Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky Preston & Sarah Seagle.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
On New Years Day 2021, we visited our first ever cat cafe in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We had never heard of a cat cafe before but thought it sounded like a fun activity. We immediately fell in love with the concept. We began talking about the need for a place like this in the West Georgia area and started devising a plan on how we could make it happen. Within two weeks of our trip we had a business plan in place and secured a location. We worked tirelessly for 6 months straight, completing much of the work ourselves with the help of our family and friends. We proudly opened West Georgia’s first Cat Cafe on June 4, 2021.
We serve as a foster home for the Carroll County Animal Shelter and provide a cage-free life for the cats in our care. Once cats arrive from our local shelter, they are housed with us until they are adopted. We typically have between 15-20 adoptable cats at a time in the lounge. All of our cats are spayed/neutered, micro-chipped, and vaccinated to their age.
Since opening, we have helped over 1550 cats find forever homes. In the last couple of years we have expanded our efforts to include adoptable dogs from the CCAS. Once a week our cafe manager, Sarah Strain, takes a dog on a “field trip” and highlights them on our social media pages. Through her efforts, we’ve helped 90 dogs find forever homes.
We are passionate about the lives and well-being of our 4-legged friends. We partner with other local businesses and organizations in our area to hold fundraising and adoption events to benefit our local shelter and the animals in their care.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
First and foremost, the largest obstacle we face is the never-ending number of stray/unwanted animals. This is an issue that plagues every community in the country. Rural communities, like ours, are often more impacted by stray or abandoned animals. The number of cats we house at one time is only a fraction of those that are available for adoption at our local shelter.
We are huge advocates of spaying/neutering all pets. This drastically helps reduce the pet population and helps to keep more adoptable animals out of local shelters. As much as we love what we do at the cafe, we would really love it if there wasn’t a need for a business like ours.
Almost every shelter needs volunteers and fosters. While we understand not everyone can foster at the level we do, every foster helps! We encourage anyone wanting to get involved with animal well-fare to contact their local shelter or humane society and ask how they can help.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We are a foster home for adoptable cats.
How do you think about happiness?
There is nothing like watching a cat pick their family! We opened the cafe with the hopes of helping 30 cats find their forever home in the first 6 months. We were mind-blown when we adopted out over 250 in 6 months. Every time we help a cat find a loving home it reminds us why we do this. This is a labor of love that is incredibly rewarding!
Pricing:
- $14 per person for 1 hour lounge visit (includes complimentary beverage)
- $50 Adoption Fee
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.furbabiescatcafe.com
- Instagram: furbabiescatcafe
- Facebook: furbabiescatcafe
- Other: TikTok – Fur Babies Cat Cafe
