Why We Charge Admission

Recently, we’ve had a spate of folks express disappointment that there is an
admission fee to go into the Black Cat Lounge. We are as transparent as
possible in all of our advertising, commentary, and posts to social media
platforms – you have to pay to hang out with our fabulous (and adoptable)
house panthers.

Our prices are as low as we can make them:
$7.00 per person for 30 minutes,
$13.00 per person for 50 minutes,
$8.00 for a 30-minute mini-kid session that includes 1 adult and 1 child
under 7 years of age

Photo by HBCM

We are likely the lowest- priced cat lounge or cat café in the region, maybe
even in the entire country. In addition to helping foster adoptions, we also
focus on education about cat behavior, cat care, as well as telling the stories
of how our cats came to be in our care.

Running House of Black Cat Magic (HBCM) and the Black Cat Lounge is not
cheap—at any given point we have a minimum of 3-4 staff members
working, and employ a live-in human attendant who is on-call 24/7.
If you share your home with an animal friend, you likely know how costly it is
to supply food and care. Imagine multiplying that number by 20—which is
the current number of cats that are in care at HBCM. This does not include
the other 50 or so cats in our partnering rescue, Binx’s Home for Black Cats. 
And to be fair, the rescue does help shoulder the cost of providing for our
cats.

Especially for those who do not have an animal in their care that you must
provide for, we want to provide you with some stats on what our overall
costs are just for the care & feeding of the cats at HBCM. Additionally, we
want to give you an idea of the amount of time and energy required to
maintain it all.

On a daily basis we use at least 30 lbs of cat litter, 2 lbs of cat food, and
possibly more depending on the health and needs of the cats being cared for
in quarantine. The cost for this runs about $45-60 a day, depending on how many cats we have on the property.

Since HBCM is certified by the state of North Carolina as a shelter in order to
operate the Black Cat Lounge, we must adhere to the same regulations that
all shelters follow. This means that all of the cat areas—the lounge, the quiet
room, and quarantine—must be cleaned from top to bottom twice a day. No
exceptions, no holidays.

Cats (and the state) do not care if you are tired, if you have not had a day off
in 15 days, or you stubbed your toe and are limping. They expect you to
provide the care that you agreed to;, and we comply, no matter what. 
Every day we run between 3-4 loads of laundry since all the bedding gets
changed twice a day. A bad day in quarantine can easily double the number
of times a kennel needs to be cleaned and increase the amount of laundry.
Kittens are particularly messy, frequently coming to us with parasites, and
often require extra care like bottle feeding and daily meds.

Photo by HBCM

We also have special-needs and senior cats as residents in our lounge,
which require more care and increase costs, as well as taking additional time
and energy.

Laundry & cleaning supplies - $20 a day
Medication - $20 a day

Twice every day, lounge attendants do observations of the cats in our care
and record monitoring notes, as well as dispense medications and perform
whatever tasks are needed to maintain the health & well-being of our cats. 

Labor - $200 a day on average (and the owners are still not taking a salary).

Attendants and front-of-house staff share duties and are cross-trained to
make sure HBCM runs smoothly. We share a common purpose of educating
visitors and paving the way to find forever homes for every cat we take in.
That is our goal.

Additionally, we provide a base of operation for the Asheville Cat Weirdos
food pantry, help to support other rescues, host the PAWS mobile van that
provides low-cost community neuters, and provide information to literally
anyone who asks – on where to find services, how to address common (and
uncommon) cat behavioral issues, and answer so many other questions
every day.

On top of all of that, we do it with a smile on our collective faces.

Photo of adopter by HBCM

Cats are affected by the emotional expressions of those they interact with
and are surrounded by. This means that no matter what kind of day each of
us who work at HBCM are having, what we express when in proximity to our
cats MUST be positive.

It’s why we play low-key, soothing music in the shop and the lounge. And
when we need to scream because we just took the 10th call that day about a
cat we simply do not have the resources or space to take in, we go outside,
away from our residents, to do so until we have regained our composure. 
On average, excluding crises and special events, just the cat care end of
things run about $300 a day. That’s a little over $2000 a week.

So, in order to cover those costs, an average of 43 people a day at $7.00, or 215 people a week, are required to visit the lounge.

None of this cost analysis includes the start-up cost, general overhead
expenses like rent, utilities, internet and website, advertising, or general
maintenance costs. This is just how much it takes each week to run the
lounge and maintain all of the cat areas.

It’s important to note that the majority of the money taken in from sales in
the retail shop goes to support the lounge and cover payroll.

So now you know why we charge admission to the lounge. Without folks
generously paying to “pet cats,” we simply could not survive.

Thank you for helping us continue saving the lives of cats in our community.

PS. If you want to pet cats for free, there is not a shelter on the planet that
would say no to someone who genuinely wants to volunteer their time to
help care for and socialize the animals they are desperately trying to find
homes for and save.