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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cI got my first cat when I was four, and ever since I\u2019ve been in love with cats and just a huge cat mom. I didn\u2019t have a lot of cats growing up, but I always had a cat,\u201d said Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right out of high school, Janette went into the Veterinary Medicine field. \u201cSo, I was a vet tech for a few years\u2014about five. I loved it. I loved helping cats and dogs. It is a lot of work, and I applaud anyone who does it long-term because it\u2019s exhausting emotionally and physically,\u201d said Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cI still wanted to help animals, but I was starting to get a little burnt-out with, you know, every cute animal that comes in I have to poke and prod at and we can\u2019t be besties like I would like,\u201d said Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I started brainstorming, \u201cWhat can I do other than this because this is all I know for my whole adult life, and then I went to a cat caf\u00e9, and I was like, \u2018This is such an awesome experience for both the humans and the cats.\u2019 And the next day, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to bring this to Lakeland, but I didn\u2019t want to deal with coffee, so I switched out the coffee for plants, and then I made it mobile so that I could go to coffee shops because there are so many in Lakeland,\u201d said Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original plan was to open Botany Cats as a brick and mortar, but taking Botany Cats mobile allowed her to cut back costs and open Botany Cats debt-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March of 2021, Janette started thinking about a business plan right after attending the cat caf\u00e9. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to open this by my birthday next year, and my birthday is in February,\u2019 so I did,\u201d said Janette. Botany Cats opened on Feb. 9, 2022, but before that, Janette did pop-up events with her cat, and once she bought a camper, she did some pre-renovation events to see how everything would go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a one-woman show. My partner helps me a lot. She has a background in social media and a degree in English, so she does a lot of my Instagram posts and stuff like that, and with the busy events like the Farmers Market and Buena Market, she helps me out\u2026 Other than that, it\u2019s just me, \u201csaid Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Janette also has a three-year-old \u201chuman child,\u201d which Janette said for clarification. I\u2019m juggling mom life and trying to have a social life and also starting a new business, but I love all of it. It doesn\u2019t feel overwhelming, sometimes yes, but most of the time it\u2019s great, \u201csaid Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A typical day with Janette would entail waking up and getting her son ready for the day, who sometimes tags along for the day or attends daycare. Janette then comes to the camper to feed the cats in the morning. For bigger events like Buena Market or the Farmers Market, Janette picks up the camper at 6 a.m., packs up all the plants and cats, and then heads downtown to set up. The farmer\u2019s market is from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Buena Market is from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe cats do great,\u201d Janette said. Every hour, for the last 15 minutes of that hour, the cats get a break to reduce stress for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI try to have the camper in one spot for a few days at a time because traveling can get stressful for the cats. All of them get used to it pretty fast, all the ones I\u2019ve gotten so far anyway, but still, I want to keep it as stress-free as possible for them, \u201csaid Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see how excited people get. They walk up to the camper with the same face almost every time, like \u2018Oh, what is this? Do you have cats? \u2019 And they get so excited, it\u2019s also great therapy. I would love to go to all the colleges around me and have a finals week thing like that, where you can come in for a study break and hang out with some cats because there\u2019s nothing better than that, \u201csaid Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Botany Cats doesn\u2019t just provide a space to chill with cats and cool plants, but also allows you to adopt any of the cats in the camper. \u201cThere are always so many cats that need homes, and I saw that a lot being in the veterinary medicine field,\u201d said Janette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know it\u2019s small, just a 23-foot camper, but I go through cats fast. I\u2019ve been open a little over a month and I\u2019ve had 11 adoptions, \u201csays Janette. \u201cI hope I\u2019m making somewhat of a difference by getting these babies some homes,\u201d said Janet<\/p>\n\n\n\n