By Ralph

Walk into Sassy Cat Club Cafe on West Lumsden Road and you might find a cat stretched across a couch.

Another may be perched on a cat tree.

One might decide your lap looks particularly comfortable.

And somewhere in the room could be a cat that eventually goes home with you.

That's part of the idea behind an unusual Brandon partnership between Sassy Cat Club Cafe and A Kitten Place, a local nonprofit rescue.

Instead of meeting an adoptable cat through a cage or a brief introduction, visitors get something valuable:

time.

From Veterinary Medicine to a Room Full of Cats

Sassy Cat Club Cafe grew from owner **Nicole

Duffey's decades of experience working with animals.

Duffey began working in veterinary medicine when she was 19 and spent approximately 30 years in the field, eventually becoming a certified veterinary technician and earning a bachelor's degree in veterinary technology and hospital management.

Then she decided retirement wasn't going to look particularly restful.

Duffey used money she had saved for retirement to open Sassy Cat Club Cafe in 2023.

The café officially opened March 1 of that year.

Her idea combined two things:

Create a comfortable place where people could relax around cats—and create another avenue for homeless cats to meet people who might adopt them.

The Rescue Behind the Cats

That's where A Kitten Place comes in.

The Brandon-based nonprofit is a 100% volunteer-run, foster-based rescue serving cats and kittens throughout the Tampa Bay area. It doesn't operate a traditional shelter. Instead, rescued animals live in foster homes and adoption locations while waiting for permanent families.

The organization takes in abandoned, sick and injured cats and kittens, provides veterinary care and prepares them for adoption.

Before adoption, its cats receive veterinary examinations, spay or neuter surgery, age-appropriate vaccinations, deworming and other medical treatment when needed. Potential adopters also go through a screening process.

Sassy Cat Club Cafe gives some of those animals something a foster-based rescue can't always provide:

a public living room.

Why a Café?

A shelter kennel can tell you that a cat needs a home.

A living-room environment can tell you considerably more about what that cat is actually like.

At Sassy Cat, cats can lounge on furniture, climb, play, sleep or approach visitors when they choose.

WUSF described couches, cat trees, wall-mounted hammocks and toys throughout the café. Duffey told the station she intentionally limited the number of visitors allowed inside at once so the cats wouldn't become overwhelmed.

That relaxed setting gives prospective adopters an opportunity to notice things that aren't always apparent during a quick introduction.

Is the cat outgoing?

Independent?

Playful?

A lap cat?

Does it hide for ten minutes before deciding you're interesting?

Those little behaviors matter when you're considering bringing an animal home for potentially the next 15 or 20 years.

The café's current website says the partnership is intended to give adoptable cats a calm, interactive environment where their personalities can emerge while meeting potential families.

Nearly 700 Adoptions

And the approach has produced results.

When WUSF profiled Sassy Cat in May 2025, Duffey said the café had already helped facilitate nearly 700 cat adoptions since opening just over two years earlier.

Importantly, the café itself doesn't handle the adoption.

A Kitten Place does.

The rescue organization remains responsible for the animals and the adoption process; Sassy Cat provides the environment where many of those introductions happen.

That's why calling it an adoption partnership matters.

One organization rescues and prepares the cats.

The other gives them a place to meet the public.

You Don't Have to Adopt

There's another part of the concept that's easy to overlook.

You can visit without taking a cat home.

Sassy Cat's current information describes the café as a place for people who simply enjoy cats—including renters who can't have pets, students looking for somewhere different to study, remote workers and people who just want some feline company.

Visitors pay admission to enter the Cat Lounge, and that money helps cover food, daily care and enrichment for the cats staying there.

Current admission is $15 for one hour or $10 for a 30-minute “Pop-In for Pets.” Children under 2 are admitted free. Reservations are recommended, particularly on weekends and holidays, although walk-ins are accepted when space permits.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate and cold beverages are available as well.

One Adoption Creates Room for Another

There's also a larger rescue story happening behind every successful adoption.

Because A Kitten Place operates through foster homes rather than a traditional shelter building, available foster space matters.

When one cat finds a permanent family, that can eventually create room for another animal needing help.

The rescue says volunteers remain essential to its work, particularly people willing to foster animals.

Donations help cover food, litter and veterinary care.

So the cheerful room full of cats on Lumsden Road is really only the public-facing end of a much larger volunteer operation.

Before a cat ever reaches that couch, someone may have rescued it.

Someone fostered it.

Someone drove it to veterinary appointments.

Someone paid for medicine.

And someone helped prepare it for the day a stranger walked into a café and decided:

That's my cat.

Know Before You Go

Sassy Cat Club Cafe is located at 735 W. Lumsden Road in Brandon.

Reservations are preferred, although walk-ins are welcome when space permits. Because operating hours and availability can change, visitors should check the café's current schedule before heading over.

Sassy Cat Club Cafe

Those interested specifically in adopting, fostering, volunteering or supporting the rescue can contact A Kitten Place directly.

A Kitten Place

You could look at Sassy Cat Club Cafe and see coffee, couches and a room full of cats.

Look a little closer, though, and something else is happening.

Cats waiting for families are getting a chance to be themselves—and families are getting enough time to notice.

Sometimes a second chance begins with something as simple as sitting down together.