Mr Hope, Lavender Inn’s Permanent Resident

In  October of last year, we discovered a little kitten next to our front porch, keeping dry from the rain.  We tried to grab it to bring it inside to keep warm, but he ran off.  For the next several days, we kept food out to see if it would return, but didn’t.  It was the next week when we saw a whole litter running towards the neighbors house, but we couldn’t see exactly where they went.

Beth decided to go to Noah’s Apothecary to buy some cat food and find out if there was any way to save them and find a safe home for them. While she was there, she ran into a good samaritan that, as a hobby, would gather stray kittens & cats, nurse them to health and find homes for them.  Sure enough this good samaritan, found the kittens and their mom, took them to vet and cared for them until she found them all a home.

Several days after the kittens and mother were taken away for care, we noticed a mature black & white cat roaming around the area we found the kittens.  He would return daily and when he’d see us would run to Inn’s garden.  We were convinced that he was the father and felt terrible that we might have separated him from his family.  We couldn’t tell for certain and by then it was too late.  All of the kittens found a safe home.

One day in November, we finally saw where the cat was hiding.  Underneath the outside staircase in our garden.  We started to leave food out for him and made him a little bed, but we never saw him.  Finally, Beth set out his food one morning and she sat next to it calling out for the cat.  It took a while, but sure enough, the cat came out from underneath the building and slowly went to eat his food.  Beth did this for days, until he gained enough trust and let her pet him.  She couldn’t have been happier.  At that point he was officially  the “Lavender Inn Cat”.

Although he was no longer afraid to come out and eat, he never let us get too close. In January we had our annual INNCourage Retreat for Women with Cancer.  One afternoon while all the ladies were lounging in the garden, the cat came out of nowhere, approached one of the Ladies and sat right on her lap.  Her name was Hope.  You can see the picture above with Hope.  So Beth and Kathy finally gave him a name, Mr Hope.

It was at that moment that Mr Hope’s life was forever changed.   Mr Hope greets all the guests in the garden, sits with them for breakfast & demands to be pet.  There’s only one type of guest that he doesn’t like… the dogs.

We’re thrilled that he’s made his home at the Inn and we wanted to share his story.

More than just an INN

The Lavender Inn is not just a Bed & Breakfast.  It has become a platform for finding ways to help others.

Over three years ago, we started a retreat for women with cancer called INNcourage.  Once a year we close our doors to the general public for three days, to provide a space for healing, INNcouragement, comfort & love for women with cancer.  Members from our community extend themselves to contribute dinners, lunches, massages, facials, yoga, counseling, and love, while we provide the place to rest, make friends, elevate souls, have time to one’s self, think about nothing and, of course, have a delicious breakfast.

When these beautiful ladies attend the retreat, they come in not knowing that when they leave, they stand taller, smile longer and feel lighter.  You’ve heard it said before… “It takes a Village…” and we can’t thank those that participate in life changing retreat enough.  Thank you:  Feast for feeding our souls, Ann & Mary for relaxing our bodies, Brook for Healing our hearts, Casey for bringing out our inner beauty, and so many more.

INNcourage is not a cure but it is a REfresh button.  Read more in this amazing article written by Heath Croft in Innkeeper Quarterly.

Another amazing program that we’re involved with is Clean the World.  The Lavender Inn has joined  Clean the World  in their effort to help save one million lives each year by donating it’s slightly-used soap and shampoo.  These products often end up in landfills and contaminate fragile ground water systems.

The Clean the World program is helping to save lives around the world by donating discarded soaps & shampoos so that those less fortunate can benefit from the practices of good hygiene.  3.5 million children under the age of 5 will die this year to two deadly diseases – acute respiratory infection & diarrheal disease.   Even more tragic than these is the facts that these deaths could be prevented by up to 65% through simple hand washing with bar soap.  Today in the United States alone, we will throw away 1-1.5 million bars of soap.  We save unfinished soaps and shampoos and deliver them to the program and distribute to those in need.  For ways that you can contribute from home, click here. 

It doesn’t end there.  All of the ladies from the the Lavender Inn contribute in being of service to others in our special way.  Wether it’s making cash donations to causes, assisting someone in the community or simply being there in conversation, Kathy, Beth, Diana, Caitlin, Genoveva, Tanya, Pam, Michelle, Vanessa & Conchita are always here to lend a helping hand.