The Community Cats Podcast

Interview! Cathy Unruh and Chad Thompson, Board President and Executive Director, Meow Now, Inc. "My ultimate vision is that there really are no more community cats, because the entire United States has bought into TNVR." Cathy Unruh and Chad Thompson are the founding board president and executive director of Meow Now, Inc., respectively. Meow Now is the first and only non-profit organization providing TNVR services for community cats in Pinellas County, Florida. In the three years since its opening, Meow Now's dedicated team of staff and volunteers have TNVR'd 3,300 cats and provided more than 200 kittens with foster homes! Like most of Florida, Pinellas County boasts a warm, humid climate year-round. While great for vacation, it also creates a perfect breeding ground for both cats and disease. This makes vaccination for community cats very important, which is why Meow Now stresses the V in TNVR. And thanks to Meow Now's efforts, TNVR is now standard protocol by law when dealing with community cats in Pinellas county! To learn more about Meow Now, or to find out how you can support the new organization, please visit meownowfl.org, their page on Facebook, or call (727) 203 5255.

Dr. Nels Rasmussen, Animal Chiropractor and Spiritual Animal Healer "Everyone else is saying 'There's just no hope anymore,' and I'm here to say there is." Dr. Nels Rasmussen is a third-generation animal chiropractor who now works as a spiritual animal healer in neuroenergetic balancing. In the early days of his practice he worked with paralyzed and injured horses, restoring them to riding shape. Now, he works mostly with dogs and some cats and horses. Dr. Rasmussen believes that many injuries and behavioral problems that have veterinarians stumped can be solved by resetting the fight-or-flight response and restoring the energy balance within the animal. In his nearly forty years of practice, Dr. Rasmussen has seen incredible results in his patients and saved many animals from unnecessary euthanization due to mobility issues. For more information on Dr. Rasmussen's work, or to schedule a thirty-minute phone consultation about an animal in your care, please visit healingministryforanimals.com.

Interview! Esther Mechler, Founder of Spay USA "What's the tipping point? What's the age that we could get the veterinarians to agree? The answer seemed to be, by five months." Esther is back for another episode of the Community Cats Podcast, in which she shares more information on the Feline Fix By Five campaign, an initiative to encourage veterinary practices to spay and neuter cats by five months of age. The campaign has been backed by extensive research into the benefits of fixing cats at what used to be considered a very early stage of development, as female cats can become pregnant by six months of age. Esther and her team are hopeful that the Fix By Five campaign will help drive down the kitten population and give some relief to overwhelmed shelters in areas with long kitten seasons. As of July 2017, the campaign has been officially endorsed by eight national veterinary associations. To learn more about the campaign, please visit felinefixbyfive.org. You can help spread the word by sharing Feline Fix By Five on social media, or by requesting that your local veterinary practice sign up.

Interview! Britt Collins, Author and Journalist, "Strays: A Lost Cat, a Homeless Man, and Their Journey Across America" "Being a writer can be a lonely, hard process at the best of times." Britt Collins is a writer, journalist, and animal activist, who has written investigative journalism on animal cruelty and has volunteered at animal rescues and sanctuaries around the world. Her most recent book, Strays: A Lost Cat, a Homeless Man, and Their Journey Across America, tells the true story of a lost cat and a homeless man who find each other in Portland, OR, and develop a life-saving friendship as they embark on an a cross-country journey together. Britt tells Stacy about the difficult process of writing and publishing Strays, as well as her current project of organizing Cat Fest London and what cat rescue organizations look like in the UK. To learn more about Britt and her writing, please visit brittcollins.net. You can also find out more about Cat Fest London at catfestlondon.com.

Interview! Anna Skaya, CEO and Founder of Base Paws "The bigger database, the more associations and discoveries we can make." Anna Skaya is the CEO and founder of Base Paws, a commercial company that conducts feline genetic testing and research. Using the results from genetic testing, we can analyze an individual cat and assess her probability of contracting certain diseases. In less than a year of work, Base Paws has determined that Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), a common (and serious) disease among cats, affects 15% of cats, using the data collected from willing pet parents and shelters. Perhaps even more importantly, Base Paws' work can help to predict patterns not just in the individual, but the larger population. Currently Base Paws is enlisting pet parents whose cats fit certain criteria to bring their cat in for testing. This will help Base Paws build both their genetic and behavioral database. Anna says that as the database grows, the accuracy of Base Paws' predictions and analyses will increase, which could provide critical information about cat health and improve treatment of feline illness overall. To learn more about Base Paws, please visit basepaws.com. If you're interested in volunteering your cat for testing in order to improve feline genetic research, check out the Base Paws blog and see if your cat qualifies.

Interview! Maribeth Decker, Intuitive Animal Communicator, sacredgrove.com "It's a connection between two souls on a non-physical level." Maribeth Decker is an intuitive animal communicator, whose dogs first began communicating with her after she became a Reiki Master. She herself only realized her gift when she adopted Tibor, a young fear-aggressive rescue dog, who sent her images of his life before coming to live with her. After that experience, Maribeth began consciously practicing animal communication, and has been doing so since 2010. Maribeth describes her communication with animals as "feelings, memories, and body sensations" shared between two beings. In this episode, she recounts some of her experiences, both with her own animals and with clients. Maribeth helps pet and pet owners deepen their connection, resolve behavioral problems, and even give mutual comfort as the pet begins to transition out of this life. She has also authored a book, Peace In Passing, which aims to provide comfort for grieving pet owners through her experiences in assisting transitions. To book an appointment or to learn more about what Maribeth does, please visit sacredgrove.com. You can also join the Facebook group, Spiritual Pet People, to connect with a community of animal lovers who want to deepen their connections to their pets.

Interview! Lorrie Shaw, Owner, Professional Pet Sitting & Blogger, Animals Unfolded "Cats' needs for enrichment are only becoming more understood." Lorrie Shaw is the owner of Professional Pet Sitting and specializes in helping families care for hospice and special needs pets. Through her work, she has observed that medical issues and behavioral issues are very often linked—inappropriate elimination, for example, is the most common reason for a family to rehome a cat, yet this behavior is often indicative of an underlying medical issue the family isn't even aware of. This is where a knowledgeable pet sitter is invaluable: by observing a cat's behavior in their home environment, the pet sitter becomes the eyes and ears for the family when they are away, and can therefore spot problems long before the family notices. Lorrie says that with proper intervention and knowledge, and a good relationship with the local vet, she has witnessed many families keep a cat they may have otherwise surrendered. You can find Lorrie online on Facebook, Twitter, and her website, lorrieshaw.com. You can also keep up with her pet sitting adventures and learn more about animal behavior on her blog, Animals Unfolded.

Interview! Pat Brayer, Clinic Director at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona "The adopters that are drawn to the shy feral kittens are the ones that are going to make them blossom the most." Pat Brayer is the clinic director at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. In her shelter work, she has pioneered some of the field's most innovative programs, such as the Kitten Kindergarten program, which has successfully socialized and adopted out 82 formerly feral kittens brought into the shelter by trappers. Perhaps the most cutting edge program at HSSAZ is the FELV vaccination program, which is an initiative to lower the stigma surrounding feline leukemia and to increase adoptions of these lovable cats. HSSAZ offers free testing and vaccinations to adopters who are interested in adopting a FELV+ cat but are concerned about the risk to the cats they already own. The program has been hugely successful, with no incidences of vaccinated cats contracting the virus from their FELV+ housemates. You can get in touch with Pat by emailing her at [email protected], or by calling (502) 321 3706. You can also learn more about recent FELV vaccine research by reading this NIH article.

Interview! Nathan Winograd, Executive Director, The No-Kill Advocacy Center, Part 2 "We had to come to the realization that just because you work at an animal shelter doesn't mean you are passionate about cats and saving their lives." In Part 2 of this two-part episode, Nathan describes the current animal welfare legislation he is working on—namely the Companion Animal Protection Act (CAPA) and how it has been implemented, in whole or in part, in various cities and counties across the U.S. He also revisits some of his tougher experiences pushing legislation in more regressive areas and shelters, and warns against the naïveté inherent in the belief that all animal shelters or humane societies are truly interested in saving animals. CAPA seeks to make that ideal a reality by transforming shelters into "temporary waystations to a better life" for cats, not euthanasia sites. To learn more about Nathan's work, you can visit nokilladvocacycenter.org or nathanwinograd.com.

Interview! Nathan Winograd, Executive Director, The No-Kill Advocacy Center, Part 1 "It's actually the policies and procedures of the shelter that are responsible for whether animals die in shelters." It's hard to name a field of animal welfare that Nathan Winograd doesn't have experience in: his animal advocacy work started while attending Stanford Law School, and since then he has worked in animal control, consulted for and ran animal shelters, written animal protection legislation, prosecuted in animal cruelty cases, taught at Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine, spoken internationally on animal welfare topics, and written five books! One such book, Redemption, details the "no-kill" revolution in the United States and advocates for no-kill communities, not just no-kill shelters. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Nathan gives a detailed description of both his history in animal welfare and the evolution of the sheltering industry in general. Nathan also defines what he means by "no-kill" community, and Stacy discusses with him what that could mean for the future of community cats. To learn more about Nathan's work, you can visit nokilladvocacycenter.org or nathanwinograd.com.

Interview! Kate Benjamin, Designer, Blogger of Hauspanther, Part 2 "Not only does the design of the room at the shelter make it very functional and enjoyable, but it's a showcase for what people can do when they get home." In Part 2 of this two-part episode, Kate delves into how user-centered design theory can be applied to shelters, in order to make adoptable cats' personalities shine and therefore be adopted faster. She has great praise for the new trend of cat cafes and open-concept shelters, which, if designed correctly, can encourage and inspire people to adopt cats and catify their own homes! Check out Kate's blog at www.hauspanther.com.

Interview! Kate Benjamin, Designer, Blogger of Hauspanther, Part 1 "I'm not just writing about cool-looking stuff. I'm writing about stuff that's going to make a difference in these cats' lives." Kate Benjamin has combined her professional knowledge of design and product development with her love of cats to fill a unique niche—she blogs about cat products designed with the cat consumer in mind! She's been writing her blog, House Panther, for about ten years now, which eventually led to two New York Times best-sellers, Catification and Catify to Satisfy. Co-authored with Jackson Galaxy, the books blend his behavioral knowledge and her design perspective to instruct on how best to "catify" your home in ways that are both aesthetically pleasing and most suitable for your cat's unique behavioral needs. Kate believes that if more cat products are designed with the needs of the cat in mind—a design concept called "user-centered design theory"—pesky behavioral problems like peeing outside the litterbox and scratching on furniture can be eliminated, leading to less declawing and less shelter surrenders. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Kate explains how small pet stores and Etsy designers have influenced big-box pet stores to design more cat-centered products, which makes the products themselves more accessible to a pet owner on a budget. If you're still concerned about price, though, not to worry: Kate has tips on DIY products for those of us with "a creative streak and a little bit of time." Check out Kate's blog at www.hauspanther.com.

Interview! Meredith Hippert, Director of Field Operations, Animal Balance "Through this work, I recognized my passion for serving the underserved, and working with communities to implement change for animals." Though largely self-educated in the field, Meredith Hippert holds an impressively broad resume in animal welfare, from admission guidelines and outreach to foster programming and TNR. Her journey started when she began caring for a colony of cats living behind the tattoo parlor where she worked in Pittsburg, PA. Using online resources such as Alleycat Allies, Meredith learned as much as she could about community cats management and care, and she now serves as the director of operations at Animal Balance in Austin, TX. Under the guidance of former CCP guests Miles Chadwick and Emma Clifford, Meredith has grown in her advocacy for animals everywhere, especially the remote islands that Animal Balance currently assists. For more information about Animal Balance, please visit animalbalance.org. You can also get in touch with Meredith directly by emailing her at [email protected]. And, for more information on veterinarian and animal behaviorist Dr. Sophia Yin, please visit her website.

Interview! Anthony Amos, Owner, HydroDog and Founder of the Bathe to Save Tour "If you want to become a part of HydroDog, you're not just part of a franchise; you're committing to a long-term partnership with the animal rescue world." Anthony Amos is the owner of HydroDog, a mobile grooming salon in Australia that travels from house to house bathing beloved household pooches. He took the idea to the U.S. when he moved here with his wife, three children, three rabbits, and rescue puppy to start the Bathe to Save tour. Over the next twelve months, Anthony and his family will travel through all fifty states, washing dogs at shelters and holding events in an effort to raise $1,000,000 for sheltering, rescue, and adoption initiatives. Anthony talks about how ambitious the project was from the beginning, and the nine months he had to spend "re-learning" how to apply the business to an American context. If you're interested in donating or attending an event, please visit bathetosave.com to see where Anthony and his family are headed next!

Interview! Erika Kelly, founder of Operation Git-Meow "The Navy has always been tied to cats, and that's how the cats got to the base in the first place." Only a year after graduating college, Erika Kelly is already well on her way to making waves in the animal welfare community—she started Operation Git-Meow in December 2016, a non-profit designed to help community cats living on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. As you may remember from Stacy's conversation with naval-base resident Caitlyn Macintosh (Episode 53), TNR is strictly prohibited on naval bases. Instead, most community cats are trapped and euthanized, which is ineffective at controlling population and costly to the taxpayer. Operation Git-Meow is in the process of requesting an exception to the law, offering as an alternative an SPCA-funded TNR program that will manage the population of community cats on the base and transport them back to the U.S. at no cost to the taxpayer. Besides this large initiative, Operation Git-Meow seeks to make vaccination, vet check-ups, and microchipping accessible to residents on the naval base and surrounding communities for their pets. Operation Git-Meow is still very much in its nascency, and it needs all the help it can get! If you are interested in donating, please send a check to P.O. Box 52337, Springfield, VA, 22152. You can also help out by liking and sharing Operation Git-Meow on Facebook at facebook.com/operationgitmeow. For any other questions, please email [email protected].

Interview! Karen Hollish, Director of Development and Marketing, Pima Animal Care Center "The community cats project has not only helped us save outdoor community cats; it's helped us provide a better experience for the cats inside our shelters." Karen Hollish is the director of development and marketing at Pima Animal Care Center. In March 2014, she started a development program for the government-run, open-admission shelter in Pima County, Arizona. The program was hugely successful: she raised millions of dollars through fundraising initiatives, and the shelter started to take in about 24,000 pets per year with a save rate of around 70%! In a state like Arizona where pet overpopulation is a big problem and kitten season lasts virtually all year round, this is a huge accomplishment. Pima Animal Care Center has managed to raise its save rate to 90% thanks to its community cat program, and it also has a unique kitten program for people with dementia and other memory issues. While the kitten is socialized, the patients receive all the health benefits of close contact with animals, including unexpected remembrances of beloved family pets! To learn more about Pima Animal Care Center (and to watch inspiring videos of dementia patients interacting with kittens), please visit facebook.com/pimaanimalcare.

Interview! Erin Berry, Executive of Marketing and Communication, BoardSource "You have to think, "What is most important for this organization, not for myself?" Erin Berry is the executive of marketing and communication at BoardSource, an organization that helps strengthen the boards of non-profits. Erin has twelve years of experience in non-profit management, and she's no stranger to volunteering, either—by the end of her high school career, she had logged around 400 hours of community service! Erin tells Stacy about some of the exciting resources that BoardSource has to offer, including the Board Support Program, a year-round development program with almost entirely free access—perfect for smaller grassroots organizations working on the local level. Erin also gives us some of her tips on how to build a strong board and how to start a non-profit organization. For more information, please visit boardsource.org.

Interview! Katie Lisnik, Director of Cat Policy and Protection, Humane Society of the United States "TNR is not a cruel act; it is a humane population management tool, and it should be defined as such." Katie Lisnik is back for another round of "Policy Jeopardy" on the Community Cats Podcast! This time, we get the scoop on animal welfare initiatives in Illinois, New York, Nevada, New Hampshire, and some exciting initiatives on the federal level! If you are interested in getting involved with animal welfare legislation in your state, you can find your state director's contact information on humanesociety.org. You can also find resources for anything related to sheltering, rescue, animal control, TNR, or community cat related at animalsheltering.org. And, as always, you can email Katie at [email protected] if you have any questions concerning animal welfare legislation and policy.

Interview! Jim Tedford, President and CEO of SAWA "The strength of SAWA is in its network." Jim Tedford is the president and CEO of the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA). In the early 1980s, fresh out of college with a degree in animal science, he found his first job in animal welfare at a tiny humane society that was "held together with duct tape and love." Since then, Jim has seen the animal welfare game change drastically in the last few decades—Jim's last job at a shelter in New York assisted 12,000 animals a year with a staff of 70 people and over 700 volunteers. We owe much of that to SAWA's network of professionals and resources, which has grown exponentially since its inception nearly fifty years ago. According to Jim, SAWA is the only organization of big leaders in animal welfare who also work "in the trenches," to use his parlance. Jim and Stacy discuss the many resources, programs, scholarships, and conferences that SAWA has to offer up-and-coming animal welfare organizations, as well as the online support community that has sprung up in recent years in SAWA Facebook groups. You can find all of these resources and more at sawanetwork.org—and stay tuned for the website relaunch coming in July!

Community Cats Podcast Anniversary Show, The Podcast Team "I'm learning so much about the talents and passions it takes to make the world a better place for cats." Community Cats Podcast celebrates it's first year online! In the Anniversary Show, Stacy shines the spotlight on the 'behind the scenes' talent that has made this past year a success. She discusses the challenges and highlights of producing episodes and working to spread education and dialogue about community cats. Stacy talks with website director Kristen Petrie, social media/writer Jamie Hovey, writer/editor Anna Domings, audio engineer Danny Ozment from Emerald City Productions, and 'Ask Stacy' host and writer Lisa Finkel. Team links: emeraldcitypro.com mellariumcreative.com jlhvirtualservices.com

Interview! Shawn Flynn, Author, The Kitty Who Rescued Me After I Rescued Him "He had a huge impact on my life, and that's why I decided to write a book about it." Shawn Flynn is the author of The Kitty Who Rescued Me After I Rescued Him, a current finalist in the 2017 International Book Awards. It tells the story of Shawn's newfound best friend and support in a large orange community cat, who he met after purchasing a house with his fiancee in Enfield, CT. To the couple's surprise, the house came with several outdoor cats who hung around the property, one of them being Kitty—and on the day Shawn moved in, he found Kitty sitting on the front porch as if waiting for him to come home! Kitty became a central fixture in Shawn's life, helping him through some difficult personal times. The book serves as a thank-you to Kitty for his presence in Shawn's life. You can find Shawn's book here on Amazon, and you can reach the author himself at [email protected].

Interview! Part Two, Monica Frenden, Cat Program Manager, Austin Pets Alive! "This is the safest large city in the country to be a cat." In part two of this two-part episode, Stacy interviews Monica Frenden about the various cat programs available at Austin Pets Alive! She describes the "Fel-V fever" that spreads once people in the community start adopting feline-leukemia positive cats, as well as the wildly successful ringworm and barn cat programs. In order to design the most relevant programs, Monica and her team study the patterns of "at-risk cats" in city shelters and created specialized programs for those cats—mostly, cats with FIV, feline leukemia, and ringworm. Because of its efforts, Austin Pets Alive! has an astonishing 98% release rate, which is much further above other programs in the state with less resources. To learn more about Austin Pets Alive!, please visit their website at austinpetsalive.org. You can also keep up with APA! on Twitter and Instagram at @austinpetsalive.

Interview! Part One, Monica Frenden, Cat Program Manager, Austin Pets Alive! "We let the public decide what they want rather than assuming what they want." When Monica Frenden lived in rural Illinois, she didn't expect to start a TNR program. What started as a commitment to getting her own cats spayed and neutered exploded into a community-wide support and demand for feline spay-neuter services. Monica began taking her own barn cats to be spayed and neutered in Chicago, the closest resource at a distance of just over 100 miles. Eventually word got around, and neighbors began to approach her about the possibility of taking their own cats to Chicago. Monica was astounded by the overwhelming need for this service—pretty soon she was taking about 50 cats a week! In part one of this two-part episode, Monica delves into her origin story in animal welfare services, and talks about the wildly successful barn cat program she started all of those years ago in rural Illinois. Monica basically had to teach herself how to run a TNR program—attending conferences and trainings on her own time in order to ensure the best possible care for the community felines. Stay tuned for part two, in which Stacy and Monica discuss in more detail Monica's current work at Austin Pets Alive!

Interview! Elizabeth Feldhausen, Founder of Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary, Green Bay, WI "You would think that there would be nose prints all over the windows, but it's actually people face prints! Everybody that walks by presses their face up against the glass, and the cats love it." Elizabeth Feldhausen is the founder of Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary in Green Bay, WI, a cage-free no-kill pet rescue that saves special-needs cats from euthanasia lists in the Midwest. She was inspired to start Safe Haven by an experience in her childhood with a beloved cat who had a stroke and who she nursed for five years afterwards until he died naturally. Safe Haven is only a year old, but it has seen great success since its beginnings. Located in a storefront on one of the main drags of Green Bay, Safe Haven enjoys a lot of foot traffic from the outside as people walking by press their faces against the glass. It also follows the cat cafe model, offering drinks and comfortable seating for patrons, who can choose to go into the cat rooms and interact with the cats. There are plenty of cat caves and hammocks going up and down the walls so that the cats, too, can decide when they would like to interact with people and when they would like to be left alone. Safe Haven's design truly puts the cats' autonomy first! To learn more about Safe Haven, please visit their website at www.safehavenpet.org. You can also connect with Safe Haven on Facebook at facebook.com/safehavengb, and on Instagram at @cat_cafe_wisconsin.

Interview! Jennifer Smith, EasyPetFence.com "With an Easy Pet Fence, cats are able to walk around the backyard safely without worrying about attacks from birds and wildlife." Jennifer Smith is a representative for Easy Pet Fence, an e-commerce store dedicated to the outdoor safety and wellness of animals. Easy Pet Fence has different fencing kits designed for dogs, cats, and even chickens, and their innovative design keeps cats from digging under, climbing up, or getting over the fence. Self-assembly instructions can be found on YouTube or on easypetfence.com, so you can have your kitty out and playing safely in no time! You can find customer testimonials on Easy Pet Fence's Facebook page, or follow them on Instagram (@easypetfence)

Book Review! Stacy LeBaron, Host, The Community Cats Podcast "Get ready for the tissues..." Stacy is back with her book review show. In today's episode she reviews, Redemption, by Nathan Winograd; Call of the Cats, by Andrew Bloomfield; Cat Daddy, by Jackson Galaxy; and Homer, The Ninth Life of a Blind Wonder Cat by Gwen Cooper. Redemption is a book that provides us with some creative solutions to our pet overpopulation issues in the country and the other books are full of emotion and passion.

Interview! Deanna Sanvi, Spay-Neuter Coordinator, Gateway Pet Guardians Community Outreach Program "We help people keep their pets in their homes." Deanna Sanvi is the spay-neuter coordinator for Gateway Pet Guardians Community Outreach Program, a 501(c)3 organization serving about 65,000 people in East St. Louis, IL. Many of these people live below the poverty line, which means that Gateway offers a variety of services besides just spay and neuter, such as pet food banks, adequate outside shelter for animals, and microchipping. Deanna says the main goal of the Guardians program is to keep pets in their homes and animal surrender numbers down—when people know they have options, they can better take care of their pets. To learn more, please visit gatewaypets.com, or search for "Gateway Pet Guardians" on Facebook.

Ask Stacy! Stacy LeBaron, Host, The Community Cats Podcast "Oftentimes, these folks are not upset about the cats in general, but the fact that they're not being cared for." In this, the seventh (!) Ask Stacy episode, Lisa and Stacy leave the world of cat lovers behind for a moment to take a look at "cat opponents"—whether those be the neighbors who resent your feeding station or the touch anti-community cat legislation currently enforced in your town. Backed by years of experience, Stacy provides some insight into the many reasons that people might actually be upset about the presence of community cats—and the answers may surprise you. She shares some of her success stories in mediating tense neighborhood situations and negotiating with lawmakers, to provide some encouragement for those of us who may be discouraged by the roadblocks to a safe and equitable world for cats. Don't forget that the Community Cats Podcast is hosting a webinar on June 17 at 11 am with none other than Hannah Shaw, the Kitten Lady! Her webinar will focus on all things kittens and bottle babies, and how to create the best possible foster home for these little kitties. Sign up now before space runs out! Also, MRFRS' annual Strut for Strays will be held this year on June 4 at 11:30 am, at the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, MA. If you're in the area and want to show your support for community cats and local shelters, please consider going to this lively and worthwhile event!

Interview! Bianca Leos, Student at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University "Animals lives are going to depend on me one day, so I need to know all this information." Bianca Leos is a student at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. She intends to become a shelter veterinarian working in a high quality, high volume spay-neuter program. When Bianca first started at the Cummings School, she had intended to specialize in large animal medicine. After interning at a horse rescue, however, she changed her course towards rescue and sheltering. She highlights the many differences between the stray animal populations of the Northeast and her native Texas—working in the Cummings shelter has opened her eyes to community cats as a significant population, not just as individual strays. To learn more about the Cummings School, please visit vet.tufts.edu.

Interview! Susan Rosenberg, Director of International Animal Programs at GreaterGood.org "I am working to save everything from ants to elephants." One could say that Susan Rosenberg has been managing animal shelters since she was 8 years old—at that age, she was covertly caring for abandoned animals in her backyard and using her allowance to do so! She has received two "calls of a lifetime," as she calls them—first from Paul Jolly to work for the Petco Foundation, after her tremendous success in setting up a community adoption program at her local Petco; and second from greatergood.org, who offered her the director position of International Animal Programs. Susan's work has touched the lives of animals and people quite literally from coast to coast—while working for the Petco Foundation, she orchestrated community adoption programs at stores across the country. It is now a company-wide mandatory program for every Petco location! It doesn't stop there. In Susan's work for greatergood.org, she finds herself in the happy position to help not just companion animals, but wild animals as well. The organization's highly successful funding efforts allow her to choose interesting and unique programs to assist, such as a bat sanctuary in desperate need of a well. Susan's work is truly changing the world and making it a better place!

Interview! Laura Mullen, SPORE Program Director at San Francisco SPCA "Ringworm is nothing worth dying for." Laura Mullen has worked in the shelter medicine department at the San Francisco SPCA for 15 years. Her current project is the SPORE Program, or Shelters Preventing Outbreaks of Ringworm through Eductation. Ringworm is a pesky fungal infection that lives on the keratin in animal hair and nails—one could call it "cathlete's foot!" Though it's not a life threatening condition, it can wreak havoc on animal shelters, especially those without proper resources for treating and preventing it. Backed by the Maddie's Fund, SPORE seeks to provide those resources through treatment and prevention education and research initiatives. SFSPCA takes in known ringworm animals from other municipal shelters and screens them using in-house cultures to determine the level of infection and, subsequently, the level of treatment required for eradicating the problem. SFSPCA then teaches those shelters best practices for quarantining and monitoring animals exposed to ringworm, as well as proper preventative measures against recurrent outbreaks. To learn more about SPORE or the 3-day SPORE apprenticeship offered later this summer, please email Laura Mullen at [email protected].

Interview! Tina Traster, Award-winning Filmmaker, Writer, and Documentarian of "Catnip Nation" "There are people taking care of community cats, but it begs the question: who is taking care of those people?" Tina Traster is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. Her written pieces have been featured in a multitude of publications, including a regular segment for the New York Post, and her films have won awards at film festivals across the globe. She has noticed a theme of rescue, caretaking, and advocacy in her last three projects—"This House Matters," a 30 minute documentary on historic preservation in the Hudson River Valley; her award-winning memoir Rescuing Julia Twice: A Mother's Tale of Russian Adoption and Overcoming Reactive Attachment Disorder; and her current project, "Catnip Nation," a series of vignettes about feral colony caretakers. Tina hopes that the film will spark a movement towards better, more consistent legislation surrounding community cats. Tina is currently trying to raise $6,000 for the completion of the project. You can contribute to the cause at seedandspark.com/fund/catnip-nation. To learn more about the film itself, please visit catnipnation.com.

Interview! Rosemarie Crawford, Director of Educational Programs, National Kitten Coalition After her first experience fostering bottle babies with acute health issues, Rosemarie's colleagues realized she was a natural and nudged her towards a career in animal welfare. She worked as a vet tech in Illinois, and subsequetly became a foster coordinator. This eventually led to her current position as the Director of Educational Programs or the National Kitten Coalition, where she facilitates outreach workshops based on specific shelter needs. In this episode, Rosemarie discusses the obstacles facing kitten care and adoption in shelters, as well as the ever-present subject of avoiding burnout for both foster coordinators and volunteers. For more information, visit kittencoalition.org or the Coalition's Facebook page. To download their Kitten Nursery Manual, click here.

Interview! Tracie Hotchner, Author, The Cat Bible and Radio Pet Lady "The point is to reach people and influence their hearts and minds in ways that are really meaningful." Tracie is a premiere podcast presence, supporting the education and wellness of cats. She is the author of The Cat Bible: Everything Your Cat Expects You to Know as well as producer and host of NPR's show "Dog Talk (and Kitties Too!)". Tracie is currently organizing the New York Cat Film Festival, which offers short films and documentaries about cats and the people who love them. The festival will travel to select cities with a philanthropic mission to raise education and funding for local rescues and shelters. As Stacy refers to her, Tracie is 'an outreach queen' who greatly values the importance of story-telling to improve the landscape of animal welfare. To explore further, visit radiopetlady.com and catfilmfestival.com.

Interview! Mike Fry, Founder and Senior Consultant at No Kill Learning "The killing that takes place is harmful and costly and damaging." Mike was raised in a family of animal welfare activists who opened the first no-kill shelter in Minnesota in 1977. After working for Fortune 500 companies in the technology field, he decided to dedicate his shelter experience to end unnecessary euthanasia in local shelters. Mike hosts Just One Day every June 11th, which provides nationwide shelters and animal control organizations the educational opportunity to practice a no-kill philosophy for one trial day. Participants are invited to change their strategies by taking the no-kill pledge. Mike also discusses the negative repercussions of killing in shelters, from high volunteer turnover to questionable shelter ethics. For more information, visit nokilllearning.net and justoneday.ws.

Interview! Susan Linker, Co-founder of Our Companions Animal Rescue "We've come a long way with spay and neuter in our area." Susan is the co-founder of Our Companions Animal Rescue, a forty-three acre sanctuary in Ashford, CT. A non-profit organization with 400 volunteers, 2,500 donors and plans to double in size, Our Companions Animal Rescue prioritizes creating a low-stress environment for cats and dogs to optimize better health and behavior, hence better adoption outcomes. Susan discusses ways to do this, including using cottages as 'real life' spaces for cats rather than stress-inducing cages. She and Stacy also discuss similarities and differences between 'sanctuaries' and 'adoption centers,' and the belief that both are only pieces in the animal welfare puzzle that also includes TNR, education and public policy. To explore further, visit ourcompanions.org and their Facebook page, or call 860-242-9999.

Interview! Bonney Brown, Founder and Principle Consultant of the Humane Network "Engaging the public in our work is the key to making it sustainable." Stacy has once again invited Bonney Brown from the Humane Network back on the show! Bonney fills Stacy in on what the Network's been up to in the past year, such as helping rescue groups to better their strategic planning, improve their live release rate, and ensure their sustainability, among other things. Bonney and Stacy also chat about how the ways we interact with cats outdoors have changed, due to the advent of cat harnesses, pet strollers, and catios, as well as how free adoption of adult cats during peak kitten season can actually help your shelter. In case you missed it, you can listen to Bonney's first interview with Stacy here. And you can check out the Humane Network at humanenetwork.org, or email [email protected] if you have any questions for Bonney herself.

Interview! Jonathan Rosenberg, Founder of Tabby's Place "I wanted to do something for the cats nobody wanted." Jonathan Rosenberg wasn't very interested in animal welfare—or even considered himself a "cat person"—until he met Tabby. When a stray cat showed up on his porch one day, begging for food and a place to sleep, Jonathan and his wife took him in and gave him a very happy life for the next sixteen years. When Tabby was diagnosed with and subsequently passed from terminal cancer, however, Jonathan's whole life focus changed. He quit his job and started Tabby's Place, a sanctuary for special needs cats and cats in otherwise "helpless" situations. Tabby's place helps about 120 domestic cats a year and countless more community cats. Located in New Jersey, Tabby's Place boasts a large, fence-in outdoor area for cats who are too sick or needy to leave the sanctuary, an in-house medical clinic, as well as a wide scope of different programs. Jonathan describes to Stacy his journey towards becoming an advocate for cats as well as the expansion of his own ideas of how and where cats should live. To learn more about Tabby's Place, or to sponsor a cat at the sanctuary, please visit tabbysplace.org. *Correction! Jonathan Rosenberg, the subject of this interview, made us aware of an error in this episode and we'd like to make sure you know the facts! In the intro to this podcast, we said, "Tabby's Place boasts a large, fenced-in outdoor area for cats who are too sick or needy to leave the sanctuary," Jonathan tells us this is not so. There isn't a large, outdoor area. Tabby's Place has many special needs cats, mixed in with other cats, inside the sanctuary. There are multiple "sun rooms" (rooms with three walls and a forth screened-in wall), that provide cats exposure to sunlight and fresh air. Most cats have access to these rooms.

Interview! Harold Rhee, Host of This is Pawprint Podcast "Your volunteers may have skills that you never knew about. You don't really know unless you truly empower people to share their talents." Harold Rhee is the creator and host of This is Pawprint, another animal welfare podcast! With his wife Nancy, he interviews the "heroes of animal rescue," such as Tamar Arslanian, author and photographer of Shop Cats, as well as our very own Stacy LeBaron! Stacy and Harold compare notes on creating their shows, and Harold offers encouragement to those listeners who want to start their own media endeavors to broadcast their shelters and rescues, whether it be a YouTube channel or a podcast of their own. Harold's podcast has featured mainly dogs and cats, but he hopes to branch into other species as well. You can listen to Harold's podcast at thisispawprint.com, and keep up with it on Facebook or Instagram. (Psst—Harold interviewed Stacy a couple weeks ago. Listen to her episode here!)

Interview! Steve Lawrence, Co-Director of The Cat Rescuers, and Tara Green, TNR volunteer of Brooklyn Animal Action "I think it's important for viewers to understand the kind of dedication and commitment that's required to do this work." When Steve Lawrence moved to Brooklyn with his wife Helen, he didn't know the first thing about community cats. However, after individuals of a backyard colony started showing up at his backdoor begging for food, he began to investigate and uncover the world of the estimated 1,000,000 community cats roaming the streets of New York City. With co-director Rob Fruchtman, Steve has followed the work of four TNR rescuers working in Brooklyn (including co-guest Tara Green of Brooklyn Animal Action) for the past three years, filming them in action for a documentary called The Cat Rescuers. He and Helen are now also certified in TNR and hope to bring the film to wider audiences at international film festivals to raise awareness of community cats and to spread TNR as a global practice. If you are interested in learning more about the upcoming film, please visit catrescuersfilm.com. There, you can view the demo reel and sign up for the email list to be notified when the Kickstarter for finishing the film goes live!

Interview! Robin Olson, Blogger at CoveredinCatHair.com and founder of Kitten Associates "I love telling these stories because every single cat that we bring into our rescue always has something we can learn from." Robin Olson is the writer behind the award winning "Covered in Cathair" blog, which chronicles the stores of the 500 cats she's rescued over the years. She also is the founder of Kitten Associates, which opened its doors in 2010. Located in Sandy Hook, CT, Kitten Associates started the Kitties for Kids program after the Newtown school shooting, which provided a space for any affected by the tragedy to come and spend time with the kittens in the shelter. Robin's own involvement in cat and animal welfare started when she was going through a hard time in her life many years ago, so she is very familiar with the profound healing power that cats can have in our lives. Check out Robin's blog at coveredincathair.com. You can also follow Robin's work on Facebook at facebook.com/CoveredinCatHair.

Interview! Rebecca Jewell, Executive Director of the National Kitten Coalition "Foster programs are my first love by far." Rebecca Jewell is the executive director of the National Kitten Coalition. Her family fostered many pregnant cats and litters when she was growing up in Ohio, which inspired in her a love of foster programs. In fact, she built her own foster program from scratch when she first became the volunteer coordinator of a shelter in the DC area 11 years ago—just when she had started to work in the field! After only four years of operation, they had a 97% survival rate for neonatal kittens in the summer of 2010. Since then, Rebecca has been overjoyed to see foster programs become a top priority for shelters. She believes that building strong relationships within your community can make up for a great deal of the lack of monetary resources that so many shelters and rescue programs face, especially since every community has such unique needs. To learn more about the Kitten Coalition, or to download their brand-new Kitten Nursery Manual, please visit kittencoalition.org. You can also follow the happenings at the Coalition at facebook.com/kittencoalition.

Interview! Jackson Galaxy, Star of Animal Planet's My Cat from Hell, and Founder of the Jackson Galaxy Foundation "I was used to not following rules and cats don't follow rules for the most part." It's the Cat Daddy himself in this special episode of the podcast! Stacy has a fascinating conversation with Jackson Galaxy, the once-musician whose special bond with felines catapulted (sorry!) him to fame as a champion for helping people better understand cat behavior and find creative ways to help them. Season Eight of his show, My Cat From Hell, opens in late April with Jackson bringing 50 doomed kittens from Los Angeles on a van ride to Denver, accompanied by Kitten Lady Hannah Shaw. Jackson describes a number of the life-saving initiatives his foundation is piloting throughout the country, and gives a treasure trove of advice about what individuals can do to make a difference: "Every something that you do will save somebody." For more information visit jacksongalaxyfoundation.org. Photo Credits: All color photos by Andrew Martial. The black and white is Lori Fusaro.

Interview! Dr. Theo Capaldo, President and Executive Director of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society "We really try to fight science with science." Dr. Theo Capaldo is the president and executive director of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS). NEAVS is committed to ending the use of animals as test subjects, and in fact spearheaded the successful campaign to the use of chimps in biomedical research in the United States. As a licensed psychologist, Dr. Capaldo is concerned about the impact of forced dissection in education as early as high school: she believes it works to eliminate compassion from students of the sciences. She also stresses how ineffectual animal testing is, and encourages constituents of schools and organizations, as well as consumers of animal-tested products, to start local campaigns against animal testing. To learn more about NEAVS, please visit neavs.org, or visit releasechimps.org to learn about their successful chimp project. You can also call NEAVS at (617)-523-6020 between the hours of 9 AM to and 5:30 PM, Eastern.

Interview! Carter Luke, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) "Fall in love with a cat…find a cat and try to help it." Luke reflects on some of the changes he's seen for cats in his 40 years in animal welfare. His approach is based on building coalitions of different groups who can jointly bring different talents to the table to affect change in the "disease of homelessness" for cats. He was one of the founders of the National Council of Pet Population Study and Policy, which did ground-breaking research on why people resist getting their pets spayed or neutered, and collected objective data on the population of animals in shelters and beyond. Luke credits a "public health approach" to the MSPCA's success in reducing feline intakes into its three shelters, tracking intakes by neighborhood and zip code and targeting spay/neuter outreach in those areas. Find out more by visiting mspca.org.

Interview! Renee Harris, Founder of PAWS to Success Program at the San Diego Humane Society "If individuals took responsibility for their pets, then there would be no indiscriminate breeding." Renee Harris has been volunteering and working in animal welfare since the tender age of twelve, and over her 30+ year career she has seen the field change enormously. She pioneered the Paws to Success program at the San Diego Humane Society, which includes the first orphan kitten nursery of its kind. The nursery provides 24-hour care to bottle babies, and the program saves over 3,000 kittens each year! Renee is concerned about the high rates of euthanasia among cats brought into shelters—from her research of San Diego Animal Control's data, she found that 70% of euthanasia cases were cats who had, in her estimation, fairly treatable conditions. Renee is determined to lower this number, and she wants to start with changing how we socialize and treat feral cats in the shelter. Lastly, she shares with Stacy her ideal plan for her dream cat facility! To get in touch with Renee, you can email her at [email protected].

Interview! Sarah Pizano, Program Director for Target Zero "You are doing this on behalf of the cats. Put the nerves on the back burner; it's about saving cats." Stacy revisits with Sarah Pizano, the program director for Target Zero and the podcast's guest of episode 56. Sarah shares with us an innovative way that Target Zero was able to move funds from a foundation in Cincinnati all the way to the shelters and communities of the Northern Area Kentucky Development District, an organization that does a lot of non-profit work in the human sector but had yet to branch into animal welfare. By partnering with private vets and humane societies in the district, Target Zero was able to provide low-cost spay-neuter to both local shelters and poor families with cats in the area, and has since expanded that project into other parts of Kentucky as well as northwest Georgia. To learn more about Target Zero, please visit target-zero.org.

Interview! Brad Shear, CEO of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society "We are not here to be exterminators." When it comes to animal sheltering, Brad Shear has run the gamut of shelter needs and sizes. He started his career in the local shelter of a small city in Colorado, and since then has moved around the country to several different cities to share his knowledge and experience. For the past ten years he has been the CEO of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society in New York state. His current shelter has a variety of unique programs, such as the option for those moving to domestic violence shelters to temporarily house their pet at Mohawk Humane, and the STAR program, a partnership between the shelter and the sheriff's office that sends dogs and cats to local jails to be trained and socialized by the inmates. Brad shares his journey from traditional sheltering values to the superiority and ethics of TNR, and hopes that, in the near future, shelters will begin to develop sheltering plans unique to cats rather than simply using the same strategies implemented with dogs. To get in touch with Brad, please visit mohawkhumane.org or call (518) 434-8128.

Interview! Merritt Clifton, Editor at Animals 24-7 "These days, shelters probably see only a fraction of the real numbers of cats in the community." In this episode, Stacy revisits Merritt Clifton, the editor of the Animals 24-7 news site. This time, Merritt gives an in-depth look at the use of statistics and data in animal welfare. He gives some inside tips and tricks into how one person can estimate population levels of community cats in their area and track that population over time. Merritt advocates for better data-keeping and measuring of statistics in the animal welfare world so that organizations and individual advocates can learn from one another. Listen to Merritt's first interview with Stacy here, or visit him at animals24-7.org.

Beth Clifton, Photographer and Social Media Editor for Animals 24-7 "Take Personal Responsibility with Animals in Need" Beth Clifton is the photographer and social media editor for Animals 24-7. She is also the wife of previous CCP guest Merritt Clifton, and she cites him as one of the people who changed her thinking around TNR and community cats. Beth has had several jobs involving animals, and when she first started working as an animal control officer, her encounters with community cats were largely negative. Because of this, she didn't think that cats should live outside at all, but when she met Merritt, she began to expand her perspective on these very misunderstood populations. She explains to Stacy her view on feeding stations for community cats and her fear that "random acts of feeding" can actually do more harm than good. She hopes that anyone who chooses to help community cats will do so in a conscious and educated way, and take personal responsibility when handling these wild animals. To learn more about Beth or Animals 24-7, please visit animals24-7.org.