2 Nov 2021

November Updates

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Adoptions, Events, Fundraising, Volunteers | 0

Current Cats and Kittens in the Lounge
We have 14 cats and kittens living at the lounge, ranging in age from about 5-6 months old to 13 years old. Our three newest residents (Cindy, Coral, and Hershal) come to us from Stray Paws Animal Haven in El Monte, CA. They are still adjusting to their new surroundings and are not out and about with all of the other cats yet. Our next three newest are Cheyenne, Dallas, and Bagel. Cheyenne was trapped outside of Golf n Stuff in Ventura and she’s a very friendly young mom whose kitten days are behind her forever now that she’s been spayed. Thanks go out to Foundling Kitten Society for working to get her trapped, vaccinated, spayed, and transported to us. Dallas and Bagel came to us from SPARC and we’re hoping different exposure here will help them find their perfect home(s). They are not brothers but they get along great! Buffy, our little black kitten, also loves playing with her new friends. Our longtime residents are still with us: Michael, Missy, Snickers, Twix, Jacob, and Sadie (plus Rachel, though she hasn’t been here quite so long). They’re happy with us and well cared for, but we sure would like to see them land in real homes. Adopting out cats who are older is harder than adopting out the younger ones. But we know there are kind-hearted people out there who want to help a cat and meet that cat where it is rather than hope to mold its behavior and nature in some way.

Volunteers
We’re up to about 20 volunteers at the lounge now and always looking for more help! Some people are able to volunteer on a regular basis just about every week while others can only come in sporadically. We are grateful for all of the help we receive and definitely still need more. If you would like to volunteer with us please fill out our volunteer application. During business hours shifts are two hours long. We also have shifts to help open the lounge (one hour) and close the lounge (45 minutes). Shifts during business hours do require some customer service potentially, while opening and closing shifts are just the volunteers and cats. All shifts include time to just hang out with the cats!

Kitten Adoptions
Chewy, Vader, and Yoda are now available for pre-adoption. We anticipate sending them home around November 29th, after they’ve had their spay/neuter surgeries and the second round of kitten vaccinations. If you are interested in applying for any of them please contact us.

Events
We are having another “Cats at Night ” event on November 4th. Visitors can come to the lounge for tea and dessert for 75 minutes and see what the cats are like at night. (The last few times we’ve been there at night they’ve been wide awake!) During Thanksgiving week we will have modified hours, rates, and capacity, and we’ll be offering 10% off all purchases.

Fundraising
We have added a few new items to the lobby shop and encourage you to take a look. It’s a great way to find some small gifts and help support the cats. We have some new pillowcases in various prints (cat, holiday, and other), a few aprons, scented jar candles, new earrings, and more, plus new toys and stockings for the cats in your life. If you’d like to help out by sending needed items for the cats and the lounge you can shop our Amazon and Chewy wishlists, or our Target wishlist that’s all just-for-fun stuff for the cats to help us celebrate our 6-month anniversary of being open on December 2nd!

Thank you, as always, for your support!

6 Sep 2021

September Updates

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Adoptions, Fundraising, General Updates | 0

Since our last update, we have had four more adoptions. We are so happy for Petey, Phoebe, Oreo, and Smudge and hope they have long, happy, healthy lives in their new homes! We’ve adopted 9 cats and kittens out since opening in June. We currently have 13 cats and kittens in our care, and 10 of those are available for adoption. You can see them here. Our 3 newest kittens are dealing with some typical shelter kitten health issues and as soon as they’re 100% they’ll be available too.

All of the cats currently in our care came from animal shelters. Michael, Missy, Jacob, Sadie, Snickers, and Twix were owner surrenders. Charlotte, Topaz, and Kaylee were brought in as strays. Rachel was abandoned at an animal hospital and transferred to a shelter. The three newest kittens were all brought in by their “owners”. We are doing our best to get cats and kittens out of unsafe and unhappy living situations and giving them a chance to relax in our home-like space. Potential adopters will hopefully see the cats’ true potential in our environment.

Visits to the lounge have slowed down a bit in the last couple of weeks and we figure it’s due to the end of summer/back to school. People need to get back into those routines. Once fall is fully underway we’ll be looking at our lounge hours and potentially adjusting them if need be. For now, we’re open Wednesday-Saturday from 11am-5pm and Sunday from 12-4pm.

We are increasing our efforts this month to get Jacob (11) and Sadie (13) adopted, as well as Twix (8) and Snickers (8). Both pairs would do best in quieter homes. None of the cats needs constant attention, although Jacob in particular loves people! Snickers does too. Sadie and Twix are more reserved but come out to say hello and Twix even plays when it’s quiet in the lounge. Both pairs of kitties have a portion of their adoption fees sponsored for the right home.

We would love to see some supporters set up recurring donations. You can use this link to start a monthly donation. Even $5-$10 a month helps! The link goes through PayPal but you can use a credit or debit card for your donation. Thank you for helping us help the cats!

11 Aug 2021

August Update

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Adoptions, Fundraising, General Updates, Volunteers | 0

We are entering our tenth week of being open to the public this week and have had 5 adoptions so far! We are feeling happy about that and hope that Mittens, Bettie, Archie, Denzel, and Duke all have long and happy lives in their new homes.

We currently have 12 cats in the lounge: Michael, Missy, Sadie, Jacob, Snickers, Twix, Oreo, Smudge, Phoebe, Petey, Charlotte, and Kaylee. Michael and Missy are our longest residents, having come to the lounge in May. Charlotte and Kaylee are our newest residents, joining us from the West Valley shelter on August 7th.

We have two bonded pairs of cats that will need special adopters: Sadie and Jacob, and Snickers and Twix. Anything our supporters can do to share our cats will help network them and help them find furever homes as soon as possible. We are also trying to adopt Oreo and Smudge out together. They’re still just kittens at just 4.5 months old and a delight to watch as they wrestle together!

We have been recruiting volunteers and have had about 10-12 people coming out to help at the lounge. We will be holding another volunteer orientation on September 11th at 10am. We are looking to build a team of volunteers who are passionate about and committed to our mission of helping rescued cats and kittens find safe, loving, permanent homes!

Our lobby shop continues to be a helpful source of fundraising for us, and we are looking forward to bringing in new items for fall and then the holidays. Come take a look at what we have to offer when you’re in the area. We also have a few things listed in our online shop.

Donations come in for food, litter, and other lounge necessities and we are so grateful! We have wishlists at Amazon and Chewy for supporters to shop from. And of course, we always appreciate financial donations. The support from the community is incredibly valuable in helping us help these kitties!

When visiting we encourage reservations so that you are sure you can visit when you want to. We are limiting lounge visitors to 4 at a time. Walk-ins are welcome, however. We are open 11am-5pm Wednesday-Saturday and 12pm-4pm on Sundays.

6 Jul 2021

July Updates

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Adoptions, Fundraising, General Updates, Volunteers | 0

Phew! We have been busy and in the best sort of way! Since bringing in our first cat, Bettie, on May 14th, we’ve brought in a total of 14 cats. We’ve had two adoptions so far: Mittens and Bettie. Currently we have two bonded pairs of cats who were surrendered to shelters and are looking for just the right home: Jacob and Sadie, and Twix and Snickers. We also have two young kittens, just 3 months old: Oreo and Smudge. We’d love to see them get adopted together! Rounding out our current residents: Michael, Missy, Duke, Archie, Phoebe, and Denzel. So far we have partnered with Ventura County Animal Services, Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center, Los Angeles City Shelters, Apple Valley Animal Services, and Shannon’s Fosters, and two private individuals.

In the lobby shop, we still have many handmade items such as earrings, cat toys, pouches, and tote bags, and we’ve started carrying catnip and toys from the company From the Field. We have to store those in sealed tubs at night to keep the cats out of them! We are working on bringing some items over from local Ventura company Whimsily Ever After. They make incredibly cute and fun toys for cats. Consider us when you need gifts for the cat lovers and cats in your life! Entrance to the lobby shop is free.

As we bring in more cats our need for food, litter, and cleaning products increases. We gratefully accept both in-kind and financial donations to help care for the cats. We have updated lists and Chewy.com and Amazon. If you’d prefer to donate money you can do so through PayPal or Venmo, or you can mail us a check or drop off a donation in person. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and everyone working in the lounge is a volunteer.

We’ll be holding another volunteer orientation on Sunday, July 11th from 10-11am if you’d like to learn what all volunteering with us entails. We are working to build a robust team of volunteers.

Thank you for your continued support. Please spread the word about us to your friends and family and help us reach as many cat lovers as possible!

22 Mar 2021

Things to Consider When Adopting

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Adoptions, Education | 0

We want all of our cats and kittens to go to safe, loving, forever homes. Adopting a cat or kitten is a lifetime commitment, and indoor cats can live up to 20 years! Adoption should not be an impulsive decision. You’re adding a family member to your home who will require not just food and litter but also regular vet visits and probably medical care at some point as well. It is not a decision to make lightly! Cats are living, feeling beings and are not “things” to be discarded when they no longer fit into a lifestyle.

Some questions to ask yourself:

*If you’re renting, will you make sure you always seek out cat-friendly places if you have to move?

*If you’re a student, do you have a plan for your cat(s) when you go on vacation or find yourself moving often?

*If your household has never had a cat, do you know if anyone has allergies?

*Are you prepared to change their diet if required to support their medical needs?

*If you’re planning on starting a family, have you done some reading to learn how to appropriately introduce cats and babies and how to help toddlers learn to treat cats gently?

*If you’re elderly (and even if you’re not), do you have a plan in place for where your cat(s) will go in the event you can no longer care for them?

*If you have another cat or kitten at home (or a dog) have you read about properly (and slowly!) introducing a new cat or kitten?

*Have you read about the benefits of keeping cats indoors, and how to keep them happy and stimulated?

*Have you read about why declawing is barbaric?

There is quite a lot to think about and we want to be sure that every cat and kitten we adopt out finds the purrfect home for the rest of their lives!

This article at PetFinder has excellent tips for safely bringing a new cat home.