COVID Isolation Promotes Adoption From Local Cat Cafe 

While the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in more than a year of loss for individuals and businesses alike, there are a few stories that prove there is some hope amidst the tragedy.

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Karma Kat Cafe is Mount Pleasant’s first interactive cat adoption and rescue location where people from all over the area, mainly CMU students, can come to relax, play with their in-house cats and potentially adopt. Owner Mystie Beckwith has found that they are providing something that their community needs most in this time of imminent isolation. 

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“I think people are lonely,” Beckwith said. “I think it’s ideal for like a stress relief, I’ve had people come in and cry and tell me that this is the one place that they can just kind of breathe and relax.”

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The rescue projects to double their adoption numbers for the year by anticipating to reach close to 400 adoptions by June. One CMU student, Blake Ross, is one who looked to Karma Kat Cafe to find a quarantine companion for himself and his roommates.

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“With the mix of the pandemic and us not being able to do anything we were starting to get a little, you know, depressed,” Ross said. “We finally picked out Azalea...she really does love us, and you can tell that and I think that’s just the best part.”

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While the rescue hasn’t lost considerable funds due to the pandemic, they also haven’t made money in the process, and are in the midst of gaining non-profit status. Beckwith accredits her own passion for the animals as the driving force behind the cafe.

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“I think for us it was a positive in the long run, it didn’t look like that or feel like that, you know, a year ago, but the adoption is my main focus…” Beckwith said. “...if I never make a dime it’s ok because I really want it to be about the cats more than anything else....”