On Sept. 2, a car crashed into the building of San José’s The Dancing Cat, causing the lounge to be closed indefinitely until repairs can be assessed and made.

The Dancing Cat is a non-profit animal rescue and has a lounge located downtown, 1.7 miles northeast of campus, where people can pay an admission fee to spend an hour with their on-site cats, according to their website. 

One of the co-founders of The Dancing Cat, Ann Chasson, said she has been with the organization since its opening in May 2015, when it was only intended to be a four-week pop-up. 

Chasson was also one of the people in the building when the car crashed into it. 

“We heard the crash and I realized there was a hole in the wall,” Chasson said. “So the first priority was to make sure the cats were safe, because we didn’t want them to get freaked out and go into the street.” 

The collision happened on Julian and 15th Street around 1:05 p.m. and involved two vehicles, with one crashing into the building, according to an article most recently updated on Sept. 3 by The Mercury News. 

Chasson said a volunteer was with her who suffered minor injuries from the accident. 

She had her stand at the doorway to ensure no cats could escape. 

About 10 cats were living in the lounge at the time, and after ensuring the cats were safe, Chasson had to find places for them to stay temporarily.

“We had to find foster homes for them to go to, one of our staff members took four home, and we just called previous fosters and said, you know, ‘can you take care of them until we can sort out where they can go long term?’  ” Chasson said.  

Lauren Slayton, a social media and fundraising consultant for The Dancing Cat, said their system works with most of their adoptable cats already living in foster homes.

The Dancing Cat’s adoptable cats are currently living in foster homes, according to its website. 

“The lounge is our forward-facing component of the rescue, but the rescue is this really vibrant network of foster homes, we have dozens and dozens of foster homes,” Slayton said.  

Chasson said about 140 of their cats have been living in foster homes, rather than at the lounge. 

Although the main part of the adoption organization is outside of the lounge, it served as a source of income for the organization that is now lost, according to Chasson. 

“When people come to visit the cats, they pay an admission fee, so you know that’s a loss of income for us,” she said. 

However, its biggest source of income comes from fundraisers and donations, which are always open.

The Dancing Cat has now incorporated a “re-opening fundraiser”, according to its website..

“We always have a fundraising section, but we changed it to be more specific to addressing what happened with the accident, because we were getting contacted already immediately,” Slayton said. “The fundraising page is a direct response to people who want to help.”

The Dancing Cat also shares updates on the incident and event details, according to its Instagram and Facebook pages. 

Slayton said there is also the issue of employees who worked on-site. 

“We have employees who work in the lounge and were physically on-site every day,” Slayton said. “Those people need to be paid in the interim, and we need to be able to continue to do so that when we do reopen our doors, everything is sort of as it was.” 

Miriam Loyer used to work as the guest relations lead for The Dancing Cat’s lounge.

“When we were open, people would come in, spend an hour with the cats either because they wanted to adopt a cat or if they just wanted to spend time with them,” Loyer said. “So with the help of greeters and volunteers, we would greet them and answer any questions.” 

However, now that the lounge is closed, for the time being, Loyer’s position has changed to being the foster program manager.

This role makes Loyer in charge of the foster coordinators. 

The foster coordinators check in with the fosters and make sure they have all the resources they need, and are there to answer any questions, according to Loyer. 

“I felt shock, sadness – you know, I love my job, I love dealing with the public, going in and dealing with the cats,” Loyer said. “I enjoy my new position, but it really does make me sad that I won’t be able to interact with different people and cats at the lounge.” 

The vehicle crashed into the cat mural of the building, damaging part of the artwork by  San José local artist Roan Victor, according to Chasson. 

Chasson said Victor is aware of the incident and has agreed to repaint the damaged area once it is rebuilt. 

Kai Nguyen, a fourth-year photography student at SJSU, volunteered for The Dancing Cat back in 2023. 

“I heard about them through my advertising class, we had to do a project about a local business and advertise for them,” Nguyen said. 

The Dancing Cat was Nguyen’s personal choice for the project, and they were able to volunteer as a photographer and take portraits of the cats. 

Nguyen also planned to take photos for their Game Night, scheduled for Sept. 12.

However, the event was cancelled as the crash had happened the week before.  

“I saw the news on a friend’s Instagram – they reposted it on their story,” Nguyen said. “I clicked on it and saw it said they’re not going to be open to the public for a while until they get everything fixed.” 

When the lounge was open, the Dancing Cat would hold multiple events each month, in August having a watercolor workshop, crafty cats club, stitches & scritches class, free TNR workshop, and purr yoga, according to an Aug. 1 Instagram post.

Although Nguyen was unable to volunteer because of the accident, their previous experience photographing for the organization was positive. 

While the lounge was open, The Dancing Cat was always open to on-site volunteers, where anyone could apply through its volunteer webpage. 

“I felt really bad because I haven’t volunteered for them in so long,” Nguyen said. “But when I volunteered for them in 2023, they were super welcoming.” 

For now, it is unknown how long it will take until the lounge can be reopened, according to Chasson.

She said The Dancing Cat does not own the building, so the building owner has been taking the lead.

“The building owner has insurance. We had the lead and remediation people come and inspect. There’s a little bit of remediation that needs to be done,” Chasson said. “We’re just trying to do what we can for now.” 

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, including police said alcohol or drugs had no role in the incident, according to a most recently updated Sept. 3 article by The Mercury News.

Loyer said the staff will still be on-site every day aside from Wednesdays, as they were before, for those who need help with cats. 

“If somebody needs to get supplies for their foster cats, someone will be there to help get that ready for them,” Loyer said. “We also do a lot of trap training, making sure people in the community can help us with trapping cats and bringing them to get spayed and neutered.”

Chasson said that while there are no longer cats staying in the lounge, many cats can still be adopted or fostered.

The adoption process can be done virtually, although applicants must be interviewed by The Dancing Cat’s adoption counselors and meet the cat they intend to adopt either through Zoom or in person before the adoption can be approved, according to The Dancing Cat adoption information webpage. 

“If anybody was thinking about adoption and thinks that maybe this is a good time, we keep our adoptions fairly local to San José,” Chasson said. “We can always use foster homes, so if people aren’t ready to adopt, we also have a pretty robust foster program.”