A place called Happy Cat | Inclusion for all members of the community

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 1, 2026

By Darrell Kirk

Staff reporter

The Happy Cat doesn’t look like most businesses. Tucked into the Airport Center on Orcas Island, it’s part retail shop, part co-working space, part shared office and meet space, part something the island hasn’t quite had before — and it started with a hand-drawn logo that its 20-year-old owner, Ava Berge, sketched herself.

She runs it alongside her coworker and mentor, Gina Minoia, with her mother, Christine Jennifer, managing the business structure behind the scenes. Together, the three women have built something equal parts entrepreneurial venture and community experiment, guided from the start by one word Christine returns to again and again: inclusion.

“It’s kind of like bringing people and community to her rather than trying to always find ways to get her into what is happening,” says Jennifer, who has been the primary caregiver for Ava, who has cerebral palsy.

The idea traces back to a shop Jennifer visited on the French Riviera, where a mother and husband had created a business expressly to give their adult daughter — who used a wheelchair and was non-communicative, but full of life — a place to work and belong. Jennifer never forgot it.

When the family moved to Orcas, Berge had been building a patchwork of work experience: short shifts at the Orcas Hotel, volunteering at the animal shelter since she was 10, hours at the Funhouse. But Berge wanted something more consistent. More hers.

“She has a lot of life, and she’s very social, and she loves to work,” Jennifer says. “I really wanted to help create an opportunity for her where she could be gainfully employed and accessing community at least 20 to 40 hours a week.”

The goal was to allow for hands-on, visceral learning opportunities — and daily purpose and meaning in running a business and connecting with her community.

The Happy Cat occupies a single-level, accessible space near town. The front holds light retail: Happy Cat merchandise and a locally roasted coffee called Madrona Roasting, brewed by Berge’s neighbor.

“You can’t get that anywhere on the island,” Berge notes.

Two back rooms with doors serve as a reservable conference space and a shared office, available for two hours, a day, a month or month-to-month.

Critically, every element was designed around what Berge can do. The shop takes only credit cards, so Berge runs every transaction through Square. Marketing emails are built by Berge and Minoia together. The upcoming Cat Dash lunch delivery service, launching Wednesdays for neighboring businesses, is something Berge can participate in fully. “Say if you’re at work and you need some food but you can’t leave the office,” Berge explains, “you can just call us.”

Minoia came on board with a background in hospitality, art and education. She and Berge had overlapped briefly at the Orcas Hotel, and she’s clear-eyed about what the partnership has meant. “She’s shown me what it means to show up for the people in your life — and for Orcas Island in its fullness,” Minoia says. “I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished with each other’s support.”

The community has responded. The Create Club meets in the conference room. Clients have booked the shared office short- and long-term. Jessie McConville, who hosted a small group art event at the Happy Cat, called it “a warm and welcoming environment” where “the communal table was a great size for our small group to do an art project together.” Shop Days run every Friday, with complimentary popcorn and karaoke. A signature Happy Cat coffee blend, roasted locally on Orcas, launches online in early April.

But the most unexpected development has been what the business has done for Berge herself.

“Within just a couple of weeks, she just kind of metamorphosed,” Jennifer says. “Standing taller, much more confident, proud, happy, joyful — her self-esteem just soared. I never expected that.”

Berge describes her favorite part of the job without hesitation: “Seeing everyone come in and they’re all happy to be there — and that makes me happy.”

She has plans. A beading club. Craft workshops. Watching the coffee collaboration come to life. And through it all, the same instinct that has shaped the Happy Cat from its first day.

“I like being a good hostess,” Berge says, “and welcoming them into my home, my spaces, just making them feel comfortable.”

Jennifer’s long-term hope is that the Happy Cat becomes a model — proof that workplaces can be designed around people with disabilities rather than retrofitted for them. “Everyone has something to offer,” she says. “Everyone has something to bring.”