1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,400 Hello everyone and welcome to the within range coaching podcast. I'm Ranger, certified holistic 2 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:15,600 success coach. And in this podcast, I'm bringing down the journey that entrepreneurs face as they 3 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:20,880 start their organization, find solutions to the roadblocks in their way and create an impact that 4 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:26,560 lasts. So if you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader or purpose driven community member that 5 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:31,600 wants to learn how to grow your impact and develop yourself as the person behind the mission, 6 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:36,960 then this podcast is for you. I know you're just as eager to get started as I am. So let's jump 7 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:45,600 right in. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening everybody. And welcome to today's episode 8 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:51,680 of the within range coaching podcast. Now guys, I've been posting about a certain new addition 9 00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:58,720 to the within range coaching team on social media and that is Julian eyes brand new kitten Walker. 10 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:06,080 Walker Oak Keelak joined our team just about a week and a half ago or so. I believe it was 11 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:13,280 May 10th. I had just gotten into Oklahoma, dropped some stuff off at my host family's house for the 12 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:18,480 night. And I was like, Hey, I'm going to do a few more miles tonight, just to really crank it out. 13 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:21,680 They're like, Oh, are you sure you don't want to just rest up? And I'm like, you know, no, it's 14 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:28,800 fine. I'm just going to try to get as many miles as I can. And, but no more than two or three miles 15 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:33,200 in, I was walking on the side of the highway, editing a YouTube video, singing a song out loud. 16 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:40,640 When I heard a little meow coming from the left, I looked over, heard it again, looked down. And 17 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:46,000 that's when I first saw the little black kitten that is now the, what I've been calling the 18 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:52,640 development ambassador for within range coaching or little fundraising guru. And yeah, no, I took 19 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,640 him back to my host family's house. Um, when their neighbors said that she could watch him for a few 20 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:02,880 days while Julie and I decided whether or not we wanted to care for him. I said, I'm 95% sure we're 21 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:09,280 keeping the kitten, but you go and hold onto him for now. We'll go from there. Um, called my fiance, 22 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:14,320 we chitter chatted for a few minutes and we were both pretty much solidly in agreement that we were 23 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:19,040 committed to getting the kitten. We just needed to figure it out. We haven't almost figured out 24 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:23,040 at the time of recording. The plan is that she'll fly out to Oklahoma, pick the kitten up from my 25 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:29,280 grandma and fly back. But really the today's episode, of course, we're, we're joined by a 26 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:36,560 kitten and cat rescue. And the reason for that is as I was walking the next few days and thinking 27 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:43,680 about the cat and the kitten, I was thinking about my experience at the reptile rescue and how I feel 28 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:49,280 like most, most of the problems, and I'm sure our guests today will let me know how correct I am on 29 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:56,800 this. Most of our problems with the feral cat dog, um, issue that we have in the country really does 30 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:01,760 stem from spaying and neutering your pets. Uh, what was it? Bob Barker on the wheel of fortune 31 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,200 at the end of every episode would mention, you know, help control the pet population, get your 32 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:10,560 pet spayed and neutered. And I feel like it's such a simple, I can hear Mary Kate laughing and, 33 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:16,880 you know, I feel like it's such a simple solution that really isn't, not that it's, not that it's 34 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:22,000 free, not that it's cheap, but it's an inexpensive way to really prevent these issues from happening. 35 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,840 And I'm pretty sure that Walker, there's a good chance if he wasn't a feral cat, then he was dumped 36 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:32,880 and abandoned on the side of the road. And whether that was his case specifically or not, I do know 37 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,440 that that does happen pretty regularly. And I'm sure our guests will be able to shed some light 38 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:43,760 on that in the region that she's from. But anyway, that's the background for this episode and why I 39 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:49,360 was so excited to finally get someone on the show that can speak to it and tell me what's actually 40 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:55,920 going on rather than the things I make up when I'm walking in 90 degree heat at 3 PM on a Tuesday. 41 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:03,040 But anyway, without further ado, I'd like to welcome today's guest, Miss Mary Kate, who is 42 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:09,200 the vice president of the Floyd felines rescue in Georgia. Mary Kate, how are you doing today? 43 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,960 I am doing well and I'm sitting here having a cup of coffee with one of my house full of cats 44 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:21,360 myself, because when you work in rescue, you can't go home without cats. So here I am. This is how I 45 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:26,160 spend my afternoon, but I'm glad to be here. We really appreciate you contacting us and I'm really 46 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:31,360 happy to be here. So thanks for inviting me. Yeah, no problem at all. And I don't know, I've talked 47 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:35,920 about this a few times before, but just how fun and great social media is. I just made a post 48 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:40,240 ranting about how easy it is to get your pet spayed and neutered to prevent these issues. 49 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:45,840 One of the gals that's been following me since the very beginning tagged the I think the president 50 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:49,600 for is that? Yeah, yeah, Chris. 51 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:55,120 Had Christie and was like, hey, he's looking for a cat rescue to interview. And Christie was like, 52 00:04:55,120 --> 00:05:01,920 who the heck is this guy? And you know, then the the woman who tagged her explained and I reached 53 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:08,480 out to her and we chatted. And yeah, I mean, just looking at your guys as socials and the work you 54 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,720 guys are doing, I'm so glad that I made that post and was able to find you guys because you guys are 55 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:19,040 you're legit. You're not just some run out of the house glorified animal hoarder that calls 56 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:22,800 himself a rescue. Like if you're on the just a minute ago, we're talking about you have a 57 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:27,520 just a minute ago, we're talking about you have a facility in a building. But we do. 58 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:33,440 But let's put a pin in that for a second. I'm rambling now. But Mary Kate, can you just kind 59 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,760 of share what your intention is for today's episode and give us a little bit of background 60 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:42,000 about you? Sure. And I've already told you once that I tend to ramble too. So if you want to 61 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:48,480 interrupt me and shift gears, you're more than welcome to do that. We Floyd Phelan started on 62 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:55,440 paper, I guess, if you would say we incorporated in 2015, we were kind of a loosely connected group 63 00:05:55,440 --> 00:06:01,200 of people who had learned that our animal control here in Floyd County, we're in Northwest Georgia, 64 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:06,400 we're in a little town called Rome. And we're at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And our 65 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:12,640 county is Floyd County. Floyd County 10 years ago, had the third highest intake of cats in the state 66 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:20,080 of Georgia. And 75% of those cats were euthanized weekly. And, you know, they say that that if you 67 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:25,840 have the right people in the right place at the right time, you can affect change and you can. 68 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:31,520 And I think that awareness, if I had to choose what, what I wanted people to hear tonight from 69 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:41,040 you and I talking, is that is how powerful awareness can be and what awareness of a situation or an 70 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:46,400 event or you know, in our case, just the whole animal welfare landscape here being aware of what 71 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:51,920 was happening was a catalyst for really big things to come. And we did have the right people in the 72 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:57,360 right place at the right time, we had people who wanted our community to be better than that. 73 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:03,280 75% of cats coming into a shelter and being euthanized every week is that's terrible. 74 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,480 It's I don't care who you are, how you feel about animals, it's terrible. And it's I think a 75 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,640 community can do better. And we had enough people in our group who felt that the community could 76 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:18,880 do better. But if your community is going to be better, we had to be better. If you want it to be 77 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:25,680 better, you have to be better. So we sort of loosely formed a group and Christy had a connection with 78 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:32,720 another licensed rescue out of another community about an hour away. And she said, we want to get 79 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:37,040 some of these cats out of the shelter, what do we do? And they sort of said, you know, use our 80 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:42,880 license, you can be a foster under our license, you can pull these cats, get some cats out. 81 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:48,080 And we started doing that. And we had we had no facility, we had our own houses, and we had 82 00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:53,360 sheds, and we had garages, and we got crates, and we got, you know, we just got the basics. And 83 00:07:53,360 --> 00:08:00,160 that's how we started. And we started just simply trying to save lives, because there were so many, 84 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:05,680 just thousands of adoptable healthy animals being euthanized in the shelter. And so 85 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:10,640 that's how we started. But I think, you know, you mentioned seeing Walker on the side of the road, 86 00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:17,120 your little kitten, and I don't even know how many cats have come to us that way. They're everywhere. 87 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:22,960 And we're in the rural south, we're in Georgia, you do have to fight, I think there's a certain 88 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:29,920 mentality still in the in rural areas, you have a lot of farmland, we still have people who think 89 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:36,240 we still have people who think that cats are their yard pets, they're just they're just, you just put 90 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:42,240 them in the backyard, they're mousers, they're not, they really are not pets. And until recently, we 91 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:48,960 had zero low cost spay neuter options in our community. But this area, it's not a wealthy area. 92 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:54,080 With the economy being the way it is, you know, when when people are having to choose between 93 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:59,680 buying groceries and taking their cat to the vet, the cat's not going to go to the vet when it costs 94 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:05,760 $250 to get that cat fixed, and they're trying to feed their children. So you have a lot of different, 95 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:13,040 a lot of different things going on there. For the spay neuter is simple. If we don't spay a neuter 96 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:17,600 out in the community, it's never going to change at that shelter level. The shelters are always 97 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:25,040 going to continue to have thousands of animals coming in. So what we did, and let me mention this 98 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:33,120 too, I think in rescue, we see things in rescue that other people find invisible other the general 99 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:40,960 public has no idea that a female cat can have three litters in one year. They have no idea that 100 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:47,680 that female cat in five years time can produce 20,000 descendants. They don't know that. We know 101 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:53,520 that. Yeah, look up there's something called the cat. I think it's called the cat pyramid. It kind 102 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:59,440 of gives you a breakdown of you take a male cat and a female cat and they breed and then their 103 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:05,280 offspring. And if all those cats live and you get down to like, I don't know, in six years time, 104 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:10,320 and you've got like 400,000 cats, I mean, they don't, they're not all going to survive. But 105 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:17,520 the numbers are outrageous. They are real and shelters can't keep up with that. And, 106 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:22,800 you know, shelters, the most county municipal shelters are not rescue oriented. They're just 107 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:28,560 not. They do a job that they're paid to do. They are paid to take in the animals, find something 108 00:10:28,560 --> 00:10:34,400 to do with those animals. And if they don't have the support of a rescue, in our experience, most 109 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:39,840 county shelters are as good as the rescues that are supporting them. And there's a lot more that 110 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:44,640 goes along with that. Yeah. And if I can, if I can jump in there with you for just a second, 111 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:51,440 with the with the euthanization of I guess, so many animals and adoptable pets, you know, there's, 112 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:56,560 it sounds like there's nothing wrong with the cats. It sounds like there's just so many of them that 113 00:10:56,560 --> 00:11:02,000 there's no other option. Like what, can you explain a little bit more about what it means to be like 114 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:06,960 a kill shelter versus a no kill? Like why, why do they have to put so many down? Like what is the 115 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:12,400 reasoning regardless of feelings, I guess? There are, there are not enough homes for all the animals 116 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:17,280 that come in. If you think about, for instance, here in Floyd County, we take in the, all of the 117 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:25,280 animals that come in to our shelter. Let's say we take in, we've taken in 200. Our county, our 118 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:29,520 community is producing those animals. There are not enough people in this county who are going to 119 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:35,360 come back and adopt those animals. There's just not enough homes. What we do and what we do and 120 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:42,480 what our shelter has done is we provide rescue transports. Are you familiar with that term? 121 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:48,960 Rescue transports, no. Okay, rescue transport means we have, I'll use us as an example, we have a 122 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:56,960 rescue partner in Delaware and she in turn has a connection with the rescue in Maryland. So we have 123 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:02,000 an option now, we send rescue transports. The cats have to be healthy. They have to have a health 124 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:06,560 certificate. They have to be vaccinated. If they're old enough to be spayed, they have to be spayed 125 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:13,280 and have a rabies shot. We send those cats on, we have a van. Those cats go about once a month to 126 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:20,960 our rescue contact, our rescue partner in the northeast where this rescue has 30 PetSmart stores 127 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:28,400 and they take, they specifically exist to pull animals from the high kill shelters in the south. 128 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:36,560 What constitutes a no kill shelter is that if you can, if you're a live outcome, 129 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:42,400 a live outcome meaning adoptions or exiting through a rescue transport, if you're, 130 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:49,360 if that percentage is, if you're, I'm going to say it backwards if I'm not careful, if 95% 131 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:54,640 of what you take in, the animals you take in, if they leave alive, that's called a live outcome 132 00:12:54,640 --> 00:13:00,320 percentage. If you euthanize less than 5% of that total, then you're a no kill shelter. Our shelter, 133 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:07,360 did that make sense? Yeah. Okay. So yeah. So if they, if 95% of the animals leave alive, 134 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:11,840 they're considered no kill shelter. It's a no kill shelter. If they are euthanizing less than 5%, 135 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:17,440 5% or less of the total animals that have gone through intake into their shelter, then they are 136 00:13:17,440 --> 00:13:24,480 a no kill shelter. And that 5% is usually animals who come in that are two six feet tall, five 137 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:31,120 six to be helped. They've been hit by a car or, you know, where we live, it might be a raccoon 138 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:35,360 that somebody found, you know, half dead on the road and brought in. I was going to ask for 139 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:41,200 clarification. Like what about, and that 5% accounts for the animals that come in that are 140 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:46,560 injured that are on the brink of death anyway, or have a disease. I know, I know what is it? 141 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:52,320 Yellow fungus is something that reptiles can get. That's kind of considered a, right, euthanizing 142 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:58,160 worthy disease. So I figured that that would come into play with some, some other mammals like cats 143 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:04,560 and dogs. It does, it does. But now our shelter, the same shelter that had the third highest intake 144 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:10,400 of cats in the state 10 years ago and was euthanized in 75% of those. Our shelter for now, 145 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:17,360 we have an extra penny tax in this county. It's called a special purpose local option sales tax. 146 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:22,800 And we voted one year to use that money to build a new shelter, a new animal control shelter. It 147 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:28,560 has a rescue side, which is an adoption side, and it still has the animal control side. And we had a 148 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:34,880 fantastic director. He has since moved on to other things, but he created a rescue transport or rescue 149 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:42,080 coordinator position. They have hired a full-time veterinarian. We have a full-time vet tech on staff. 150 00:14:42,080 --> 00:14:50,160 This is all new. This is all new to the rural county shelters here in the South. This is becoming 151 00:14:50,160 --> 00:14:58,240 a trend that the shelters are seeing the benefit of having a vet on staff rescue transport, because 152 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:03,840 the taxpayers, most taxpayers, when they find out that their local shelter is euthanizing that many 153 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:08,400 healthy animals, they all have a fit. It makes people angry. Why are you, why are you putting 154 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:15,440 all these animals to sleep? But again, remember I told you, people who, we see things in rescue 155 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:21,120 in this world that to most people it's invisible. They don't know these, they don't see it. They 156 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:27,040 don't understand the numbers. They blame animal control for having that many animals in the first 157 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:32,320 place. It's not their fault. It all goes back, as you said, to spay neuter. Everything here that 158 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:37,600 we're talking about all goes back to spay neuter, spay neuter, spay neuter, spay neuter. And in an 159 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:46,560 area such as ours, we did not have any low cost spay neuter options here. We do now. Floyd Felines, 160 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:52,880 our group, has, we started a couple of years ago, we started a low cost spay neuter clinic 161 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:58,080 that we have a vet who is just a little, a little ways down the road. It's a little travel to get 162 00:15:58,080 --> 00:16:04,000 to him, but he's a rescue vet. He has great prices for low cost spay neuter. He does most of our 163 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:10,240 vetting and he runs this clinic for us. We pick up the cats from the owners, meet us with their cats 164 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:16,000 in a parking lot with our van and our driver. They've signed up. They've paid a small amount 165 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:21,520 for their animal to be fixed, for their cat to be spayed or neutered. And they're transported to the 166 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:26,000 vet that day to be spayed and neutered. They're spayed and neutered. They come back on the same 167 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:31,760 van that afternoon and they go back home. What we found out when we started this program was that 168 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:37,840 people do want to get their pets fixed. We have spent years saying some bad things about people 169 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:43,920 in the community who, why don't these people spay and neuter their pets? Why? Why? Why? Why? 170 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:49,680 They do want to spay and neuter their pets. This program, these schedules, these clinics are full 171 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:56,080 every single time we open them. They are full. They fill up quickly. It all goes back to money, 172 00:16:56,080 --> 00:17:00,320 just like everything else in the world. It all comes down to money. They can't afford, 173 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:06,880 they can't afford big vet prices, but they can afford a low cost price and they sign up all day long. 174 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:17,120 Hey listeners, I just want to give a quick shout out to today's episode sponsor, Dr. Deaton and his 175 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:24,080 incredible clinic, Deaton Veterinary Services in Cedar Bluff, Alabama. Dr. Deaton partners with local 176 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:29,520 nonprofit rescue organizations and is committed to serving the citizens of Northeast Alabama 177 00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:37,040 and Northwest Georgia with empathy, honesty, and integrity. He also aims to serve pet owners 178 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:43,040 anywhere in the world from his YouTube channel, Dr. D Rescue Vet. From how to trim your dog's nails 179 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:49,040 to informative videos about disease that can affect your pet, Dr. D is the rescue vet that aims 180 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:54,720 to serve. Visit his YouTube channel to learn some incredible and valuable insights into pet care 181 00:17:54,720 --> 00:18:00,640 to keep your furry family members safe and healthy for years to come. His YouTube channel is linked 182 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:05,200 down in the show notes, so be sure to check him out and subscribe. Let's all support a community 183 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:09,440 hero dedicated to making a difference. Now let's get back to the show. 184 00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:17,680 Earlier we mentioned that there's like the stigma of cats are kind of those yard pets that they're 185 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:24,720 they're almost like a tool or I don't know more of like a what like the rat hunter you know like 186 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:30,960 that's yeah they're an animal that just happens to be useful almost. Well a part of the a true 187 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:37,360 feral cat is really part of the food chain and they are we have we have thousands of them here 188 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:44,800 and feral cats you know they colonize and but you can't you can't catch them the people can't even 189 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:48,560 if someone wants to get their feral cat fixed you can't just walk out in the backyard and pick him 190 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:55,520 up because nine times out of ten he's not friendly. Yeah we have a TNR program TNR stands for trap 191 00:18:55,520 --> 00:19:04,320 neuter release and we use live traps we have a waiting list for this program in a colony we've 192 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:10,080 had we've done colonies we've done three cats we've done up to 30 in one area it just depends on 193 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:16,880 how many they have and we do it once a week we are aggressively practicing spay neuter here and 194 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:23,760 we we trap the cats we take them to the vet we have three different options with vets for 195 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:30,960 spay neuter in our TNR program we have a great driver we have a great trapper and she does this 196 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:36,080 she does it all week long she traps in all these different places and people have to sign up they 197 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:41,600 have to sign up it's some sort of a waiting list we're still working on a list that we've had since 198 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:48,800 about January because there the need is huge here but on the other side of that you and I were 199 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:55,520 talking before you started recording about our barn cat program you know those feral cats 200 00:19:57,520 --> 00:20:01,840 a lot of times they come into the shelter people set traps there are people who don't like cats 201 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:06,000 and you know I'm not one of those people and you're not one of those people but there are 202 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,760 people who don't like cats and cats are can be a nuisance and they get on cars and they 203 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:16,560 dig up people's gardens and so trapped cats wind up at animal control all the time animal 204 00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:21,520 control wills they are new to those cats let us know what they have and we pull those cats from 205 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:28,240 shelters and find barn homes for them because people do want mousers they do want cats in their 206 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:34,880 mousers they do want cats in their barns you know taking care of the mice and the cats in that case 207 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:39,520 feral cats who really don't want to be they don't want to be held they don't want to be petted on 208 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:45,920 the head they want to be fed and left alone and they make great mousers but they have a right to 209 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:52,720 live too and our little motto has always been that every life matters I love that yeah and I 210 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:57,360 think that's so I guess to kind of also clarify that definition of a feral cat because when I think 211 00:20:57,360 --> 00:21:02,800 of a feral animal I think of wild not handleable is that pretty in line with what the definition 212 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:07,680 would be that absolutely is that's correct I don't know because I was thinking like when I think I'm 213 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:11,600 not sure if other people might think this too but when they think of feral they think of like a wild 214 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:18,720 animal like a wild variant of a cat or dog but I don't I don't think that necessarily exists 215 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:22,960 anymore right just in terms of like the selective breeding and how long they've been in the pet trade 216 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:32,800 like is that yeah you know to say or am I thinking too much no I think a true there is a true feral 217 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:40,960 cat a true feral cat is is truly a kind of a nasty animal he does not want human contact he's been on 218 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:46,880 his own for a long time he may be eating in someone's backyard because a little old lady like me wants 219 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:51,280 to put food down and feed everybody in the neighborhood but he's never been socialized he's 220 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:58,160 not a pet and he is going to be really ugly and probably draw blood if you try to touch him 221 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:03,360 that is a true feral cat feral if you look up the definition of feral it basically says wild or 222 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:10,880 living like wild now there are other feral cat we call them feral cat colonies where say they 223 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,360 say there's a again I love to blame the little old ladies and the little old man little old man 224 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:22,160 feeds a cat and of course she's either female or she or he attracts a female there's going to be 225 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:26,560 babies at some point if that cat shows up because there's nine times out of ten they're not they're 226 00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:33,360 outside they're not fixed so you know in another year he's got 30 cats in the backyard they're not 227 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:40,080 completely wild because as they associate him with food but they're also not adoptable pets so we can't 228 00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:45,200 bring them into an adoption program and find them a nice indoor home and there's millions of those 229 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:50,800 cats in the country that fall in that category because they simply are living a life outside 230 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:58,000 and they may associate us with food but they don't associate us any other way with comfort or 231 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:04,320 friendship or companionship they just live outside and they make great barn cats because they do 232 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:10,240 appreciate humans for food but that's it gotcha and I think I might have missed a sentence or two of 233 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:14,480 what you just said because I just saw something that might clarify a question I was about to ask 234 00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:19,920 you so thanks to the listeners I'm so sorry if I just ask her the same question she just answered 235 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:26,640 but the the different the differentiation between a stray cat and a feral cat I think that's more so 236 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:32,640 where I might be confused on like is there a difference there for you or for me there is to 237 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:39,440 there is a fit to me if a true feral cat is a wild animal yes whether he's associated me with food 238 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:46,080 or not he's a wild animal a stray cat is a cat who in our instance here and it happens every day 239 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:52,080 someone moves and they leave their cat behind friendly cat now the cat doesn't have a home 240 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:57,680 he wanders from place to place looking for someone to feed him that's a stray cat but he's not 241 00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:03,200 necessarily feral he may be perfectly friendly he may have lived outside his entire life but he's 242 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:08,720 got he had an owner who petted him on the head or kids who played with him and he's friendly and 243 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:15,680 he's looking for his next home and that's a stray cat but a feral cat is really a wild animal that 244 00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:20,560 somehow got it he's smelled the stinky food in your live trap and he got caught gotcha 245 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:28,640 and um okay so it sounds like that might be the case more so of a stray cat is a cat that like 246 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:36,000 maybe ran away or got separated or dumped or dumped um and then the feral cat is probably it 247 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:41,280 sounds like more of like a generational like born in the wild lives in the wild exactly exactly 248 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:48,640 okay and it sounds like even in that case like even with the feral cat it sounds like strays 249 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:56,160 potentially like i don't know again i might be over analyzing it strays breed in the wild have 250 00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:01,600 wild babies they get used to the wild and they kind of become feral in that way which adds to 251 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:07,680 the issue okay i'm understanding the household family member to feral pipeline i guess 252 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:13,280 because that that's something that i kind of found interesting too is because i mean i definitely 253 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:19,040 grew up in a more rural area but people still from i guess maybe just my family or the people 254 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:24,720 around me or the people that i would associate with do you consider cats or dogs to be a part 255 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:30,240 of the family like you know you get them fixed you get them their vaccines you take them to the vet 256 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:37,520 if there's an issue etc etc and then there's actually a rescue i met uh final victory rescue 257 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:43,600 in south carolina and they they're the first ones that told me you know like you know the south this 258 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:50,240 like southeast portion of the state of the country does have a very different perspective of of cats 259 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:57,280 and dogs and like their usefulness or their what's the word i want to use like their value 260 00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:01,680 essentially right right and what i think is interesting is that they mirrored the same 261 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:07,840 thing that you just said earlier about how you kind of ship animals to the like the northeast how 262 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:13,120 there's like a different supply and demand like there's a ton of there's very economics sounding 263 00:26:13,120 --> 00:26:18,480 i know but there's a huge supply of these animals down here further south but up north there's a 264 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:24,080 higher demand for these loving household pet family members can you kind of talk about that 265 00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:32,000 difference of sure is it purely socioeconomic or is that just like the main one the main no it really 266 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:38,080 is it really is about supply up north in the northern states they haven't they have seasons 267 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:43,920 they have they have a winter they have and they have cold weather for certain a certain number 268 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:50,560 of months every year cats breed in the warmth they breed in the heat so up north they have one kitten 269 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:58,960 season and it lasts from april till maybe late summer maybe early fall cats when weather starts 270 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:05,600 to get cooler the cats stop breeding our cats breed year-round we have cats we have kittens in 271 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:12,160 december we sometimes have kittens in january and here what happens a lot too is in december 272 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:17,920 maybe let's say january you know we've had a little snap of cold and then you'll have three 273 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:25,520 weeks of this beautiful 60 degree weather and the sun shines and and all the cats so we all we even 274 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:30,240 say to each other oh gosh the cats are all out having a party right now they're all getting 275 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:35,520 pregnant you know it's just you have to have some sort of levity just to to do this but yeah yeah 276 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:43,120 of course of course you really do yeah crazy is another word but the north does have they and one 277 00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:48,000 thing i think too about the north is that that for instance the area that we send our cats to in 278 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:56,800 maryland maryland the area that they're in is close to washington dc and i think some a lot of those 279 00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:04,560 larger cities you're talking about a huge metropolitan area with way more people who are 280 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:11,520 all looking for pets you know the the the rescue that we send our cats to have 30 pet smart stores 281 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:17,680 that they send animals to so they they are they're bringing these these animals in and they have 282 00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:22,960 targeted the high kill shelters or some of us aren't even high kill anymore but we still have 283 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:29,040 so many animals if it weren't for these rescues up north pulling these cats we'd be right back 284 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:35,360 where we started from you know this is a regular occurrence with us we send these cats at least once 285 00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:45,440 a month and on our van we send we can fit about 20 to 25 carriers in that van and those carriers 286 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:53,040 hold anywhere from one to maybe one adult cat to four kittens so we may be sending we can send up to 287 00:28:53,040 --> 00:29:01,360 you know 60 or 70 cats in one trip and it makes a huge difference for us huge so there there is a 288 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:06,720 and i think too in the north they have different they have different registration laws for pets 289 00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:13,360 we have just passed a spay neuter ordinance here in our county that was that was passed in September 290 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:19,200 and just started they just started implementing it in april there's not a there's not a spay neuter 291 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:24,720 police van that's going to drive around making sure everybody's pets are are fixed but it allows 292 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:30,240 it allows the animal control officers to target you know a lot of those homes sometimes homes get 293 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:35,920 targeted for different things there may be a call might be made for children in the house somebody 294 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:40,240 go check on these children in the house and so you know department of family and children services 295 00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:45,280 may go check and then they see that there's a dog tied up outside which there's also an ordinance 296 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:50,080 against tethering here so you know that that leads them to be able to say you know we're going to call 297 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:55,440 animal control and help maybe help these folks get the animal fixed and you know find out why 298 00:29:55,440 --> 00:30:00,400 he's tied up and because he's not supposed to be it's just it's another way to sort of help where 299 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:07,440 we can it sometimes we feel like these things are like putting a bandaid on a broken leg but you have 300 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:14,240 to do you have to do something and we've we've come a really long way here um we're proud of how 301 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:21,120 far we've come we still have ways to go but um we're we're proud of what we're doing yeah i mean it 302 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:28,080 sounds like that's a pretty long i don't know like the the the trajectory of starting off is just the 303 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:36,000 what a a foster attached to another shelter uh using their license in order to take some 304 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:41,120 of these animals all the way to having i don't know like a kitty van where you just kind of like 305 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:48,160 i'll be honest with you it has been an adventure and we have been blessed beyond measure in this 306 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:54,640 in this rescue we and christy has done christy has done so much to make sure that we she's just to 307 00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:59,200 go get her we got our first little space it was a little tiny building we had no money nobody knew 308 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:05,840 who we were we had no money but we had a couple of ladies who you know from someone's church who 309 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:11,360 knew who we were and knew what we were trying to do and loved cats and started helping helping fund 310 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:19,280 a few things and we we applied for and got our department of agriculture license we got our 501c 311 00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:26,960 3 non-profit status um and we did those things fairly quickly the department of agriculture 312 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:36,320 license allows us to house up to 100 animals um at any time um you know we do wind up with more 313 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:41,600 than that during kitten season most shelters do but that's because so many of the adult cats come 314 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:48,080 with kittens and this is kitten season and we're just we are drowning in cats but i don't know how 315 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:53,520 we have been so blessed other than we've asked for it and we've prayed for it and we've prayed over 316 00:31:53,520 --> 00:32:00,000 every little facility that we've been in and we have a lot of good people on our side we had a 317 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:05,360 county there's a county commissioner here in our county who is very proactive animal welfare and 318 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:13,360 she's had a lot of she had a lot of pull in helping our new shelter get built she also is the she's 319 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:20,160 co-founder of a group in rome that is a fundraising group for animal welfare and they raise money 320 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:26,560 and then sort of filter it out to the rescue groups here there's a group doing dogs and there's a 321 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:32,160 local humane society that they don't do a lot with animals but they do some they do a lot of 322 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:39,120 educational stuff so we've got some we've got a good team here of people that are all looking 323 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:45,600 out for the animals and it it takes it takes all of us we have a but floyd felines i have to say 324 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:50,640 with these 40 something volunteers that we have we're all we're all volunteers no one of floyd 325 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:57,360 felines is paid so when you when you're doing something that you feel called to do i think you 326 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:04,720 do it better i don't think we would be the same group if we were being paid i think we the the 327 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:11,120 payoff that we get from helping these animals is there's there's not there's no money there's not 328 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:16,160 an amount of money that can give you the same feeling you know what i mean yeah no and i i feel 329 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:23,360 like that's just that's just a testament to what you're committed to right like sure there's i mean 330 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:27,280 there's other non-profits where it might work better for someone you know like the the founder or the 331 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:33,440 ceo or whoever like you know there are instances where people get paid and sure yeah this isn't 332 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,800 saying that's bad that isn't saying that's negative it's just a different structure 333 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:44,640 but it sounds like it works for you guys it works for the cats it's keeping them at the the forefront 334 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:49,760 their best interests and heart any other thing you can really say about it right 335 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:56,560 um and just i guess with that being said like with your guys's success like do you know off the top 336 00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:03,040 of your head roughly speaking like how many cats you've been able to place whether in your um your 337 00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:08,880 feral cat barn cat program or into homes do do you happen to know that or am i kind of calling you 338 00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:14,240 out on that no we have we i can come up with an i can always come up with numbers i know that 339 00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:19,760 numbers i know that well the barn cat thing is really near and dear to my heart we we had another 340 00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:25,040 group here years ago called the sterile feral and a friend of mine and i started that and it was 341 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:32,480 it was well it was a full it was a full-on um tnr program trap neuter release for feral cats and um 342 00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:39,520 that has since disbanded and then we started floyd felines but um but i do i have a soft spot in 343 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:47,040 my heart for the ferals but the barn cat program since 2021 we have placed roughly 350 barn cats 344 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:52,160 in homes and that includes what we call garden homes that are friendly outside cats that don't 345 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,880 want to be in the house they've come from an outside environment and people like cats but 346 00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,040 someone might be allergic or they don't want them in the house but they want a nice little cat in 347 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:05,600 the yard and we we do that we of course everybody has to be spayed and neutered before they go but 348 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:12,480 um in general in our between the the adoptable cats that we adopt out locally or send on rescue 349 00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:19,120 transport we probably we have we affect the lives of about 1200 cats per year 350 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:28,080 um so i'd have to look at actual adoption numbers in order to because the and you know some days 351 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:34,000 that some months that's going to be higher the you know we talked about rescue transports um those 352 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:41,200 rescue transports count as not really adoptions but those are cats that are going to be adopted 353 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:47,120 those are cats that are there's a lot of outcome for them they're going to another adoption program 354 00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:56,560 sometimes that rescue transport carries 60 or 70 cats and that's per month so we we do we do a lot 355 00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:05,200 with a little really yeah and and it sounds like it so that's amazing 1200 plus some cats i mean 356 00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:11,360 even just saving i mean breaking it down just helping one more cat day after day and like that 357 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:16,560 sounds that's more than that's multiple a day jeez i'm like doing the math in my head but you know 358 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:22,400 you said what you just said one more cat well that's that's how we that's how we operate we 359 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:31,920 we always we always say we always try to say yes yes when we have no money we have no we're tired 360 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,680 and i cannot tell you there's a group of women anywhere in this country that's more tired than 361 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:41,360 we are um i'm sure women and men women and men they'll call me out on that if i don't include 362 00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:47,600 them in we have some great male volunteers too but we are we're tired but we love what we do 363 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:54,400 but we love what we do i wish you would check out our facebook page sometime we have yeah great 364 00:36:54,400 --> 00:37:00,000 facebook writers this the the ladies the girls who are i call them girls but they're younger than 365 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:08,080 me so i can do that they're they the way they present our stories are is is beautiful they are 366 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:14,560 great writers we have great photographers and and they really will tug at your heartstrings i 367 00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:21,440 personally don't have a facebook page but where i work you know i have a full-time job yeah um that 368 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:27,840 i have to have a job to pay the bills so i can do all this cat wrangling that i do but um i check 369 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:33,840 the facebook page at work sometimes and and their stories make me cry and i already know the story 370 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:42,240 it's just the the way they present our cats and our programs and and and our commitment to these 371 00:37:42,240 --> 00:37:48,400 animals is it's just beautiful but i hope you'll look at it sometime yeah no i i follow you guys i 372 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:52,720 i've been checking things out you guys shared my post about the about this episode so thanks for that 373 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,360 i saw the little one yes i saw that today and he is absolutely adorable and i think 374 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:03,920 perfect name for him he's precious oh it was i took him outside to use the potty one day and i was 375 00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:09,520 like oh your little blue eyes your little black on your chest the black match the shoes perfectly 376 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,920 i'm like trying to get a shoe sponsorship so i'm like hopefully they see this and we're like we'll 377 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:19,760 do it for the cat um does he have his own page yet does he have his own facebook page no he doesn't 378 00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:25,840 have a page but he's being posted on my on my coaching page okay i plan to use them because 379 00:38:25,840 --> 00:38:31,120 you know my my coaching business i work with like entrepreneurs non-profit leaders so what i'm going 380 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:35,920 to do moving forward with him is every time we talk about you know the the non-profits that we're 381 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:40,960 working with or the you know asking for donations you know especially for the walk kind of have him 382 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:46,880 there and i don't know i feel like people might be more willing to interact with the donation post 383 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:56,000 yes getting out of it he's your ambassador exactly development ambassador exactly uh you get it um 384 00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:00,160 but that's what i was gonna that's what i was gonna say is with your guys's facebook page you 385 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:08,240 have 16 something thousand followers on your page uh 21 000 oh my goodness yes 21 000 followers uh i 386 00:39:08,240 --> 00:39:16,640 mean even just the post i you guys shared for me 15 reactions 40 177 92 i mean i'm a numbers guy so 387 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:22,320 that's what excites me but like you're saying with these stories and these graphics like it looks like 388 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:33,360 they're posting potentially multiple times a day or at least you know 10 12 times a week and yeah i 389 00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:37,360 i think that's something i'm not sure how involved you are with that but in terms of those that are 390 00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:45,840 listening don't don't pass up the power of social media because it looks like you know every follower 391 00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:52,000 doesn't necessarily mean a dollar in the pocket of the organization or anything but that reach that 392 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:58,000 attention that that helps that gets the word out and like you were saying earlier just the power of 393 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:06,160 what was it um how powerful awareness can be yes yes it is it just well it just it's such a catalyst 394 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:11,360 for for bigger things and we as much as we need money and we always need money we love money we 395 00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:16,800 would love to have more money we can do more if we have more money but money doesn't make everything 396 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:21,920 what what makes you know we we love the the comments on the end of like i told you i don't have a 397 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:28,400 facebook page but i read it from work are we have the best followers we have the best followers i 398 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:34,880 i can fall down a rabbit hole looking at all of the comments that people have made and and this 399 00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:40,720 has been really interesting to me to watch because because i'm not on social media myself is when we 400 00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:48,400 post something let's say let's say we're posting about bottle feeders um because this is the time 401 00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:53,040 of year we need we're full we we don't have any more bottle feeders there they've all got babies 402 00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:59,520 right now and we make a plea and it's a serious plea you know y'all we have no bottle feeders this 403 00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:04,880 group has come in we can't say no we don't say no but there is no one to feed these babies y'all 404 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:10,160 help us find help us find someone and watching the comments people talk to each other they're 405 00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:15,920 not necessarily talking to us and one person will comment and say come on y'all we really need to 406 00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,880 help this we need to help them y'all start sharing this i'm going to share it here and y'all share it 407 00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:29,360 there and so it becomes this community effort you know i made the statement earlier that the 408 00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:37,200 shelters in the southeast are their success is only their success is built on the foundation of 409 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:42,480 the rescues that are helping them i also believe that the rescues are as good as the people who are 410 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:48,400 supporting them we're doing the footwork that's it we're doing the footwork we go to the shelter 411 00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:56,240 every day we take care of the cats we do this we do that but our supporters are what make us floyd 412 00:41:56,240 --> 00:42:02,880 felons does that make sense our supporters our followers are the reason that we can do this 413 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:08,480 if that facebook page disappeared tomorrow and all those followers went with it we'd be nothing 414 00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:14,800 yeah we would have to close the doors and i think it's how important they are yeah and that's 415 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:18,960 something that i've been saying even with my walk and i'm seeing so many parallels and 416 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:25,040 it's insane but one of the things i've been saying is i'm i'm walking by myself but i couldn't do 417 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:30,400 this without the support of the community absolutely we all have our own things we all have our own 418 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:35,920 lives and passions and this and that but at the end of the day like somebody needs to do the 419 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:40,640 groundwork somebody needs to work in the kitten rescue and if you can't if you can't spend two 420 00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:45,520 three four twelve hours a day working with the cats maybe you can send them 20 bucks a week maybe 421 00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:51,680 you can send them 10 maybe five maybe a dollar but but if a hundred people if we get one more 422 00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:56,400 again we were saying earlier just that power of one more you know if they tag their friend hey can 423 00:42:56,400 --> 00:43:02,400 you pledge a dollar a week hey can you do this like like again the important work is getting out 424 00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:08,560 there and helping the cats but with that money you can make it go so much further especially with 425 00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:15,120 the impact yeah we can pinch a penny till it screams we we we know we can always stretch it and 426 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:21,760 you know people if people don't have money they have time they have time they have their own 427 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:27,680 social media posts they can share what we're doing they can tell somebody else about us they can 428 00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:32,720 they can come and help transport cats to the vet they can come and wash some dishes in the sink 429 00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:39,280 there is always something for someone to do to support us always it's not always just money but 430 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:45,040 we do love money i don't i can hear my my board of directors now saying we don't tell them we 431 00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:53,440 don't need any money we always need money no i i hear you entirely and that's such i feel like 432 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:59,120 that's a hard thing that a lot of people have with non-profits is you know oh you're a non-profit why 433 00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:03,840 are you asking for money all the time it's like well because yeah you need it like at the end of 434 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:09,680 the day it's it's the necessary tool that you need to work with and everybody could always use a 435 00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:13,680 little bit more but i think it's so important like i don't know if we've really mentioned this yet 436 00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:20,320 but just like the the knowledge and the expertise that you guys have sounds like it goes such a long 437 00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:26,960 way with the impact you can make with it and i i really think that's the that's the key right it is 438 00:44:26,960 --> 00:44:34,160 it is and we've noticed in the last couple of years people who are they're not simply messaging 439 00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:42,000 us and saying i found a cat can you take it they're saying i found a cat what do i need to do 440 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:48,800 to help this cat can you help me help the cat will we want to find a home for this cat how do 441 00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:54,960 we do this so people are really rescue can't do everything we we do more than we probably 442 00:44:54,960 --> 00:45:01,840 probably we do more than we probably ever thought we could and we we do more than we sometimes think 443 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:07,840 is physically possible but we can't do everything when somebody says you know i've got this group 444 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:13,760 of kittens i can bottle feed them let me know what i need to do next that's golden for us but it's 445 00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:21,120 not just golden for us it means it means that our community is paying attention and that just just 446 00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:27,520 saying that alone almost makes me want to cry because we started this we started this venture 447 00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:33,440 believing that our community really didn't care it's not about we have learned it's not about our 448 00:45:33,440 --> 00:45:40,400 community not caring it's about our community not being aware and not knowing and and our 449 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:45,760 social media efforts have let the community know this is what's happening in your community and if 450 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:50,240 you want to be a part of this and you want your community to be better you have to be better just 451 00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:57,200 like we do and they get it you know they're starting to get it and that's huge for us yeah 452 00:45:57,200 --> 00:46:02,880 and that's that's such an interesting take too on just like the value of marketing marketing 453 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:08,880 breaking down the definition is just the process of making known yes absolutely if they don't know 454 00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:13,440 the importance of spay and neuter because i'm sure if people never grew up talking about that or 455 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:19,120 knowing about it like again me and my fiance like julie and i like it wouldn't even be a thing that 456 00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:23,520 we think they're like oh cat whatever but it's like once they have that information whether it's a 457 00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:28,080 that knowledge whether it's a gift or a curse you know that extra bill now you have to pay right 458 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:33,360 but now that you have it now they now they can do something about it and it's almost like well i 459 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:37,360 can't really fault you for not knowing the importance of spaying and neutering your pet 460 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:42,480 but now that we've had this conversation figure it out and get out there make something happen 461 00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:50,480 and like it's it's just that power of getting out there and and spreading the message like we like 462 00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:55,600 i guess really what we've been saying the the whole premise of this episode just the power of 463 00:46:55,600 --> 00:47:02,160 awareness it is and you know the the this thing about the spay neuter going back to that for a 464 00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:09,920 minute there there are resources in almost every community yeah to help you get your pet fixed 465 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:15,920 there are if you don't if you don't know where those resources are call it call call the vet 466 00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:23,200 call the local animal control find somebody get online there are places probably within half an 467 00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:30,400 hour's drive of you there are every the trend for aggressive spay neuter in this country is outrageous 468 00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:35,920 right now everybody's doing it because we all know if you're working in this industry everybody 469 00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:42,640 knows like i told you earlier if we don't fix it out there if we don't fix it where it starts the 470 00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:46,000 shelters are never going to be any different they're always going to be struggling to not 471 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:52,800 euthanize hundreds of animals a month we have to help them it's not their fault it's not animal 472 00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:59,200 controls fault that all those animals are in the shelter it's our fault it's our fault we have to 473 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:04,800 take responsibility for that and that's what floyd felines has done we just have this remarkable 474 00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:09,360 group of people who said enough is enough the community needs help we need to be better so 475 00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:15,840 what can we do and here we are 10 years later and it's just been it has just been a crazy ride and 476 00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:22,080 we love every minute of it and i think i don't know just to kind of wrap up the entire message 477 00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:30,000 is it sounds like spay and neutering pun intended is really nipping the issue in the bud right 478 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:34,720 like we can we can all sit here we can all pledge a hundred dollars a week a thousand dollars a week 479 00:48:34,720 --> 00:48:42,880 to our local shelter but really if we just spayed and neutered the pets around us and we and we took 480 00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:50,320 care of that issue and it would make your guys's mission a heck of a lot easier we cannot do it all 481 00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:57,280 alone we do a lot but we can't do it all alone we when we started this i was telling you earlier 482 00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:01,840 when we we didn't have any money we didn't have a vet we didn't have we didn't know where the next 483 00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:06,480 bit of help was coming from and there would be some situation with a cat and christy would call 484 00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:11,360 and we'd talk and we'd say and at the end of this at the end of the conversation that the deal was 485 00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:18,720 just get the cat just get the cat just get the cat and that still to this day is our is our mantra 486 00:49:18,720 --> 00:49:23,760 just get the cat just like you did you picked up the kitten it's the same thing you see it you know 487 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:28,480 how many people would have walked past that kitten it's just i try not to think about it 488 00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:36,160 no but see you did that you you got the cat just pick up the kitten get the cat yeah no and but 489 00:49:36,160 --> 00:49:43,680 yeah please please spay a neuter and if you if you see if you see a cat pick it up please pick it up 490 00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:49,920 and that's the hard thing i know for a fact that everybody and all of my listeners that listen to 491 00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:56,080 this would be the people that would pick up the cat and now i i hope that not only are they that 492 00:49:56,080 --> 00:50:00,960 they were they the people coming into this podcast that would pick up the cat and figure it out 493 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,960 but now i hope that they're the people that can pick up the cat and know what to do with it to 494 00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:12,560 not only help the the critter in front of them but the overall system and ecosystem and 495 00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:21,760 overall system and ecosystem and i don't know family tree yeah you know it's it's margaret 496 00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:25,600 mead said and i love this and i've got a refrigerator full of quotes but one of my 497 00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:31,280 favorites is you know margaret mead said never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed 498 00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:35,520 citizens is what she said can change the world because indeed it's the only thing that ever has 499 00:50:36,240 --> 00:50:41,520 and that's true it's true you're doing it just with your podcast thanks i try 500 00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:48,640 okay you are and you picked up the kitten picked up the kitten pick up the cat you're my hero 501 00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:56,080 already you picked up the kitten yeah no i i agree and yeah i don't know man at the end of the day 502 00:50:56,080 --> 00:51:00,480 it's it's just about being a little bit better being the type of person that would pick up the 503 00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:06,320 cat or what did i what did i post the other day oh about the turtle there's a turtle crossing the 504 00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:11,360 road and you know you always feel like you're in a rush i have a million things i need to do i have 505 00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:16,720 a million things that i need to get done i don't have time to help out this one critter it's just 506 00:51:16,720 --> 00:51:22,960 a turtle it's just a whatever it's just it's another life it's another person it's it's it's 507 00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:30,560 another soul take a second help them out and i i can almost guarantee you that every single time 508 00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:35,520 it will be worth it in the end every life is precious and it deserves a chance you know the 509 00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:41,680 starfish story yes and if you know it i'll let you tell it but um at my last job i worked as a 510 00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:49,120 county ag inspector and what i did was i carried around a um it was like a it was like a fake starfish 511 00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:54,320 fossil that i got at some museum but i i carried it in my pocket because of that story because you 512 00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:59,280 know on the days where it's like uh everything sucks everything nothing i do but do you want to 513 00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:05,360 try to yeah i can lay up to kind of give a brief yeah you know and we get that way a lot in rescue 514 00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:10,320 and in kitten season it's tough and it's it's really tough this is a hard time of year for us 515 00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:14,560 but you know the starfish we were we repeat it to each other every now and then you know the guy 516 00:52:14,560 --> 00:52:19,840 walking down the beach and he's seeing all the starfish that are beached on on the shore and 517 00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:24,000 he's picking them up one by one and throwing them out in the ocean and another guy comes up and says 518 00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:28,320 what are you doing and he says well i'm saving these lives i'm trying to throw them back in the 519 00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:33,760 ocean he said man there's there's so many of them you know what you're doing can't possibly make a 520 00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:38,080 difference and the guy picks up one starfish and holds it up and he says it makes a difference to 521 00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:47,280 this one you know i get chill i get chills like i do too it makes me want to cry i know i know 522 00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:54,560 and that's why that's why our mantra is every life matters every life it's why i don't it's 523 00:52:54,560 --> 00:53:02,000 why i don't kill spiders if they're outside yeah you know because it does every life matters every 524 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:06,480 life is precious and deserves a chance yeah but we don't need more of them so please stay and 525 00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:12,080 neuter the life that you find yes and yeah i i think to kind of wrap this up and then i'll ask 526 00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:17,520 you where we can all kind of find your shelter on socials but growing up i wanted to be a 527 00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:24,000 veterinarian i wanted to be a feline that when i was little oh yeah so i i read all the books by 528 00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:29,120 james harriet he wrote all creatures great and small yes there's like there's like an amazon 529 00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:35,280 there's a show for it now but one of the quotes from him is the love for all creatures is the 530 00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:41,840 most noble attribute of man and i don't know i think that that really just wraps it up i'll 531 00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:46,560 put that in the show notes and everything but i think that's really it does that's really the 532 00:53:46,560 --> 00:53:53,200 tie-in for everything that's great thank you again for your time and for taking a little bit out of 533 00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:58,720 your day to chitter chat with me in my audience about just the importance of picking up the cat 534 00:53:58,720 --> 00:54:04,160 of helping them out if folks want to follow foyd felines or get in contact or support donate 535 00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:10,240 follow you on socials where would the best places be for them to go facebook facebook facebook 536 00:54:10,240 --> 00:54:16,080 facebook we are we have the best facebook writers and presenters they you can find anything out 537 00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:22,400 about us that you want on facebook it's a it's a great forum we do have a website it's it's not 538 00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:26,880 the best i'll be honest i would rather you go to facebook because you'll find out who we are what 539 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:33,680 we're doing who the cats are and you'll you'll see where we shine i really appreciate you having 540 00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:42,400 us tonight thank you for inviting me we love talking about this stuff in it to have someone 541 00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:47,840 say would you talk to me for you know an hour about what you do and how you started and 542 00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:52,880 what's important to you that validates what we do i really appreciate so thank you for having us 543 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:58,080 yeah of course and you know i i wish i was a little bit closer to you guys when i was walking 544 00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:04,160 through but yeah today i'm glad that i was able to make that connection somehow so thank you again 545 00:55:04,160 --> 00:55:11,200 we are too thank you yeah of course and once again everyone thank you so much for listening 546 00:55:11,200 --> 00:55:15,920 to today's episode and taking the time out of your day to learn about an issue that 547 00:55:16,480 --> 00:55:22,080 really does affect every single one of us and can be affected by every single one of us 548 00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:27,680 um spaying and neutering your pets or you know maybe donating to a cause that can spay and neuter 549 00:55:27,680 --> 00:55:32,640 the pets in your neighborhood the cats or dogs can really just help with the pet population issue 550 00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:37,920 that we have in the country um and something we didn't really touch on a lot during the podcast 551 00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:45,040 i want to stress here is it's not just that there's too many pets it's these animals are born in in 552 00:55:45,040 --> 00:55:52,400 the nature in the wild and i mean the the state i found walker in and that i've seen other cats 553 00:55:52,400 --> 00:55:58,160 kind of fall into it's it's not pretty um they suffer they're not having a great time they pass 554 00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:04,720 away painfully so it's not just about the animals you can see it's the animals that are kind of 555 00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:10,640 suffering in that quiet desperation so again this is something that every single one of us can 556 00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:16,000 change that we can work towards finding a solution for and i guess not even finding the solution the 557 00:56:16,000 --> 00:56:21,440 solution is there it's it's doing the work to make the solution happen which is spaying and 558 00:56:21,440 --> 00:56:26,640 neutering your pets so once again thank you for listening today thank you to our sponsor their 559 00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:30,480 information can be found down in the show notes please check them out support them give them a 560 00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:38,800 follow and all the information for our guest today void felines can be found in the show notes 561 00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:45,200 so follow them on social media check out their website and remember that attention awareness 562 00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:53,040 are really the biggest gifts you can give to a non-profit or cause that you believe in 563 00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:57,440 so show them some support give them some attention share their posts for awareness 564 00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:08,800 and as always have fun stay safe and be yourself we'll see you next time