Photo provided Rebecca Johnson, board president of River City Kitty Cafe, tested out an exercise wheel with Kyle the cat last week that will be part of the River City Kitty Cafe expected to open in March.

River City Kitty Cafe, led by board president Rebecca Johnson, wants to give overlooked shelter cats a calm, home-like environment to meet potential adopters while offering the community a cozy place to relax.

“If you’ve been to the Humane Society or some of these other rescues, they don’t always have a good room or place for you to sit down quietly, enjoy and get to know the cats,” Johnson said. “A lot of places focus more on the dogs being adopted, and the cats kind of get left behind.”

Johnson, who has spent her career in both education and nonprofit leadership, said River City Kitty Cafe is the perfect next chapter for her. She said she started in education, but moved to the nonprofit world where she was executive director of the Boys and Girls Club. She said after her retirement, she still wanted to continue in the nonprofit world, but focus on animals.

In addition to her board role, Johnson runs Sun Haven Farm, a boarding and grooming business, and said her passion for animals made the cat cafe a natural fit.

Photo provided River City Kitty Cafe, a nonprofit cat cafe expected to open in March, is partnering with other local nonprofits to create a home-like environment sanctuary for cats to meet potential adopters and a place for local community members to have coffee and spend time with new four-legged friends.

Johnson said the idea for River City Kitty Cafe came during a visit to another cat cafe several states away.

“The first cat cafe I went to was in Savannah, Ga., and it was just amazing,” Johnson said. “It was fun. It was amazing. They had pictures of the cats that had been adopted, and you felt like you were giving back… we bought some stickers, had a latte and hung out in the cat room for like, an hour. And all of that helps to give back to their communities, humane societies and help to get the cats adopted.”

Johnson said she wanted to bring that same experience — and its impact — home to the Mid-Ohio Valley, combining a welcoming cafe environment with a mission-driven adoption space.

She said the cafe is guided by a small, close-knit board, made up of her friends and even her daughters. After a challenging search, she said the group secured a sublease arrangement through Mercy Now Veterinary Care and property owner George Broughton, who Johnson credits with helping bring the project to life, at 635 St. Rt. 821 in Marietta.

“He allowed us to bring this to his complex,” Johnson said. “We had to find somebody who was willing to rent to us to do this, and he’s been very helpful.”

Photo provided River City Kitty Cafe, a nonprofit cat cafe expected to open in March, will be partnering with the Humane Society of the Ohio Valley to help adoptable cats and kittens find homes.

She said the cafe is still in the pre-opening phase, with an expected opening in March, and is actively raising funds to finish the build-out and cover startup costs.

“We’ve brought in about $22,000. We have spent about $15,000 and when it’s all said and done… to open, it’s probably going to be closer to $25,000 to open,” Johnson said.

She said those funds cover rent, equipment, supplies for the cafe side and ongoing care for the cats.

“We pay rent, and we’ve had to buy equipment, we’ll have to buy consumables to have the cafe side running and also feeding and caring for the cats,” Johnson said. “There’s an expense associated with that.”

As a nonprofit, she said most of the money River City Kitty Cafe brings in will be reinvested into its operations and its animal welfare mission.

Photo provided Construction of the dividing wall for River City Kitty Cafe was started in early January. The cafe, expected to open in March, will consist of two areas separated by a wall with one side operating as a typical cafe and the other a home-like environment sanctuary for cats to meet potential adopters.

“The donations will continue to go back into the program,” Johnson said. “Our board’s long term goal is that if we are able to bring in enough money through this project that we can help our rescue organizations and partners, with some of the expenses before they arrive with us — maybe helping with the spay and neutering, helping with FIV and leukemia testing and so on.”

Initially, she said the cafe will be run by volunteers, including Johnson and other board members who also juggle full-time jobs.

“Right now, we’re all volunteers, but all of us have regular jobs, so at some point too, we’re going to need to hire a business manager for the cat cafe,” she said. “We’re going to try to run it with volunteers for a while to build our funds up, but then we’ll probably need to hire somebody.”

The facility will feature a two-sided setup with a cafe style area in the front and a dedicated cat lounge, separate from the cafe side, designed for low-stress interaction.

“There’ll be a cat lounge that’s separate from the cafe, where you can go in and you can sit,” Johnson said.” We will have up to 12 cats in the lounge at a time, and up to six people are allowed in the area with the cats at a time, to hopefully give people an opportunity to get to know the cats better.”

Photo provided Construction of the dividing wall for River City Kitty Cafe was completed earlier this month. The cafe, expected to open in March, will consist of two areas separated by a wall with one side operating as a typical cafe and the other a home-like environment sanctuary for cats to meet potential adopters.

She said the space will not just be for adopters but will also welcome students, renters and others who can’t have pets at home.

“If you can’t adopt, the hope is that you could come and hang out and enjoy some time with the cats,” Johnson said. “And you’re giving back and helping to provide funds to continue to facilitate adoptions.”

On the cafe side, the nonprofit is partnering with local businesses like Jeremiah’s Coffee House rather than baking on-site.

“We will be purchasing food, bakery items that are already packaged, because we are not going to be doing any of the baking in our facility at all,” Johnson said.

She said guests can expect a full drink menu, though.

Photo provided Rebecca Johnson, board president of River City Kitty Cafe, center, met with other board members in January The cafe, expected to open in March, will consist of two areas separated by a wall with one side operating as a typical cafe and the other a home-like environment sanctuary for cats to meet potential adopters.

“We will be able to make coffees and things,” she said. “Pop, water, tea, hot tea, cold tea, and then different coffees and be able to do lattes, have an espresso machine, have a blender so we can do iced or frozen drinks.”

The cafe will also be available for birthday parties and private events, with the entire space rentable.

“You will be able to rent the whole space for three hours. We’ll shut it down from the public… and you can run it for three hours for $250 and have a party,” Johnson said. “We’re going to allow people to bring in pizzas if they want, bring in cakes and things like that… We would prefer that they buy the drinks through us, if possible.”

To protect both guests and animals, the cafe is implementing clear rules–especially for young children.

“We have an age limit. No one under the age of 5,” Johnson said. “If they come to a party or something, they can watch… from the cafe side, because they can be handsy and grabby and cats can scratch. So there will be a waiver to sign to go into the cat side.”

The team had originally hoped to open earlier, but faced additional construction and regulatory requirements.

“We wanted to open at the beginning of February, but putting cats and food together poses its own problems,” Johnson said. “We’ve had to build that wall, and the cat side will have a separate HVAC system from the cafe side to be able to pass the food inspection to get a food license.

She said the cafe aims to open the cat side in about two weeks, but the cafe side may not be open for a little bit longer.

“We probably won’t have our food license until mid March,” Johnson said. “And then hopefully the cafe side will be able to sell food and drinks by the beginning of April.”

Johnson said River City Kitty Cafe will serve as a temporary housing and adoption showcase for cats from partner organizations, and not a drop off point for unwanted pets.

“We have temporary housing agreements with our partner organizations,” Johnson said. “When we have them in our facility, we feed them, we take care of the litter every day and all that.”

When a visitor falls in love with one of the cats, the cafe will help guide them through the next steps — but the final adoption will be handled by the original rescue.

“Say, you come in and you fall in love with one of the cats, we can talk to you about where that cat came from,” Johnson said. “If the cat came from the Humane Society, we will help you get connected with the Humane Society to fill out the proper paperwork. If it came from Paws, Inc, out of Noble County, then we will connect you with Noble County to do that.”

She said the cafe however plans to keep applications on hand from each partner rescue.

“We will have applications on hand for our different partner organizations, and then the organization will determine if they get adopted,” she said.

More information about River City Kitty Cafe and the organizations partnering with it can be found on its website at rivercitykittycafe.org.

As they move closer to opening, Johnson and her all-volunteer board remain focused on building a space where community, coffee and compassion come together to change feline lives across the Mid-Ohio Valley.

“I’ve got the best job ever,” Johnson said.

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com