Our annual report is now available for 2022.
Thanksgiving Hours, Holiday Shopping
We are starting to set out new items for sale and hope you’ll keep us in mind for stocking stuffers, teacher and hostess gifts, holiday presents, and goodies for your cats! This weekend, 11/12-11/13, we’ll have tables set up outside as well as more things for sale inside. Stop by!
We will have some modified hours the week of Thanksgiving. If you’re hoping to come visit and/or shop that weekend please note our schedule.
New Saturday Hours
Starting this week we will be closing at 4:30pm on Saturdays rather than 5pm. We can take walk-in visitors up until 4pm on Saturdays.
May – and First Year! – recap
On June 2nd we celebrated the first anniversary of the lounge being open for visits! While the nonprofit itself was formed in early 2020, because of covid-19 we did not open a physical storefront until June of 2021. In the year that we have been open we have adopted out 50 cats and kittens and have taken in an additional 29. We are happy to be helping cats and kittens in need and also to be providing a place in midtown Ventura where cat lovers can come hang out with cats. Our second year has started out with foster kitten Montebella’s adoption on June 3rd!
May gave the volunteers at the lounge a chance to step and take charge while I (Jennifer) went out of town for about 10 days for my daughter’s college graduation. A team of about 16 volunteers pitched in to make sure the lounge could remain open as usual, including hosting one of our First Friday events. Cats and humans alike had a great week and it was awesome to know that the organization already has enough volunteer support to keep the lounge running in the absence of its director.
Adoptions were slow for 5-6 weeks but then we had some BIG ones!
Michael – If you’ve EVER come to the lounge then you surely met Michael, our bow-tie wearing tuxedo. He joined us in late May of 2021, before we were even officially open. He was at the lounge for 365 days. But his purrfect family found him. This couple visited the lounge countless times and just fell in love with our boy. He is spoiled rotten now, as he deserves, and they are smitten.
We also found homes for Kiki, Oliver, and Ivy! Kiki has a kitty brother and her new family just loves her. Oliver and Ivy went together to a quiet home of a retired couple who love the kitties and will give them all the space and time they need to feel secure. We are so happy for all of our recently adopted cats.
At the lounge we currently have 9 cats, and in foster we have 18. Rachel has been with us the longest, having joined us in late-August, 2021. Our newest intakes at the lounge are Rose and Mango, both young mamas. Cindy and Coral are still with us and have become SO much more confident and friendly. Same and Steve are young tabby brothers who play hard and sleep hard! Both sets of kitties would make excellent companions and we would love to see them stay in pairs if at all possible. Cassie is our long-haired tortie who is learning to trust people and get along with cats. We know she’d do better in a quiet, predictable home as the only pet but she is still improving here, even with the other cats around and the changes in people coming and going each day.
In late May Four Brix Winery hosted a fundraiser for us at their space here in Ventura. The band that night was Karen Eden and the Bad Apples and they were amazing in their support of us, too. We received hundreds of dollars in food and litter donations as well as over $550 in cash donations from patrons that night. Everyone had a good time and the kitties benefited from the generosity. Upcoming fundraisers include a yard sale on June 25th, a small puzzle tournament late summer, and a silent auction next fall.
March Updates
Since our last update we have had 6 more adoptions: Bandit, Willow, Phoebe, Simba, Bambi, and Missy! Yes, Missy, who joined us as one of our 4 original cats back in May 2021. She is settling into her furever home and has become quite the little snuggler (when she wants to, of course!). We are so happy for all of the kitties who found their homes.
In the first 3 months of the year we had about roughly 310 volunteer hours donated by nearly 20 volunteers. (That is in addition to the hours that Jennifer puts in.) We had approximately $1700 in food and litter donated, and we had nearly 400 visits! We have started doing First Friday evening events and have had a few visitors during each of those. The next one will be May 6th from 6-7pm, so mark your calendar.
At the lounge we currently have 11 cats and kittens: Michael, Rachel, Cindy, Coral, Kiki, Ivy, Oliver, Jasmine, Cassie, Sam, and Steve. We also have baby Monte in foster and you can see him on Facebook and Instagram under Melt Your Heart Meow’s accounts (Shannon Evans, longtime Greyfoot Cat Rescue volunteer and current Cassie’s Cats volunteer). We also have two young, friendly pregnant cats in foster together with another one of our volunteers (thank you, Gina!). All told we have taken in 59 cats and kittens over the past 10 months.
Looking ahead, we hope to do a community garage sale fundraiser this summer, a silent auction next fall, and a holiday market with contributions from local makers. We are also working on a fundraising event with Four Brix Winery on May 27th!
Kitten season is well underway so if you are interested in being a part of the solution please help out with efforts to spay and neuter community cats in our area.
