Feel free to call Diane Embry the “Cat Lady.” It’s an honor.

Embry, the longtime owner of legal consulting firm Executive Reporting Service, also owns the 8,000-square-foot, two-story, red-brick building at 4699 Central Avenue, where she will soon open the doors to her next major project: Whiskers Workspace, a co-working center where computers and cats come together (and there’s coffee, too).

It is a joint effort with the nonprofit cat rescue organization CJPaws, Inc. (“Compassion, Justice and Protection for the Animals We Serve”). Each cat on site is neutered, healthy, microchipped and available for adoption.

Embry is the board chair of CJPaws.

“I think there will be a lot of studies on how relaxing cats are,” she said.

The “cats as work companions” model started in Japan. Embry believes Whiskers Workspace could be the first such place in the United States. Either way, she thinks it’s a good idea.

“Students need places to study, so they can come here,” Embry said. “A lot of people would like to sit on a couch, work on their laptop and have cats around them.”

Whiskers Workplace – it is located on the second floor (390 square meters in total) and welcomes visitors with a soft opening on Thursday (August 15th).

The free event will showcase all of the luxuriously furnished rooms, which can be rented by the hour, day or longer. The entire building is wired for high-speed internet. Wi-Fi.

Whiskers Oasis is the large, open cat and community space; Coworking Commons has a kitchen, printing services, and more; the Feline Focus Room is quiet and intimate; Purr Haven offers a fully equipped workspace with two monitors, a webcam, a microphone, and peripherals like a keyboard and mouse; the two cat-free zones are the boardroom (with a 75-inch Zoom-enabled TV and webcam, and a 30-foot-long conference table) and the private creative studio with Zoom-enabled TV, webcam, and Yeti microphone. There’s also a podcast studio.

After many years in the city center, Embry bought the Central Avenue building for the ERS administrative headquarters in 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a decline in court coverage, but Embry, who began using videoconferencing in the 1980s, found a way around it.

“I love technology,” she said, “and I was up to speed on Zoom. When it started, I called all the judges and said, ‘You don’t have to turn everything off. I’ll set up Zoom for you.’

“There were no webcams back then, but I had plenty of them. So I set up all my clients for Zoom. There was a brief dip in the beginning, but we’ve never been busier.”

The renovation work continued in phases. The building, which dates back to 1972, was gutted down to the concrete floor; the electrical system and plumbing were replaced.

“The entire second floor has been built out for depositions, mediations and arbitrations,” Embry said. “So the rooms are soundproofed and have high-speed internet. Everything is designed for lawyers.”

After the pandemic subsided, much of the world attempted to return to normality.

“I thought that people would eventually want to return to live testimony. But they don’t want that; maybe five to ten percent did.”

Embry found that her company was able to adapt easily. “We’ve been in the cloud as a company since 2005,” she said. “So all of our systems are cloud-based…”

Many of their employees have moved out of town or out of state. They still work from home for Executive Reporting Service. Because they can.

Embry had been active with CJPaws for several years. The cat rescue group was affiliated with PetSmart and its Lighthouse Crossings adoption center in west St. Pete, as well as Amanda Jones and her SunShine Kitty Catfe in downtown.

At almost the same time in 2023, PetSmart announced the closure of its Lighthouse Crossings location and Jones’ innovative “Meet the Kitties” coffee shop lost its lease.

“It happened very quickly and I had no room to put the cats,” Embry recalled. “There were about 20 of them. So I brought them here. They slept on the conference table and on the chairs.”

Suddenly Diane Embry knew exactly what to do with the rarely used second floor (the offices on the ground floor are rented by lawyers).

It’s more than a workplace. “People can come and hang out with the cats in their natural environment. Where the cats feel comfortable. And see what their personalities are like and spend time with them.”

She has all kinds of plans, including movie nights, game nights, yoga classes, and even kids’ birthday parties.

All with cats.

CJPaws, which has a full-time veterinarian on call, does not do same-day adoptions, Embry stressed. Each cat is important. “I feel like they become part of the CJPaws family, so I need to know if I can call you after six months and ask how the kitten is doing?”

Embry sees this as a service to both the cats and their owners.

“I would say probably 50 percent of people love cats. And maybe their partner is allergic; they can’t have a cat at home. Or they travel a lot and therefore can’t have a cat. So there are many reasons why I think the space is perfect for the cats – and for the people.

“I also wanted to create a sustainable business model to generate income for the cat rescue. I ran the numbers and we should be able to donate about 60 percent of our income.”