Our nonprofit was established almost 5 years ago, in early March 2020. Our mission is to help rescued cats and kittens find safe, loving, permanent homes. Opening the lounge was a vehicle to facilitate adoptions and is the main reason the lounge exists. We appreciate everyone who visits and shops at the lounge, as that income helps fund the costs we incur in keeping the lounge running, such as rent, utilities, wifi, security, insurance, and upkeep. If we were a foster-based organization we would only have costs for food, litter, and medical, which would mean much lower costs. We would not, however, have a public place for people to easily meet the cats in our care. The lounge provides a safe, public opportunity for that. We have never wanted to be a “cat cafe” or a for-profit business, nor have we wanted to hire employees and be open 5-6 days a week for 6-8 hours per day. Our mission drives our decisions and our mission is to help cats find safe homes. A happy medium for many rescues would be foster homes where cats are cared for lovingly and then public spaces where cats could be brought to meet prospective adopters in as calm and stress-free an environment as possible. Of course, most cats don’t want to get into carriers, don’t travel well, and might not show their best or real selves in such an environment. And so we come back to the idea of the lounge, where the cats can live full-time and try to relax as best they can, while the public can meet them on their home territory. An ideal lounge space might be smaller than ours, or larger; that’s hard to say. We wish we had a catio for the cats and a chance for them to have access to fresh air and sunshine. A completely closed-off room (or 2 or 3) for intakes would be helpful. Maybe there’s a property out there that would be better, more ideal? The lounge doesn’t have to continue on forever as is. The location could change. We could close it altogether and open up foster homes as we decide if/where to reopen. Maybe there are more cat lovers out there who want to see something completely different in Ventura and we invite them to jump into the deep end with us! Based on the donations and support we receive it is clear that people in our area appreciate what we are trying to do for the cats in our care. At the end of the day our mission will always drive our decisions: help rescued cats and kittens find safe, loving, permanent homes.