By Chandler Brandes
When you drive through the Highlands, you may not think twice about a quaint century-old house in the Belknap neighborhood.
Walk inside one on Dundee Road, however, and you’ll find it’s not your average house, but rather a home for cats.
Hearing how Louisville Metro Animal Services bring in nearly 1,600 cats in need of a home annually, Karla Spencer ’83, ‘89 knew she needed to take action. She was familiar with the idea of a cat café and quickly got to work following a visit to one in Indianapolis.
After a social media campaign and a Kickstarter fundraiser, the Lucky Cat Café and Lounge was born.
“It was the love of cats that inspired me to want to help them, and there are so many that need homes,” said Spencer, the “chief feline officer” of the café. “You feel good inside that you’re helping cats that otherwise would be living in a cage, or even not living at all.”
The Lucky Cat Café is one of the few non-profit cat cafés nationwide and the only one in the southeastern United States. Spencer said the café, which typically houses 12-16 cats at a time, acts as an adoption center with the goal of finding purr-manent homes for their feline friends. In the first year after opening their doors, they successfully adopted 117 cats and kittens.
Spencer, who received both her Bachelor’s in Business Management and her MBA in Business Administration from UofL, knew the risk in starting a non-profit from the ground-up. Even though it’s a non-profit, she runs the Lucky Cat Café as a business using the principles she learned at UofL’s College of Business.
“I knew marketing, accounting, and finance were important, so I got those set up right away,” said Spencer, who relies on donations to keep her costs low. “We’re not doing this to make money. We want to be a community-supported organization, and we have been.”
Spencer engages Louisville in a paws-itive way by hosting cat-themed trivia nights at Gravely Brewing, Matinee at the Meow-vies, and yoga with cats in effort to raise community awareness of her cat café. Whether you’re aiming to adopt, looking for a stress-reliever, or simply wanting to sip coffee and pet cats, Spencer encourages everyone to come visit.
“You can’t help but fall in love with these friendly, adorable bundles,” said Spencer. “We try to undo some of that harm that’s been done to them and let them see that humans are kind and trusting.”
"You can’t help but fall in love with these friendly, adorable bundles."
In what is purr-haps an ironic situation, Fox is currently producing what will surely be a hiss-terical new sitcom starring The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik. Set to air in Fall 2020, the main character on the show spends the money her parents set aside for her wedding to open a cat café in Louisville, Ky.
The name of the new show? Carla.
The cat got her tongue when Spencer first heard of the series litter-ally based on her own life and later found out through the grapevine the producers truly didn’t know of her own story. She reached out to the show, hoping for the paws-ibility of them visiting the real Lucky Cat Café.
“I think the excitement will build up once they actually start filming,” said Spencer regarding the comedy series eerily fur-miliar to her own story. “I’m hoping the show will raise awareness for cat cafés and that they’re basically adoption centers, along with a coffee shop.”
An avid cat lover herself, Spencer is a firm believer that cats make you a kinder and gentler human being. She knows the Lucky Cat Café is not only a home for the rescued cats who go there, but also a place belonging to the community where people can go to improve their own lives.
“We get really excited when people come here,” Spencer said. “When they get excited too, it makes us feel good that we’re doing the right thing.”
Interested in visiting the Lucky Cat Café, becoming a volunteer, or donating supplies? Check out their website and follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!