The Community Cats Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Gary Evans, Clinic Director for the Humane Society of Huron Valley Mar 30, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by CDE Cages and Doobert.com.

Stacy's guest this week, Gary Evans, works as the Clinic Director for the Humane Society of Huron Valley (HSHV), where he previously worked as a "cat wrangler" or Community Cat Coordinator. Before coming to the world of animal welfare, Gary worked in the entrepreneurial space with tech startups.

HSHV is a high volume spay/neuter and full-service vet clinic, and adoption shelter. They have been working as the leading provider of TNR in Michigan for over a decade and have helped about 16,000 outdoor cats.

Gary and Stacy talk about how Gary has been able to use his background to help scale up the number of cats HSHV helps, including finding better ways to use resources, mobilize volunteers, and provide tools and education to the community. While COVID-19 has slowed them down some, they're still working toward their goal to make Washtenaw County the best place in the country to be an animal.

To find out more about HSHV and to find resources on community cats, visit their website.

Peter Elueze, Founder of Paw Salvation Mar 23, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by TICA and Doobert.com.

This week, an inspiring chat with Peter Elueze, founder of Paw Salvation, a Chicago-based nonprofit that helps homeless people, veterans, and seniors care for their pets. Paw Salvation was founded 3 years ago and has been growing steadily, supporting those who need it by providing pet food.

Stacy and Peter talk about the human-animal bond, the need for including pets when providing housing and writing policy for homeless people, how COVID-19 has affected homeless people, advice for starting a nonprofit, and finding blessings in unexpected places. Peter also shares his plans for a mobile grooming and wellness van and his hopes to be able to include flea treatment and microchipping in the future.

To help Paw Salvation in their mission, donate or follow them on Instagram or Facebook. To find out more, visit Paw Salvation's website.

Mariah McCulley - Director of Operations at Animal Friends Alliance Mar 16, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by TICA and Doobert.com.

Stacy chats with Mariah McCulley, Director of Operations at Animal Friends Alliance, a limited admission, adoption guarantee shelter for cats and dogs in Fort Collins, CO. Mariah has experience with TNR, high volume spay and neuter clinics, adoption, and, her passion, fostering feral kittens.

Animal Friends Alliance has a strong focus on providing community resources to keep animals in their homes. They provide subsidized cost spay/neuter, a kibble supply program, and a community cat program. Their work with TNR has seen success in reducing the volume of cats in Fort Collins and has now expanded to cover a wider range around Northern Colorado and into Wyoming and Nebraska.

Mariah's passion is fostering feral kittens and she shares with Stacy some tips for successful feral fostering and how organizations can support their fosters and adopters. Some of her tips include separating feral kittens from their littermates and using play as a tool for giving confidence to kittens. She also notes it's important to prepare and support both fosters and adopters for potentially less socialized kittens, encouraging fosters to view the kittens through the lens of an adopter and making sure to be honest with adopters about what to expect.

If you have questions for Mariah, you can reach her at mariah.mcculley@savinganimalstoday.org. You can find out more about Animal Friends Alliance on their website.

Bridget Bowhay - Director of Content and Social Media at Cuddly Mar 09, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by TICA and Doobert.com.

This week's guest is Bridget Bowhay, Director of Content and Social Media for Cuddly, a fundraising platform that supports animal rescues. Bridget is also an avid cat lover and kitten foster.

Founded in 2014, Cuddly is a crowdfunding platform dedicated to helping nonprofit shelters and rescues achieve their fundraising goals. Their specific approach matches donors to specific animals, helping to provide medicine or supplies. Cuddly does not charge shelters for their services, but donors are able to tip Cuddly at check out. Cuddly has more than 2100 partner rescues and they have raised $20 million since their inception.

Bridget and Stacy also chat about the podcast, From Tip to Tail, that Bridget runs for Cuddly, which features different animal rescue organizations.

Visit Cuddly's website to donate or to register your nonprofit shelter or rescue. To listen to the From Tip to Tail Podcast, you can visit the podcast main page, or find them on Apple Podcasts. The episode Bridget mentions on the Little Lion Foundation can be found here.

Dr. Aysha Akhtar – Author & Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by KittySift and Doobert.com.

Aysha Akhtar, M.D., M.P.H., is a double-board certified neurologist and preventive medicine specialist, with a background in public health, and is a U.S veteran. For a decade, Dr. Akhtar was a Medical Officer at the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Akhtar is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She is the author of the two books, Our Symphony With Animals. On Health, Empathy and Our Shared Destinies and Animals and Public Health, which argues for the need for health institutions to include animals as part of the "public" in public health. Dr. Akhtar is also the founder and CEO of the Center for Contemporary Sciences.

Stacy and Dr. Akhtar discuss the importance of empathy in our society and how stopping infectious diseases, halting climate change, improving medical care, and decreasing violent crime are all connected to our empathy for animals. Increasing empathy for all animals increases our own wellbeing, which means that caring for community cats is caring for the community as a whole, and that public health models that support animals as well as people are essential to healthy communities.

Dr. Akhtar also tells Stacy about her new nonprofit, founded in May of 2020, called the Center for Contemporary Sciences. The Center for Contemporary Sciences aims to end experimental testing on animals, and create a shift toward new testing methods based on human biology. Studies have found that 95% of drugs and vaccines safe and effective in animals fail in human trials. Dr. Akhtar believes the Center for Contemporary Sciences has the potential to help end cruelty to animals in the scientific setting, as well as give us a better understanding of the diseases that affect human biology.

To find out more head over to the Center of Contemporary Sciences website. If you're interested in buying Dr. Akhtar's books, you can find links on her website. We recently reviewed Dr. Akhtar's book, Our Symphony With Animals, on our blog.

Steve Appelbaum, Creator of Animal Behavior College Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Tamadori and Doobert.com.

Steve Appelbaum has more than 40 years of dog training and pet industry experience. He is the creator of Animal Behavior College (ABC) which provides many different pet industry certifications. ABC started off with only programs for dog training but Steve noticed a big problem with cats being surrendered or euthanized for treatable behavioral problems, so he set out to fix this problem.

Steve and Stacy debunk the myth that cats can't be trained and discuss how training cats isn't about teaching obedience like it is for dogs, but actually treating behavioral problems. Steve gives some tips on how to train your cat for going to the vet and shares how enrichment and training go hand in hand. We in the animal welfare community know there is a shortage of veterinary assistants and veterinarians; Stacy and Steve talk about how ABC's veterinary assistant program is their most popular program and they expect to have 2200 students enrolled in the next year.

You can find Stacy's niece and her adventure cat on Instagram @lily.lebaron. To find out more about Animal Behavior College or to register for a course, visit their website or call 800-795-3294.

Maura Thomas - Empowered Productivity™ System Feb 16, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Tamadori and Doobert.com.

Maura Nevel Thomas is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. Maura has trained thousands of individuals at hundreds of organizations on her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System, a process for achieving significant results and living a life of choice. She is a TEDx speaker, successful entrepreneur, and author of Personal Productivity Secrets and Work Without Walls.

In this episode, Stacy and Maura talk tips for working remotely including managing attention, email best practices, guidelines for using different communication tools and apps, and how leaders can create a healthy and efficient culture at work.

They also chat about Maura's book Work Without Walls, which takes her previous book on personal productivity a step farther, helping leaders and managers create a productive environment for whole teams and organizations. Maura also has a series of bite-sized books coming out over the next year or two whose goal is to "spark impact in just one hour." These will be short reads, giving specific information in an hour or less, and they will break her Empowered Productivity™ System into individual components.

To find out more, get free resources, or buy her books you can visit Maura's website. To get access to Maura's on-demand training on empowered productivity, visit this website and use code SNEAKPEEK for a discount.

Sam Wilson - Program Director, Iowa Humane Alliance Feb 09, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by TICA and Doobert.com.

You might remember Sam Wilson, who spoke at our Online Cat Conference in January. Sam is the Program Director at Iowa Humane Alliance, a high volume spay/neuter clinic, where she manages and develops outreach programs like the Iowa Trap-Neuter-Return Resource and Assistance Program (I-TRAP).

Stacy and Sam discuss how a passion for community cats and affordable spay/neuter services led Sam to Iowa Humane Alliance, how COVID has shifted their procedures, how many cities in Iowa are passing community cat friendly ordinances to support TNR and community cats and their caretakers. They touch on mentorship programs that help spay/neuter clinics get started, and the partnerships they have with community cat organizations, shelters, and rescues.

The Iowa Trap-Neuter-Return Resource and Assistance Program helps to support TNR in the community by providing trap rentals, spay/neuter and vaccination packages, as well as training and education.

To find out more visit their website or call (319) 363-1225. To reach Sam directly, you can email her at programs@iowahumanealliance.org.

James Evans - President, CARE Feb 02, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by KittySift and Doobert.com.

This week Stacy talks to James Evans, president of CARE and multi-award winning creative strategist and leader with 25+ years of experience connecting organizations with their constituents. He has worked on numerous animal welfare projects including Gulf Spay/Neuter Campaign and HSUS' Pets for Life, Outdoor Cats Research, Stop Puppy Mills and Spayathon, as well as Best Friends Animal Society's Outreach Action Team, Maddie's Fund, and SPCA of Texas' Let's Fix This Campaign. Throughout his work, he has always advocated for more diversity and inclusion throughout the field.

James shares how he came to animal welfare organically, marrying his passions for art, mass communications, and animals, and how he discovered animal welfare was an area lacking in services for underserved communities. Stacy and James discuss how to build sustainable community development and what marginalized people bring to the table when they're included.

CARE, of Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity, is dedicated to saving companion animals through bringing more diversity into the animal welfare industry. CARE hopes to partner with passionate individuals in communities to create CARE Centers, which will help connect people in underserved communities with services from vets and shelters. Ultimately CARE will provide both needed services as well as jobs for communities.

To find out more about CARE, visit their website.

Nathan the Cat Lady, Tabby Dates Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com.

You might already know Nathan Khen from Instagram or Tik Tok, where he is known as @nathanthecatlady. Today Stacy talks to Nathan about cats (of course), building a following on social media platforms, reaching younger audience, balancing social media and mental health, the effects of COVID-19 on the world of cat rescuing, and dating as a cat person.

Nathan is an actor, cat lover, volunteer with Milo's Sanctuary and the Cat Cafe Lounge, and a spokesperson for Tabby Dates, a new dating app for cat lovers. Studies have shown that men who pose with cats in their profile pictures on dating apps are less likely to get a match. Tabby Dates eliminates that problem, as well as all negative stereotypes related to cat people, since everyone on the app is a cat person.

To find out more about Tabby Dates, visit their website or download the app from the Appstore. You can find Nathan on Instagram, Tik Tok @nathanthecatlady, Twitter, and Youtube.

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