"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 (the helpline's nonprofit home)

"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

• HumanePro
• Fighting Community Cat Feeding Bans
• Return-to-Field Handbook
• Humane Policy Toolkit
• Email Danielle Bays

"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)