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August 7, 1998 - Memphis Business Journal

The Daily News May 3, 1999

The House of Mews helps felines find new homes
By Suzanne Thompson

     While most retail operations have the bottom line in mind when they are doing business, at House of Mews the staff has different goals.
     A non-profit business formed in February 1994, the company started out on the premises of Goodwin Plantation greenhouse.  It was there Elain Harvey discovered a kitty conglomeration that needed her help.
    Since that time, House of Mews has adopted more than 2,300 cats, which might have otherwise faced starvation or worse.
    At House of Mews, 944 S. Cooper Ave., where the operation moved in October 1995, about 40 cats roam the premises and more than 60 others are caged, waiting for someone willing to open their hearts to the felines.
     "We try not to keep them in a cage for more than two or three months without pairing them," she said.
     Cats have been brought to the store battered, burned -- even dipped in oil -- and she and a team of volunteers work to turn life around for the creatures.
     "We're here for the animals.  We're not here to make money," she said.
     When cats or kittens are taken in by the organization, they are quarantined in a private kennel while they undergo a health screening, which included screening for feline AIDS and leukemia, and spaying or neutering.
     After that, if possible, cats and kittens are paired in small cages and graduate to larger, communal cages with groups of other cats.
     The cats that have been there the longest are allowed to roam the store, the last stop before adoption.
     Cats stay until they are adopted, although sometimes, it's the volunteers who do the adopting themselves.
     "We don't euthanize animals," Harvey said.
     Harvey said she has 10 cats at home herself, down from her all-time high of 17.
     The company also occasionally gets pure breed cats, like a black Persian cat who's awaiting a new home, but most of the cats are mixed breed, she said.
     House of Mews is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and is closed Monday through Thursday.
    After all, Harvey has a "real" job as secretary to the administrator of the Shelby County Code Enforcement office.
     Just because the shop is closed doesn't mean the work stops behind the scenes.
     Harvey said volunteers come in day and night to clean up, feed and water, and coo to the kitties.
     Many of the animals require medication twice daily, another job performed by dedicated volunteers.
     The organization's $60,000 annual budget comes from adoption fees, which start at $70, and from sales of items in the cat lover's gift shop.
     House of Mews partners with PetCo, which supplies much of the food for the animals and Walnut Grove Animal Hospital, which donates veterinary services.
     Those interested in adopting a cat must fill out an application and be approved, unlike a pet store where anyone can leave with an animal.
     House of Mews also is the exclusive distributor for Sneeze No More, an anti-allergen product that recently passed a local television station's "Does It Work?" test.
     "It's a product that keeps people from turning their cats in when they're allergic (to them).  It's very inexpensive and it lasts six to eight weeks.  You spray the area where the cat lives.  You don't take medication yourself and you don't spray the cat," Harvey said.
     "It works quite effectively on the dander that's in the air," she said.
     For more information about the House of mews, check out the Web site at www.houseofmews.com.

 

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Memphis Business Journal August 7-13, 1998

Reigning Cats, Not Dogs
By Sara Lacy

   Forget the Notion of the customer coming first.  At the House of Mews, cats are No. 1.  Elain Harvey, founder and managing director of the non-profit House of Mews, says the abused, abandoned or neglected cats who live in her shop - about 150 at a time - come first.

   According to Harvey, the House of Mews, located at 944 S. Cooper in the space formerly occupied by the plant shop Botanic, is one of a kind.  40 to 50 cats of all breeds, mixes and sizes roam freely about the store, while 10-20 kittens play in a large walk-in cage.  Held in individual cages, cats that aren't socialized to other cats keep their distance from the others.  In a back room of the shop, cats that are sick, weak or injured are housed and treated.

   While House of Mews does carry retail items helpful in nettng cat owners - videos on how to potty-train a kitten and bags of environmentally friendly kitty litter made from ground-up corncobs - the shop's main goal is to create a loving, if temporary, home for cats.

   Harvey says House of Mews is intentionally different from mall pet stores, where animals sell for hundreds of dollars while many more languish in animal shelters.   Her shop is an extension of a currently hot issue: awareness and animal rights.

   "It's not depressing to walk in here like it is in the animal shelter," says Harvey.  "The idea was to show people that there are more alternatives than what we're doing right now to get animals adopted.  We don't have to kill thousands of animals.  There are better ideas than shelter or humane societies."

Homes for 2,000
   In its three-year history, the House of Mews has placed more than 2,000 cats.

   While the store is open only three days a week, volunteers field and return the dozens of calls received daily on the shop's answering machine.  Many of the calls are to add cats to an already long waiting list.

   "Sometimes people love their cats but have allergy problems and they don't know that an air purifier could be the answer," says Harvey.  "They are grateful for that type of advice, and it keeps one more cat off the street.

   Harvey first became a cat care volunteer when she was a customer at Goodwin's nursery, a Germantown plant outlet that had become home to a number of strays. As word apparently spread in the feline community, more cats moved in and humans began dropping off unwanted kittens. Harvey coordinated a growing group of volunteers to help with the cats.  Thus, the idea for the House of Mews was born.

   "We wanted a better environment to attract more people to the cats and have control over who was adopting them," says Harvey.  "I happened to have a friend who knew someone from Botanica and had some inside information. We knew that they were moving before the landlord did, so we were able to secure this space."

   The Cooper-Young location has been a boon to the House of Mews.   Harvey says the rent was cheaper than Germantown shops.  And the location benefits from a constant stream of passers-by.

   Frequently, patrons of nearby restaurants and bars watch the cats at night and return the next day to adopt a pet or offer to volunteer.  During the annual Cooper-Young street fair, business is so brisk that retail sails are moved to sidewalk booths and the shop is closed every few hours, just to give the cats a break from humans.

   Initially, many of the nearby businesses were wary of having 150 cats as neighbors.

   "At first, some of the businesses were wondering what we were doing here and had various concerns -- such as if the smell could somehow permeate through brick walls and ruin their business." says Harvey.  "If anything, we have helped bring people down here, as ouch as we have benefited from their customers."

   Harvey says support for the shop extends beyond Midtown. The shop is staffed by an alternating crew of 35 volunteers, most of whom have full-time jobs and some of whom have been with the House of Mews since it opened.

   "Volunteering takes dedication - it's hard work in here," Harvey says."This kind of work is very humbling.  We've had attorneys, teachers, nurses, marketing people, advertising people, and business owners in here, all scooping litter boxes."

   Support also has come from veterinarians donating their services and from supplies given by such stores as PetCo and Hollywood Pet Star.

   The pet supply retailers, rather than perceiving House of Mews as a competitor, want the shop to thrive, Harvey says.

Cats on Hats...And Other Stuff
   "We try to carry retail what people who are adopting a cat would need, but also unique cat-related things that you wouldn't find anywhere else that will bring people into the store (and encourage them to) either make a donation or adopt a cat,"  says Harvey.  The shop's stock ranges from unique cat toys and videos of tropical birds (for the cats to view, of course)  to clothes hangers and business-card holders decorated with feline images.

   Harvey wants to expand the shop's retain and carry ore consigned artwork.

   "The store started as a consignment shop, because it requires less capital output. We'd like to get more of this in to help increase our revenue," she says.

   While Harvey has no ambitions to open branches, she does hope to inspire visitors to open similar shops in their hometowns.

   "We had a lady from New York, come in, and she is going to open one of these up there," she says.  "We also got a letter from a man in London who wants to do this over there.  I have been communicating with a lady in Beverly Hills on the Internet and one in New Orleans, as well.  There is also a group in Pittsburgh who is looking to open one, but are making it a whole big plan that will take a couple of years to put together."

   Harvey, on the other hand, put House of Mews together in a month.

   "It's amazing -- most people think to start something like this up it would be very expensive, but with all the help we got,it only took an investment of about $5,000 and a minimum of $1,500 a month to maintain," she says.  "Because, the largest part of our revenue is donations that we don't have to pay taxes on, House of Mews can run on $60,000 a year."

(Writer Sara Lacy can be reached at 523-1000, or by e-mail at saral@mem.net)

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City Cathouses
A crafty idea for cat adoption.

Memphis Magazine   October, 1995   By Marilyn Sadler

   Stand on Elain Harvey's doorstep and a friendly tabby is apt to greet you, purring and smiling and arching its back.  Step inside her Germantown home and more cats emerge to show their good manners, perching beside you with amiable aplomb.

   Clearly Elain Harvey loves cats.  She currently owns eight of the critters - along with a dachshund who "thinks he's a cat."  Besides caring for her own animals, Harvey is the founder of Puddy Tat Protectors, a group of volunteers who tend the felines at Goodwin's Greenhouses in Germantown, which for years has been a haven for many homeless animals.  Since 1994, Harvey and her crew have spent countless hours cleaning cages, providing food and medical care, and bestowing lots of love and attention on the legion of cats who have called Goodwin's home.

   Now Harvey takes that love one step further by opening House of Mews, a cat adoption agency in the Cooper-Young area of Midtown.  But the agency will do more than place cats in good homes. It will sell on consignment the works of local craftspeople and give them a place to display their goods. "It's a great opportunity for both the cats and crafters," says Harvey, a wife, mother, and Michigan native.   "People will come in curious about the cats and hopefully wind up buying a work of art."  The same logic has worked at Goodwin's Greenhouse, she adds.   "People go there to buy plants and many go back to adopt a pet."

   The new cat placement agency/consignment shop has taken in many of the cats that previously lived at Goodwin's, and Harvey believes the new location will be more comfortable for both people and animals. Located at 944 S. Cooper, the shop operates on donations and is staffed by volunteers.  "We're raising money through donations for our first year of business," says Harvey.  "And all the money we make from the sales of crafts and pet supplies will be put back into the shop."

   When someone brings a homeless cat to House of Mews, Harvey says, they'll be required to have a certificate from a vet showing that the animal has received its shots a fecal exam, and a test for feline leukemia.  "Or we can arrange to have this done for them at a very low cost," she adds.  Asked if this might discourage some people from bringing strays to her facility, she says, "That's a possibility.  They could just drop the animal off at the pound.  But we're hoping if people care enough to pick up a stray, they'll care enough to pay for its   shots."  Before the animal is adopted, House of Mews will have it spayed or neutered for a $30 fee and the new owner can pick it up at the vet's office.  The only other fee is $10 for an I.D. tag, which will help trace the cat if it's lost or stolen.

   Regarding the crafts-on-consignment service, Harvey and other volunteers are spreading the word through the arts community.  "Our service is rent-free," she says "and we charge a percentage fee only if the craft is sold.   By December we hope to have some high-quality pieces on display and then we'll hold a formal grand opening."

   Harvey, who moved to Memphis in 1980 became committed to caring for the cats at Goodwin's, thanks to a program called Life Design Seminars.  "I had put so much of myself into helping my husband start a trucking business that I had nothing left for me," says Harvey, who says she's "50 and climbing" and who has done everything from selling houses to transcribing medical tapes. After attending the intensive seminar - which she credits with saving her family and her marriage - she realized that "to have some effect in this world I needed to get off my butt and give back to the community."  A few months later, Putty Tat Protectors was launched and since February, 1994, the group has placed more than 900 cats. Earlier this year, when Goodwin's former owner was threatened with closure by the State of Tennessee because of tax problems, Harvey's group took the state to court to get a restraining order. "We lost the battle but we won the war," she says.  "People flooded the place, giving donations and adopting animals.  And about that time new investors came along, which really turned things around financially."

   As for her latest project, Harvey says, "It's our way of helping control the overburgeoning cat population and provide a unique local attraction as well."

Elain Harvey, Managing Director     More Articles   Back to Top
THE HOUSE OF MEWS
933 S. Cooper
Memphis, TN  38104
 901-272-3777                    

The House of Mews is the D.B.A for Puddy Tat Protectors, a non-profit corporation staffed by volunteers.