Sitting on Haywood Road lies the House of Black Cat Magic. House of Black Cat Magic is one of a kind, combining a retail shop offering magic supplies with a cat lounge featuring twelve adoptable black cats. 

“Essentially it’s just like a cat cafe, but instead of coffee we have magical supplies,” President of House of Black Cat Magic and Executive Director of Binx’s Home for Black Cats, Hannah Soboleski said. “We decided to do this as essentially an outlet for people to come into contact with and be exposed to black cats that needed to be adopted and need homes. The black cat is oftentimes considered the familiar of the witch and of magical practitioners and so putting the two ideas together has been something we’ve worked very hard to do.” 

The front half of the building containing the retail space holds various unique items and supplies for magical practitioners. 

“We stock basic supplies for magical practitioners. We have candles, a number of curio items, herbs we pre-package and incense burners,” Senior Vice President of House of Black Cat Magic, Star Bustamonte said. “We try to carry as much local art as we can find that’s reasonably priced, and all of our products are reasonably priced. We also have a tarot reader pretty much everyday. We have a little bit of jewelry. We carry pins by the Pickety Witch, which are all enamel pins. We have a lot of books and we have tarot decks. Basically anything that the modern magical practitioner might want or need.” 

The back half of the building is the black cat lounge, where you have the opportunity to hangout with cats for 30 or 50 minutes. There are toys for the cats, relaxing music playing, and twelve playful black cats, each with their own unique personality. 

“You pay seven dollars for 30 minutes or thirteen dollars for 50 minutes and you can go into the cat lounge and just hang out in the lounge,” Soboleski said. 

The twelve cats in the black cat lounge are available for adoption, and so each week there are normally new friendly faces. Each of these cats are provided by House of Black Cat Magic’s rescue partner, Binx’s Home for Black Cats. 

The store and the rescue focus specifically on black cats because of their higher risk of being euthanized. 

“Black cats make up about 60 percent of the animals that are euthanized in shelters each year. Part of that is just because black fur is a dominant gene so there’s more black cats in the world. Part of it is also because of superstitions people still hold on to with black cats and a fear of them,” Soboleski said. “The other part of it is actually because of animal welfare workers feeling as if a black cat’s gonna be harder to adopt than another color cat and so oftentimes they are put at the top of the euthanasia lists.”

Together, Soboleski and Bustamonte have worked extremely hard to find homes for so many cats. House of Black Cat Magic opened on June 4th of this year and so far sixty-eight black cats and kittens have been adopted. 

“One of the biggest ways we measure success is through how many cats we get homes for so it’s been really great to watch that happen,” Soboleski said. 

A percentage of every purchase made at the store goes to the rescue. Both House of Black Cat Magic and Binx’s Home for Black Cats also host various fundraising events and workshops to go toward the care of all the cats in the lounge and the rescue. 

“We have a bunch of workshops, those workshops can be anything from doing a ritual kit for grieving your feline familiar that maybe passed. We have this one called A Kitty Cat Etiquette Workshop where we teach kids how to appropriately interact with cats. We also have another one that’s like an animal communication workshop where we teach people how to intuitively communicate a little bit better with their cats and to read behaviors and body language and things,” Soboleski said. 

The month of October is a busy month for House of Black Cat Magic and Binx’s Home for Black Cats. Every weekend has multiple events such as tarot with cats, movie nights, kitten yoga, coloring with cats, and the Magical Market. 

“One of our biggest events we have right now is called the Magical Market, and that is just pretty much a giant party where we have like twelve vendors that come in and set up in our side yard and out front. They’re all local vendors. Some of them are tarot readers, some are artists and some make jewelry. We also have one lady that does oddities out of animal bones,” Soboleski said. “At that event the vendors don’t pay us a booth fee but they do give 20 percent of whatever they’ve made that day to the rescue in donations, so that is one way we have a big fundraising event.” 

Another big event that is being hosted by the store and the rescue is on Halloween. 

“October is actually Black Cat Awareness Month, and so, on Halloween, we’re gonna have a big party called the ‘All Hallow’s Eve Purrrty,’ and it’s gonna be kind of a similar thing. We’re gonna have vendors, we’ll have a trick or treat trail, we’ll have a fundraising raffle going on, costume contest, a bonfire and we’ll have a food truck and all sorts of stuff so essentially we’ve just been having big parties,” Soboleski said. “Whenever you spend money here or you spend money with our vendors, a percentage of that is going to the rescue.” 

House of Black Cat Magic and Binx’s Home for Black Cats makes the process of adopting extremely easy. All of the cats are also fully vetted before their adoption. 

“There is an adoption application on the House of Black Cat Magic’s website as well as Binx’s Home’s website. It’s pretty much like a Google form you fill out and then have that submitted. We process it usually within 24 to 48 hours. You can come and meet them here at the lounge and then you can take them home from there,” Soboleski said. “All of the cats are fully vetted so they’ve been spayed, neutered, they’ve gotten all their shots, they’ve gotten flea and tick prevention as well internal parasite treatment. They’ve been microchipped and they’ve also been combo tested negative for FeLV and FIV, so everybody is very healthy and well-taken care of while they wait for their new homes.”

For more information or for those who want to donate, go to https://www.binxshomeforblackcats.com/. There are also many opportunities for those who want to get involved with the store and the rescue. 

“You can apply to be a foster or to volunteer. We also try to offer internship opportunities for the college students. We also have another thing for the college kids where you guys can come and you can clean a litter box and you get ten minutes in the cat lounge for free so that way if anybody has had to leave their cat at home to come to Asheville to go to college you can always come and visit here for free if you’re just willing to put in a little bit of work,” Soboleski said.