Help Our Cat Lounge & Staff Recover from Hurricane Helene

We are House of Black Cat Magic, a small women-owned retail shop and black cat lounge in West Asheville, NC. We opened in June of 2023 and since opening, we have adopted out almost 400 black cats in tandem with our rescue partner, Binx's Home for Black Cats, and we have become a staple in our community. We offer workshops like Kiddie Cat Etiquette, where we teach young children how to properly interact with cats, Tarot with Cats, where we teach the basics of reading tarot cards, and Kitten Yoga, where customers can unwind with the added chaos of kittens! We also provide low-cost community cat neuter services in partnership with Binx's Home and Paws Mobile Veterinary. We house a nonprofit that hands out free cat food and litter to the public, hold markets to support local artisans and makers of all kinds looking to sell their wares, and we provide affordable metaphysical supplies for everyone.

Since we opened, we have diligently built up our business over time and have become a community-centric space, even being recognized as a "Community Impact Brand" and "Top Roadtrip Destination" by local media outlets in 2024. House of Black Cat Magic is the brainchild of Star Bustamonte and Hannah Soboleski. Along with our incredible staff, we have created a unique experience for locals and tourists alike!

Then along came Hurricane Helene....

Hurricane Helene devastated our area, wiping out homes, businesses, roads, electricity, water, internet & cell service, and claimed hundreds of lives. In the immediate aftermath, our staff all came together to not only care for the cats that reside in the cat lounge, but to also care for the animals and humans that needed our help. Another rescue partner, Miss Dixie's Kitten Rescue, in Seneca, SC put out a call for help and ended up sending three moving trucks full of supplies within days! For months, we spent our days handing out supplies to anyone who needed it, working with the Red Cross, FEMA, and other organizations in an effort to help our community recover. While other businesses were closing and laying off their employees, we kept every single employee and stayed open, focussing on helping our area rebuild and providing a space for relaxation and relief in the midst of devastation.

We championed for other businesses and helped them to raise funds so they could get back to work, brought on additional employees that had lost their jobs, all the while trying to apply for small business disaster loans and grants to help us survive. Local business and tourism were completely halted and as a result, we lost over $25,000 in revenue during what would typically be our busiest season. We received a small grant from the hurricane relief funding of $7,500, but nothing but declination emails came after that. Everything claiming that though we met all the qualifications, there wasn't anymore funding to help us. Now, with the current climate, disaster funding is either cut off completely or is slowly being funneled in by the state (a recent update set expectations for funding to take up to 6 YEARS to be rolled out to small businesses).

Meanwhile, our business and our staff are also struggling. Even though we've put everything into getting through this catastrophic disaster, our partners have lost their jobs, tourism has yet to return to the area, locals are still in crisis, entire homes and lives have been upended or destroyed, and we need help. While we are known for supporting our community during good times and bad, we are now the ones needing your support.

If you are able, please consider donating to help our small business and employees to recover from Hurricane Helene. We can get through with your help! We can still be here to save lives and support our community for years to come! We have put everything into House of Black Cat Magic and we hope that you can help us to recover so that we can continue to move forward with our labor of love. Any amount is appreciated, even if it's just sharing our fundraiser and sending us well wishes! We appreciate you. We love you.

Your Friends,

House of Black Cat Magic