PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A stray cat was facing hard times until a local brewing company gave him a second chance and a new home.
At Coastal Karma Brewing in Lake Park, "good karma" isn't just a motto, it's a way of life.
The owners welcomed a new guest, and it happens to be one of their best-kept secrets.
It began with a game of chance, where the winners get paid, and the losers enjoy a nice cold beer.
But this has nothing to do with being the first to fill your card to win a game of bingo, it is about letting destiny crawl into your taproom.
Kismet the brewery cat was rescued by Sara and Charles Chase in October 2020.
When Kismet found his way to the brewery, he was in dire straits.
"He had a pretty long list of things wrong with him. He was a stray for 7 years old. He was missing a lot of teeth. He was pretty beat up, and had a lot of health issues going on," Sara said.
"We took him to the vet, and they diagnosed him with stage-four kidney disease, and he had some other health issues, but nothing major other than the kidney disease," Charles said.
Sara said that the veterinarian gave Kismet a short time to live due to his poor kidney condition.
His condition was expected to worsen, but Kismet had other ideas.
"Five months later, we took him to the vet. They wanted to run his numbers again on his kidneys to see how they were doing to modify the program that we had him on, and he came back with normal kidney function," Charles said.
After conquering stage-four liver disease, Kismet developed a mild skin condition, which required him to wear shirts so he wouldn't lick his skin.
"He would lick until he would bleed, we would come in and he would have bare arms, so we would have to put some long sleeve shirts on him," Sara said.
His skin condition is now better.
"Unless he starts licking again, I don't plan on putting him in the pajamas that everyone loves, because he really does not agree," Sara said.
After beating his health conditions and winning the hearts of his newfound owners, kismet has made the taproom of Coastal Karma Brewing his forever home.
Charles said Kismet even sensed his newfound health, and it transformed his personality.
"It’s almost like since he found out he had normal kidney function he's been more playful, and he and I will watch TV together, if I'm brewing he will come back and sit in his chair and watches me brew the whole time," Charles said.