The Community Cats Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Ep 687: Trapping Colonies, Not Cats, with Julie Morriss Community and Outreach Associate for Animal Birth Control Clinic Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

"If you're not doing targeted trapping, you're working too hard. You're working way too hard."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Jessica Dolce, Compassion Fatigue + Grief Educator.

Julie Morriss has 30 years in animal welfare behind her, but the Summerlee Sustainable Solutions Grant Program still changed how she works. After taking the Community Cat Program Management course, she brought targeted trapping home to Waco, Texas.

The results came fast. Julie walks through a 40-to-55-cat colony that reached 99% sterilization in about seven and a half months and had no new kittens this year. She also shares how she uses trap training and drop traps on the toughest cats.

Stacy and Julie also discuss who the course is for and why every town needs a community cat expert. Julie's message to everyone in the field is to keep going, because every cat counts.

Press Play Now For:

How a kid who was allergic to cats became a TNR advocate
Why Julie applied to the Summerlee Sustainable Solutions Grant Program
What an experienced trapper got out of the Community Cat Program Management course
Targeted trapping vs. "willy-nilly" TNR
Triaging calls and focusing volunteers on colonies of 10 or more
Taking a 40-to-55-cat colony to 99% in about seven and a half months
Asking caregivers to withhold food before trapping, the hardest part of the job
Setting up a kitten pathway before you start trapping
Trap training on a rural property, and when to switch to a drop trap
Who the course is for, and how many hours a week it takes
Being the town's community cat expert
Building transport relays with neighboring counties

Resources & Links

Ep 686: The Free Helpline Keeping Cats in Their Homes, with Matt Wildman, Founder and Director of National Cat Behavior Helpline Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

"In terms of surrender prevention, this is low-hanging fruit. It costs nothing."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Jessica Dolce, Compassion Fatigue + Grief Educator.

Matt Wildman grew up with as many as nine rescue dogs and didn't have a real relationship with a cat until he was 26. That's when he met his girlfriend and her six cats. One of them, Shirley, licked him on the head while he was resting, and he was smitten. Matt went from teaching high school history in Brooklyn to humane education at Animal Care Centers of NYC. Later, at a Humane World for Animals surrender-prevention program, he asked certified cat behavior consultant Beth Adelman to teach him everything she knew. Three years and dozens of cases under her mentorship turned him into a cat behaviorist.

The idea for a national helpline had been on his mind since 2013, when he built a cat behavior counseling course that trained 250 shelter and rescue staff and volunteers. Shelters kept losing their trained counselors to turnover, though, and the gap never closed. When Humane World asked him to rebuild the course, Matt saw his chance. He emailed all 250 past students, recruited his first volunteers from that list, and launched the National Cat Behavior Helpline in March. It's free for shelters and for cat owners, it runs entirely by phone, and it's built on follow-up. Volunteers keep calling until a case is resolved, and they offer practical, judgment-free advice that fits each person's time and budget.

Stacy and Matt also get into the questions shelters hear every day. They cover play aggression in under-stimulated cats, why you shouldn't adopt a second cat to fix a behavior problem, how spay/neuter can change behavior, and what to do when community cats outside the window upset the cat inside. Matt also shares his "small desert" approach to litter boxes. His request to shelters is simple: send cases his way, because keeping cats in their homes is what the helpline is for.[/one_second]

[one_second]Press Play Now For:

How a lifelong dog person became a cat behaviorist
Why so many behavior problems come from cats who aren't getting enough play
Three 10- to 15-minute play sessions a day, and how to fit them in
Why shelters should email client details to the helpline instead of just handing out the number
Follow-up as the key to resolving behavior cases
Being the cat owner's ally, especially when someone in the house wants the cat gone
When the helpline calls in a veterinary behaviorist
Spay/neuter as part of fixing behavior problems
What to do about outdoor cats that are upsetting the cat indoors
The "small desert" approach: open boxes, unscented clumping litter, scooping twice a day, and where to put the box
Whether you really need one more litter box than you have cats

Resources & Links

Email the National Cat Behavior Helpline
Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary Cat Behavior Hotline Website

Ep 685: Feeding Plans, Not Feeding Bans, with Danielle Bays, Senior Program Manager for Cat Protection and Policy at Humane World for Animals Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

"We're not hiding in back alleys in the dark at night. We're out there on the streets, on the front lines, and we're in city hall."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Jessica Dolce, Compassion Fatigue + Grief Educator.

Danielle Bays planned to be a veterinarian until a cat with his leg caught in a leghold trap was left in the parking lot of the clinic where she worked. He recovered, but the question stayed with her: how does this happen in the first place? That question led her into animal policy, and years later a family of feral cats in her new backyard brought her back to cats and to building a citywide community cat program for Washington, D.C.

In this conversation with Stacy, Danielle explains where the laws that affect cats are really made: at your city council and county commission, not in Congress. The people in those seats are your neighbors. They have a lot on their plates, and you should assume they know nothing about TNR. Her advice is to introduce yourself before there's a problem, because the first thing an official usually hears about cats is a complaint.

That's often how feeding bans happen. Danielle describes how cats get folded into wildlife feeding restrictions without anyone noticing until the ordinance has passed. She also lays out the alternative: timed meals instead of food left out, clean sites, permission from property owners, and caretakers who feel safe feeding in the open. As she points out, once you prohibit something, you can no longer monitor whether it's being done well.

Danielle and Stacy also get into return-to-field, including what sets it apart from TNR and why the updated Return-to-Field Handbook moves away from yes-or-no rules toward decisions about each individual cat. They close with the veterinary shortage and a reminder for tense times: whatever someone's politics, you can almost always find common ground by talking about cats.[/one_second]

[one_second]Press Play Now For:

Why the laws that matter most for cats are made locally
What to say to elected officials before the first complaint reaches them
How cats end up included in wildlife feeding bans
What a community feeding plan looks like in place of a ban
What to do when new, un-ear-tipped cats show up in your yard
How return-to-field differs from TNR, and who makes the decision
Why the veterinary shortage and feeding bans are both access-to-care issues
Stacy's holiday card idea for getting on your representatives' radar

Resources & Links

Ep 684: Building TNR That Lasts: A Data-Driven Model From Penang, with Daniel Leung, Co-Founder and CEO of Catsoterra Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

"In truth, we prove statistically how little funding is needed to create a real impact."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, TNR Training Workshop Presented by Neighborhood Cats, and Jessica Dolce, Compassion Fatigue + Grief Educator.

Daniel Leung got into TNR the way many of us do. He worked on a farm in college, ignored his manager's warning never to feed the stray cats, and soon had dozens of them. A local TNR group came in to help, Daniel started volunteering with them, and he kept doing the work, first in Maryland and later with a large colony at a New Jersey hotel while he was traveling as a respiratory therapist during COVID. Then a trip to Penang, Malaysia, changed everything. On an island that may be home to 70,000 to 100,000 stray cats, he saw cats at every market stall and on every street.

After several years volunteering with local groups, Daniel felt the system was stuck, so he started something new. Cats of Penang began as a small grassroots effort and has grown into Catsoterra, which is built around the problems local caretakers kept running into: no government support, high costs and prices nobody would disclose. Daniel negotiated fixed rates with partner clinics and pre-funded the surgeries. He also built an online dashboard where volunteers book appointments, track outcomes and map where the cats come from. Volunteers pay an annual membership of 60 ringgit and can bring in as many cats as they need all year. So far, nearly 900 cats have been sterilized for about US$14,000.

Stacy and Daniel talk about what scale really requires. That includes the veterinary shortage in Malaysia, the cultural habit of letting owned cats roam, and why a 10-year plan matters when you're trying to move a whole island's numbers. They also get into apathy, business partnerships and Stacy's vision of a "cat church" in every town where neighbors help one another care for community cats. Daniel's message to the field is to get out of the old models and let the data make the case.

Press Play Now For:

How a college job on a farm led Daniel to TNR
Why returning cats is a service to the neighbors who care about them
How Catsoterra brought costs down by negotiating fixed clinic rates and pre-funding surgeries
The booking dashboard and geo-mapping that turn TNR into data governments can use
An annual membership model where every ringgit goes straight to the clinic
Malaysia's veterinary shortage and why TNR at scale is "a numbers game"
Owned cats, indoor/outdoor culture and the vacuum effect
Stacy's "cat church" idea: neighbors pooling resources for community cats
Working with businesses, from a cat food sponsor to Stacy's early days with the Chamber of Commerce

Resources & Links

Catsoterra
Cats of Penang on Instagram
Windsor Animal Hospital Penang (Catsoterra's clinic partner)

Ep 683: They're Not Spicy, They're Scared - Handling Fearful and Aggressive Shelter Cats, with Berlin Waters, Founder of The Spicy Cat Project Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

"Cats aren't spicy. They're not mean. They're just scared."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Jessica Dolce, Compassion Fatigue + Grief Educator.

Berlin Waters grew up in a house full of cats, with a mom who handled TNR for the neighborhood, and she's been a cat lover ever since. That lifelong interest led her to a master's in shelter medicine, where her research focused on handling and socializing fearful and aggressive cats. The result is The Spicy Cat Project, a resource for shelters and caregivers who want a more humane, effective approach to cats with challenging behavior. Berlin is now a third-year vet student with her sights set on shelter medicine and access to care.

In this conversation with host Stacy LeBaron, Berlin explains why the cats she works with in shelters are usually owner-surrendered, not feral. They came from homes and they're simply terrified. Rather than leaving hissing cats alone to "decompress" for days or weeks, she argues for early, guided intervention that shows them things are going to be okay. She walks through her slow, step-by-step approach to a cat in a kennel, why she gave up on tools like the fake hand on a stick, and how she uses feral boxes, carriers, and thick folded towels to keep both herself and the cat safe.

Stacy and Berlin also dig into some bigger questions in cat welfare. Berlin shares why she thinks we've become over-reliant on gabapentin, which she sees as a useful adjunct but not a substitute for real socialization. Both question the value of behavioral evaluations at intake, comparing them to judging a cat's personality during a vet visit. They also touch on the possible role of pain and stress in aggressive behavior. Berlin's message to adopters and shelters is a cultural shift: a cat that hisses and growls is a scared cat, with a sweet one hiding underneath.[/one_second]

[one_second]Press Play Now For:

Why most "aggressive" shelter cats are scared house cats, not ferals
The case for early intervention instead of leaving fearful cats alone
Berlin's step-by-step method for approaching a cat in a kennel
Why she stopped using handling tools and relies on towels, carriers, and feral boxes
How fearful cats tend to do once they're in foster or adoptive homes
Where gabapentin helps, and where over-reliance can fail cats
Why behavioral evaluations at intake may not tell you much
How pain and stress may factor into challenging behavior

Resources & Links

Website: https://www.thespicycatproject.com/
Training Videos: https://www.thespicycatproject.com/training-videos
TNR Clinics: https://www.thespicycatproject.com/tnr
Shelters: https://www.thespicycatproject.com/shelters
Adoption Basics: https://www.thespicycatproject.com/adopters-fosters
Youtube Chanel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSpicyCatProject

Ep 682: Too Small Is Not a Diagnosis, with Jordyn Purpura Feline Director, Yolo County SPCA; Strategic Advisor, Orphan Kitten Club; Clinical Researcher, Vernau Laboratory at UC Davis Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

"When we say age is not a disease, we also mean it for the youngest."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Jessica Dolce, Compassion Fatigue + Grief Educator.

Jordyn Purpura started out smuggling orphaned raccoons into his childhood bedroom. Twelve years of neonatal fostering later, he's in his final year of veterinary school, chasing a gap he kept running into from both sides of the exam table: almost nothing in veterinary education begins before eight weeks of age.

As a foster parent, that gap sounded like a doctor saying there wasn't much anyone could do. As a shelter worker placing bottle babies, and sometimes being the one present for their euthanasia when no foster could be found, it looked like an entirely preventable loss.

For a long time there was a defensible reason not to push harder on kitten medicine: it doesn't matter what a veterinarian is willing to diagnose or prescribe if there's nobody to take that kitten home and feed it every two hours. Jordyn's argument is that this excuse has quietly expired. Foster networks have grown, nurseries have opened, funding has followed. What hasn't caught up is the reflex — too small for blood work, too small for imaging, too small for a medication that was never labeled for a body this size.

That reflex has a body count. Kittens remain the animals least likely to leave a shelter alive, not because their medicine is impossible but because almost no one was taught it. Jordyn is teaching it now, to veterinary technicians, to emergency teams, to his own cohort. And he'd like the rest of us to start asking for it out loud.[/one_second]

[one_second]Press Play Now For:

Why veterinary education effectively starts at eight weeks, and what that costs kittens
The emotional weight shelter staff carry when there's no foster available
Bringing tube feeding and neonatal husbandry onto hospital nursing teams
What the UC Davis famciclovir research showed about recovery times
Congenital hypothyroidism as an overlooked cause of "failure to thrive"
Getting creative with diagnostics instead of calling a kitten too small for them
How fosters and rescues can push their veterinary partners toward more
Why generational openness matters more than age when shifting practice

Resources & Links

Ep 681: Making the Case for TNR Without County Buy-In, with Eve Salimbene, President of Street Cat Project of Polk County Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

"Today's inside cat is tomorrow's outside cat."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and The Community Cat Clinic.

Eve Salimbene spent her career in the legal field before moving into animal welfare 26 years ago — and by her own admission, she was a dog person until she landed in Polk County, Florida. There she found a county with groups working on dogs and essentially nothing for cats: a high shelter kill rate, no low-cost spay/neuter anywhere in the county, and a year-round breeding season with none of the winter respite she'd known up north. She posted a question online asking what was being done. The response pulled her in, and in 2020 a brand-new group of volunteers TNR'd 133 cats. Six years later the count is roughly 6,700 — and the 133 looks like the tip of the iceberg.

The complication is that TNR isn't condoned in Polk County. The Board of County Commissioners and the sheriff who runs animal control don't believe it works, which puts Eve's team in a strange middle space: vocal enough that caregivers know they aren't alone, careful enough not to get shut down. Some of the people they've helped won't give testimonials for fear of retribution.

Eve and Stacy dig into where the cats actually come from, why Eve believes proactive municipal investment beats two more decades of trap and kill, and what a real pilot project would need to look like. Three smaller municipalities have now approached her about running one — and she's pushing for a five-year window with honest baseline numbers.

Press Play Now For:

Why running a law firm turns out to be decent preparation for animal advocacy
What it's like to lead a TNR organization in a county that officially opposes TNR
The 2020 cohort of colonies now reporting zero kittens, years later
Where Polk County's community cats actually originate — and why "transient population" is the honest answer
The tagline that reframes owned-cat spay/neuter as a community cat issue
Municipal spay/neuter funding on the move: New York City, DeKalb County, and a statewide Texas program
Eve's proposed funding mechanisms, including a one-cent sales tax and corporate donors in the Tampa–Orlando corridor
Stacy's pilot-project challenge: designate the worst zip code, hit the volume, and watch intake drop
Why three small municipalities may end up leading where the county won't

Resources & Links

Street Cat Project of Polk County
Coalition for Animal Rights and Education in Polk County (CARE) on Facebook
Contact Eve directly: contact@streetcatproject.org
Community Cat Program Management Certificate — University of the Pacific, Benerd College (next session begins September 14)
Sustainable Solutions Grant Program — United Spay Alliance
Making the Case for TNR Certification Workshop - presented by Neighborhood Cats

Ep 680: Small and Mighty: Inside Jersey City's Feral Fixers TNR Club, with Robyn Alcock & Jen Scott, Co-Founders of Feral Fixers TNR Club (Jersey City, NJ) Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

"It's okay to be small and grassroots."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and The Community Cat Clinic.

Robyn Alcock and Jen Scott joined host Stacy LeBaron to talk about Feral Fixers TNR Club, the Jersey City nonprofit they co-founded in 2024 alongside Kathryn Parker after years of trapping independently. In just two years, the all-volunteer group — who all keep full-time jobs — has helped more than 375 cats through TNR, rescue, and medical care. Much of the conversation centered on the realities of running a small "operational board" nonprofit: the governance lessons that shaped their early structure, why they held off on setting formal growth metrics in year one, and how nearly half of the cats they trap turn out to be friendly, adoptable animals rather than TNR candidates — a shift driven largely by the lack of low-cost spay/neuter access in Jersey City.

Stacy, Robyn, and Jen also dug into practical solutions: MASH-style pop-up clinic models from groups like Animal Balance and Slomba Shelter Solutions as ways to bring high-volume spay/neuter directly into underserved neighborhoods, and the fundraising path that took Feral Fixers from small individual donors to their first Mission Meow grant and a matching grant from United Spay Alliance's Community Cats Grants program at their two-year mark. It's a useful blueprint for any small, grassroots group trying to prove — as Robyn puts it — that it's okay to be small.

Press Play Now For:

How a pandemic-era trapping experience and a childhood spent bottle-feeding strays led Robyn and Jen to co-found a Jersey City nonprofit
Practical governance lessons for small, "operational board" nonprofits — board size, conflicts of interest, and keeping personal and organizational finances separate
Why nearly half of Feral Fixers' TNR trapping efforts turn into friendly-cat rescues, and how that's reshaping their workload
The transportation and appointment-access barriers keeping Jersey City residents from affordable spay/neuter MASH-style clinic models, including Animal Balance, as an option for bringing spay/neuter directly into underserved communities
How Feral Fixers built its funding base through small donors, a Mission Meow grant, and a United Spay Alliance matching grant
Stacy's framework for identifying and cultivating leadership-level donors as an organization grows
Why "altered at intake" numbers matter for understanding a community's real spay/neuter gap

Resources & Links

Feral Fixers TNR Club: https://feralfixersclub.org/
Feral Fixers TNR Club on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feralfixersclub/
United Spay Alliance Community Cats Grants: https://www.unitedspayalliance.org/community-cats-grants/
Animal Balance: https://www.animalbalance.org/
Slomba Shelter Solutions: https://slombasheltersolutions.com/

Ep 679: Running on Empty: Compassion Fatigue and Grief in TNR, with Jen Blough, LPC Licensed Professional Counselor & Author Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

"It's about knowing your limits, knowing where you are energy-wise, time-wise, resource-wise, and just doing what you can — and knowing that is enough, and that is making a difference."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Neighborhood Cats TNR Certification Workshop.

Jen Blough returns to the podcast after nearly a decade away — she was featured in the show's first fifty episodes — to talk about the work she's built in the years since: helping animal welfare professionals name and navigate the emotional toll of the field. A licensed professional counselor, former shelter worker and animal control officer, and lifelong animal advocate, Jen didn't set out to specialize in compassion fatigue. She backed into it in grad school, when a professor described the symptoms of secondary traumatic stress and she realized he was describing her own life.

Much of the conversation is spent untangling terms that get used interchangeably but aren't the same thing. Jen breaks down compassion fatigue as the combination of burnout (which comes from your environment — under-resourced organizations, systemic failures, day-to-day friction) and secondary traumatic stress (which comes from absorbing someone else's trauma, human or animal). She walks through how moral distress and moral injury fit in — the no-good-options decisions that TNR caregivers and shelter workers face constantly — and why none of these, despite how real they feel, show up in the DSM.

The back half of the conversation turns to grief, and this is where the discussion gets specific to community cat work. Jen introduces two concepts: disenfranchised grief (loss that society doesn't validate, which often includes animal loss) and ambiguous loss (grief without closure — not knowing what happened to a cat who stops showing up at a colony). Stacy and Jen talk through the real tension caregivers face around outdoor cats aging out of a colony, and how organizations can handle transparency with volunteers about euthanasia and loss without either traumatizing them or leaving them in the dark. Jen closes with practical advice on knowing your limits and recognizing that showing up in smaller ways — a donation, a shared post, a bag of food — still counts as meaningful advocacy.

Press Play Now For:

The real difference between burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, moral distress, and moral injury
Why compassion fatigue isn't a diagnosable condition, and how it can fluctuate day to day
Disenfranchised grief and why animal loss so often gets dismissed by people outside the field
Ambiguous loss — the particular grief of not knowing what happened to a cat who never returns to the feeding station
How organizations can navigate telling (or not telling) volunteers about euthanasia and cat loss
Jen's advice for recognizing your capacity and letting "not right now" be an acceptable answer
A first look at Jen's forthcoming book and new certification program for animal welfare professionals

Resources & Links

Ep 678: Ctrl+Alt+Meow: How an IT Guy Built a Home for Cat Lovers, with Darein Gray, Founder of Paw-Events.com Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

"There's not a lot of that — you don't really hear about cat parks or cat meetups. So I wanted to try and change that."

This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and The Community Cat Clinic.

Darein Gray never set out to build a pet-industry platform — he's an IT guy by trade, working in data and business analytics. But when he noticed there was no real gathering space for cat people the way there is for dog people, he taught himself the tools to build one. What started as a solo passion project has grown into Paw-Events.com, a free directory now covering 60-plus U.S. cities, connecting cat and dog lovers with adoption days, spay/neuter clinics, rescue fundraisers, cat cafés, and community meetups in one searchable place.

Host Stacy LeBaron and Darein dig into how the platform actually works for TNR and community cat programs specifically — not just the bake-sale-and-fun-run events people usually picture. Organizations running mobile spay/neuter clinics, trapping events, or vaccination and microchipping days can list by city and neighborhood, filtered so people can find exactly what's happening near them. Darein talks through how smaller grassroots groups, which often don't have the advertising muscle of a PAWS or a Humane Society, can get the same visibility as the big names — and how individuals, not just organizations, are welcome to list events too, after a basic vetting process.

The conversation also covers the platform's education side (ESA and service animal resources, vaccination info, cat training events), its city-hub structure and how organic communities form within bigger metro areas, and Darein's openness to expanding into new states and regions when local advocates reach out. For anyone doing outreach for a workshop, clinic, or trapping event, this episode is a look at a free tool built specifically to solve the "how do we get the word out" problem.

Press Play Now For:

How Paw-Events.com works as a free, searchable directory for cat and dog events across 60+ U.S. cities
Why the platform is built for TNR events, spay/neuter clinics, and microchipping days — not just adoption fairs
How smaller rescues and individual organizers can list events alongside big-name organizations
The vetting process for individuals who want to post their own events
How city "hubs" and grassroots communities naturally form on the platform
What to do if you want your city or state added to the platform
The educational resources available, including ESA/service animal info and cat training events

Resources & Links

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