Jessica Hoien - Felius
MARCH 20, 2020 © Right Here, Right Now.
“I’m better. I was one of those people who, I think, was so… immersed in just, my job here and tending to the cats and making sure everybody had such a great experience. I was kind of ignoring what was happening on the news. And then the night came where we had an emergency board meeting about what was happening, and we decided it’s in our best interest. It just seems even a little irresponsible to continue to allow people to come in. That’s when my heart kind of broke into tiny little pieces, because the only thing I can think of was “How are we going to find these homes, you know, for our cats that we have here now? Who’s gonna want to take a cat in, you know, and… and... this space has become literally my home. I’ve been here since the very, very beginning and it’s where I come to feel comfortable and happy, you guys, it’s… it’s crazy… and… I was panicky, definitely, for a while, and just sad. I think I was just more sad than anything. But, we have an amazing support group of people that just love Felius. Some people have never even been here, they just love our mission.
In November, a little after our year anniversary, we opened our own rescue as well. So… that’s been so… so good. It’s crazy, but we’ve had to stop saying yes to people who can’t, you know, have these kittens or cats they can’t take care of. It’s just not the right thing to do right now. And it just makes me sad for everybody. But knowing we have people who are still interested, who still want to be a part of this, makes me really, really hopeful for when we do eventually open again. And hopefully, it’ll be better than it was before. I don’t know.
I think once we get these two cats placed, I will have more space in my brain to be like “Okay, I can get back into yoga again. I can take longer walks with the dog again. I can spend a little more time with the boyfriend again and enjoy our new home!”. You know, things like that that have just, kind of, been pushed to the side since we have been busy.
I have five employees, and they’re all very, very part time, like one or two shifts each. Bre Phelan, who is the owner of Felius, called all of my baristas and let them know. And they were so wonderful. They absolutely adore this place and taking care of the cats, and they all were like “If you need me to come down and feed, clean, anything, I’ll be there”. And they know, you know, they’re probably gonna have to file unemployment. Most of them are students. Some of them have multiple part-time jobs, you know? Um… but they’re all… they’re all hopeful that when this is done, we’ll still be, you know, kicking ass and slinging cats, is what we’re hoping. So, actually having that responsibility of being a manager, having that off my plate right now, has made it easier. Right now, I’m just really focused on taking care of these… these guys and making sure my foster homes have everything they need, cus we still have pregnant cats. We have a momma who just had kittens, like just making sure they feel taken care of too.
The very first post we made on our social media about the decision to close immediately, we had so many people donating. Just right to our Paypal and donating. People asking “What kind of litter can we send you? What kind of food can we send you?”. Just because people know they can’t come in and spend time with the cats, that doesn’t mean we still don’t need funds. Because that’s how we make this work, you know? People coming in to just pay to spend time with the cats, buy a coffee, sign up for our kitten and yoga classes. That’s how we pay for their vetting, that’s how we pay for their food, that’s how we keep this all running. So, having zero people come through the doors is so scary.
You know, I just made a post about a foster cat that I have, who is just adorable, and so fat and sassy, and I’m like “This would be the perfect time to bring a new pet home. You have so much time to really bond and have fun with this animal. And I’m hoping now that peop- because some of these people are like “I don’t have time right now to take care of a pet”. Everybody has a lot of time right now. So, and we still… we still have people reaching out, asking, you know, “Do you have anybody up for adoption?”. So, I’m hoping that that would just continue.
We have a family that’s interested in Sherlock, and we have a couple that are interested in Pippa. Hopefully, they are coming in today to meet them. If not, they probably need to go to foster homes, but I’m really hoping by this weekend, after the weekend’s over, they’ll be… they’ll be settled. I just dropped off a cat before I came here today, to go to her future home, to get comfy and cozy there so… that made me… that made me happy and relieved.
I’m grateful. This place, this job, this community. The people that support us are… they’re just amazing. Anytime we have a call, even for litter, right away people are happy to do it. And I never thought a tiny, non-profit, cat café in Omaha could generate so much awareness. And I’m hoping, maybe with even this and trying to get the word out more, people west of 72nd street will know about us too. You know, we just started trying to expand… west Omaha, because some people don’t even know that there’s a cat café in Omaha. You know, so I’m just really grateful for people still supporting us, and wanting to be plugged in and wanting to see how the cats are doing, and you know, offering to… offering their time to just to come and hang out with the cats. I just… I’m grateful for them. I’m grateful for a partner who has been so supportive and understands my crazy, like cat-lady ways and accepts it fully. So that, I’m really, really grateful for.
JOSH - What can people do to help Felius in the future?
Donate. That’s a huge thing. Whether it’s food, or litter, or just straight up money, that’s, you know, that’s how non-profits do it. And you know, share about us. Tell people about us. Spread the word. That’s a huge a part of it. And we have events coming up! We have really fun events that we were just putting on the schedule, like drag queen bingo and kitten night, and kitten yoga and E-Creamery had this great event for us. They made a line of ice cream just for us, that all the proceeds will be, you know, back to Felius and… we’re just hoping people will still stay connected and interested.
I just miss being here every day. I feel really lucky that I have a job that I actually get excited to go to every day. And when I heard we were closing, I was like “You know I’m still gonna go there every day and hang out”. So, I’m just so, my-I feel really, really lucky. It was hard taking that step, as like a woman into her early 40’s “I’m gonna run a cat café!”, and leaving my other career that I had for like, fifteen years behind, but I’m so happy. I’m exhausted, and sometimes, emotionally just worn out, but I love it.