cafe closes, they go back home with the staff.

“We take them all home, treat them like our own dogs, just give them a little bit of love before they go to new families,” Konrad Stygar said.

“Not getting too attached to them as well, obviously, because they need to find a new family, new love, and we don’t want them to get too bonded to us.”

The idea behind Cuppapug is to rehome as many rescue dogs as they can moving them on to their forever homes, in one year alone they have already successfully rehomed 100 pugs.

The café officially launches in the coming weeks with the team hopeful that the pugs will find their forever homes.