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 v...
Jul 21, 2020•37 min•Ep. 361
In this episode, Stacy sits down with Sterling Davis again (she talked with him before in CCP Episode 243 ) to catch up on what he's been doing for the last couple of years. Sterling is still living up to his nickname of Trap King, doing lots of TNR in Atlanta—but he has also been busy doing educational events and shows. He has been working with scout troops—and hoping to get a TNR badge in place—and he has been touching on the issue of diversity in rescue. He shares some tips with Stacy on deal...
Jul 14, 2020•26 min•Ep. 360
In this episode, Stacy sits down with Ashley Shoults, a principal w/ Animal Arts, an architecture firm in Boulder, Colorado that specializes exclusively in the design of animal care facilities, including animal shelters, veterinary facilities, and pet boarding facilities. Ashley is currently working on the design of a new facility for PAWS Seattle and she recently co-authored a book covering all aspects of animal care design, Practical Guide to Veterinary Hospital Design. Stacy and Ashley talk a...
Jul 07, 2020•24 min•Ep. 359
In this episode, Stacy chats with Steven Morelli, CEO and founder of Waggle, a new—and very different—crowdfunding platform to help pet owners and shelters/rescues raise money for animals in need of urgent veterinary care. Steven, who has a background in finance and data analytics, found himself increasingly angry over the way various crowdfunding platforms operate. Frustrated, he decided to start Waggle to connect people who find themselves considering surrendering or euthanizing their beloved ...
Jun 30, 2020•26 min•Ep. 358
Stacy talks with Elizabeth Finch, a member of the board of directors and full-time marketing and communications volunteer at Good Mews Animal Foundation in Marietta, Georgia. Elizabeth comes from a varied professional background and began donating her time to Good Mews after early retirement. "It's my full-time gig," she tells Stacy, "and I love it more than anything I've ever done." Stacy and Elizabeth discuss Good Mews's five-year-old shelter, which is focused on cage-less space, as well as an...
Jun 23, 2020•23 min•Ep. 357
In this episode, Stacy talks with Mary Howard, the community cat coordinator at McKamey Animal Center in Chattanooga, TN. The program started in 2018 with a grant from Best Friends Animal Society and since inception, the organization's return to habitat releases has gone up by 145%. Stacy and Mary discuss the many programs McKamey offers, including a barn cat program, kitten nursery, trapping services, a pet food bank, low-cost vaccine clinics, and an on-site feral colony for cats that cannot sa...
Jun 16, 2020•24 min•Ep. 356
Stacy sits down with Mary Tan, owner and chief storyteller at Whisker Media, a boutique strategic communications agency that focuses on marketing and public relations for pet-related businesses and animal welfare nonprofits. Mary, who previously worked as a news reporter and in government communications, is also the public relations manager for Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, Minnesota, which is one of the country's largest open-admission shelters. Mary and Stacy talk about why it's impo...
Jun 09, 2020•32 min•Ep. 355
Karen Little, featured previously on CCP Episode 17 and Episode 112 , joins Stacy to discuss the new things going on with the organization she and her husband founded in Louisville, Kentucky in 1999, Alley Cat Advocates. In the 21 years since its inception, ACA has altered over 50,000 community cats and has worked to transform the culture of care provided to community cats in the region. Stacy and Karen talk a bit about how Karen and her husband came to the idea of TNR and starting ACA, and abou...
Jun 02, 2020•25 min•Ep. 354
In this episode, Marian Pekar, a software developer based in the Czech Republic, joins Stacy to talk about My Nine Lives, a game he is developing to raise money for cat-related charities. Marian became involved in cat charities after adopting Max, a stray kitten, and earlier this year, he decided to use his skills and passion to find a way to help support those charities. Marian and Stacy discuss My Nine Lives, in which the player takes on the role of a cat trying to survive by hunting prey and ...
May 26, 2020•17 min•Ep. 353
Stacy sits down with Lora O'Connor, Executive Director of The National Kitten Coalition (NKC), in this episode to talk about the organization, and about its partnership with Community Cats Podcast on the Online Kitten Conference. Lora has been working in animal welfare for 20 years and is an animal behaviorist. She talks about how things were for cats 20 years ago, and how she felt cats just weren't getting the same resources dogs were. "We needed to elevate their status," Lora says. Lora and St...
May 19, 2020•22 min•Ep. 352
In this episode, Dean Killingbeck of Pets Strong CBD joins Stacy to discuss CBD and Pet Strong's products. Born and raised on a farm, Dean developed a deep appreciation of nature and herbal medicine, and when his senior dog began to develop mobility issues, Dean decided to try CBD. The results were positive, but Dean was dismayed by the quality of products available for pets, and by the misinformation, he found online. So he decided to start his own company and write a book to help educate pet o...
May 12, 2020•22 min•Ep. 351
The multi-talented Arden Moore joins Stacy in this episode to discuss all things C-A-T. Arden is a radio show host, author, professional speaker, editor, media consultant, dog/cat behavior consultant, and a master pet first aid instructor. She and Stacy discuss the details of her podcast, Oh Behave, hosted by PetLifeRadio and selected by Oprah as one of her top three favorite pet podcasts for the past two years. Arden was a reporter and editor at a major newspaper for 20 years before she got int...
May 05, 2020•22 min•Ep. 350
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 ...
Apr 28, 2020•26 min•Ep. 349
Award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker Tina Traster, previously featured on CCP Episode 186 , joins Stacy again to update us on her documentary, Catnip Nation. The film advocates for TNR through the stories of four Good Samaritans caring for community cats around the country. Since being on CCP a couple of years ago, Tina has taken Catnip Nation on the film festival circuit, where it won several awards and has successfully landed a distributor. The documentary is available on DVD, and T...
Apr 21, 2020•20 min•Ep. 348
In this episode, HSUS Senior Analyst for Cat Protection & Policy Danielle Bays joins Stacy to talk about what's going on in the world of cat policy issues. Danielle, who has chatted with Stacy in CCP Episode 55 , Episode 261 , and Episode 293 , also shares details about the upcoming HSUS Expo conference. The conference will be held in San Antonio May 6–9 and will feature a whole track devoted specifically to cats. Stacy & Danielle goes on to talk about the major focus lately in the U.S. ...
Apr 14, 2020•22 min•Ep. 347
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 a...
Apr 07, 2020•21 min•Ep. 346
In this episode, Stacy chats with Elaine Spencer and Melanie Gardner from T-Town TNR, an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to resolving the feline overpopulation crisis in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Since 2015, the organization has spay/neutered over 3,700 cats. Elaine is the group's lead support for grant writing, and together, she and Melanie serves as the group's IT consultants. Elaine and Melanie talk with Stacy about how they became involved with TNR, and with T-Town in particular, and they discuss t...
Mar 31, 2020•27 min•Ep. 345
In this episode, Stacy speaks with Alisse Russell, founder and executive director of Puff (Paws Up for Felines) Cat Rescue, Inc., a recently launched grassroots group with an ambition to grow into a nationwide rescue network. Puff Cat is dedicated to helping solve community cat overpopulation, and Alisse, who currently works in the human mental health field, is working toward becoming a humane education specialist. Alisse and Stacy discuss what Puff Cat hopes to do, which is to reach smaller, in...
Mar 24, 2020•20 min•Ep. 344
In this episode, Stacy talks with Lori Behrman, who runs the day-to-day operations of the Toby Project, including the mobile spay/neuter clinic. Lori has been with the Toby Project since Day One, and she considers her work not just a job, but a mission. She tells Stacy about how Dr. Andy Kaplan, founder of the Toby Project ( CCP Episode 339 ) inspired her to get involved eleven years ago, and about how much she has learned since then about the concepts of spay/neuter, no-kill, and pet overpopula...
Mar 17, 2020•25 min•Ep. 343
In this episode, Stacy chats with community cat caretaker Debbie Chatenever, who walks several miles each day to feed the community cats in her area. Debbie gets the cats the medical care they need at her own expense, and she shares with Stacy the story of how she got involved with caring for her local community cats. Stacy and Debbie also discuss how beneficial a support network could be for Debbie and others like her, and they talk about Debbie's strong belief that there needs to be accountabi...
Mar 10, 2020•19 min•Ep. 342
Jill Tucker, CAWA and CEO of the California Animal Welfare Association (CalAnimals), joins Stacy in this episode to talk about her career in animal welfare, which stretches back to 2002. They talk about how Jill ended up in animal welfare after being in the software industry for many years. Jill & Stacy also discuss CalAnimals—how it came to be, the role it plays in the state, and how Jill came to be in a leadership role there. They talk about the diversity of resources in California and the...
Mar 03, 2020•26 min•Ep. 341
Britney Fox Hover, the shelter director at the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society (MRFRS) in Salisbury, Massachusetts, began at MRFRS as a volunteer in 2009. In addition to now running the group's shelter and medical programs, Brit also oversees the adoption program, including a very successful Feline Leukemia (FeLV+) adoption program. Brit and Stacy talk a bit about how Brit came to love cats and get involved at MRFRS, and about MRFRS's history and programs and what makes the organization un...
Feb 25, 2020•23 min•Ep. 340
In this episode, Stacy speaks with Dr. Andrew Kaplan, the veterinarian behind New York City's The Toby Project. Andrew has been an animal advocate since he was a child. Stacy & Andrew discuss Andrew's journey to becoming a vet and how he came to learn about and become involved in pet overpopulation—including the touching story of Toby, the dog who put a face on the overpopulation issue for Andrew. The Toby Project has a mobile spay/neuter clinic that splits its time between doing surgeries f...
Feb 18, 2020•32 min•Ep. 339
Mario Abore, the founder and owner of Square Paws, a cat furniture design company, sits down with Stacy to talk about how Square Paws came to be. Mario, an architect by trade, designs all the furniture as art that your cat can inhabit, and it is all hand-crafted in the United States. Square Paws donates 10% of their proceeds to animal welfare. Stacy and Mario discuss the free-roaming cat rooms that Square Paws designed for the North Shore Animal League America in partnership with Beth Stern, in ...
Feb 11, 2020•21 min•Ep. 338
Jeff Parks, a comedy writer by trade, wasn't introduced to the world of cats until he was in his 30s, but once he was, there was no going back. He quickly turned into a "cat person," and became intrigued by the ways in which cats show their affection. Finding mostly scientific answers, he began using his comedy background to come up with funny ways cats show their love that wouldn't be found in any official studies. Soon, he decided to pursue the idea as an illustrated book and began working wit...
Feb 04, 2020•21 min•Ep. 337
In this episode, Stacy sits down with Will Zweigart, founder of Flatbush Cats, a nonprofit focused on reducing the outdoor cat population in central Brooklyn, New York through TNR and rescue work. Flatbush Cats teaches TNR classes and offers support and resources for trappers. They are also launching a mobile spay/neuter clinic pilot program to support low-income residents, a project done in partnership with the Toby Project . Stacy & Will talk about the work Flatbush Cats does and the organ...
Jan 28, 2020•26 min•Ep. 336
Stacy sits down with Dr. Sara Pizano (a previous CCP guest on Episode 56 , Episode 171 , and Episodes 246 and 247 ) to discuss Dr. Pizano's new book, The Best Practice Playbook for Animal Shelters. The book is a result of the more than 100 assessments Dr. Pizano has done at shelters around the country as a Team Shelter USA consultant. She realized that the shelters she was working with were all struggling with the same issues. More importantly, she realized that the solutions needed to decrease ...
Jan 21, 2020•24 min•Ep. 335
In this episode, Stacy speaks with Hasara Lay, founder of Catexplorer, a community, movement, and lifestyle brand for people who explore the world with their cats. Hasara, who is located in Australia, began exploring with her cat as a child and never stopped. When she and her husband adopted two rescue cats, she started Catexplorer as a repository for information on training cats to be explorers, but it has since expanded into more of an online community for those who like to explore with their ...
Jan 14, 2020•21 min•Ep. 334
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. Co...
Jan 07, 2020•23 min•Ep. 333
Julia Grosz earned the nickname "Cat Hustler" due to her ability to match cats and adopters through strategic copywriting and social media use. So it was only natural that when she developed her skills into a teachable set of cat marketing practices, she would name her organization Cat Hustler. The nonprofit specializes in creative marketing for shelter cats and also hosts community-building events like The Acatemy, a cat conference "for rescuers, by rescuers." The next Acatemy will be held Janu...
Dec 31, 2019•20 min•Ep. 332
