Just off of Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach awaits an oasis for all cat lovers.
Feline Good Social Club is a cat lounge that “provides a mutually-beneficial social interaction opportunity between humans and cats” all while finding permanent homes for the cats.
It all started with CFO Pam Leslie, who has dedicated over 20 years of her life to rescuing cats.
What sparked Leslie’s passion to open FGSC was an experience she had at a shelter.
“When I was in my 40s I visited a shelter and they had cats in small metal cages and they had just cleaned the cages so they were wet.. and the cats were just sitting in there all wet and I couldn’t believe it.”
Shortly after, she joined a kitten rescue group and eventually moved on to start her own group and after years of rescuing, finally, in 2019 Feline Good Social Club was born in 2019.
There are about 50 cats in the whole lounge, all of which are adoptable.
The lounge provides many cat lovers an opportunity to find their forever pet but that is not the only reason people choose to visit.
“What’s great about this place is you get to pet the cats, you get to see if there’s a connection between you and them and some people come in here because they can’t have a cat where they live,” she said. “We also get a lot of travelers that come in just because they miss their cats at home, there’s all kinds of reasons that people visit us.”
All of the cats are free-roaming, which is very important at FGSC because of the effects it has on their friendliness and confidence.
They are partners with Long Beach Felines Cat Rescue, all of the cats in the lounge belong to them so they bring them in and go through the adoption process with interested adoptees.
Every cat at the lounge gets to live there until they are adopted, no matter how long it takes with the longest being over 1,000 days.
The lounge is filled with volunteers who help with day to day tasks such cleaning up after the cats, feeding them and providing assistance to guests who visit the lounge.
It’s very clean, there is a whole room designated for the litter boxes, a room for shy cats who are still getting used to being around humans and other cats.
There is art painted all over the walls done by local artists along with a cat tree made specifically for FGSC.
“We are always looking for donations, even just showing up to hang out because it helps the cats to be more friendly and social, which makes them easily adoptable.” said Leslie.
