The Community Cats Podcast

The National Getting to Zero Program is in Australia and primarily focuses on homeless cats and dogs and they work to implement change in a respectful way. They work to increase responsibility for companion animals so that every community and municipality can achieve zero euthanasia of all healthy and treatable cats and dogs.

Keoni oversees a staff of only 6 at Lanai Cat Sanctuary, who provide daily care for almost 600 cats! Prior to working here, he was the VP and Director of the Hawaiian Humane Society and found himself working as mediator in the midst of an abundance of free roaming cats on the islands, due to constant nice weather and a lack of natural predators. His time there was spent collaborating with colony caregivers and housing associations to mediate on how to best handle the overpopulation situations.

Natalise is a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business, who did an internship between her first and second years that encouraged her to create an environment of impact in business. She regularly volunteered with Best Friends in Los Angeles, which opened her eyes to how many different programs needed funding. She remembers seeing people take in 5 to 10 animals at a time, which would only put them into debt. She wanted to move into a role where she could directly impact the future.

Meet 26-year-old Haydn Hilton, owner of Java Cats Cafe. This is Georgia’s first cat cafe in the heart of Atlanta and definitely wasn’t where Haydn expected to find herself! Initially going to school to be part of the film industry, she dropped everything to start this business and now enjoys giving advice and mentoring other female entrepreneurs looking to start a business in a male-dominated society. Her business also support local charities and she enjoys being a positive influencer on social media.

Frances Carlisle is an attorney in New York that prepares wills and trusts, along with trusts for animals. She was one of the original members of the New York City Bar Animal Law Committee and has appeared on Animal Planet to discuss the importance of estate planning for continuing care of animals, as well!

Sandy helps non-profits and charities who have been used to nickel and dime fundraising work on getting to six or seven figures on their bottom line! She shows her students how to find ideal donors and connect with them through authentic messaging. Because one of the greatest challenges for our listeners is fundraising, Sandy has many answers that we need to do the jobs we are trying to do for our community cats!

Cameron worked with Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program to do pre and post-storm assessments for a majority of the 155 shelters in Florida. Volunteers were responsible for contacting shelters before the storm to find out what may be needed, evacuation plans and how to distribute supplies.

Jim discusses SAWA’s experience mobilizing a network of professionals to assist recent hurricane victims across the country.

Matt and Calvin are taking a fresh look at feeding felines after seeing just how many cats are overweight, suffering from renal failure or urinary crystals.

What started as a photography hobby turned into a life-changing endeavor, leading the Cat Man into cat rescue TNR and opening the first cat cafe in the US.

Dr. Mike Greenberg is the program director for Target Zero, a project that helps municipal shelters achieve live release rates of 90% or above for community cats. He is also the co-author of Every Nose Counts: A Guide to Using Metrics in Animal Shelters. Mike describes the book as a practical guidebook for the entire sheltering world and those who care for homeless animals, from volunteers to vets.

Sarah-Jane Farrell is a pragmatic psychologist who specializes in healing trauma through utilizing the animal relationships in our lives. She has always been struck by the animal ability to live in the present moment and only focus on necessities, whereas humans often “live from the head instead of the heart.” She encourages her clients to trust themselves and their natural instincts, as well as to observe and learn from the animals in their lives.

Katie Lisnik, Director of Cat Policy and Protection, Humane Society of the United States, updates us on changes and new initiatives in community cat policy across the US. The challenges facing animal welfare advocates differ across the fifty states: while New Hampshire just passed a bill that approved the adoption of FIV+ and and Felv+ cats, Kansas is the last holdover of this outdated law, and the change seems slow to come.

“It feels like we are starting over in Maui. We are having fascinating on-the-ground experiences!” Bryan Kortis covers a wide range of topics from Hawaii's pending legislation that would help community cats, to an update on the group’s work in New Jersey, where they recently spayed/neutered about 1,000 cats! Lastly, we are covering what is new with catstats.org. Bryan also discusses his online training on October 17th called “Combating the Naysayers”, which is open to the public and you can s

Ep217 - Cathy Unruh and Chad Thompson