Store or Shelter? Both!

I took my wife to Nashville, TN yesterday to shop at consignment stores. We noticed next to one consignment shop there was a business called "The Cat Store". When I walked into it I saw twenty or so cats and kittens. Mostly kittens. With a few exceptions, they all had the run of the store. When I went to the toy aisle I was greeted by a half dozen eager kitties. We had a good time. The kitties helped me pick out toys for my two boys at home.

This was a fully stocked cat store. Everything you would need for a cat or a cat lover. Plus they had all these cats for adoption. Caring for their needs while voluteers and customers kept them socialized. "The Cat Store" was the highlight of the trip.

We have two formerly feral cats in our home now. In consideration of their temperments, we were able to extract ourselves from the store without taking an adorable, warm, happy kitten with us. Maybe next time.

Oh, my wouldn't that be a dream job! I had heard of that place but didn't know it was in Nashville.

Glad you had fun. You have more will power than me, though. I'd have probably come home with at least one more kitty!

We have a thrift store as part of our shelter, its in the same building but we have a door between the two so cats don't go missing, but the customers there love seeing the cats we leave in there during the day and we do a few adoptions through their customers.

Most of the independent pet stores here house adoption kitties for us too, I often pop in just to play

What a great idea! I love the fact that the cats get to run around and don't have to sit in cages like they do at most pet stores that have cats for adoption. A pet store around here has two resident cats that run loose in the store. They really seem to live in kitty heaven. They have a number of different cat trees to climb on, plenty of beds and toys and treats galore. Not to mention all the attention they get from customers and employees. Some of my cats would live to live in a place like that.

It's actually my dream to open up my own pet store and combine it with my rescue. Hopefully I'll be able to do that someday.

Our local pet store actually fell in love with one of our adoptees and asked to adopt her as a store cat, almost a year later and they had to rehome her - the store life is not great for cats - she also would get into food etc that would make her sick.

Cages do have their uses, for a shelter that has put a lot of money into their rescued animals, ensuring that they are not near unvaccinated cats and are eating the right amount, using the litterbox etc can tell you alot about their health - its just not possible in multi-cat situations and some rescues have had cats get really sick or starve over the hierarchy that goes on between ever changing cats