The Community Cats Podcast

In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Dr. Pizano joined us to talk about a recent project in northern Kentucky, where she worked with a district consisting of eight counties, four of which accepted cats in their municipal shelters. These shelters had a very low live outcome rate for cats when the project began, and the goal was to increase that rate dramatically through intensive spay/neuter for community cats.

Christina Ha, who originally joined us on Episode 144, is back to talk about this year’s Cat Camp—now known as Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp. Galaxy, who attended last year’s event, loved it so much that he wanted to expand it. Cat Camp 2017 attracted over 2,500 people from more than eight countries, and this year’s event, held in New York City on May 5-6, 2018, will be even bigger and more exciting.

Jennifer Blough, a licensed therapist, compassion fatigue expert and author of the bookTo Save a Starfish: A Compassion Fatigue Workbook for the Animal Welfare Warrior. Jennifer feels that we are starting to make some strides in awareness around compassion fatigue. Still, she thinks we have a long way to go in terms of addressing the in-fighting and “us vs. them” mentality often found between different groups of people working within animal welfare—all of which contributes to compassion fatigue.

Sterling Davis left behind a promising rap music career to begin working with cats professionally several years ago when he took a temporary job at an animal shelter in between tours. A lifelong animal lover, he soon got hooked on TNR and cats. While training, Sterling noticed not many men or members of the black community were involved in feline rescue. Sterling would like to change this, and so he brings to the table the idea that TNR isn't about sex or age or race; it's something everybody can do.

Vicki Fisher had a successful career in finance & management, but in retirement, she has really been able to devote more time to her passion: CATS! She is the President of the Albuquerque Kennel Compadre, which is an affiliate of the Animal Welfare Department. She recently received the Albuquerque mayor’s Good Samaritan award for all of her great work in this arena, and she has also created two coloring books for children on how to take care of cats. We’re so thrilled to have her on the podcast!

Stacy is back to discuss all of the in’s and out’s of how the first Online Cat Conference went this past January! She always wanted to do an online cat conference and it was a great way to provide access to people who wouldn’t be able to afford an in-person conference. She was determined to make it something that was extremely accessible worldwide.

Daniel works to enact animal-friendly legislation as a volunteer with the Humane Society of the United States, along with working with the Together Initiative for Ohio’s Community Cats. This specific group is committed to promoting and facilitating collaboration among community cat stakeholders of around 150 members, who work together to accomplish their goals. They run workshops and events, as well as provide other educational opportunities.

Dr. Lynn Bahr didn’t even know she liked cats until she met her first cat, Rudolph. Rudolph went on to change Lynn’s life, inspiring her not only to go to veterinary school, but also to become a feline-only practitioner who focuses on the unique needs of cats. Fast forward nearly forty years, and Lynn’s current cats, Dezi and Roo, have inspired her to become an entrepreneur. Her company, Dezi & Roo, sells cat toys and catnip alternatives as a way to address the specific needs of today’s indoor-only

Kaleel discusses how pet grief can be different than other transitions we experience in life and how people are only now beginning to understand the animal/human bond. While we have customs and traditions around grief when a person dies, there is really nothing there for us to latch onto when a pet passes away, and many people can find that they are unequipped to deal with the loss.

Kate Cote has worked with cats most of her life and Fur Love Comfort Cats involves outreach to nursing homes, schools, libraries and even individual homes to comfort people who can’t otherwise have a pet. It’s amazing therapy and she witnesses inspiring stories of hope and comfort everywhere she and her cats visit!

Dr. Linda Harper is passionate about helping people help animals. She works to ease the compassion fatigue that animal lovers face in the animal welfare world and she facilities pet loss support groups, as well. She is also the author of 4 books. Her latest, “The Power of Joy in Giving to Animals,” looks at the unique challenges faced by those who work with animals and is a helpful guide to preserving the joy within yourself and others, to make working with animals as fulfilling as it was when you start

Active for Pets is a great way to manage all pet information, vaccination history, vet notes, vet visits, etc. It’s a two-way connection where vets and others involved in a pet’s life are able to include items about their pet. All a pet owner has to do is set up an account, log-in through their computer or a mobile app, and they can easily access their pet’s information to share in case of an emergency or other needed moment.

Brianna found a particular sweet stray when she was young and it broke her heart to see what bad shape it was in. She spent months taking care of this cat and in the process, learned a lot about TNR and community cats. Her passion for animal advocacy was born! She went to school at Tufts and worked with FIV+ cats and she works with them at Alley Cat Rescue, as well. They focus on protecting domestic and free-roaming cats and are involved in animal advocacy at a local, national and international level.

Ann Dunn founded Cat Town, a rescue organization focused on helping the most vulnerable cats in local shelters. Cats that are too scared in that environment have a hard time showing their best selves and tend to be overlooked by potential adopters. After realizing this, she wanted to work with these cats that needed the most intervention and save them from being euthanized. She opened the first Cat Cafe in conjunction with Cat Town in 2014 and just opened an adoption center for the hardest to place cats.

Gavin takes a critical look at breeding and how our values shape our animals for good and bad in his new book, Wild. The book actually began about 5 years ago when he got the idea about writing about how animals came to be domesticated. He decided to put his entire life into the book and went out on the road in an RV and did research all over the United States for the book.