Meet the humans

Fueling their desire to help cats find their forever home and educate on the importance of spay and neuter,
Whitney and Heath decided to open Chattanooga’s first and only cat cafe.

Whitney Sickels

While living in Amsterdam, Whitney volunteered for De Poezenboot, which is Dutch for “the Catboat”. It’s the world's only floating animal sanctuary. It hosts around 50 stray and abandoned cats, several of which are permanent residents.

Upon moving to Hawaii, Whitney followed her passion for helping animals and started volunteering for the Hawaii Island Humane Society. She was soon hired full-time and over the years worked in every capacity from Kennel Technician, Dispatcher, Adoption Counselor, Social Media Coordinator, and Fund Development Director.

If she’s not at home with Heath and her cats, she’s at the Naughty Cat Cafe!

Heath Hanson

Heath spent 12 years as a ship’s captain for Greenpeace sailing around the planet coordinating non-violent civil disobedience. However, this required him to spend a lot of time on the ocean and not enough time at home with his cats.

Since then, he has been a full-time foster, helping over 100 kittens.