In Purr Haven, the kitten room at Whiskers Workspace in St. Petersburg, white and orange kittens, tiger-striped kittens, and kittens with little tuxedos lounge on plush couches rake their tiny claws over scratching posts and chase toys across the carpeted floor while calming music plays in the background.
The new business venture rents space to people who want to work side-by-side with cats.
Founder Diane Emery DiMaggio said here, there's a cat for everyone.
“Some are lap cats. Some are 'I want to sit on the couch next to you' cats. Some 'I want to look like an accessory across the room' cat,” DiMaggio said.
Whiskers Workspace opened last month on Central Avenue. There you can rent offices, conference rooms, and break rooms, where you'll be surrounded by cats and kittens while you work.
"It's deeply relaxing, right? Their purring is, really, there's nothing like it. It's stress relieving, so it helps with concentration."
It’s also available for individuals to rent, and recently played host to a cat-themed birthday party for a 9-year-old girl.
The second floor of the brick building was renovated for legal offices before the pandemic. Now that most people attend meetings virtually, it's been transformed into a multi-use space for rent.
DiMaggio is, by, trade, a court reporter but found herself advocating for the pets that families didn’t want when clients passed away, or pets that needed new homes when abusive situations dismantled the family.
And that’s how CJPaws got its start. The cat rescue’s volunteers save, rescue, and rehome cats and worked with the local Petsmart and the Sunshine Kitty Catfe to offer adoption events. But both locations were purchased by developers and closed recently.
“So we brought the kittens here, and they were on the conference tables and in the conference chairs. And we're like, what are we going to do? We got to find more foster families. And we were like, ‘well, hey, why don't we create a Kitty Cafe here’ except that we don't want to get zoned for food.”
Now Whiskers Workspace serves as the home base for the cats not currently in foster homes. So every cat you interact with while renting space there is up for adoption.
While you can rent space there now, in October, Whiskers Workspace will hold an official ribbon-cutting ceremony with the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.
And if you don’t want to rent space there but still want to meet the kitties? Whiskers Workspace also offers events like meditation classes, movie nights, boardgame get togethers and — you guessed it — yoga with cats.
