Catnip Coalition is a thrift and cat lover’s paradise

Meghan Cassaday moved from Wisconsin to Los Angeles for a person. She ended up staying for the cats.

It was scary to depart her hometown, however she envisioned California as a magical place and was in love. The relationship didn’t final, however the transfer led her down an sudden new path formed by two of her passions: cats and classic wares.

Meghan “Cass” Cassady poses for a portrait along with her store cat, Nigel. When she opened her collective of classic stalls, she knew she needed it to even be a solution to assist cats.

Cassaday, who goes by Cass, turned her “crazy idea” for a collective of classic stalls with a cat focus into Catnip Coalition Vintage Mall in 2023. The retailer, with its eye-catching cat sculpture overlooking the doorway, is tough to overlook on a bustling stretch of Magnolia Avenue in Burbank. This is very true if there occur to be adoptable felines enjoying and snoozing within the store’s showcase home windows.

Inside, the shop is stuffed with cat-themed items and artwork, two store cats and anyplace between two and eight adoptable rescue cats at a time. You can discover quirky kitty tchotchkes, humorous feline-themed mugs and hats with cats on them, in addition to an enormous array of classic popular culture gadgets, clothes and jewellery sans cats.

Vendors lease stalls at Catnip Coalition Vintage Mall, and plenty of go heavy on the cat equipment, however not all.

“I feel like pet loving is on steroids out here compared to Wisconsin,” she says. “Just the fact that I’m able to create something like this is a testament to it.”

The store wasn’t Cassaday’s first dip into promoting classic items. A number of months after transferring right here, Cassaday met her future enterprise companion, Cory Jacob, at a podcast taping. They’d later drive round L.A. to choose up discarded furnishings and flip it. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the upcycling duo opened a classic store in North Hollywood named Yes Baby! Vintage in December 2020.

At the identical time, Cassaday, labored as a vet tech, a gig she’d had on and off for a decade when she lived in Wisconsin. “Being from Wisconsin, I wasn’t used to seeing colonies of stray cats everywhere because that’s a very real problem that’s going on in L.A.,” she says. “So, I already had this sense of just wanting to do something to help.” Cat euthanasia charges at Los Angeles shelters have climbed this 12 months, partially on account of restricted spay and neuter vouchers and the excessive price of veterinary care, animal advocates say.

A hefty lease improve for Yes Baby! Vintage in 2021 prompted a seek for a extra inexpensive house. Friend and proprietor of Phoebe Peacock, a boutique reward store and perfumery, Jennifer Hardaway, inspired Cassaday and Jacob to reopen close to her on Magnolia Avenue. It labored out. Then one other house 4 doorways down turned obtainable, which is the place Catnip Coalition is now. Jacob now solely owns Yes Baby! Vintage and Cassaday, Catnip Coalition.

Shop cat Nigel hangs out close to the register alongside worker, Alyssa Harrel.

“I love vintage, but animals and cats are my passion,” Cassaday says. “I’ve learned in life: If you can turn your passion into your career, that’s it — that’s happiness.”

Beyond cat vibes, Cassaday knew she needed store cats and to assist furballs in want of a house. She reached out to her good friend Lori Fusaro, a employees photographer for Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles, about adopting two cats. There, she met a bonded pair who have been tough to position on account of behavioral points and one’s continual well being issues. She wasn’t deterred. She’d lean into her expertise as a vet tech to care for the uncared for duo and rapidly “fell in love.”

The pair, Franklin and Nigel, moved into Catnip Coalition a month after opening. “They’re like little neighborhood celebrities, and they both have big attitudes, or cattitudes,” she says.

In addition to buy cats, Cassaday cares for adoptable cats from Kitten Rescue, Northeast L.A. Cats and Stray Cat Alliance at Catnip Coalition Vintage Mall.

The retailer donates a portion of proceeds to native cat rescues, similar to Kitten Rescue Los Angeles, Northeast L.A. Cats and Stray Cat Alliance, and works carefully with the teams to spotlight adoptable cats within the storefront’s showcase home windows. To date, the classic mall has helped over 120 cats discover perpetually houses.

The quirky storefront invitations passersby to cease and take a look, virtually like curious cats themselves. Among these captivated throughout a latest go to was first-time shopper Kevin Smith, a librarian and cat lover.

The adoptable kittens like to hang around within the store window.

“It really does feel like all of Burbank encapsulated in one building,” he says. “If you love quirky things or some eclectic things, some retro things, I think this is the place to find it.”

Returning buyer Mia Takara says her love of cats and nostalgic items from the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s preserve her coming again to the store at any time when the Hawaii resident visits her companion each couple of months. Meanwhile, different browsers chitchat about cats, bizarre classic finds and their eccentric animal obsessions from childhood. Some spot Franklin and Nigel and smile and swoon.

“We’re in such times where people are just desperate for positivity,” Cassaday says. “And to me, these cats are that.”

She considers the store the inspiration of her life’s work. “Now, I know what I should be doing because I’m doing it right now, and it feels right.”

Nigel and the opposite cats within the retailer carry brightness to consumers’ days.