WEBVTT
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Pet Life Radio. This is Pet Life Radio.
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Let's talk pets.
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Hello, feline friends.
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Welcome to Catitude.
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I'm your show host, Michelle Fern. And I have a
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guest that I adore. He's been on the show before,
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but it's been a long time, like too long, except
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for some meetings at Global. And he's just amazing. So
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stay tuned and you'll find out who it is.
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Talk to the Paw. Hi, this is Amy Stewart.
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Hi, I'm Jane Lynch. This is Mandy Boynton.
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Hi there, I'm Kate Walsh. This is Catherine Tygo. There's
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only one station that gives you the scoop on wagging
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tongues and tails. And who's walking who in Renton, Tinseltown.
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PetLife Radio, the tail wagger.
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Welcome back, everyone. I'd like to welcome Nathan Keene, also
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known as Nathan the Cat Lady, which is how you
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guys probably know of him. Welcome, Nathan.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I'm so excited to have you. So you haven't been
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on Catitude for almost six years, but I've seen you
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too long and that you were doing a whole other thing.
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So what's been going on? You said, you know, we
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were talking a little bit earlier. You said it's been
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a hectic year, hopefully in a good way.
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Yeah, no, in a great way. I mean, shoot, six years.
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So much has changed. I think when I first was
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on here, I was almost exclusively just doing comedy. It
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was just funny cat videos, me in a bathrobe, being
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a goofball with the kitties. And right around 2023, I
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was at a convention and I still had a full-time
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sales job. I was still doing comedy. I had jaw
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surgery and I was at my fifth convention in the month,
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just basically running around like, hey, I can do anything
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I want. Why not? And I ended up collapsing and
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spent two days in the emergency room running tests and stuff.
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And basically, I was like, you know what? I need
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to stop and slow down or I'm going to die.
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So I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you
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slowed down.
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Yeah, no, I quit my full time job. I moved apartments.
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And then I decided I was like, you know what?
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I want to get way more into rescue. And ever
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since then, I've just been working with so many amazing
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organizations all over the world.
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One of the things I try to do on this show,
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one of the things that's near and dear to my
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heart is just educating everyone about, well, that's what the
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show is, Anything and Everything Cat, you know, educating everyone.
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Because as much as you know, there's also a lot
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you don't know. And things move so quickly, it's hard
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to keep up. But rescue is like near and dear
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because there's always something going on and there's never enough.
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And there's always something more we can do, more we
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can communicate. Before we get into that, though, I don't
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think I've ever asked you this question, but where did
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the moniker Nathan the Cat Lady come from? Like, did
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Nathan the Cat Dude not work?
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Well, for one day, I was like, I'm going to
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try Cat Daddy, not realizing there was another connotation to that.
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I tried it for one day on my stories. I
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was like, all right, well, I guess I'm, you know,
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the Cat Daddy. And the creepiest DMs, like, I didn't
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realize how many people in America needed daddies.
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Oh, gosh.
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I did that. And man, everybody came out of the
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woodwork like, oh, daddy. Hey, daddy. Love what you're doing.
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And I was like, you know what? Not what I'm
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looking for right now. So I decided to lean into
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the stereotype. You know, everyone makes fun of crazy cat ladies.
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And I was like, you know, I was like, speaking
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of here's one of my kitties. I was like, you
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know what? I'm going to lean into it. And everybody
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already calls me a crazy cat lady. So I'm just
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going to embrace it. And I switched it to Nathan,
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the cat lady. And yeah, we never looked back. Right.
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And then as you were saying, the cat daddy, Jackson
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Galaxy is known as the cat daddy.
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Yep.
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But I guess if you just put Nathan, the cat daddy, then.
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Yeah. But, you know, I think it's more fun. I
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think it's more fun to lean into the stereotype. And
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I think it's more important, which is why I, you know,
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I rock the bathrobes, which I even now sell the
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bathrobes on my website. You can buy a cat dad
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or a cat lady bathrobe. And they're, you know, very nice,
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plush robes. And it's just kind of elevating the stereotype.
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And making it cool to be a cat lover.
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Yeah, as long as it's cool. I mean, as long
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as people know who you are and know what you
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do and you keep reaching people, that's the most important thing.
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And you've been known as Nathan the Cat Lady for years.
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Yeah.
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You have a community of more than a million followers,
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but you do a lot more than just creating content. Now,
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you said you started off with comedy. I remember the bathrooms.
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I remember seeing you in the bathrooms at Global. So cool.
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What made you decide, you explained, you know, you got
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sick and everything. What made you decide I need to
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focus on rescue other than maybe other things?
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You know, it's been kind of a snowball effect, but
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I think it's one of those things where you don't
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realize how bad the problem is until you know. And
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I think the more I started getting in, you know,
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I was like, you know, my buddy Sterling the Trap
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King showed me TNR and I was like, oh, I
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didn't even know there was that many cats outside. And,
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you know, you start doing TNR and you're like, oh, wow,
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there's a lot of cats that need help. And then
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I met somebody at a convention, a cat fest in Colorado.
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And she walked up and she was like, you know, yeah,
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I go to Spain every year and I rescue galgos.
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And I was like, what's a galgo? And she told
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me about the Spanish greyhound that, you know, is tortured
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and killed every year as part of their culture. And
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I was like, what? Never heard of that. Let's go.
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And I've kind of just started saying yes to groups.
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I kind of had this motto ever since I collapsed
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that I'm going to close my eyes and run as
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fast as I can. which basically just means I've just
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been saying yes. And all these rescue groups have been
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showing me all these problems. And I'm like, you know,
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I have a following. I've got a very loyal following
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that just love to support anything I do. And so
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it gives me a great platform to help. And it's,
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I don't know. I love my comedy. I will always
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do my comedy, but it's so gratifying to do a
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rescue video and save a life and have that video
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take off as opposed to like a comedy sketch. You know,
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it's just, it's like that video actually changed a life.
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So Nathan, the cat lady, do you, I'd like to
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use the whole name. So Nathan, the cat lady, do
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you think when people see the videos that inspires people
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or is your goal to inspire people to do more TNR,
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to seek out shelters, to adopt, to do more donating everything?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I've been speaking at conventions lately, at festivals,
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at all sorts of things. And I've been giving full
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talks of everybody can do something. And Because I think
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a lot of people, especially nowadays, they love to talk,
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but they don't love action. And so I like to
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show people, you know, I've had people I do, you know,
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the wings of rescue flights and I'll have people be like, wow,
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I wish I was traveling and doing that to help animals. Like,
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I wish I could help. And I'll write them back
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and be like, you can, you can share this post.
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If you share this on your story, somebody watching you
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might actually donate and, you know, do more. I think
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I really stress on people like everybody can be doing something. And,
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you know, not that everyone has to do something, but,
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There's a lot of people out there that are like, man,
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I wish I could help. And they're like, I can't
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because I can't travel to Nicaragua right now. And it's like, well,
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you could still share this post. You could still talk
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to people about this. You could still donate $ 5. So
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I'm really trying to get more people involved in all
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aspects because I feel like everybody has something to offer
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when it comes to helping animals.
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Right.
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And I've had a lot of different guests that do
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a lot of different things for helping cats. And you
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can always just do your part. Even if you don't
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have a lot of time or don't have a lot
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of money, there's always your part. I mean, this podcast
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is my part that I've been doing nine years and
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there's just been a lot of voices that have heard
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what we're talking about here. A lot of people educated and,
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you know, it's like small steps, you know, climbing a
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mountain with small steps. That's how I see it.
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Absolutely. Absolutely.
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So you mentioned Wings of Rescue. and they have been
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on this show. They do amazing things. What is that
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like behind the scenes?
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Man, Wings of Rescue, I mean, it's such an amazing
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organization that I got brought on to by my buddy,
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Jesse Cove, who he found out about it through David
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Chilkochee from Baywatch, because they did a movie together, but
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they brought me on. And it's just incredible, you know,
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because a lot of rescues, not to diminish anything that
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anybody does, but you know, It's one thing I'll work
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with a rescue, you know, doing TNR or something and
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we'll save one cat's life that day. And we're like, man,
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this was an awesome day. We saved this cat's life.
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But when you go with wings of rescue flight, they're
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moving two, three hundred animals that were going to be euthanized,
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pulling them from a shelter, putting them on a flight
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and flying them to states that have a back order
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of adoptions. So a lot of them are adopted before
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we even land. And it's just incredible because you're I mean,
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that's a lot of work. I've got a video coming
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out this week. One of my updated ones that went
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a little haywire just because we almost couldn't fit everything.
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And it was in Dallas. So it was incredibly hot.
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And the pilots, for some reason, didn't put on the AC.
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Like it was just a miserable flight is a lot
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of work. But at the end of that flight, I
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was like, man, we just saved like 300 animals lives.
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And it's just there's so few places and organizations you
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can work with where you're like, today alone, we save
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a couple hundred animals lives. So it's just it's such
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a great group to work with.
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That's incredible. Were you in Dallas? Did that have anything
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to do with the floods?
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So they had been doing flights to help with the
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floods because, you know, obviously when the flooding happens, so
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many animals ran away. They flooded the shelters, metaphorically speaking,
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not literally. And so, yeah, they were doing trips out there.
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The flight I did was right after that. So it
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was unrelated to the flooding. But again, places like Dallas
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and Los Angeles and Florida, they're just overrun with animals
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right now.
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Yes.
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Yes. I'm in South Florida and I was in Los Angeles.
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I wish I was back there. I guess because of
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seasonality or something, we just get overwhelmed. There's so many
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in shelters, so many. You mentioned rescuing Galgos from Spain
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and relocating them.
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Yeah.
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What was that like? Oh, man.
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Let me tell you. I hate Spain. I had never
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been to Spain. I didn't know much about them. But
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I learned about these Galgos, and essentially what Galgos are
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is They're like our American greyhounds. They're Spanish greyhounds. But
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out there, they breed them. They train them horrifically to
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kind of do sport hunting. So they release a rabbit.
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Two dogs chase it. Whichever dog kills the rabbit, that's
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the winner. But at the end of the season, it's
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cheaper for them to kill the dogs and then get
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new dogs next season. But they don't just euthanize them.
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They'll hang them from trees. They'll drown them. Horrific things.
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I've seen dogs there that were One dog that showed
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up to the shelter had a carabiner hooked through his
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Achilles tendon to keep him from running away. Oh, my God.
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They sodomized him. It's horrible.
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Oh, my God.
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That's incredible.
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I mean, I know we're a cat show, but this
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is an important rescue. And some of us cat people
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have dogs, and you can like both. Even if you're
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a cat person, you can still like dogs.
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Cat people always love dogs, yeah.
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That's incredibly, that's crazy.
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Well, and the wild thing, here's what will blow your mind.
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They're aware of this abuse. They're aware of the torture
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and killing. But because so many people do it, they've
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made exemptions to the law that exempt galgos and bulls
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from the abuse laws. So it's illegal to abuse other animals,
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but bulls and galgos are considered working animals and you
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can do whatever you want without punishment. So I always
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trash Spain when I'm out there and people get really
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mad because they're like, it's not all of Spain doing this.
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And I say, yes, but your laws are exempting them.
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So until people get angry enough to change that, I'm
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going to keep saying it's all of Spain. Now, am
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I aware it's not all of Spain? I am aware
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it's not. There's a lot of amazing people out there.
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We've met a lot of amazing rescues. But if you
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want to make change, you kind of have to rile
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people up a bit. And so whenever I'm out there,
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I'm just like, yeah, guys, this is what Spain does
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to animals. And man, it's been getting it's been ruffling feathers.
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Good, good.
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Sometimes we need to ruffle feathers, you know. We're going
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to take a short break, and we'll be right back. Hello,
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Catitude listeners. Okay, Smalls sent food for my three cats, Dennis, Molly,
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and Charlotte. And I was very curious to see what
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would happen at dinnertime. Let's just say, apparently I've been
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demoted from cat mom. to personal chef and food delivery service.
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10-year-old girls remind me why I'm paying more attention to
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what goes into their bowls. As for Dennis, at 18,
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he's earned the right to be picky and when dennis
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approves of dinner believe me i consider that a five-star
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review your cat's health and longevity starts with what they
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head to Smalls.com slash Catitude. slash catitude that's c-a-t-t-i-t-u-d-e.
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Let's talk pets let's talk pets on pet life.
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Radio pet life radio.
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Petliferadio.com Welcome back, everyone.
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We're talking to Nathan Keene, better known as Nathan the
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Cat Lady. Nathan, you've done so many amazing things. You've
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also worked with a lot of nonprofit rescue partners. What
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makes a good rescue partner to work with? And what
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can organizations accomplish together that they might not have been
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able to accomplish independently? Although we talked about that a
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little with Wings of Rescue, but what other nonprofit rescue
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networks are there out there?
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Okay, so hot take. Everybody listen up. Rescue is one
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of the cattiest group of people I've ever met in
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my life. Rescue people do not like to collaborate with
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each other. They don't like to work together. They fight relentlessly. But,
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and this is where I'm building to this, when they
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finally do decide, hey, you know what? Let's put egos
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aside and let's work together. They do incredible things because...
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The biggest thing is finding resources and staff and time
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and money and just everything. So for instance, yesterday I
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was in Skid Row in downtown LA with LuxPause that
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organized with FixNation. They also rented a spay and neuter
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truck from Allison Eastwood and the Eastwood Foundation. So there's
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a bunch of organizations. LuxPause has been very good about
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reaching out to different groups and being like, hey, Let's
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work together. Let's work together. And it's amazing what people
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can do when they start working together. I mean, I
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was with PETA the other day on Skid Row.
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Wow.
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And PETA, they're doing some amazing things. And I was
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with one of their, I don't remember if she was
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the founder. Well, not the founder. She's on their board.
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She is very high up in PETA. And I pulled
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her aside and I was like, hey, I love that
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you guys are out here. I want to do more.
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I was like, I realize we don't agree on TNR.
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PETA has a very different outlook on TNR, and they
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fight with TNR people about this. And I told her,
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I was like, look, I know we disagree on TNR.
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Can we put that aside for now and help fix
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this problem and then go back to fighting? And she's like, absolutely.
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I love that. Let's talk. Let's figure out how we
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can do it. And I was like, oh, thank God,
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because it's so important for rescues right now, especially in places,
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I mean, places all over. But like in California, the
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government out here is absolutely dropping the ball. They're not helping.
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They're not contributing money. almost nothing. And, uh, you know,
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you have veterinary clinics that are raising spay neuter costs
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to seven, 800, sometimes $ 2, 000. Wow. The population is booming
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and it's like, okay guys, if the government's not going
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to help, the veterinarians are not going to help. We
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have to band together or there's no saving the animals.
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So I, I really think it's important. And wings and rescue,
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like you said, is a such a testament to that.
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They fly around and they work with organizations all over
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the country and they say, Hey, You need dogs and cats.
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They have dogs and cats. Can we fly them to you?
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And they're like, yes, please. And it's just been so great.
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And they just hit 93,000 cats and dogs that they've
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helped fly. And 8,000 of them were this year.
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That's incredible. I'm just curious. This will get some people
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a little riled up. But what state, because I would
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think California is always progressive as far as different things.
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And you said they're not doing enough. What state do
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you think does the most work? I mean, York just
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passed the declaw like that made that illegal.
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Oh, that's good. I mean, yeah, that's great. I'm pretty sure.
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Somebody will let me know if I'm wrong, but I'm
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pretty sure.
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Yeah.
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I mean, it's man, it's hard. I mean, it's definitely
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not Hawaii. Hawaii is looking to make it illegal to
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feed colony cats. Um, and they're trying to put colony
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cats down. So Hawaii you're on my, you know, what
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list California is a joke with the amount of money
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that comes into California.
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Yeah.
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That could be going to help. And the amount that they,
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I mean, it's not even people assuming anymore or conspiracy theory.
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It's just a well-known thing that, well, yeah, they get
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a lot of money and then all of the companies
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they work with jack up the prices. And then, you know,
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the money is going to the builders and it's going
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to the quote unquote charitable foundations that the government, you know,
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they know there's so much fraud in California. None of
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it is going towards the animals. And it's just, it's
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become something that we've just accepted out here for some reason. So,
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I mean, California is out.
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I think Florida's out too. I mean, we have a
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lot of fraud. I don't know if it's animal related,
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but we have a lot of fraud here and we
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are aware.
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Yeah. I really wish I knew somebody that could be like,
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you know what? This state is crushing it. But unfortunately,
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there's not a lot of money in animal rescue. Yeah.
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And so it's not very high on the priority list,
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which is disappointing. So I don't know that I've got
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anybody that's at the top of my list, but that's
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also because when I go to a state, it's because
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they're not doing well. You know, I'm more cynical than most.
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All the traveling I've been doing, I was in Nicaragua,
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I was in Spain, I was in Hawaii, and everybody's like, oh,
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you went to all these beautiful places. And I was like, no,
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I go to the worst parts of these places. You know,
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I don't get to see so much of the good.
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Yeah, I can relate. Sometimes when I travel, it's to
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the messy. areas and just doing that. It's not, you know,
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fancy restaurants, hotels. It's just messy stuff. Yeah. Let's talk
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about other aspects of your work because you also have
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worked in building spaces for cats, like catios, and you've
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worked and built other enclosures and dog parks and habitats.
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How did you get into that? And where did that
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come from? Are you secretly a builder too?
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So I was a handyman and carpenter for two and
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a half, three years. It's one of the many random
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hats I've worn over the years. And so, yeah, the first...
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Is it the first? I think roughly... Yeah, I think
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the first one of those was right after I collapsed
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in Vegas, I got a message from Beagle Freedom Project.
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And they were like, hey, we're turning... an animal testing lab.
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We purchased a testing lab in Nahuatl, Oklahoma, and we're
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turning it into a sanctuary. We're rescuing, I think it
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was 90 cats and 180 beagles. And they're like, we
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want to build this sanctuary. Are you down to help
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come cut the ribbon? And I was like, yeah, but like,
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I can do more. Like, I feel bad just coming
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out to cut a ribbon. You know, I'm not wanting
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to just- I love that.
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Yeah.
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I'm not wanting to just show up and be like,
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look what I did when I didn't do anything. So
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they were like, well, yeah, what'd you have in mind?
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And I was like, I don't know. Let me- reach
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out to some sponsors and see what I can do.
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So within three weeks I reached out to sponsors and
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I had raised about $ 150, 000 worth of supplies, food, cat food,
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dog food, toys, leashes, like a shampoo, everything you could
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think of and had it sent out there. So my
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first trip went out and then we had started talking about,
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they're like, well, we want to have a cat cafe
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for these cats. And I was like, Hey, throwing it
429
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out there. What if I helped build it? And we
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called it Nathan's cat lady lounge. And they were like,
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I love it. Let's do it. So I was a
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little misunderstood when I went out there. I had brands
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donate for tools and stuff like that, like buy in
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so that I could have supplies and tools while I
435
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was out there. And I got out there. I was like,
436
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all right, who's the team? Who's building? And they were like, oh, you.
437
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I was like, oh, you're the whole team. Yeah, I
438
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was the team. Yeah. So day one, I ripped down
439
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an entire wall. Day two, I started framing it out.
440
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I framed. I mean, I was there a week. I
441
00:22:03.660 --> 00:22:07.170
ended up. framed in about three quarters of it, ripped
442
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down the old walls. And then I also had to
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build some pig stairs and a ramp for some pigs
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that they had outside. And then I left. And luckily they,
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by that point they had made connections with another team
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that's like, Hey, we'll come in and finish the walls.
447
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And I was like, thank goodness. Cause one man, you know,
448
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:23.839
trying to do that. And I don't have that kind
449
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of time, but Started building that. And then I met
450
00:22:26.329 --> 00:22:29.730
this amazing group called Easy Pet Fence. And they were like, hey,
451
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we love what you do. We want to partner with
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you sometime, but we just don't know how. And I
453
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was like, well, what do you do? And they're like,
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we make dog parks and catios. And I was like, well,
455
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do you want to go build dog parks and catios
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00:22:40.789 --> 00:22:45.039
in Nahuatl, Oklahoma for a recently built dog sanctuary? And
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they were like, absolutely. So they donated two huge dog
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parks and a catio. And so I got a bunch
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of volunteers, went out and we spent a whole week building.
460
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We built two parks and a catio. And that kind
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of just sparked this whole thing where I'm like, I
462
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have all these resources. I have skills. Let's go start,
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you know, reaching out to these groups. So since then
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I've built, I had built like my own little cat
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sanctuary thing up in the desert. I had built a
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monkey enclosure, just a bunch of random odd jobs where
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I've just been going out and just finding rescues that
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need help. And I'm like, hey, let me help you,
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you know?
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You've done incredible work. I mean, man of many trades.
471
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It's incredible work. We talked about this a little bit.
472
00:23:27.309 --> 00:23:31.269
It's incredible with cats and especially with TNR because there's
473
00:23:31.390 --> 00:23:33.950
a lot of focus that there's micro, then there's macro,
474
00:23:34.150 --> 00:23:36.789
then there's micro, but there should be more focus on
475
00:23:36.869 --> 00:23:41.170
micros joining together, maybe to be mini macros. Where do
476
00:23:41.190 --> 00:23:43.130
you think the big disconnect is?
477
00:23:43.609 --> 00:23:44.279
In what way?
478
00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:49.329
Well, where do you think that is? where the system
479
00:23:49.430 --> 00:23:53.480
is really breaking? Is it more the larger systems? Because
480
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:55.779
you talked about that a little with the states, and
481
00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:58.160
I get that. Do you think it's with some of
482
00:23:58.240 --> 00:23:59.880
the larger organizations?
483
00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:00.700
Yeah.
484
00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:03.759
I mean, it's tough to say. I never want to
485
00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:05.759
say I'm an expert on the back end of things,
486
00:24:05.819 --> 00:24:10.569
but there are a lot of these massive organizations that
487
00:24:10.890 --> 00:24:12.789
I'm not saying... They're all in it for the money.
488
00:24:12.809 --> 00:24:15.049
They're doing amazing work. But I think at some point you,
489
00:24:15.109 --> 00:24:17.609
you know, you build these big organizations and you have,
490
00:24:17.849 --> 00:24:20.779
you know, you've got shareholders, you've got different divisions and
491
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:23.230
all this stuff. And a lot of that money slowly
492
00:24:23.299 --> 00:24:25.960
starts going out and out and out and out to
493
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:28.420
team and development, stuff like that. And you kind of
494
00:24:28.460 --> 00:24:30.799
forget like, yeah, we're supposed to be out there hands
495
00:24:31.339 --> 00:24:34.259
in the dirt, helping animals. Whereas a lot of these
496
00:24:34.420 --> 00:24:38.279
smaller organizations, you'll see them. They're out there. A lot
497
00:24:38.299 --> 00:24:41.519
of them are volunteers. They're just out there volunteering. Trap
498
00:24:41.539 --> 00:24:45.950
neuter return is a great example of that. Most, I'd
499
00:24:45.990 --> 00:24:48.950
say 99% of people that do trap neuter return are
500
00:24:49.009 --> 00:24:51.849
not getting paid for trap neuter return. They're just volunteering
501
00:24:51.869 --> 00:24:54.710
in the neighborhoods and they're doing amazing work. And a
502
00:24:54.750 --> 00:24:57.339
lot of them are having to fundraise themselves just to
503
00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:01.400
cover the spay neuter costs, cover the medication and stuff
504
00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:04.200
like that. And I think it would be amazing if
505
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:06.500
some of these bigger organizations, and like I said, the
506
00:25:06.539 --> 00:25:10.119
government would come through and I've said this to, I
507
00:25:10.819 --> 00:25:14.059
said this to one of the candidates in California recently,
508
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:15.630
she was at an event and I went up and
509
00:25:15.650 --> 00:25:18.849
told her essentially that California is a dumpster fire. And
510
00:25:18.869 --> 00:25:20.690
when I say essentially, I mean, I literally told her
511
00:25:20.710 --> 00:25:23.349
it was a dumpster fire, but I was just like, look,
512
00:25:23.369 --> 00:25:27.299
like you have an army of people that want to help,
513
00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:30.200
but you guys have to just, just pick up the,
514
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:33.839
pick up the cost of spaying and neutering, pick up
515
00:25:33.859 --> 00:25:36.619
the cost of the medical and then all of the
516
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:38.980
labor and the man hours, these people are ready to
517
00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:41.720
do it. But I feel like sometimes when organizations get
518
00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:44.950
too big, everybody wants to get paid. And, you know,
519
00:25:45.089 --> 00:25:47.890
with the government right now, animals is not a big priority.
520
00:25:47.950 --> 00:25:50.950
They'll do enough to just stop getting yelled at, but
521
00:25:50.970 --> 00:25:54.009
they're not really out to fix the problem. When realistically
522
00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:57.369
enough money put into this, we could fix the problem.
523
00:25:57.430 --> 00:25:59.339
We have hundreds of people trying to do spay and
524
00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:02.460
neuter right now that just have nowhere to take the animals.
525
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.109
But I could, build an army of trappers. We just
526
00:26:06.130 --> 00:26:08.289
don't have anywhere to get them fixed right now. Or
527
00:26:08.329 --> 00:26:09.609
the animals fixed.
528
00:26:09.869 --> 00:26:14.200
And it's crazy. It's crazy that TNR people can't get any,
529
00:26:14.579 --> 00:26:18.039
I don't know, special voucher or something to be able
530
00:26:18.099 --> 00:26:20.839
to take it to a, you know, Chewy now has
531
00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:24.119
vets that are out, you know, veterinarian locations or some
532
00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:27.819
other BCA has a whole chain, you know, where they
533
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:30.160
could take these vouchers and just take the cats in
534
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:33.589
and the government could give them some kind of a write-off, right?
535
00:26:33.890 --> 00:26:36.630
It's very broad and vague, but that's an idea of
536
00:26:36.750 --> 00:26:37.950
something that could get done.
537
00:26:38.509 --> 00:26:41.049
No, and that's the thing. They have a voucher program.
538
00:26:41.130 --> 00:26:44.119
They have it for residents and they have it for TNR.
539
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:47.599
The problem is, first of all, the voucher for TNR
540
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:50.779
is like $ 75 and a TNR spay and neuter is
541
00:26:50.980 --> 00:26:54.400
usually an average of $ 150. So it's only covering about half.
542
00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:55.740
It should cover all of it.
543
00:26:56.039 --> 00:26:58.049
Yeah, it should cover all of it. And also like
544
00:26:58.069 --> 00:27:00.029
the ones for the public. I was talking to a
545
00:27:00.049 --> 00:27:02.529
guy literally yesterday. He was, he's homeless. He brought his
546
00:27:02.569 --> 00:27:05.950
dog in and the city gave him $ 150 voucher and
547
00:27:05.990 --> 00:27:08.890
he called around to vet clinics and they were saying
548
00:27:08.930 --> 00:27:11.329
it's going to be about 1700 to get your animal
549
00:27:11.349 --> 00:27:12.269
spayed or neutered. He called 1700.
550
00:27:12.250 --> 00:27:13.730
Yeah.
551
00:27:14.890 --> 00:27:16.849
Which I mean, I know you can find it for cheaper,
552
00:27:16.890 --> 00:27:19.490
but most places, a lot of them are like seven,
553
00:27:19.490 --> 00:27:23.049
800 now. And they're giving him $ 150 voucher. I'm like, no,
554
00:27:23.109 --> 00:27:26.349
the city should just be covering this. There should be
555
00:27:26.410 --> 00:27:28.859
places that you can go and just bring these animals.
556
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:31.380
Because again, this is a city problem that people are fixing.
557
00:27:32.259 --> 00:27:35.339
If the city is overrun with cats and dogs, that's
558
00:27:35.380 --> 00:27:38.640
a city problem. And the fact that volunteers are having
559
00:27:38.660 --> 00:27:41.779
to fund out of their own pocket is crazy to me.
560
00:27:42.259 --> 00:27:44.769
You know, I mean, we, again, California, just because I
561
00:27:44.789 --> 00:27:49.069
live here, you know, we have a failed $ 116 billion
562
00:27:49.130 --> 00:27:51.589
train that's never going to get built. If you gave
563
00:27:52.130 --> 00:27:55.329
us a billion dollars, we would solve the animal crisis
564
00:27:55.390 --> 00:28:00.299
in Los Angeles in six months. Easy. But the money
565
00:28:00.339 --> 00:28:02.640
mismanagement is just insane. It's a shame.
566
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:06.259
That it is. Nathan, the cat lady, if you could
567
00:28:06.279 --> 00:28:09.880
change one thing about the way people think about animal rescue,
568
00:28:10.019 --> 00:28:12.980
so not just cats, but all animals, mostly it's cats
569
00:28:13.019 --> 00:28:16.509
and dogs, but there's others, horses and pigs and so forth.
570
00:28:16.930 --> 00:28:18.869
What would you want people to understand?
571
00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:21.019
Oof, I only get one.
572
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:22.400
You can do more.
573
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:25.880
Yeah, there's two big ones that I want people to really,
574
00:28:25.940 --> 00:28:28.099
and I feel like I've been driving them home on this,
575
00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:30.079
and I'm sure there's a lot of people giving their
576
00:28:30.099 --> 00:28:33.049
thumbs arthritis already sending me DMs listening to this. But
577
00:28:33.170 --> 00:28:34.549
I think the two big things I want people to
578
00:28:34.589 --> 00:28:38.900
know is one, the government is not Fixing the problem.
579
00:28:39.220 --> 00:28:40.960
I know so many people that they'll send me a
580
00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:43.180
video of a kitten. They found like, Hey, I found
581
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:45.279
these kittens. Who do I call to come collect them?
582
00:28:45.299 --> 00:28:45.500
Why?
583
00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:47.960
Like the government should come pick these up or where's
584
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.029
the shelter. Why aren't you just bringing those animals to
585
00:28:50.049 --> 00:28:53.329
the government shelter? I don't understand. Cause everyone just has
586
00:28:53.410 --> 00:28:57.109
this view that the government is, has all these rescues
587
00:28:57.150 --> 00:29:00.089
and shelters and they're taking care of it. And I
588
00:29:00.130 --> 00:29:02.869
won't be able to realize like most of the rescue
589
00:29:02.910 --> 00:29:06.930
that's happening is is small organizations that are volunteer-based that
590
00:29:06.950 --> 00:29:10.009
are trying to fund it themselves. Even Wings of Rescue,
591
00:29:10.089 --> 00:29:14.630
they are totally crowdfunded. Each flight is like $ 25, 000, but
592
00:29:14.670 --> 00:29:19.109
they're funding it themselves by just asking for donations and
593
00:29:19.130 --> 00:29:21.490
monthly donors and stuff like that. So that would be
594
00:29:21.509 --> 00:29:23.509
the one thing I want people to realize is like,
595
00:29:24.230 --> 00:29:26.130
you can't just put this on the back burner, like, oh,
596
00:29:26.150 --> 00:29:28.690
the government's got it. They don't, they don't care. The
597
00:29:28.769 --> 00:29:31.730
other thing is, again, what I spoke about earlier, is
598
00:29:31.779 --> 00:29:34.160
that everybody can do something. I think a lot of
599
00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:38.289
people assume, oh, if I can't go save an animal,
600
00:29:38.329 --> 00:29:40.569
like pick up an animal physically and bring it to
601
00:29:40.589 --> 00:29:44.109
a vet, then I can't help. And that's just not true.
602
00:29:44.190 --> 00:29:46.890
You can be sharing other people's posts, you can be
603
00:29:46.950 --> 00:29:50.559
donating to things, you can be volunteering to walk dogs
604
00:29:50.599 --> 00:29:53.710
or clean kennels or you could do TNR. I mean,
605
00:29:53.730 --> 00:29:56.390
there's from the top down, if you have time, you
606
00:29:56.430 --> 00:29:58.910
can volunteer. If you have money, you can donate. If
607
00:29:58.950 --> 00:30:01.109
you don't have time or money, but you have enough
608
00:30:01.150 --> 00:30:03.549
time and money to watch a video of us asking
609
00:30:03.630 --> 00:30:06.569
for money and supplies, you can share that video. So
610
00:30:06.589 --> 00:30:09.390
there's no excuse. I've never met a single person that
611
00:30:09.609 --> 00:30:11.289
can't do even a little bit.
612
00:30:11.509 --> 00:30:15.390
Thank you for that. Now, where can listeners connect with you,
613
00:30:15.809 --> 00:30:18.579
learn more about TNR and learn more about your work?
614
00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:22.000
Absolutely. So you can follow me on all platforms, Nathan,
615
00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:25.210
the cat lady, Instagram, Facebook. I've just started a new
616
00:30:25.349 --> 00:30:27.809
series on YouTube. So you can track and see my
617
00:30:27.849 --> 00:30:30.069
long forms of all the adventures and stuff I've been
618
00:30:30.089 --> 00:30:33.930
going on. And then also my website, Nathan, the cat lady.com.
619
00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:36.839
And there's merch on there. You can get those robes.
620
00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:39.960
There's also a blog going up that'll just keep you
621
00:30:40.019 --> 00:30:42.079
updated with all the things I'm doing. There's also a
622
00:30:42.140 --> 00:30:43.880
page where you can donate to a lot of the
623
00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.480
rescues I like to work with. So yeah, Nathan, the
624
00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:47.940
cat lady everywhere.
625
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:51.410
Nathan, the Cat Lady, thank you so much for coming
626
00:30:51.490 --> 00:30:53.569
on Catitude. I so appreciate it.
627
00:30:53.869 --> 00:30:55.210
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
628
00:30:55.609 --> 00:30:58.529
I hope you all enjoyed this show. Please go ahead
629
00:30:58.609 --> 00:31:02.079
and follow Nathan, the Cat Lady. He is a wonderful
630
00:31:02.130 --> 00:31:06.220
human being. He's done so many amazing things for animal welfare,
631
00:31:06.259 --> 00:31:09.000
especially cats. So thank you, Nathan. And thank you again
632
00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:12.059
for coming on Catitude. Thank you to my cat crew,
633
00:31:12.299 --> 00:31:15.710
All Rescues, Dennis, Charlotte, and Molly. Thank you to my
634
00:31:15.769 --> 00:31:21.089
listening audience for... Just listening and loving cats. And I
635
00:31:21.170 --> 00:31:24.400
know that you move the message forward, you know, for TNR.
636
00:31:24.529 --> 00:31:27.349
So thank you for all you do. And, of course,
637
00:31:27.430 --> 00:31:29.819
thanks to my producer. The show would not be the
638
00:31:29.859 --> 00:31:33.700
same without the magic of Mark Winter. So thank you, Mark. And, hey, remember,
639
00:31:34.059 --> 00:31:36.500
lose the attitude. Have catitude.
640
00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:42.720
Let's Talk Pets. Every week on demand. Only on PetLifeRadio.com.
641
00:31:53.210 --> 00:31:54.079
Thank you.
1
00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:03.720
Pet Life Radio. This is Pet Life Radio.
2
00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:05.080
Let's talk pets.
3
00:00:13.529 --> 00:00:25.250
Hello, feline friends.
4
00:00:25.370 --> 00:00:26.570
Welcome to Catitude.
5
00:00:26.589 --> 00:00:29.920
I'm your show host, Michelle Fern. And I have a
6
00:00:30.019 --> 00:00:32.240
guest that I adore. He's been on the show before,
7
00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:35.840
but it's been a long time, like too long, except
8
00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:40.399
for some meetings at Global. And he's just amazing. So
9
00:00:40.740 --> 00:00:42.640
stay tuned and you'll find out who it is.
10
00:00:45.939 --> 00:00:49.079
Talk to the Paw. Hi, this is Amy Stewart.
11
00:00:49.140 --> 00:00:51.119
Hi, I'm Jane Lynch. This is Mandy Boynton.
12
00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:53.619
Hi there, I'm Kate Walsh. This is Catherine Tygo. There's
13
00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:56.030
only one station that gives you the scoop on wagging
14
00:00:56.070 --> 00:00:59.990
tongues and tails. And who's walking who in Renton, Tinseltown.
15
00:01:00.009 --> 00:01:02.759
PetLife Radio, the tail wagger.
16
00:01:12.950 --> 00:01:17.689
Welcome back, everyone. I'd like to welcome Nathan Keene, also
17
00:01:17.750 --> 00:01:20.790
known as Nathan the Cat Lady, which is how you
18
00:01:20.810 --> 00:01:23.599
guys probably know of him. Welcome, Nathan.
19
00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:25.200
Thank you so much for having me.
20
00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:28.390
I'm so excited to have you. So you haven't been
21
00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:32.069
on Catitude for almost six years, but I've seen you
22
00:01:32.530 --> 00:01:35.560
too long and that you were doing a whole other thing.
23
00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:39.000
So what's been going on? You said, you know, we
24
00:01:39.019 --> 00:01:40.719
were talking a little bit earlier. You said it's been
25
00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:43.299
a hectic year, hopefully in a good way.
26
00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:46.700
Yeah, no, in a great way. I mean, shoot, six years.
27
00:01:47.030 --> 00:01:49.189
So much has changed. I think when I first was
28
00:01:49.269 --> 00:01:52.469
on here, I was almost exclusively just doing comedy. It
29
00:01:52.489 --> 00:01:56.209
was just funny cat videos, me in a bathrobe, being
30
00:01:56.250 --> 00:02:00.650
a goofball with the kitties. And right around 2023, I
31
00:02:00.859 --> 00:02:04.239
was at a convention and I still had a full-time
32
00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:07.459
sales job. I was still doing comedy. I had jaw
33
00:02:07.500 --> 00:02:10.560
surgery and I was at my fifth convention in the month,
34
00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:13.719
just basically running around like, hey, I can do anything
35
00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:17.469
I want. Why not? And I ended up collapsing and
36
00:02:17.530 --> 00:02:20.830
spent two days in the emergency room running tests and stuff.
37
00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:23.520
And basically, I was like, you know what? I need
38
00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:27.060
to stop and slow down or I'm going to die.
39
00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:29.639
So I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you
40
00:02:29.659 --> 00:02:30.219
slowed down.
41
00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.150
Yeah, no, I quit my full time job. I moved apartments.
42
00:02:33.259 --> 00:02:34.909
And then I decided I was like, you know what?
43
00:02:35.150 --> 00:02:38.189
I want to get way more into rescue. And ever
44
00:02:38.229 --> 00:02:41.590
since then, I've just been working with so many amazing
45
00:02:41.650 --> 00:02:42.930
organizations all over the world.
46
00:02:43.349 --> 00:02:45.250
One of the things I try to do on this show,
47
00:02:45.349 --> 00:02:47.210
one of the things that's near and dear to my
48
00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:51.370
heart is just educating everyone about, well, that's what the
49
00:02:51.409 --> 00:02:54.629
show is, Anything and Everything Cat, you know, educating everyone.
50
00:02:54.650 --> 00:02:56.770
Because as much as you know, there's also a lot
51
00:02:56.789 --> 00:02:59.340
you don't know. And things move so quickly, it's hard
52
00:02:59.379 --> 00:03:02.590
to keep up. But rescue is like near and dear
53
00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:06.280
because there's always something going on and there's never enough.
54
00:03:06.379 --> 00:03:08.819
And there's always something more we can do, more we
55
00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.500
can communicate. Before we get into that, though, I don't
56
00:03:12.539 --> 00:03:15.620
think I've ever asked you this question, but where did
57
00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:19.349
the moniker Nathan the Cat Lady come from? Like, did
58
00:03:19.389 --> 00:03:21.069
Nathan the Cat Dude not work?
59
00:03:22.069 --> 00:03:24.050
Well, for one day, I was like, I'm going to
60
00:03:24.090 --> 00:03:27.689
try Cat Daddy, not realizing there was another connotation to that.
61
00:03:28.229 --> 00:03:29.870
I tried it for one day on my stories. I
62
00:03:29.870 --> 00:03:31.830
was like, all right, well, I guess I'm, you know,
63
00:03:31.969 --> 00:03:35.250
the Cat Daddy. And the creepiest DMs, like, I didn't
64
00:03:35.270 --> 00:03:37.569
realize how many people in America needed daddies.
65
00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:38.960
Oh, gosh.
66
00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.340
I did that. And man, everybody came out of the
67
00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:43.840
woodwork like, oh, daddy. Hey, daddy. Love what you're doing.
68
00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:45.560
And I was like, you know what? Not what I'm
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looking for right now. So I decided to lean into
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the stereotype. You know, everyone makes fun of crazy cat ladies.
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And I was like, you know, I was like, speaking
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of here's one of my kitties. I was like, you
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know what? I'm going to lean into it. And everybody
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already calls me a crazy cat lady. So I'm just
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going to embrace it. And I switched it to Nathan,
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the cat lady. And yeah, we never looked back. Right.
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And then as you were saying, the cat daddy, Jackson
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Galaxy is known as the cat daddy.
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Yep.
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But I guess if you just put Nathan, the cat daddy, then.
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Yeah. But, you know, I think it's more fun. I
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think it's more fun to lean into the stereotype. And
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I think it's more important, which is why I, you know,
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I rock the bathrobes, which I even now sell the
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bathrobes on my website. You can buy a cat dad
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or a cat lady bathrobe. And they're, you know, very nice,
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plush robes. And it's just kind of elevating the stereotype.
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And making it cool to be a cat lover.
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Yeah, as long as it's cool. I mean, as long
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as people know who you are and know what you
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do and you keep reaching people, that's the most important thing.
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And you've been known as Nathan the Cat Lady for years.
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Yeah.
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You have a community of more than a million followers,
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but you do a lot more than just creating content. Now,
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you said you started off with comedy. I remember the bathrooms.
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I remember seeing you in the bathrooms at Global. So cool.
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What made you decide, you explained, you know, you got
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sick and everything. What made you decide I need to
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focus on rescue other than maybe other things?
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You know, it's been kind of a snowball effect, but
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I think it's one of those things where you don't
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realize how bad the problem is until you know. And
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I think the more I started getting in, you know,
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I was like, you know, my buddy Sterling the Trap
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King showed me TNR and I was like, oh, I
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didn't even know there was that many cats outside. And,
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you know, you start doing TNR and you're like, oh, wow,
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there's a lot of cats that need help. And then
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I met somebody at a convention, a cat fest in Colorado.
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And she walked up and she was like, you know, yeah,
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I go to Spain every year and I rescue galgos.
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And I was like, what's a galgo? And she told
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me about the Spanish greyhound that, you know, is tortured
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and killed every year as part of their culture. And
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I was like, what? Never heard of that. Let's go.
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And I've kind of just started saying yes to groups.
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I kind of had this motto ever since I collapsed
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that I'm going to close my eyes and run as
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fast as I can. which basically just means I've just
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been saying yes. And all these rescue groups have been
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showing me all these problems. And I'm like, you know,
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I have a following. I've got a very loyal following
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that just love to support anything I do. And so
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it gives me a great platform to help. And it's,
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I don't know. I love my comedy. I will always
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do my comedy, but it's so gratifying to do a
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rescue video and save a life and have that video
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take off as opposed to like a comedy sketch. You know,
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it's just, it's like that video actually changed a life.
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So Nathan, the cat lady, do you, I'd like to
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use the whole name. So Nathan, the cat lady, do
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you think when people see the videos that inspires people
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or is your goal to inspire people to do more TNR,
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to seek out shelters, to adopt, to do more donating everything?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I've been speaking at conventions lately, at festivals,
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at all sorts of things. And I've been giving full
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talks of everybody can do something. And Because I think
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a lot of people, especially nowadays, they love to talk,
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but they don't love action. And so I like to
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show people, you know, I've had people I do, you know,
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the wings of rescue flights and I'll have people be like, wow,
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I wish I was traveling and doing that to help animals. Like,
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I wish I could help. And I'll write them back
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and be like, you can, you can share this post.
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If you share this on your story, somebody watching you
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might actually donate and, you know, do more. I think
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I really stress on people like everybody can be doing something. And,
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you know, not that everyone has to do something, but,
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There's a lot of people out there that are like, man,
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I wish I could help. And they're like, I can't
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because I can't travel to Nicaragua right now. And it's like, well,
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you could still share this post. You could still talk
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to people about this. You could still donate $ 5. So
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I'm really trying to get more people involved in all
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aspects because I feel like everybody has something to offer
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when it comes to helping animals.
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Right.
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And I've had a lot of different guests that do
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a lot of different things for helping cats. And you
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can always just do your part. Even if you don't
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have a lot of time or don't have a lot
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of money, there's always your part. I mean, this podcast
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is my part that I've been doing nine years and
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there's just been a lot of voices that have heard
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what we're talking about here. A lot of people educated and,
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you know, it's like small steps, you know, climbing a
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mountain with small steps. That's how I see it.
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Absolutely. Absolutely.
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So you mentioned Wings of Rescue. and they have been
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on this show. They do amazing things. What is that
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like behind the scenes?
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Man, Wings of Rescue, I mean, it's such an amazing
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organization that I got brought on to by my buddy,
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Jesse Cove, who he found out about it through David
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Chilkochee from Baywatch, because they did a movie together, but
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they brought me on. And it's just incredible, you know,
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because a lot of rescues, not to diminish anything that
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anybody does, but you know, It's one thing I'll work
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with a rescue, you know, doing TNR or something and
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we'll save one cat's life that day. And we're like, man,
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this was an awesome day. We saved this cat's life.
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But when you go with wings of rescue flight, they're
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moving two, three hundred animals that were going to be euthanized,
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pulling them from a shelter, putting them on a flight
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and flying them to states that have a back order
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of adoptions. So a lot of them are adopted before
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we even land. And it's just incredible because you're I mean,
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that's a lot of work. I've got a video coming
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out this week. One of my updated ones that went
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a little haywire just because we almost couldn't fit everything.
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And it was in Dallas. So it was incredibly hot.
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And the pilots, for some reason, didn't put on the AC.
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Like it was just a miserable flight is a lot
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of work. But at the end of that flight, I
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was like, man, we just saved like 300 animals lives.
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And it's just there's so few places and organizations you
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can work with where you're like, today alone, we save
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a couple hundred animals lives. So it's just it's such
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a great group to work with.
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That's incredible. Were you in Dallas? Did that have anything
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to do with the floods?
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So they had been doing flights to help with the
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floods because, you know, obviously when the flooding happens, so
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many animals ran away. They flooded the shelters, metaphorically speaking,
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not literally. And so, yeah, they were doing trips out there.
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The flight I did was right after that. So it
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was unrelated to the flooding. But again, places like Dallas
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and Los Angeles and Florida, they're just overrun with animals
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right now.
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Yes.
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Yes. I'm in South Florida and I was in Los Angeles.
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I wish I was back there. I guess because of
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seasonality or something, we just get overwhelmed. There's so many
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in shelters, so many. You mentioned rescuing Galgos from Spain
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and relocating them.
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Yeah.
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What was that like? Oh, man.
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Let me tell you. I hate Spain. I had never
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been to Spain. I didn't know much about them. But
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I learned about these Galgos, and essentially what Galgos are
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is They're like our American greyhounds. They're Spanish greyhounds. But
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out there, they breed them. They train them horrifically to
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kind of do sport hunting. So they release a rabbit.
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Two dogs chase it. Whichever dog kills the rabbit, that's
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the winner. But at the end of the season, it's
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cheaper for them to kill the dogs and then get
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new dogs next season. But they don't just euthanize them.
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They'll hang them from trees. They'll drown them. Horrific things.
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I've seen dogs there that were One dog that showed
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up to the shelter had a carabiner hooked through his
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Achilles tendon to keep him from running away. Oh, my God.
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They sodomized him. It's horrible.
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Oh, my God.
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That's incredible.
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I mean, I know we're a cat show, but this
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is an important rescue. And some of us cat people
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have dogs, and you can like both. Even if you're
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a cat person, you can still like dogs.
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Cat people always love dogs, yeah.
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That's incredibly, that's crazy.
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Well, and the wild thing, here's what will blow your mind.
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They're aware of this abuse. They're aware of the torture
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and killing. But because so many people do it, they've
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made exemptions to the law that exempt galgos and bulls
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from the abuse laws. So it's illegal to abuse other animals,
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but bulls and galgos are considered working animals and you
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can do whatever you want without punishment. So I always
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trash Spain when I'm out there and people get really
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mad because they're like, it's not all of Spain doing this.
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And I say, yes, but your laws are exempting them.
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So until people get angry enough to change that, I'm
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going to keep saying it's all of Spain. Now, am
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I aware it's not all of Spain? I am aware
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it's not. There's a lot of amazing people out there.
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We've met a lot of amazing rescues. But if you
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want to make change, you kind of have to rile
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people up a bit. And so whenever I'm out there,
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I'm just like, yeah, guys, this is what Spain does
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to animals. And man, it's been getting it's been ruffling feathers.
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Good, good.
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Sometimes we need to ruffle feathers, you know. We're going
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to take a short break, and we'll be right back. Hello,
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Catitude listeners. Okay, Smalls sent food for my three cats, Dennis, Molly,
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00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:58.139
and Charlotte. And I was very curious to see what
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Let's talk pets let's talk pets on pet life.
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Radio pet life radio.
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Petliferadio.com Welcome back, everyone.
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We're talking to Nathan Keene, better known as Nathan the
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Cat Lady. Nathan, you've done so many amazing things. You've
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also worked with a lot of nonprofit rescue partners. What
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makes a good rescue partner to work with? And what
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can organizations accomplish together that they might not have been
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able to accomplish independently? Although we talked about that a
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little with Wings of Rescue, but what other nonprofit rescue
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networks are there out there?
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Okay, so hot take. Everybody listen up. Rescue is one
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of the cattiest group of people I've ever met in
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my life. Rescue people do not like to collaborate with
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each other. They don't like to work together. They fight relentlessly. But,
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and this is where I'm building to this, when they
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finally do decide, hey, you know what? Let's put egos
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aside and let's work together. They do incredible things because...
306
00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:46.809
The biggest thing is finding resources and staff and time
307
00:15:46.889 --> 00:15:50.169
and money and just everything. So for instance, yesterday I
308
00:15:50.210 --> 00:15:54.870
was in Skid Row in downtown LA with LuxPause that
309
00:15:54.990 --> 00:16:00.460
organized with FixNation. They also rented a spay and neuter
310
00:16:00.500 --> 00:16:03.500
truck from Allison Eastwood and the Eastwood Foundation. So there's
311
00:16:03.779 --> 00:16:07.080
a bunch of organizations. LuxPause has been very good about
312
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:09.460
reaching out to different groups and being like, hey, Let's
313
00:16:09.500 --> 00:16:13.620
work together. Let's work together. And it's amazing what people
314
00:16:13.659 --> 00:16:16.340
can do when they start working together. I mean, I
315
00:16:16.379 --> 00:16:18.279
was with PETA the other day on Skid Row.
316
00:16:18.299 --> 00:16:18.870
Wow.
317
00:16:18.929 --> 00:16:22.070
And PETA, they're doing some amazing things. And I was
318
00:16:22.129 --> 00:16:23.730
with one of their, I don't remember if she was
319
00:16:23.750 --> 00:16:26.330
the founder. Well, not the founder. She's on their board.
320
00:16:26.629 --> 00:16:29.409
She is very high up in PETA. And I pulled
321
00:16:29.450 --> 00:16:32.000
her aside and I was like, hey, I love that
322
00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:33.799
you guys are out here. I want to do more.
323
00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:37.200
I was like, I realize we don't agree on TNR.
324
00:16:37.649 --> 00:16:40.330
PETA has a very different outlook on TNR, and they
325
00:16:40.470 --> 00:16:42.799
fight with TNR people about this. And I told her,
326
00:16:42.809 --> 00:16:44.629
I was like, look, I know we disagree on TNR.
327
00:16:45.090 --> 00:16:47.289
Can we put that aside for now and help fix
328
00:16:47.330 --> 00:16:50.159
this problem and then go back to fighting? And she's like, absolutely.
329
00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:52.580
I love that. Let's talk. Let's figure out how we
330
00:16:52.620 --> 00:16:54.399
can do it. And I was like, oh, thank God,
331
00:16:54.440 --> 00:16:58.539
because it's so important for rescues right now, especially in places,
332
00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:01.500
I mean, places all over. But like in California, the
333
00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:04.759
government out here is absolutely dropping the ball. They're not helping.
334
00:17:04.819 --> 00:17:08.289
They're not contributing money. almost nothing. And, uh, you know,
335
00:17:08.329 --> 00:17:11.170
you have veterinary clinics that are raising spay neuter costs
336
00:17:11.250 --> 00:17:17.130
to seven, 800, sometimes $ 2, 000. Wow. The population is booming
337
00:17:17.230 --> 00:17:19.250
and it's like, okay guys, if the government's not going
338
00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:22.190
to help, the veterinarians are not going to help. We
339
00:17:22.230 --> 00:17:25.809
have to band together or there's no saving the animals.
340
00:17:25.990 --> 00:17:28.829
So I, I really think it's important. And wings and rescue,
341
00:17:28.869 --> 00:17:30.809
like you said, is a such a testament to that.
342
00:17:31.190 --> 00:17:33.750
They fly around and they work with organizations all over
343
00:17:33.789 --> 00:17:37.009
the country and they say, Hey, You need dogs and cats.
344
00:17:37.690 --> 00:17:40.069
They have dogs and cats. Can we fly them to you?
345
00:17:40.210 --> 00:17:43.259
And they're like, yes, please. And it's just been so great.
346
00:17:43.299 --> 00:17:46.819
And they just hit 93,000 cats and dogs that they've
347
00:17:46.839 --> 00:17:49.519
helped fly. And 8,000 of them were this year.
348
00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:53.000
That's incredible. I'm just curious. This will get some people
349
00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:56.079
a little riled up. But what state, because I would
350
00:17:56.099 --> 00:17:59.349
think California is always progressive as far as different things.
351
00:17:59.410 --> 00:18:01.549
And you said they're not doing enough. What state do
352
00:18:01.569 --> 00:18:04.240
you think does the most work? I mean, York just
353
00:18:04.420 --> 00:18:07.299
passed the declaw like that made that illegal.
354
00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:10.940
Oh, that's good. I mean, yeah, that's great. I'm pretty sure.
355
00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:12.500
Somebody will let me know if I'm wrong, but I'm
356
00:18:12.539 --> 00:18:13.119
pretty sure.
357
00:18:13.140 --> 00:18:13.720
Yeah.
358
00:18:13.819 --> 00:18:15.839
I mean, it's man, it's hard. I mean, it's definitely
359
00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:19.400
not Hawaii. Hawaii is looking to make it illegal to
360
00:18:19.539 --> 00:18:22.579
feed colony cats. Um, and they're trying to put colony
361
00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:26.039
cats down. So Hawaii you're on my, you know, what
362
00:18:26.099 --> 00:18:29.859
list California is a joke with the amount of money
363
00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:31.180
that comes into California.
364
00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:31.279
Yeah.
365
00:18:31.779 --> 00:18:34.240
That could be going to help. And the amount that they,
366
00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:38.579
I mean, it's not even people assuming anymore or conspiracy theory.
367
00:18:39.059 --> 00:18:41.539
It's just a well-known thing that, well, yeah, they get
368
00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:43.579
a lot of money and then all of the companies
369
00:18:43.619 --> 00:18:45.920
they work with jack up the prices. And then, you know,
370
00:18:46.339 --> 00:18:48.440
the money is going to the builders and it's going
371
00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:51.900
to the quote unquote charitable foundations that the government, you know,
372
00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:55.200
they know there's so much fraud in California. None of
373
00:18:55.299 --> 00:18:57.660
it is going towards the animals. And it's just, it's
374
00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:00.640
become something that we've just accepted out here for some reason. So,
375
00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:01.539
I mean, California is out.
376
00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:03.900
I think Florida's out too. I mean, we have a
377
00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:06.079
lot of fraud. I don't know if it's animal related,
378
00:19:06.460 --> 00:19:08.049
but we have a lot of fraud here and we
379
00:19:08.089 --> 00:19:08.480
are aware.
380
00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:11.549
Yeah. I really wish I knew somebody that could be like,
381
00:19:12.029 --> 00:19:15.710
you know what? This state is crushing it. But unfortunately,
382
00:19:15.809 --> 00:19:19.029
there's not a lot of money in animal rescue. Yeah.
383
00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:21.650
And so it's not very high on the priority list,
384
00:19:21.710 --> 00:19:25.450
which is disappointing. So I don't know that I've got
385
00:19:25.490 --> 00:19:27.509
anybody that's at the top of my list, but that's
386
00:19:27.549 --> 00:19:29.450
also because when I go to a state, it's because
387
00:19:29.470 --> 00:19:32.509
they're not doing well. You know, I'm more cynical than most.
388
00:19:33.309 --> 00:19:35.269
All the traveling I've been doing, I was in Nicaragua,
389
00:19:35.289 --> 00:19:38.079
I was in Spain, I was in Hawaii, and everybody's like, oh,
390
00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:40.619
you went to all these beautiful places. And I was like, no,
391
00:19:40.660 --> 00:19:42.980
I go to the worst parts of these places. You know,
392
00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:45.869
I don't get to see so much of the good.
393
00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:49.309
Yeah, I can relate. Sometimes when I travel, it's to
394
00:19:49.329 --> 00:19:52.589
the messy. areas and just doing that. It's not, you know,
395
00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:56.789
fancy restaurants, hotels. It's just messy stuff. Yeah. Let's talk
396
00:19:56.849 --> 00:20:00.119
about other aspects of your work because you also have
397
00:20:00.190 --> 00:20:04.700
worked in building spaces for cats, like catios, and you've
398
00:20:04.740 --> 00:20:08.740
worked and built other enclosures and dog parks and habitats.
399
00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:11.900
How did you get into that? And where did that
400
00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:13.940
come from? Are you secretly a builder too?
401
00:20:14.279 --> 00:20:16.680
So I was a handyman and carpenter for two and
402
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:19.460
a half, three years. It's one of the many random
403
00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:23.539
hats I've worn over the years. And so, yeah, the first...
404
00:20:23.740 --> 00:20:27.759
Is it the first? I think roughly... Yeah, I think
405
00:20:27.779 --> 00:20:30.539
the first one of those was right after I collapsed
406
00:20:31.940 --> 00:20:36.230
in Vegas, I got a message from Beagle Freedom Project.
407
00:20:36.450 --> 00:20:39.859
And they were like, hey, we're turning... an animal testing lab.
408
00:20:39.880 --> 00:20:42.480
We purchased a testing lab in Nahuatl, Oklahoma, and we're
409
00:20:42.549 --> 00:20:45.529
turning it into a sanctuary. We're rescuing, I think it
410
00:20:45.569 --> 00:20:49.069
was 90 cats and 180 beagles. And they're like, we
411
00:20:49.089 --> 00:20:51.650
want to build this sanctuary. Are you down to help
412
00:20:51.809 --> 00:20:55.150
come cut the ribbon? And I was like, yeah, but like,
413
00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:58.140
I can do more. Like, I feel bad just coming
414
00:20:58.180 --> 00:20:59.880
out to cut a ribbon. You know, I'm not wanting
415
00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:00.859
to just- I love that.
416
00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:01.200
Yeah.
417
00:21:01.259 --> 00:21:02.759
I'm not wanting to just show up and be like,
418
00:21:03.019 --> 00:21:05.299
look what I did when I didn't do anything. So
419
00:21:05.319 --> 00:21:07.029
they were like, well, yeah, what'd you have in mind?
420
00:21:07.049 --> 00:21:08.980
And I was like, I don't know. Let me- reach
421
00:21:09.029 --> 00:21:10.730
out to some sponsors and see what I can do.
422
00:21:11.150 --> 00:21:13.309
So within three weeks I reached out to sponsors and
423
00:21:13.329 --> 00:21:19.150
I had raised about $ 150, 000 worth of supplies, food, cat food,
424
00:21:19.190 --> 00:21:23.430
dog food, toys, leashes, like a shampoo, everything you could
425
00:21:23.450 --> 00:21:25.069
think of and had it sent out there. So my
426
00:21:25.109 --> 00:21:28.430
first trip went out and then we had started talking about,
427
00:21:28.529 --> 00:21:30.230
they're like, well, we want to have a cat cafe
428
00:21:30.259 --> 00:21:33.140
for these cats. And I was like, Hey, throwing it
429
00:21:33.220 --> 00:21:35.359
out there. What if I helped build it? And we
430
00:21:35.420 --> 00:21:38.160
called it Nathan's cat lady lounge. And they were like,
431
00:21:38.380 --> 00:21:40.700
I love it. Let's do it. So I was a
432
00:21:40.700 --> 00:21:43.160
little misunderstood when I went out there. I had brands
433
00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:45.880
donate for tools and stuff like that, like buy in
434
00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:47.650
so that I could have supplies and tools while I
435
00:21:47.650 --> 00:21:49.630
was out there. And I got out there. I was like,
436
00:21:49.650 --> 00:21:52.190
all right, who's the team? Who's building? And they were like, oh, you.
437
00:21:52.210 --> 00:21:55.529
I was like, oh, you're the whole team. Yeah, I
438
00:21:55.569 --> 00:21:58.119
was the team. Yeah. So day one, I ripped down
439
00:21:58.170 --> 00:22:01.420
an entire wall. Day two, I started framing it out.
440
00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:03.619
I framed. I mean, I was there a week. I
441
00:22:03.660 --> 00:22:07.170
ended up. framed in about three quarters of it, ripped
442
00:22:07.190 --> 00:22:09.289
down the old walls. And then I also had to
443
00:22:09.349 --> 00:22:11.710
build some pig stairs and a ramp for some pigs
444
00:22:11.730 --> 00:22:15.650
that they had outside. And then I left. And luckily they,
445
00:22:15.690 --> 00:22:17.970
by that point they had made connections with another team
446
00:22:18.009 --> 00:22:19.640
that's like, Hey, we'll come in and finish the walls.
447
00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:22.200
And I was like, thank goodness. Cause one man, you know,
448
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:23.839
trying to do that. And I don't have that kind
449
00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:26.269
of time, but Started building that. And then I met
450
00:22:26.329 --> 00:22:29.730
this amazing group called Easy Pet Fence. And they were like, hey,
451
00:22:29.769 --> 00:22:31.710
we love what you do. We want to partner with
452
00:22:31.750 --> 00:22:33.890
you sometime, but we just don't know how. And I
453
00:22:33.890 --> 00:22:35.049
was like, well, what do you do? And they're like,
454
00:22:35.410 --> 00:22:38.430
we make dog parks and catios. And I was like, well,
455
00:22:38.609 --> 00:22:40.750
do you want to go build dog parks and catios
456
00:22:40.789 --> 00:22:45.039
in Nahuatl, Oklahoma for a recently built dog sanctuary? And
457
00:22:45.059 --> 00:22:48.480
they were like, absolutely. So they donated two huge dog
458
00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:51.410
parks and a catio. And so I got a bunch
459
00:22:51.430 --> 00:22:54.539
of volunteers, went out and we spent a whole week building.
460
00:22:54.579 --> 00:22:58.279
We built two parks and a catio. And that kind
461
00:22:58.299 --> 00:23:00.119
of just sparked this whole thing where I'm like, I
462
00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:03.839
have all these resources. I have skills. Let's go start,
463
00:23:04.099 --> 00:23:06.099
you know, reaching out to these groups. So since then
464
00:23:06.140 --> 00:23:08.680
I've built, I had built like my own little cat
465
00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:11.960
sanctuary thing up in the desert. I had built a
466
00:23:12.019 --> 00:23:14.960
monkey enclosure, just a bunch of random odd jobs where
467
00:23:14.980 --> 00:23:17.119
I've just been going out and just finding rescues that
468
00:23:17.140 --> 00:23:19.460
need help. And I'm like, hey, let me help you,
469
00:23:19.660 --> 00:23:19.859
you know?
470
00:23:20.279 --> 00:23:23.789
You've done incredible work. I mean, man of many trades.
471
00:23:23.980 --> 00:23:26.930
It's incredible work. We talked about this a little bit.
472
00:23:27.309 --> 00:23:31.269
It's incredible with cats and especially with TNR because there's
473
00:23:31.390 --> 00:23:33.950
a lot of focus that there's micro, then there's macro,
474
00:23:34.150 --> 00:23:36.789
then there's micro, but there should be more focus on
475
00:23:36.869 --> 00:23:41.170
micros joining together, maybe to be mini macros. Where do
476
00:23:41.190 --> 00:23:43.130
you think the big disconnect is?
477
00:23:43.609 --> 00:23:44.279
In what way?
478
00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:49.329
Well, where do you think that is? where the system
479
00:23:49.430 --> 00:23:53.480
is really breaking? Is it more the larger systems? Because
480
00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:55.779
you talked about that a little with the states, and
481
00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:58.160
I get that. Do you think it's with some of
482
00:23:58.240 --> 00:23:59.880
the larger organizations?
483
00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:00.700
Yeah.
484
00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:03.759
I mean, it's tough to say. I never want to
485
00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:05.759
say I'm an expert on the back end of things,
486
00:24:05.819 --> 00:24:10.569
but there are a lot of these massive organizations that
487
00:24:10.890 --> 00:24:12.789
I'm not saying... They're all in it for the money.
488
00:24:12.809 --> 00:24:15.049
They're doing amazing work. But I think at some point you,
489
00:24:15.109 --> 00:24:17.609
you know, you build these big organizations and you have,
490
00:24:17.849 --> 00:24:20.779
you know, you've got shareholders, you've got different divisions and
491
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:23.230
all this stuff. And a lot of that money slowly
492
00:24:23.299 --> 00:24:25.960
starts going out and out and out and out to
493
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:28.420
team and development, stuff like that. And you kind of
494
00:24:28.460 --> 00:24:30.799
forget like, yeah, we're supposed to be out there hands
495
00:24:31.339 --> 00:24:34.259
in the dirt, helping animals. Whereas a lot of these
496
00:24:34.420 --> 00:24:38.279
smaller organizations, you'll see them. They're out there. A lot
497
00:24:38.299 --> 00:24:41.519
of them are volunteers. They're just out there volunteering. Trap
498
00:24:41.539 --> 00:24:45.950
neuter return is a great example of that. Most, I'd
499
00:24:45.990 --> 00:24:48.950
say 99% of people that do trap neuter return are
500
00:24:49.009 --> 00:24:51.849
not getting paid for trap neuter return. They're just volunteering
501
00:24:51.869 --> 00:24:54.710
in the neighborhoods and they're doing amazing work. And a
502
00:24:54.750 --> 00:24:57.339
lot of them are having to fundraise themselves just to
503
00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:01.400
cover the spay neuter costs, cover the medication and stuff
504
00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:04.200
like that. And I think it would be amazing if
505
00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:06.500
some of these bigger organizations, and like I said, the
506
00:25:06.539 --> 00:25:10.119
government would come through and I've said this to, I
507
00:25:10.819 --> 00:25:14.059
said this to one of the candidates in California recently,
508
00:25:14.119 --> 00:25:15.630
she was at an event and I went up and
509
00:25:15.650 --> 00:25:18.849
told her essentially that California is a dumpster fire. And
510
00:25:18.869 --> 00:25:20.690
when I say essentially, I mean, I literally told her
511
00:25:20.710 --> 00:25:23.349
it was a dumpster fire, but I was just like, look,
512
00:25:23.369 --> 00:25:27.299
like you have an army of people that want to help,
513
00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:30.200
but you guys have to just, just pick up the,
514
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:33.839
pick up the cost of spaying and neutering, pick up
515
00:25:33.859 --> 00:25:36.619
the cost of the medical and then all of the
516
00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:38.980
labor and the man hours, these people are ready to
517
00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:41.720
do it. But I feel like sometimes when organizations get
518
00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:44.950
too big, everybody wants to get paid. And, you know,
519
00:25:45.089 --> 00:25:47.890
with the government right now, animals is not a big priority.
520
00:25:47.950 --> 00:25:50.950
They'll do enough to just stop getting yelled at, but
521
00:25:50.970 --> 00:25:54.009
they're not really out to fix the problem. When realistically
522
00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:57.369
enough money put into this, we could fix the problem.
523
00:25:57.430 --> 00:25:59.339
We have hundreds of people trying to do spay and
524
00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:02.460
neuter right now that just have nowhere to take the animals.
525
00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.109
But I could, build an army of trappers. We just
526
00:26:06.130 --> 00:26:08.289
don't have anywhere to get them fixed right now. Or
527
00:26:08.329 --> 00:26:09.609
the animals fixed.
528
00:26:09.869 --> 00:26:14.200
And it's crazy. It's crazy that TNR people can't get any,
529
00:26:14.579 --> 00:26:18.039
I don't know, special voucher or something to be able
530
00:26:18.099 --> 00:26:20.839
to take it to a, you know, Chewy now has
531
00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:24.119
vets that are out, you know, veterinarian locations or some
532
00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:27.819
other BCA has a whole chain, you know, where they
533
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:30.160
could take these vouchers and just take the cats in
534
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:33.589
and the government could give them some kind of a write-off, right?
535
00:26:33.890 --> 00:26:36.630
It's very broad and vague, but that's an idea of
536
00:26:36.750 --> 00:26:37.950
something that could get done.
537
00:26:38.509 --> 00:26:41.049
No, and that's the thing. They have a voucher program.
538
00:26:41.130 --> 00:26:44.119
They have it for residents and they have it for TNR.
539
00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:47.599
The problem is, first of all, the voucher for TNR
540
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:50.779
is like $ 75 and a TNR spay and neuter is
541
00:26:50.980 --> 00:26:54.400
usually an average of $ 150. So it's only covering about half.
542
00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:55.740
It should cover all of it.
543
00:26:56.039 --> 00:26:58.049
Yeah, it should cover all of it. And also like
544
00:26:58.069 --> 00:27:00.029
the ones for the public. I was talking to a
545
00:27:00.049 --> 00:27:02.529
guy literally yesterday. He was, he's homeless. He brought his
546
00:27:02.569 --> 00:27:05.950
dog in and the city gave him $ 150 voucher and
547
00:27:05.990 --> 00:27:08.890
he called around to vet clinics and they were saying
548
00:27:08.930 --> 00:27:11.329
it's going to be about 1700 to get your animal
549
00:27:11.349 --> 00:27:12.269
spayed or neutered. He called 1700.
550
00:27:12.250 --> 00:27:13.730
Yeah.
551
00:27:14.890 --> 00:27:16.849
Which I mean, I know you can find it for cheaper,
552
00:27:16.890 --> 00:27:19.490
but most places, a lot of them are like seven,
553
00:27:19.490 --> 00:27:23.049
800 now. And they're giving him $ 150 voucher. I'm like, no,
554
00:27:23.109 --> 00:27:26.349
the city should just be covering this. There should be
555
00:27:26.410 --> 00:27:28.859
places that you can go and just bring these animals.
556
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:31.380
Because again, this is a city problem that people are fixing.
557
00:27:32.259 --> 00:27:35.339
If the city is overrun with cats and dogs, that's
558
00:27:35.380 --> 00:27:38.640
a city problem. And the fact that volunteers are having
559
00:27:38.660 --> 00:27:41.779
to fund out of their own pocket is crazy to me.
560
00:27:42.259 --> 00:27:44.769
You know, I mean, we, again, California, just because I
561
00:27:44.789 --> 00:27:49.069
live here, you know, we have a failed $ 116 billion
562
00:27:49.130 --> 00:27:51.589
train that's never going to get built. If you gave
563
00:27:52.130 --> 00:27:55.329
us a billion dollars, we would solve the animal crisis
564
00:27:55.390 --> 00:28:00.299
in Los Angeles in six months. Easy. But the money
565
00:28:00.339 --> 00:28:02.640
mismanagement is just insane. It's a shame.
566
00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:06.259
That it is. Nathan, the cat lady, if you could
567
00:28:06.279 --> 00:28:09.880
change one thing about the way people think about animal rescue,
568
00:28:10.019 --> 00:28:12.980
so not just cats, but all animals, mostly it's cats
569
00:28:13.019 --> 00:28:16.509
and dogs, but there's others, horses and pigs and so forth.
570
00:28:16.930 --> 00:28:18.869
What would you want people to understand?
571
00:28:19.450 --> 00:28:21.019
Oof, I only get one.
572
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:22.400
You can do more.
573
00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:25.880
Yeah, there's two big ones that I want people to really,
574
00:28:25.940 --> 00:28:28.099
and I feel like I've been driving them home on this,
575
00:28:28.119 --> 00:28:30.079
and I'm sure there's a lot of people giving their
576
00:28:30.099 --> 00:28:33.049
thumbs arthritis already sending me DMs listening to this. But
577
00:28:33.170 --> 00:28:34.549
I think the two big things I want people to
578
00:28:34.589 --> 00:28:38.900
know is one, the government is not Fixing the problem.
579
00:28:39.220 --> 00:28:40.960
I know so many people that they'll send me a
580
00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:43.180
video of a kitten. They found like, Hey, I found
581
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:45.279
these kittens. Who do I call to come collect them?
582
00:28:45.299 --> 00:28:45.500
Why?
583
00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:47.960
Like the government should come pick these up or where's
584
00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.029
the shelter. Why aren't you just bringing those animals to
585
00:28:50.049 --> 00:28:53.329
the government shelter? I don't understand. Cause everyone just has
586
00:28:53.410 --> 00:28:57.109
this view that the government is, has all these rescues
587
00:28:57.150 --> 00:29:00.089
and shelters and they're taking care of it. And I
588
00:29:00.130 --> 00:29:02.869
won't be able to realize like most of the rescue
589
00:29:02.910 --> 00:29:06.930
that's happening is is small organizations that are volunteer-based that
590
00:29:06.950 --> 00:29:10.009
are trying to fund it themselves. Even Wings of Rescue,
591
00:29:10.089 --> 00:29:14.630
they are totally crowdfunded. Each flight is like $ 25, 000, but
592
00:29:14.670 --> 00:29:19.109
they're funding it themselves by just asking for donations and
593
00:29:19.130 --> 00:29:21.490
monthly donors and stuff like that. So that would be
594
00:29:21.509 --> 00:29:23.509
the one thing I want people to realize is like,
595
00:29:24.230 --> 00:29:26.130
you can't just put this on the back burner, like, oh,
596
00:29:26.150 --> 00:29:28.690
the government's got it. They don't, they don't care. The
597
00:29:28.769 --> 00:29:31.730
other thing is, again, what I spoke about earlier, is
598
00:29:31.779 --> 00:29:34.160
that everybody can do something. I think a lot of
599
00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:38.289
people assume, oh, if I can't go save an animal,
600
00:29:38.329 --> 00:29:40.569
like pick up an animal physically and bring it to
601
00:29:40.589 --> 00:29:44.109
a vet, then I can't help. And that's just not true.
602
00:29:44.190 --> 00:29:46.890
You can be sharing other people's posts, you can be
603
00:29:46.950 --> 00:29:50.559
donating to things, you can be volunteering to walk dogs
604
00:29:50.599 --> 00:29:53.710
or clean kennels or you could do TNR. I mean,
605
00:29:53.730 --> 00:29:56.390
there's from the top down, if you have time, you
606
00:29:56.430 --> 00:29:58.910
can volunteer. If you have money, you can donate. If
607
00:29:58.950 --> 00:30:01.109
you don't have time or money, but you have enough
608
00:30:01.150 --> 00:30:03.549
time and money to watch a video of us asking
609
00:30:03.630 --> 00:30:06.569
for money and supplies, you can share that video. So
610
00:30:06.589 --> 00:30:09.390
there's no excuse. I've never met a single person that
611
00:30:09.609 --> 00:30:11.289
can't do even a little bit.
612
00:30:11.509 --> 00:30:15.390
Thank you for that. Now, where can listeners connect with you,
613
00:30:15.809 --> 00:30:18.579
learn more about TNR and learn more about your work?
614
00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:22.000
Absolutely. So you can follow me on all platforms, Nathan,
615
00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:25.210
the cat lady, Instagram, Facebook. I've just started a new
616
00:30:25.349 --> 00:30:27.809
series on YouTube. So you can track and see my
617
00:30:27.849 --> 00:30:30.069
long forms of all the adventures and stuff I've been
618
00:30:30.089 --> 00:30:33.930
going on. And then also my website, Nathan, the cat lady.com.
619
00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:36.839
And there's merch on there. You can get those robes.
620
00:30:36.920 --> 00:30:39.960
There's also a blog going up that'll just keep you
621
00:30:40.019 --> 00:30:42.079
updated with all the things I'm doing. There's also a
622
00:30:42.140 --> 00:30:43.880
page where you can donate to a lot of the
623
00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.480
rescues I like to work with. So yeah, Nathan, the
624
00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:47.940
cat lady everywhere.
625
00:30:48.920 --> 00:30:51.410
Nathan, the Cat Lady, thank you so much for coming
626
00:30:51.490 --> 00:30:53.569
on Catitude. I so appreciate it.
627
00:30:53.869 --> 00:30:55.210
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
628
00:30:55.609 --> 00:30:58.529
I hope you all enjoyed this show. Please go ahead
629
00:30:58.609 --> 00:31:02.079
and follow Nathan, the Cat Lady. He is a wonderful
630
00:31:02.130 --> 00:31:06.220
human being. He's done so many amazing things for animal welfare,
631
00:31:06.259 --> 00:31:09.000
especially cats. So thank you, Nathan. And thank you again
632
00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:12.059
for coming on Catitude. Thank you to my cat crew,
633
00:31:12.299 --> 00:31:15.710
All Rescues, Dennis, Charlotte, and Molly. Thank you to my
634
00:31:15.769 --> 00:31:21.089
listening audience for... Just listening and loving cats. And I
635
00:31:21.170 --> 00:31:24.400
know that you move the message forward, you know, for TNR.
636
00:31:24.529 --> 00:31:27.349
So thank you for all you do. And, of course,
637
00:31:27.430 --> 00:31:29.819
thanks to my producer. The show would not be the
638
00:31:29.859 --> 00:31:33.700
same without the magic of Mark Winter. So thank you, Mark. And, hey, remember,
639
00:31:34.059 --> 00:31:36.500
lose the attitude. Have catitude.
640
00:31:37.519 --> 00:31:42.720
Let's Talk Pets. Every week on demand. Only on PetLifeRadio.com.
641
00:31:53.210 --> 00:31:54.079
Thank you.
