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!

2 Apr 2021

Grand Opening “Cat Shower”

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Fundraising, Just for Fun | 0

If we can have wedding showers and baby showers, why not CAT showers? We’ve put together a registry and updated our Chewy and Amazon wishlists so everyone can celebrate the opening of the lounge and help spoil our future kitties! There is a lot to choose from at a variety of prices, and we hope that everyone who wants to will find something they are happy to donate.

Toys, cat trees, and more fun stuff HERE
Chewy.com wishlist HERE
Amazon wishlist HERE

If you have something in good/great condition that you see on these lists that you would like to donate just let us know. We’d be happy to take a look! We’re always going to need food and litter and prefer higher quality food whenever possible.

Other donations we’re looking for include:

Plastic folding chairs for the lobby, extra seating outside, special events – preferably white
Storage shelving for supplies (sturdy)
Stainless steel utility table (or other table for food prep, etc.)
Shark steam cleaner
Blank paper

Thank you for helping us get off to a great start!

1 Mar 2021

March Updates

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

On March 16, 2020, Cassie’s Cats received its official determination letter stating nonprofit approval. We’re nearly a year out from there and feel proud of what we’ve accomplished and the groundwork we’ve laid in the midst of a global pandemic. We are ready to secure a lease and start moving things ever closer to the dream of opening a lounge and adoption center for rescued cats in Ventura! I (Jennifer) will be running the lounge and have had my first covid vaccination. Things are moving in the right direction, finally.

To date, Cassie’s Cats has raised over $12,700 in financial donations and has had over $1000 in in-kind donations. We have another $6500 promised to us as well. To have this kind of support before we even open our doors shows us that our community supports what we are trying to do and wants to see this dream come to life so more cats can have better lives.

We are up to about 512 followers on Facebook and nearly 500 on Instagram. We encourage our supporters to share our social media posts and accounts so that more people who love cats can find us and follow us.

We (Jennifer) recently had a chance to visit Purrmaid Cafe and Adoption Center in Camarillo and talk with the owner there. If you haven’t had a chance to visit, please do! They are also a nonprofit with the same core mission: to help rescued cats find safe, loving, permanent homes. Their generosity of both spirit and time is so appreciated!

Our fundraising through our online shop continues in earnest. In 2021 we’ve already sold 176 masks! We’ve also begun selling small and medium zipper pouches and we’re adding new prints as we can. We even have cute new oval logo stickers that you can add to any order for just $2.

We’re currently without fosters at Jennifer’s house, and things seem much quieter. We’ll see how long that lasts. =^..^=

6 Feb 2021

February Updates

by Jennifer Thompson | posted in: Education, Fostering, Fundraising | 0

Things seem to be off to a good start for 2021. Storm and Cloud have been adopted, and we’re working to get Hurricane and Rain into their forever homes. Maybe even together, if we can! We’ve toured four retail spaces with feelers out for a couple more. One in particular would be great as long as the money is there month in and month out to pay the bills. It’s spacious and light and purrfect for a cat lounge. Wish we had a crystal ball to tell us what our future holds! We have faith that we’ll get the right place at the right time, that visitors and adopters will come, and that the support we need will be there! Once we’ve been open we should be able to pursue grants, too.

We set a goal to raise $1000/month through in-kind and financial donations and so far things are going well there. We’ve had fabric donated which has been terrific. A fat quarter usually makes 4 masks. Depending on the print, we can get upwards of 16 masks from a full yard of fabric. We’re looking at new fabrics to line the masks with and the possibility of adding a filter pocket.

We’ve sold a few pouches already and have a pattern we like now for a smaller pouch. Just need to get some sewn up! If the weather continues to be sunny, and if COVID-19 cases continue to drop, we may hold another pop-up shop in the next month or so.

In the near future we will be adding some education pages to the website, things like what to expect when you bring a new cat home, how to introduce animals, what’s normal for kitten behavior, etc. if you have suggestions for other topics we’d love to hear them!

As always, thank you for your support. Without supporters we wouldn’t be able to pursue this dream of helping more cats find safe, loving, permanent homes. 💗