The Community Cats Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Allen Kamrava, Eusoh Jan 19, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com.

Our guest this week, Allen Kamrava, has an impressive and widely varied resume focused on both business and medicine. Dr. Kamrava is a colorectal and general surgeon and the founder and CEO of Eusoh, a powerful platform working to change the insurance industry by helping pet owners afford their vet bills.

Eusoh is an online community of pet lovers committed to helping each other with unexpected vet bills. It is an alternative to pet insurance, which Dr. Kamrava notes, only about 1% of pet owners have, though 67% of Americans have a pet in their household.

Stacy and Dr Kamrava talk about how Eusoh is committed to creating a more transparent and efficient system, reducing economic euthanasia, and building partnerships with employers to offer Eusoh memberships to employees in benefit or perks packages.

To find out more, or to get signed up, visit Eusoh's website.

Mikaela Fleisher, PennyFix Jan 12, 2021

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com.

Mikaela Fleisher is the secretary for a nonprofit spay and neuter organization called PennyFix. She has been involved in animal rescue since 2009, volunteering with various organizations as well as working as a receptionist at a busy animal hospital.

Stacy and Mikaela discuss PennyFix, an organization founded in 2017 whose goal is to partner with pet food companies to add one penny to the cost of each can or bag of pet food sold to fund spay and neuter as well as rabies and distemper vaccines. This would help to take the burden of federal and local governments to help fund spay and neuter. The organization is still young but so far PennyFix has funded 15 clinics in 11 states and they hope to grow to cover the whole United States.

This episode also delves into identifying areas of greatest need for spay and neuter services, the shortage of funding for those services, and the growing trend of animal shelters with food pantries partnering with human food pantries to make sure people are able to feed their pets during the hardships of COVID-19.

To find out more, visit PennyFix's website. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Dr. Michael Blackwell, Director of the Program for Pet Health Equity, University of Tennessee Jan 05, 2021

Show notes

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

Our guest this week has a very impressive bio. Dr. Michael Blackwell had a doctorate of veterinary science as well as a masters in public health. He directs the Program for Pet Health Equity at the University of Tennessee, chairs the Access to Veterinary Care Coalition, and serves as a member of the HSVMA Board of Directors. In the past he has served as dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee, the chief of staff at the Office of the Surgeon General of the U.S., the deputy director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Food and Drug Administration, and the chief veterinary officer of the U.S. Public Health Service and The Humane Society of the United States. During 23 years of active duty, he achieved the rank of Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He has owned two private practices and has received numerous awards and recognitions.

Dr. Blackwell chats with Stacy about how veterinary practice and public health can work together to provide a fuller picture of how animals and people are intertwined. Dr. Blackwell's mission is to increase access to veterinary care to families with limited means. He bases his work on the "One Health" paradigm which works to address the needs of people, their pets, and their ecosystem holistically. He has launched Align Care, a conceptual healthcare system that works from this principle and provides for families that have both human and animal members.

Stacy and Dr. Blackwell talk the billion dollar question of funding and how community cats and spay/neuter initiatives fit into the future of Dr. Blackwell's work.

To find out more about Align Care and the Program for Pet Health Equity, visit their website.

Best of 2020 - Holly Ganz, Animal Biome Dec 29, 2020

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com's FosterSpace.

In this episode, Stacy chats with Holly Ganz, Ph.D., a micro-ecologist who studies how microbes and mammals interact, with a specific interest in the role that the gut microbiome plays in gastrointestinal (GI) conditions in cats and dogs.

In 2015, Holly founded Animal Biome to create better diagnostics and therapeutics for cats and dogs with GI conditions. She and Stacy discuss how she became interested in this field, and the Kitty Biome Kickstarter that began the whole thing. They review what the term gut microbiome means and how all this relates to animal welfare work.

Today, Animal Biome offers microbiome testing and fecal transplant capsules for dogs and cats that can be given at home. Holly explains what a fecal transplant is, how it works, and what conditions it can be helpful for, and she discusses what's ahead for Animal Biome.

To learn more, visit the Animal Biome website, where you can find all of their products, as well as a new article on a potential cure for FIP. You can also read a reporter's chronicle of using Animal Biome's fecal transplant capsules in his cat with GI lymphoma.

Best of 2020 - Dr. Bob Weedon, TLC PetSnip & Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

In this information-packed episode, Stacy sits down with Dr. Bob Weedon, a retired veterinarian who is still going strong as a volunteer at the TLC PetSnip low-cost clinic in Lakeland, FL, a board member of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats & Dogs (ACC&D), and in other volunteer posts. Bob worked in private practice and also spent many years teaching in the shelter medicine program at the University of Illinois, including teaching high-quality high-volume spay/neuter techniques to veterinary students. He also holds a Master's degree in public health. Along the way, he also became involved in TNR. "I just recognized there was such a need," he says, "and that I had the tools that… could address that need."

Stacy and Bob discuss why the "V" in trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) is so crucial, both for the cats and for proving the value of TNVR programs to community leaders and officials. He discusses the concept of herd immunity in relation to rabies, and also goes into great detail about cats and toxoplasmosis—including how to talk with public health officials about it.

Bob also discusses his work with ACC&D and with the National Feline Research Council (NFRC–an "unbiased central repository of evidence-based information"). He tells Stacy how gratifying it is to be able to provide vet care to folks who can't afford it, and how his own views have changed over the years from feeling like low-income pet owners shouldn't have pets at all to realize how important pets can be to those folks' mental health and well-being.

To learn more about the organizations Dr. Weedon volunteers for, visit the ACC&D website, the NFRC website, and the TLC PetSnip website. You can also check out Dr. Weedon's presentation entitled "Better Together—TNVR and Public Health," or email him directly with questions or help with resources.

Best of 2020 - Julie Posluns, Cat School Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Stacy sits down with Julie Posluns, the founder and owner of Cat School, an online training school for cats that uses clicker training to teach fun and practical behaviors and strengthen the bond between cats and their human in the process.

Julie, who is a trained animal behaviorist, worked entirely with dogs until a small black kitten showed up at her back door. The cat, now called Jones, convinced the humans and the dogs in the family that he should stay—and he soon showed an interest in the training Julie was doing with her dogs. Julie began training Jones as well, and the rest is history!

Stacy and Julie talk about what clicker training is, what its benefits are, and how this kind of enrichment differs from other types. (Hint: This kind is good for both of you!) Julie explains that clicker training is based on positive reinforcement, and she talks about what her program consists of, how the plan works, and how it can work in different situations (training for fun vs. training for behavior medication, for instance).

They also talk about how training can work with multiple cats, how it can work in shelter environments, and about training cats to wash on a leash/harness or ride in a backpack or stroller.

To learn more (or to enroll), visit the Cat School website. You can also check out their Instagram page to see lots of fun videos, including a free tutorial on how to teach your cat to fist bump.

Best of 2020 - Camille Labchuk, Animal Justice Dec 08, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Stacy is joined by Camille Labchuk, an animal rights lawyer and the executive director of Animal Justice, Canada's only animal law advocacy organization. Camille also hosts the Animal Justice's Paw & Order podcast, which was reviewed in the CCP blog back in February.

Stacy and Camille discuss what's going on in Canada with regard to cats, including the fact that, as Camille puts it, "People are really waking up to the idea that cat declawing shouldn't be a practice that we allow any more in society." Stacy and Camille also chat about community cats in Canada, how Camille would like to see the government give more support to community cat-related issues, and about the relatively new legal concept of putting an animal at risk.

To learn more, visit the Animal Justice website, where you can also link to the Paw & Order podcast. You can find out more about Animal Justice's conferences, which are open to everyone—not just lawyers—at the Canadian Animal Law Conference website.

Best of 2020 – Dr. Jennifer Conrad, The Paw Project Dec 01, 2020

Show notes

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

In this episode, Dr. Jennifer Conrad, who founded The Paw Project in 1999, joins Stacy to discuss the organization's mission to end declawing in the U.S. & Canada, using education, research, and legislation. The Paw Project is made up completely of veterinarians and the group compiled the evidence, drafted the legislation, composed the language of the legislation, built the coalition of support, and obtained the representatives for every law prohibiting declawing in the U.S.

Stacy and Dr. Conrad discuss the surprising way Dr. Conrad became interested in ending declawing and educating people everywhere on its devastating effects on cats. "Declawing is a misnomer," Dr. Conrad tells Stacy. "It is really more appropriately called de-knuckling. It is the amputation of a toe bone." They discuss the behavioral issues of biting and litter box avoidance that declawed cats have been shown to be prone to, and they talk about the organization's new "Claw-Friendly" certification for veterinary practices that do not perform declaw surgeries.

With legislation banning declawing passed recently in New York, and more bills in the works around the country, Dr. Conrad encourages listeners to join The Paw Project's mailing list to stay in the loop on action needed regarding legislation in their area. She notes that, "There is a reason that we need to ban declawing: It actually saves cats' lives … If we could get these bans all across the United States, we would be saving millions of cats' lives."

To learn more, visit The Paw Project's website. You can also find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or check out their documentary, The Paw Project on the App Store, Google Play, YouTube, and Amazon Instant.

Brad Kriser, Founder of Kriser's Natural Pet Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com.

This week's guest is Brad Kriser, founder of Kriser's Natural Pet and Chief Education Officer of Independent Pet Partners. Brad lives in LA with his family and a menagerie of rescued animals.

Stacy and Brad chat about Brad's role with Independent Pet Partners and how he promotes education around natural pet food both within the company and out in the community. They talk about the 5 Pillars of Wellness, developed with the University of Denver, which include nourishment, play, comfort, companionship and purpose. Brad also shared the great resource Things My Human Knows, a fillable document to leave with a pet-sitter when you go away, or to have on hand in the event of an emergency.

You can find their natural food retailers around the country at Kriser's (California, Illinois, Texas and Colorado), Chuck and Don's (Colorado), Loyal Companion (East Coast), and Natural Pawz (Texas).

Susan Russell, Writer, Attorney, Animal Advocate Nov 17, 2020

Show notes

This episode is sponsored in part by Doobert.com.

Founding member of Archimedes' Printing Shoppe and Sundry Goodes, Susan Russell has had diverse experience as a writer, attorney, and animal advocate. She has led municipal animal shelters in Chicago and Philadelphia, worked as a litigator, and published an array of books including A Ruff Road Home: The Court Case Dogs of Chicago, several children's books, and the new series Gata Unbound.

Susan and Stacy discuss Susan's newest book series (co written with Lucy Nolan and illustrated by Katy Lacy), Gata Unbound: A Series for Ailurophiles of all Ages. Volume One of the series features two stories, Klein's Weird Evening & Archimedes' Ear. This series aims to introduce children to the important topic of TNR. Stacy and Susan finish up their interview with the importance of bringing joy, humor and kindness to our lives.

To buy Gata Unbound, you can head over to the Archimedes' Printing Shoppe and Sundry Goodes website; you can also find them on their Facebook page. A Ruff Road Home: The Court Case Dogs of Chicago can be found here. Susan's children's books can be found on Amazon: We Can't Go There. We're Bears, Shelter Dog Kisses, and Mr. Bird and Mr. Cat: How 'Bout That.

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