Amazing Cats Inspiring Nonprofit Mission Meow

In this episode, I welcome my guest, Sally Williams. She has dedicated her adult life to cats and nonprofits. Sally is a lifelong animal lover, former pet sitter, cat behaviorist, cat advocate, Founder of The Brodie Fund, speaker, proud cat mom and Founder and President of Mission Meow. She lives in New Jersey with her husband of 30 years, Scott, and their four cats!

In this episode, part two of my interview with Sally Williams, you’ll meet Sally’s current cats, known as the Pawsome Foursome- West, Henry, Jonesey, and Jameson. Hear her rescue and adoption stories and how these boys healed her heart after losing Brodie and Marlin. We also discuss her decision to found a new non-profit organization, Mission Meow, and how she is working with feline-centric non-profits and businesses to help cats in need.

Learn more about Sally, her nonprofit Mission Meow and contact her here:

https://missionmeow.org/

https://www.facebook.com/MissionMeow/

https://www.instagram.com/MissionMeow

Contact Julie:

Join The Story of My Pet Free Support Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thestoryofmypet

Follow and DM me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thestoryofmypetpodcast

Check out my website: https://linktr.ee/allthingspetsdrjulie

Loved this episode? Leave a review and rating here: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-story-of-my-pet/id1622099729

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

All About Art, Animals, and Pet Portraits

https://thestoryofmypetpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1983300/11120486

Rescue, Fostering & TNR, Plus Pets & Our Mental Health 

https://thestoryofmypetpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1983300/10937640

Transcript

The Story of My Pet Podcast
Episode 18: Pets Inspiring Non-profits- The Pawsome Foursome and Mission Meow
Host: Julie Marty-Pearson
Guest: Sally Williams

[00:00:04]
Hello. Hello, my friends and fell animal lovers. Welcome to another episode of the story of my pet podcast. I'm your host, Julie Marty Pearson, and I'm excited to welcome a new guest in today's episode, Sally Williams. Hi, Sally.

[00:00:19]
Thank you so much for for joining me. Hi, thank you for having me as a guest, Julie. Yes, I'm very excited about our conversation because we are fellow cat ladies, and so we're going to have lots to talk about. But first, I'm going to give you a little background info on Sally. She is a lifelong animal lover, former pet sitter, cat behaviorist, cat advocate, and founder of the Brody fund.

[00:00:47]
She's also a speaker and a proud cat mom. I know that feeling very well. And she's the founder and president of mission meow, which we're going to talk about. I'm very excited to learn more about that. She's been married to her husband, Scott, for 30 years, and they have four amazing cats called the possum foursome.

[00:01:10]
Amazing. And she has dedicated her adult life to cats and nonprofits, mainly because of two cats, marlin and Brody, who changed her life. Wow, that's a lot of amazing things. And also a lot of similarities. I, too, am a petsitter and a lifelong animal lover and cat advocate, among other things.

[00:01:35]
So I'm really excited for our conversations. Again. Welcome Sally. Thank you for being here. Well, I'm excited to we have so much to talk about.

[00:01:45]
A lot in common. Yes. So let's just jump right into it and talk about your two cats that changed your life. Yes, marlon and Brody. So we would start with Brody because he was the first one that changed my life.

[00:02:05]
So Brody came into our lives, my husband and I, after we had a cat that passed away, and we gave some time to heal and kind of grieve and very randomly out one day and near our local shelter. And I just said to my husband, let's just stop by and look. And so went inside, and to be very perfectly honest, my husband had a tiny hangover, and we were in this open cat room, and he started to feel a little off because, you know, litter and, you know, shelter. So he said, I'm going to go outside and you see if you meet anybody. And this adorable young teenager, kind of gangly cat came my way with these big ears and this kind of very long squiggly tail.

[00:03:07]
He was very odd looking, and his name was Nestor, but he was so sweet. And I inquired about him, and he just got overlooked because he had this very vocal, very loud meow, kind of like a siamese meow. And he was kind of odd looking, but he was so sweet. And I thought, wow, I usually adopt the ones that are a little bit shy or maybe need somebody more. I couldn't imagine that he got passed over because at the shelter, they labeled him.

[00:03:37]
I'm giving air quotes now. Bulletproof, because good with people, good with dogs, good with cats, good with kids. Like, why is this kitty still there? Right? So I held him up in the window.

[00:03:48]
My husband was in the parking lot, and I pointed to him and he gave me the thumbs up and I didn't even have a carrier with me. And we loaded him into the cardboard carrier and headed off to, I think, PetSmart, which my husband was like, I'm going to wait in the car. This is going to be a long visit. So I'm like, Candy store, that's my jam, going in a place like that. And I was in there for about an hour, came out and there was my husband.

[00:04:18]
He had leaned the seat back, the cat was out of the carrier and sleeping on him. Oh boy, that cat is not mine anymore.

[00:04:30]
Many, many years went by and he was exactly that. He was perfect. I always say he never met a lap he didn't like. I mean, he just loved everybody. And then he was about twelve years old and started sneezing a lot.

[00:04:46]
And we weren't very concerned. Thought it made up a respiratory infection and allergies. And then we thought maybe it was a tooth that was bothering him. And the tooth part was what led to figuring out when the tooth was pulled, they took a biopsy and we found out he had cancer, tumor. And so long conversations.

[00:05:09]
And my husband was of the mindset, I was like, you can't treat a cat with cancer. I was of the mindset, like, how could we not treat a cat with cancer? So we took him to our local specialist hospital that had an oncology team. And after talking with Dr. Dustin Lewis, we realized we wanted to treat him because basically they described a situation like this and he was probably in pain.

[00:05:33]
But cats are notoriously stoic and I mean, I'm very on top of these things. And he did not show any signs except for the sneezing. So we agreed we would treat him with radiation, which was a four week, five day week protocol, very expensive. But we just did whatever we had to do to make it happen because we thought otherwise we have very little time left. And with this treatment, we'll have a minimum of a year.

[00:06:03]
And we thought, wow, in the life of a cat, a whole year, that's a long time. I think when we think of, in human terms, people think of it differently. But a year is a very long time. We ended up getting 13 months. But what happened was I was there at the hospital every day, five days a week, while he was going in for treatment.

[00:06:24]
And I heard a lot of stories. I heard people talking to doctors, things that just broke my heart. As families that couldn't afford treatment and then heard the term, you know, heard a lot of palliative care. And then I heard something I'd never heard before, which was economic euthanasia. And I thought, that just is something that you never want to hear, that after palliative care, you just can't afford anything anymore, and that's the best you can do.

[00:06:49]
And it's heartbreaking for the owners, it's heartbreaking for the veterinarians. Nobody wants this to happen. And I'm not saying treatment was easy for us, and that financially, it was a huge commitment. But in that moment, I think the next day, I went in and talked to the oncologist and said, what can I do? How can I help?

[00:07:09]
And he was the first board member of the Brody Fund. And the Brody Fund was founded to offer financial assistance to families that had dogs and cats diagnosed with cancer. I had never run a nonprofit before. I had volunteered at a shelter and started volunteering for a nonprofit in that hospital. And we actually started under the umbrella of that organization because I had never done this before, and very quickly decided that I wanted to have this be its own entity, because everybody knows the nonprofit world.

[00:07:44]
There are bylaws and things, and I wanted to decide how this should run, not have it be another organization's decision. And filed for nonprofit status. And four weeks later, it was a nonprofit director. It was an amazing run. Almost seven years, 71 grants given, over $200,000 in grants given.

[00:08:07]
And it sounds amazing, but what makes it even more amazing is that we probably could have given more grants, but we made a decision to fully fund cases. So instead of offering 1000 or $2,000, while helpful, still leaves the families most of the time looking for more money. So we decided we'll give fewer grants, but fully fund them if we don't have the funding. But we knew how much we could give. We would help them find the rest of the funding by helping them get that next grant or just doing it ourselves.

[00:08:43]
Here's the organization, they've committed x amount of money. I mean, we gave grants up to $10,000. Wow, that's amazing. And we called it giving the gift of time. Brody was the inspiration for all of that, partially because of going through the treatment with him, recognizing that pets can be treated for cancer.

[00:09:06]
He after his treatment, and even during, mostly he was just tired, and he had a little gray striped down his nose to the radiation. But after the treatment was finished, he lived a really good life. And even though it was only 13 months, like I said, 13 months in the life of a cat, really a long time. Yeah. And we wanted to give him time back, recognizing that he probably did experience some pain because there was a tumor there, we wanted him to have that back.

[00:09:38]
And we did other things, chinese herbs, acupuncture, all these other things. And he was fantastic, the perfect patient, because he could go to the vet easily. He could be handled easily. He was just a dream for all that. And I'm so grateful that and the reason why we called it giving the gift of time when we gave these grants was because that's what I got.

[00:10:00]
I got the gift of time. And so with the Brody Fund, it was whether it was three months or three years, it matters. So, yeah, he was the inspiration behind that and he was inspired us that we didn't limit this to younger animals we gave to senior pets. And we didn't base it on prognosis. And what I mean by that is if they said three months or curative, we didn't discount the only three months because sometimes three months became a year.

[00:10:37]
Sometimes was a year became three months. Because cancer has a mind of its own. So we never base anything on that. We just based it on best that the vet can tell us. The pet will do well with this treatment.

[00:10:51]
That was the biggest priority.

[00:10:56]
That makes a lot of sense because you don't want to make it. And I think it makes me think of, like, transplant care with people they're put on the list. And it's not necessarily because they can have three years after it or five years. There's all these different components that go into it. And so the fact you're saying you worked with the vet to say who's not the best candidate, but you think we'll be able to make it through the treatment itself because sometimes that can be the most difficult part for an animal.

[00:11:26]
Yeah. And I mean, interestingly enough, cats generally do better with these types of treatments than dogs. Dogs often have GI problems. I'm not talking about serious problems. And there always can be something serious.

[00:11:38]
But usually pets do very well with treatment. We always go to what we think, what happens with people. And generally that doesn't happen with pets. Right.

[00:11:52]
Fast forward. And even with Marlin, and I'll get to that. I really wanted people to know that cats could do this because cats are 50% less likely to just even be seen by a vet. Then imagine what people are thinking about treatment. So it's a big hurdle to get people to think that cats can go to the vet, be treated, all that.

[00:12:13]
So Brody was really a shining example of this is possible. Treatment can give you more time. There is help out there. So a lot of things happened with that. And, yeah, brody was an incredible inspiration.

[00:12:31]
The only thing I wish is that we have more time. That's it. Yeah.

[00:12:38]
Listening to your story of Brody and just everything that you were able to do with the Brody Fund, I started thinking about my own cats that I've lost. And think about what you said, time. What would 13 months give you? That's a huge amount of time. And you do whatever you can to get that time.

[00:13:00]
Currently we have a pet that has diabetes and it's very expensive, but he's been on insulin for two years and doing great. And to think that rewind back to them and we made a different decision for some reason. I just can't imagine that. Yeah. And you know what?

[00:13:17]
Everybody has to choose what's best for them and their pets. In conversations with people I would never tell anybody, oh, so I have four cats right now and they're all different types of personalities just like other people. And some probably would be okay with being treated for different things and others wouldn't. It's a very individual decision and the pet parent really has to talk with the doctor and decide what's best. Cancer treatment is not for every pet, not for every situation.

[00:13:49]
But in the cases that we worked with, they were like family to me. And I met so many of these animals and seeing the owners and the joy that they had, knowing that they had more time, it was incredible. Incredible. And the Birdie Fund, you know, I will say this because it's important that since I talked about it, the Birdie fund did not close because it wasn't a viable nonprofit. It really was.

[00:14:20]
It was more that I couldn't live in the pet cancer world anymore. And we really worked with the nonprofit coach to try to see what we could do. But for some reason nobody wanted to run a pet cancer fund working 40, 50 hours a week for free. So it was not something that we could easily find somebody else to do it. So we made the difficult decision to raise as much money as we could at the end, give some big grants to the hospitals that we worked with and then close the fend.

[00:14:53]
So it was through a lot of tears. We had a final event. We were all like family. Brody gave so many gifts to us, the fund, helping other people and the people that I met with the Brody funds, that was one of the hardest things to say goodbye to. Although we're still all in touch, but it's not the same because we're not regularly working together.

[00:15:12]
But a lot of those people met Brody and they feel the same way, how special he was and he still inspires me. That's so great. I can just imagine the bond that you all shared together and I mean, I think a lot of times people don't realize how difficult cult it is to work in the pet world. When you're working at a shelter or a veterinarian's office or a nonprofit, you see day in and day out animals in need, animals in pain, animal suffering, and you do so much, but it is physically and emotionally exhausting. People recognize it with this.

[00:15:56]
We hear a lot more about the veterinary community and I'm glad these conversations are happening that we're understanding more what vets are going through and the burnout and the compassion fatigue and all that, especially after coming through a lockdown and all that. I don't think there's much maybe there's probably less recognition for something like this because they're thinking, I put a smile on my face. I'm in the face of your organization, but they don't recognize that. I'm getting applications every day, and people are begging for help, and you can't help them all, and it becomes just very overwhelming, especially during lockdown and the number of applications. And I wanted to help everybody, and I responded to every single email, whether I could help them or not, to try to offer some guidance.

[00:16:45]
I signed up for a grief counseling course. I was in the process of getting certified as a grief counselor, so I was taking a lot on and not doing doing a very good job of putting the oxygen mask on myself. And, yeah, it was burnout. It was honestly just burnout. And it was interesting.

[00:17:05]
I was listening to a podcast because I did a lot of listening to podcasts when we spent so much time at home. And it was Jay Shetty's podcast discussing the eight signs of burnout when I really recognized where I was. And I had lost Marlin at that time, too. So I had three cats with cancer. Finnegan's was treatable, very knock wood.

[00:17:29]
He passed away from something else, but not cancer. And then Marlin was diagnosed with cancer, and he passed away when we were kind of at the height of everything, when you really weren't allowed into the hospitals and all that. Okay, speaking of Marlin, you want to tell us a little bit about how you met him and he became a part of your family? So as much as I loved my Brody and I love all my boys currently and all of them in the past, marley was my soul cat. If anybody doesn't know what that means, you maybe haven't met yours yet, but there is a special cat that comes into your life, and there's just a bond that is unlike any other.

[00:18:14]
And I would say when I first saw generally in the past, have not really been attracted to adopting kittens. I always kind of gravitated, as I said, to the shy or the ones at the shelter that needed a home more than a kitten would. But I had been diagnosed with two autoimmune disorders and was not working because of that and was really struggling a little bit, wanted to actually get a dog. And my husband then I found it wasn't a dog person. I didn't notice.

[00:18:42]
So I said, okay, I get that, and then I'm going to go and start looking at kittens because I need some joy in my life and something so I'm not thinking about how I'm feeling. And I met this adorable little kitten, and I don't know, he was the last one left in the letter. A little tabby, a tuxedo tabby. And I said to my husband, his name was Marlann, but why don't we call him Marleynn? This was my way of kind of getting him into the house, because my husband loves to fish.

[00:19:14]
So I was like, let's call him Marlin. So I brought him home, and he was adorable. I mean, he was the kitten that was very snugly and slept on my head, and he was perfect. And he really got me through a very tough time. We spent a lot of time together, and I had other cats, but, you know, so we bonded at that time.

[00:19:38]
And then over time, I started to feel better, and my life went different ways. But he was always there was just always something very connected. And I remember starting his Instagram page, and it was Marlon, the Buddha cat, because he sat like a Buddha. I mean, he would sit on the sofa and watch TV with me, but not lay there like a typically, you would think a cat would he would jump up on the sofa and kind of sit and then roll himself back. So now his back is leaning up against the back of the sofa.

[00:20:13]
His legs are kind of hanging out, and his belly is hanging out. And that's how he likes to watch TV with me. And I would take videos and take pictures and share them. And so that's kind of how I started really engaging with him. And why is he sitting like that?

[00:20:31]
That kind of started that, and then I studied. A lot of other things were going on in my life. I was shelter volunteering. I was studying to become a cat behaviorist, and I launched something called the Feline Fine Project. There were a lot of things going on, but one day I was at home just patting Marlin as I did, and having already lived through cancer once, I was already very alert and very in tune with checking for lumps and bumps, looking for anything unusual.

[00:21:02]
And I still have no idea how I found this, because it was like if he had been poked with a pin, it was that tiny. Oh, wow. Like on the inside of his shoulder. Really, it was a miracle I found it, and I'm so grateful I did. Actually had his nutritionist take a look at it first because Marlin was a little chubby, so he was on a diet, Marlin the Buddha cat.

[00:21:27]
And she looked at it and she said, I don't necessarily like it, but I'm not concerned about it yet. Let's keep an eye on it if it changes. And I did watch it. It went from looking like a poke of a pen to kind of looking like a flat scar. So took them to my general vet, who said, I don't know what that is, I think we should buyopsia, and came back.

[00:21:50]
It was mass sell. She still wasn't concerned because generally mass sells, you remove it and keep an eye on things, especially in cats, because I've been told many times that mass cell cancer isn't that common in cats. I think that may not necessarily be true, not for the fault of any vets or anything. I just think that how do you know there's one central cancer documentation keeping place, and after having a cat with mast cell cancer and hearing from so many people, I think it might be a little more common than they think. But so after the biopsy, I thought, no, I'm just going to take them straight to the oncologist.

[00:22:29]
We're not going to just have it removed and watch it. Luckily, there was a cancelation. I got in the next day, and I'm so grateful I did. It had metastasized. It was in a lymph node already, and he needed surgery immediately.

[00:22:41]
So the following week, he had surgery to remove the mast cell and the lymph node, and he had to start chemo. So at that point, you become not just mom, you become chauffeur, you become nurse. You become everything. And you can't help but your bond, it has to deepen. It just does.

[00:23:11]
I didn't know I could love him more, but all of a sudden, you're very aware that every day is a gift. And, yeah, our bond just grew. I mean, you can see the pictures of us, but people always said, the way he looks at you. And I'm like, Well, I'm looking back at him the same way he's looking at me. There's just this very deep connection.

[00:23:34]
And it was smooth sailing for almost two years. He did very well on the chemo. He started on one kind, went to another, and we ended on Palladia, which is a pill that you can give at home. So that was wonderful. Not a lot as many vet visits and something I could just put in a little treat.

[00:23:57]
Pop in his mouth, on his page. We shifted from becoming a story of a cute little Buddha Valley kitty to sharing his pet cancer journey, because I really wanted people to see that life was good, and it went to next level. After his surgery, he had one of those little cones on. I know people can't see me. I'm very animated with my hands, okay?

[00:24:29]
And I realized the Cullen wasn't really helping because he could still with his back legs because it was kind of in the armpit, he could reach it. So I quick zipped out, went to PetSmart, and the only thing they had in his size was a Batman shirt. We put that Batman shirt on, and next thing we knew, he was a cancer fighting superhero. And that really just took off and all of a sudden became all these tie ins to Batman, and people were sending us Batman stuff from all over the world. And then next thing, he's meeting Batman, me.

[00:25:10]
That crazy Batman. But people really loved it. And he had a bucket list. And eventually the people that really were following a story called themselves Marlin Nation. And I went to a tattoo artist who came up with a logo.

[00:25:32]
I have a big M on my leg that's in a circle that kind of has a Batman font to it. We put it on T shirts, which raised money for the Brody Fund. And he became larger to life and meant so much to so many. Not just me. I will always say Marlin was my best teacher.

[00:25:56]
He taught me perseverance. He taught me how to live in the moment. He taught me that you can live every day to the fullest. Even if you're not, like, having a great day, there's something in that day that you can make it better. Even if I was having a day with autoimmune stuff, I wasn't feeling good.

[00:26:13]
There could be something in that day that I could find that I was grateful for or felt joyful about. And he really taught me that. We had this very regular tradition where I would film him before we went to the vet, and then I would film him when I brought him home. And I had this deluxe carrier and had all his logos on it and everything. And I would bring it in the front door and I'd get my camera out and I would unzip it and film him, cause he would go flying out of the carrier straight to his scratcher scratch the Jesus out of this thing.

[00:26:47]
And then he was fine. Anything felt about being poked, prodded, any of that, it was all gone. And I thought, God, we can all learn from that, right?

[00:26:59]
Yeah, I can just picture him doing that too. Okay it's out like someone taking a boxing lesson or something. Whatever it is for you, scream into a pillowcase, just take it all off, whatever it is. And people just were so in love with him. He was so lovable.

[00:27:21]
And I got messages from people who were also going through cancer treatments who said he was helping them. They'd go off to chemo that day and they'd pull up his page to see how he was doing. Some of them were wearing their Marlin Nation T shirts to chemo and sending me pictures. Other people's pets, they were reaching out to me and sharing their pet stories. And so he started a group for other animals that were going through treatment.

[00:27:53]
It was next level, and it was so much fun, and I'm so grateful for it. I met so many amazing people. We were able to support one another if they were going through it with their pets.

[00:28:09]
And yeah, there was so much joy in it. And like I said, that living every day to the fullest message, and we still talk about it. Even though he's no longer with us, he's still with us. The lessons he taught us, the joy that he brought into our lives, that remains it takes a while after you lose an animal like that, that's your little soulmate. The grieving process was long and I talked to a grief counselor at my local vet hospital, highly recommend that to anybody and start it before you lose them.

[00:28:46]
The anticipatory grief is worth talking about and it really made a huge difference for me. But the end was unexpected and painful for us and it was really hard to lose him. During COVID. I remember thinking, running a pet cancer fund, can't the universe just stop it? Just don't let anybody's animals pass away.

[00:29:09]
We need them so much more right now. And then I went through it myself and understood how it was a completely different level of grief that you experienced. But I will share one thing that so when I knew it was time to say goodbye, he was in the hospital and he had had surgery. The surgery went well. We don't really know what happened.

[00:29:30]
Cancer is a beast. It's tricky. We don't know. But I knew it was time to say goodbye and I won't get into all that, but I knew we had to bring him outside. Couldn't do it in the hospital because I always had wanted to say goodbye at home, whenever that was going to happen, but we didn't get that.

[00:29:47]
And I had his blanket, his Batman blanket, with him. So we went outside. Two of my friends were with me, had him on the blanket, and he was given a satate and we were very calm and peaceful and lots of kisses. And normally this wouldn't be a good thing, but in this moment, it was remarkable. Off in the distance, not very far, fireworks started going off.

[00:30:08]
Oh, my gosh. And we're all now just crying even more because what a send off for a superhero. You couldn't ask for anything more, right? Fireworks and that moment. And then we say goodbye.

[00:30:21]
And a little bit later on down the road, we had a celebration of life here at my house because it was a little still, you know, we were all still a little concerned about COVID. We had about 30 people spread out in the yard. We had tents, we had a pastor from the local shelter who spoke a little bit, we shared stories. We did everything like you would at any celebration of life, with the exception of Marlin had a very special friend, because we had worked with a nonprofit, another nonprofit with the Brody Fault Fund, called Sidewalk Angels, which is run by Marisol and Rob Thomas. So not many people's cats have a friend who's a rock star.

[00:31:06]
But Marlin did, because he was a superhero and they loved him. They had been through cancer as well, with a dog. And so we had this bond and I was blessed with being able to share, during his celebration of life, a video of Rob Thomas singing These Little Wonders for My Little Wonder. Not. A dry eye in the house.

[00:31:29]
Oh, my gosh. The description of all this, the way he passed and the celebrations just gave me chills. It's such an amazing it's such a hard thing to go through, but to be able to share it and have that celebration of such an incredible feeling, I just can't even imagine. And the thing is and it doesn't have to be so grand. It's just everybody can celebrate their pets life in a special way.

[00:32:01]
I have marlins ashes. I had them save some whiskers for me. There's a woman out there who I will share that everybody should know about. She has a jewelry business and it's called Volana kotae. And it's V-O-L-A-N-A-K-O-T-E.

[00:32:22]
She's become a dear friend. She's on the board of Mission Meow now, and she will do she will do people. You post her recently, and I thought, what an amazing way to create jewelry. Yeah, so whiskers. So fallen whiskers typically would send in, and she can do something, but she does memorial pieces.

[00:32:41]
So because Marlin's eyes were green, I have a green heart, and his whiskers are laid in that piece. And it's a necklace that I have that has his whiskers in it forever.

[00:32:54]
So there's always something you can do. I mean, I have a jar, a beautiful jar instead of the box I bought. Somebody suggested this, so I forget what it's called. It's like a Japanese jar. And his little robin, because if his best friend was Batman, then the question was, well, is Marlin really Marlin, or is he Robin?

[00:33:18]
So his little collar with an R on it hangs around it. So there's ways that you could do it. You could celebrate with a friend. We have a memorial rock garden here in the backyard for Marlin. And there's a group here called Poetry Stones.

[00:33:37]
There's a larger organization called the Kindness Rocks Project. So I had a woman who runs Poetry Stones come to the house, and I had all these rocks, and I brought my friends over, and we all painted their paint pens. So it's very easy. Anybody can do it. And we painted and they painted in honor of a pet of theirs.

[00:33:58]
I painted in honor of Marlin. And now we have this beautiful rock garden out there. So there's a lot of ways people could celebrate the life of an animal. It doesn't have to be so, you know, anything. It's wonderful.

[00:34:11]
But it felt like for Marlin, we needed to do something special, because I realized it wasn't just me grieving. There were a lot of people because I so publicly shared him, because I had a pet cancer fund, I felt like I wanted people to be able to share in that. And that's why we had the celebration of life. But I get signs. I don't know if you are a believer in signs.

[00:34:39]
Yes, absolutely. But I definitely get signs that he's still with me. Yeah, I'll say. I was never big into signs until my father passed away five years ago. And ever since then, I get the signs.

[00:34:55]
Seagulls are the signs that he sends me. And so I totally believe in that. And there's such power in it because it's not just something that makes you sad. It makes you like, they're still there. They're a part of me.

[00:35:10]
They're a part of the universe. We always have that connection. And I think that's why the different things you've talked about and there are so many different ways you can memorialize a pet. And it's something that I really advocate for because it may be stigmatized that losing a pet isn't as important as the loss of other things or people, but it is, and it's a huge impact on our life, especially like you said, when you have that sole connection with the pet. Yep.

[00:35:38]
And it's something that I try to promote with this podcast in other ways is just please share it. There's nothing wrong. You shouldn't hold that grief. You need to put it out there. Tribe, not everybody understands it, so don't expect somebody who maybe doesn't have animals in their life to understand how to support you.

[00:35:59]
So find your tribe that will. And for those who don't know what to say, just I'm sorry is fine. You don't have to know more than that. Just say, I'm so sorry for your loss if you just don't know. But I don't have children.

[00:36:15]
They are my family. And yeah, the loss is devastating. But that's why I really encourage people, and I still do when I find out if anybody's going through something where their pet may pass, I really encourage talking to somebody before the pet passes because there's a book out there actually, if people don't want to talk to somebody called PS. I Love You More Than Tuna by Sarah Chauncey. And you can look up also her.

[00:36:41]
She has a lot of articles that she's written about anticipatory grief and things like that. It's incredible because you can start doing things ahead of time so that that day isn't so awful. It's going to be awful, but it does kind of prepare you a little bit. So I would suggest doing something like. That, you know, that is so important.

[00:37:03]
So many things are saying. I'm like, yes, yes, thank you. I do not have human children. My four babies are my children and my husband's children and always will be, and we want to do anything for them and pets in need. And when I've lost the two cats, I've lost so far, it is like a piece of you.

[00:37:26]
And also what you're saying about and to support the Tory brief is so important. My Jack had kidney disease for several years. He did well on the diet and everything and then he got worse and I had to do IVs at home and all of that. And then suddenly one day I woke up and he had an aneurysm. And so I had been taking care of him for so long when it just happens in the end.

[00:37:50]
So suddenly I was not at all prepared. I have a doctor in psychology and I was not prepared. I mean, it's devastating. Yeah. And that's one of the things I'm working to build with this community that I've started with the podcast is that grief and loss and support for Moms and Dads, that especially when you're taking care of a sick cat or dog, like, you know, you're doing it every day, all day long, just like someone taking care of a person going through a difficult disease or treatment.

[00:38:26]
Boston I don't think people understand. I mean, even though Marlin was doing well, it's still a lot. Caretaking is hard. I've been through it. And so it's really important to reach out if you have a friend you can talk to.

[00:38:42]
People can reach out to me. I can try to be and point them in the right direction because it's really important to talk about it. Absolutely. No, I think that's so important. Yeah.

[00:38:54]
And be open to the signs, because once your path has passed, if you will remain open to the signs. And one interesting thing I will say is, and this is not for everybody I will put out there I'm an animal reiki practitioner. I'm very openminded about these things. I talked to an animal communicator because I was feeling like I was so stuck in my grief, I needed to talk to somebody. And she actually said to me, my grieving process is blocking Marlin from showing me signs because I'm so stuck there and he's having a hard time connecting.

[00:39:31]
And she said, I have a message for you. He doesn't want you to be this way. His legacy for you is not grief. And, boy, was that a wake up call. And then after that, the signs just started coming.

[00:39:45]
And I don't know whether it's a connection to west, who I adopted after him, whether somehow there's a part of him in there. They are connected, and it's unmistakable, like the things that happened. You cannot make these things up. So, yeah, be open to the signs. It's worth it.

[00:40:08]
It will help you feel tremendous joy. It really will be moment. No, but it's an important thought to make. And for all types of grief, you know, people who have lost anyone, a spouse, a parent, a family member, a friend. When you're so stuck in the grief, you don't necessarily see what's on the other side of it.

[00:40:33]
And it's not easy, but just talking about it makes people feel better. That's why grief support groups, whether it's virtual or in person, are so important. Over two years since I lost Marlin, I still have moments. I have four fabulous cats right now, and I will never have another Marlin. So there are moments because of that awareness where I still get sad.

[00:40:57]
But then I look at these four boys that I have right now who are so amazing, and even though I might not have another Marlin again, I will never also have another west or Henry or Jonesy or Jameson. So I have to remember that and on their lives now. And I also think it's important what you said about the connection to your current pets. One moment I remember I had brought the ashes of my Jack home. He was my first cat, and I'd had him for almost 18 years.

[00:41:31]
And so I had come into the bedroom with the bag, and I opened it, and I got the box out, and Frenchie, one of my youngest cat, jumped up on the bed and started rubbing her cheeks on it. And it was just this moment. I would have been a puddle, but. It was so powerful for me because it was like that was her way of saying, welcome home, Jack. You're back where you belong.

[00:41:57]
And so I think it's just like you said, opening yourself to see those connections, to see those signs, because it will be so amazing if you just allow that into your space. Yeah. So I want to move into your current pets and the work you're doing now. I know you currently have four pets, and you've also founded and our President of Mission Meow, so however you want to discuss all of that. Okay, so I have four cats right now that have taken over.

[00:42:29]
So the Instagram page is at Marlin Nation forever, because I can never not have Marlin in the name. I didn't want to change it to my current four boys, but they are known as the possum foursome. So I have Jonesy, who's 14, who is the dashing kind of stoic. I call him the James Bond of cats. Tuxedo.

[00:42:56]
He's more reserved. That's why James Bond. So he fills that role beautifully. And he is the patriarch of the family, for sure. He's very loving, and he welcomes everybody into the house.

[00:43:10]
But he also, if you kind of cross and go too far, he's going to let you know. Then we have Henry. Henry is five years old. He's a ginger and white cat. He's a big boned boy, incredibly shy, so handsome.

[00:43:32]
He is known to me and known to my husband and maybe one or two other people. And not many other people get to see him because he's the kind that kind of disappears, hang around for a while sometimes. If he senses you're truly a cat person, he'll make his way back out. Then there's west, and that's the west and Henry show. When I brought West, Tom, henry and west just fell in love with each other.

[00:43:58]
And west got his name because the original Batman on TV was Adam West. After we lost Marlin, we felt it only appropriate to bring another superhero into our home. And it's funny when Catsbury Park is where I volunteer and where two of my cats are from and the manager there, I had reached out to her and said I had seen this picture of a cat and I felt like it was if Brody and Marlin could have had a baby, it looks like this cat. And she's like, I get what you're saying, but that's not your cat. I know what you need right now, and trust me on this.

[00:44:35]
She said, I have another cat I want you to meet. So I went and met Mo, who big ears, big eyes, all goofy looking, and I was like, I just don't know. And then she handed him to me. I was done. My neck started hugging me and I need to hug so badly.

[00:44:53]
At that point I was like, that's it. And then I gave him back to her and we waited a while. She let him get a little bit bigger and let me move through my grief for a little while. And then we welcomed him home. And on day one, he left into my arms.

[00:45:08]
And he continues to do it as a full grown kitty. And then he just jumps up and he's exactly what I needed. And then sadly, six months after we had lost Marlin, we lost our finagin very suddenly. And after some time passed, we welcomed Jameson into the house. Who is our ginger tornado.

[00:45:30]
He is all teenager. He is a big cat. He runs into things, he knocks things over. I swear he thinks his name is Jamison no. Jamison no.

[00:45:46]
He originally named Jamie, but when we saw his real personality, we thought he needed to be named after the actual alcohol because it always seems like he's had me be a little something to drink. And he's also the color of Jameson's. Oh, that's so funny. And my Jack was named after Jack Daniels, so I totally understand.

[00:46:09]
He's a challenge for me. So they're all very different personalities. They get along beautifully. It's very interesting how the dynamics shift from moment to moment. I mean, all of a sudden now Henry and Jonesy have this bond that they groom each other, they sleep together because sometimes the young ones, west and Jamieson, are off being crazy.

[00:46:33]
But then Henry and west still are their cute little pair. Jameson, he's very much more independent, kind of like Jonesy's more independent. So it's a perfect mix. I love them all so much. I mean, Jonesy healed my broken heart.

[00:46:50]
West healed my broken heart. Henry, I think I healed his broken heart because he had been at a shelter, found in a backyard, had a horrible case of ringworm that just wasn't responding to treatment, and had been in isolation. And he had come in as a kitten and didn't get to the adoption floor until he was six months old. Oh, wow. So by the time I met him, when I was looking to adopt.

[00:47:17]
I said, point me to a ginger cat that needs a home. And they're like, well, he's ginger and white. I said, I want to meet him. And he was in a cubby and wouldn't come out from under the bed. And the bed was just vibrating because he was shaking.

[00:47:31]
He was so terrified. And I worked with him, sat with him, offered him reiki, did some stuff and slowly moved the bed forward with him underneath it. And I could feel his body start to relax. And I just said, all right, bud, you got to trust me. I lifted the bed off, I picked him up, put him over my shoulder, and like I said, he was big at six months and I just felt his body weight.

[00:47:57]
He just melted into me. And I said to my friend who volunteered to take the phone out of my back pocket, you have to take this picture right now. This is the first time I'm holding my new cat and she got that picture and it's still one of my favorites. He just melted. And the day I brought him home, which was the next day, I thought it would be like bringing home a new baby.

[00:48:20]
We got it on video. Putting the carrier down and opening it up. I have it on video. His first steps into carpet for the first time, his first toy. Him all of a sudden just lighting up and tossing a toy around.

[00:48:35]
We have that on film. It's really special. Oh, how beautiful. I can just picture all of it as you're talking about it. So much joy.

[00:48:44]
So all of them, I mean, they all have brought me just so much into my life. I can't imagine not having four. My husband would be happy with two.

[00:48:58]
Fast forward. Let me tell you a little bit. Mission Mia. So we have some time. I will say, though, our husbands sound like they would get along.

[00:49:10]
We at one point have four and then our two oldest passed over time and so now we have two. And I'm like, well, we need a new one. We need another baby, whatever it is. My last two that we still have were both bottle babies that I raised. And I keep saying that and he's like, no, we're good with two.

[00:49:27]
I'm like, we have four. We can handle it. And he's like, nope, we're good. I just worked my magic and got us back up to four. I will be working on that, trust me.

[00:49:40]
Yeah, there's something about that number. I can't explain it. And you know what? It doesn't mean when I'm 70, I'm going to want four. I don't know.

[00:49:48]
But right now, I really am happy and there's always somebody who I can struggle with. I don't know, somebody who wants to play or yes. The dynamics of the four together, I really like it. Yeah. Tap.

[00:50:03]
For some, there's nothing better than that. Yes. Okay, so let's talk mission me out now. So I'm trying to figure out how to condense this. So basically, after I closed the birdie fund, I needed to give myself time, just time to heal from losing Marlin, from losing Finnegan, from the pandemic, from all of that.

[00:50:27]
And again, I listen to another podcast, and it was really resonated with me. It was brene brown, and she had a guest on who wrote a book and was a friend of hers who was talking about how brene was feeling burned out. And it really struck me. The woman told her, you need to take a sabbatical until you get bored. And I thought, wow, those words are profound, because my mind was a million miles a minute.

[00:50:52]
And I was like, I need to get bored. And so I tuned out of television, no more TV, picked up books again, put my hammock up in the backyard, started spending more time outside with the boys on there. I have harnesses for them, shout out to surfer, cat, luxury brand, my favorite harnesses. And I realized one day I was getting bored. And I thought, good, this is a good thing.

[00:51:22]
And that's when it came to me. I really missed the world of nonprofits. I didn't miss pet cancer, but I really missed nonprofit. So I started toying with, well, maybe I could work for a nonprofit, but I don't have traditional nonprofit experience. I founded one.

[00:51:38]
I ran it in a very different it was just very different. So I thought, okay, can I do that again? Is that something that I would like to do? And that's when I really felt like marlin came to me and was, you know, this is what I should be doing. Mom, you were so happy doing that.

[00:51:56]
Maybe not cancer. And it was true. All my other skills, I just didn't want to go back to working retail. I love the nonprofit world, because if you've ever experienced the joy of giving, you don't want to do anything else. Like, there is nothing like that.

[00:52:15]
So then it was, okay, who do I want to help? How do I want to help? And I knew that I wanted it to be in the feline world, because it's an underserved community. Whether people want to accept it or not. It's very dog centric out there.

[00:52:31]
There's more cats in homes in the US. Than there are dogs. But if you go to the pet store, you can tell it's far more dog than cats. Yes, in the veterinary world, more dogs get seen than cats. That's why I had the feeling fine project.

[00:52:45]
So it really became, I want to help. And then it was like, okay, well, how do I want to help? I don't want to help individual cats, because that means getting involved in the stories again. So then I start thinking, well, what if we can help feline centric nonprofits? So how do we do that.

[00:53:01]
So I'm just mulling all over the ideas, and Michael Meow popped into my head. So I ran inside, Googled it, and found that there is another nonprofit shout out to them in California. There is a Mission Meow that looks like they're doing amazing work. And I thought, wow, maybe one day mission meow can help mission meow. But it wasn't trademarked.

[00:53:20]
And even when I founded the Brodie Funds, there were other Brody funds out there. It's just, you know, you can't really reinvent the wheel here. So it was Michael Meow, and I figured that was good. I like alliteration so it was like, okay, how do we help these nonprofits? Well, you raise money through individual fundraising, through grants, through events, and with businesses.

[00:53:49]
So I kind of eliminated just individual fundraising because that's a lot of work, just focusing on donors. Grant writing is tedious, and there's fewer grants available out there, more applicants. That's just the balance right now. I love events, but they cost money, and the outcomes are unpredictable. The events you think are going to be great sometimes are, and sometimes the ones you don't think are going to do anything.

[00:54:15]
So it's just not predictable enough. So I landed it on businesses, because businesses tend to be very philanthropic, especially in the cat world, especially probably in all the animal loving world, to give back. So I remember sharing a story about in the community where families have tragedies a house fire or a child gets sick, and the communities pull together and the businesses pull together, and they're able to raise more money that way. So I started thinking, all right, what if there is a way that we could crowdfund businesses? And that would be the foundation of the organization, because if we can get them on a regular schedule of donating, then we're always going to know we have set money coming in.

[00:55:08]
So that became the formula for it. So let's give an example. Now, we kicked off this month. In October, we have our businesses. If 50 businesses either raise or donate a minimum of $200.

[00:55:22]
In October, we've just raised $10,000. $200. That's not a big number. No, it's not. And that's before individual donors, which we absolutely need individual donors, and we need to sell merchandise because it's a threepronged approach.

[00:55:43]
The money from the merchandise sales, the money from the individual donors, combined with our business partners. Imagine being able to give a check of over $10,000 to a cat centric nonprofit, a shelter, a rescue, a TNR group. What people need to understand is and we have parameters, the application will be up on the website. It's not up there. Now, anybody who's listening around the nonprofit, it won't be up till next month because we already have this month set.

[00:56:17]
They have to be a small nonprofit. The application will have all the parameters. You have to be small and profit, and you have to have either a project or a need. We're not paying vet bills, we're not paying rent. You have to be set enough where you're paying your basics, but small enough that there's something that you can't afford, something that you want to do or that you need.

[00:56:41]
And so imagine a TNR group, they're all driving their own cars. Their cars are taking a beating with carriers in cages and feral cats. What if they could buy a van? They don't need a new van. They just need a van that runs and has a lot of space in the back so they can stack up those traps.

[00:57:00]
And now you've got one trip to go to Renewed or Clinic instead of you all driving. Or it's just something like that. Or what if there is an organization out there that's doing amazing work, but all their money is paying? Like, say it's a senior cat rescue, for example. Bills are higher because they are senior cats.

[00:57:22]
Cats are in your care longer because it's harder to get them adopted. And so you're doing everything you can. You're probably doing amazing work, but maybe you haven't been able to afford a renovation because your vet bills are higher. Right? Right.

[00:57:38]
So when people come in, you have the older cages. Maybe you don't have ramps for your senior kitties, or heated beds for all of them. What if we could give you a big check and now you could make that happen, or the TNR group could buy a van or a shelter that's always dreamed of having a patio, can now build a patio. All these things become possible now because we've got this set foundation of money that we know is coming in, and these business partners have signed on to be quarterly donors. So if you have signed up and your business is donating in October, or holding a fundraiser, or you're donating a percentage of sales for the month, we collect all that at the end of the month.

[00:58:21]
And then you don't have to donate in November and December because you're quarterly. So then in January there's another campaign that you have because you were October, you will be again. So it's not a huge commitment and you don't have to donate $200. Some are giving more, some are giving 200, some are giving less, some are doing special things. And at the end of the month they're going to know.

[00:58:47]
So they could be 500, 600, 700,000. That's coming our way. Right side of it, I talked to a bunch of nonprofit directors. My three favorite answers were when I posed the question, what would you do if we could give you a check for $10,000? The three favorites were cry, pass out and throw up.

[00:59:11]
They don't get those kind of checks. On average, they see about one hundred and fifty dollars to five hundred dollars support in a month. Which is amazing, because at the end of the year, that accrues to a lot of money. And it helps them pay the necessities along the way. And it's important.

[00:59:25]
So I don't want to dismiss that. But the number is unpredictable. Some months it's higher, some months it's less. December, it's usually higher because that's end of year giving. But this you're going to know you've been accepted.

[00:59:38]
You know you're going to get a grant from us and you know it's going to be a big one. And so you submit to us your application, what's your project or your need. And then at the end there's a memorandum of understanding. We want everybody to know that the nonprofit signs off on this is what the money is for. It's strictly earmarked for that.

[00:59:58]
And then when they either make the purchase or start the project, they have to submit photos along the way. Businesses actually see where their money is going. The donors get to see where their money is going. That is huge because you see people enjoy and you can publicize look with the money, especially because so many pet businesses are established with we're giving 10% of all of our proceeds to wherever or they want to do it and they just don't have a mechanism set up to be able to do that. Exactly.

[01:00:39]
And like you said, small nonprofit, which most rescue organizations, TNR, groups, all of those are, they never see a lump sum like that without being said. The bigger nonprofits get the bigger checks. The smaller nonprofits get the smaller checks. We're smashing that. And the cool thing is that the businesses that are supporting us, a lot of them are small business owners who don't get to give that big because they can't afford you.

[01:01:10]
Now they can, right? So now we have and there's different size because if you look at the business list, if you go on to Missionmeo.org, you'll see there are larger businesses and there are smaller businesses. And the cool thing is we call it a business partnership because we are sharing our businesses. They are already listed on their website with their logo. We commit to them a set number of social media mentions every month, a set number of mentions in newsletters every month, a set number of emails every month.

[01:01:46]
So in the month of the giving, they are being thanked by us in these different ways because it's important. And for me, I know as a consumer, I want to shop the businesses. I know that give back. So now we're giving them an opportunity to get exposure as well as blogs. We will launch our first blog introducing one of our business partners this month.

[01:02:13]
I don't want to share who it is. I love her so much. I love her product so much. And we have somebody interviewing her and then we're going to share the blog all about her, how amazing she is and how amazing her product is. Great.

[01:02:27]
This is we'll all have an opportunity if they want to have their. Story told in a blog as well. So we've tried to balance it because we want to highlight the nonprofits so that maybe they meet some more supporters, not just by us. If we are talking about this amazing nonprofit, other people are going to find out about them, right. Businesses are getting some love and we're sharing all about them.

[01:02:52]
And the coolest thing that I didn't even know this was going to happen, the businesses are networking with each other now, are finding small businesses that are making cat toys and blankets, and now they're going into their stores behaviorists that are signing on or finding out about new toys that they can now share with the clients that they're working with. We are all consumers as well. We're all starting to shop these businesses. Exactly. That was something I didn't see coming that I love.

[01:03:27]
And everybody that has signed on has done it because they love the idea and they already understand what it feels like to give. And so they just want to experience that joy on a new level. We use the word joy all the time and we say making dreams come true all the time because it's not a transactional relationship. When we work with these businesses, it's not just, oh, give us something. It is a very much a transactional.

[01:04:00]
We want them to experience what it feels like to have this dream come true. I came up with another idea. If you've ever seen pictures of a ceremony where somebody is presented with a big check, those big fake, it's not the real check, but we're going to give it. It's a great photo op. So we're going to have one made that rolls up.

[01:04:25]
So it's like a wipe off board in effect, but then we can roll it up. So say you, Julie, live near the nonprofit that's benefiting from us. I will now put the check in the mail to you and give it to that nonprofit so you get to know, experience that moment, that day of what it feels like for them to get this big grant. So whether it be a business partner, a donor, another fellow business, a volunteer, we can and it may not happen for every single one. I can't say that every time it's going to be near somebody, but we're going to do our darndest.

[01:05:05]
Because that to me, would be incredible. Yeah, that's so powerful because you get to connect all these people together and put together the people doing the work with the people, donating the money and selling the product all those different ways. It's such a collaborative community that you're creating. It's been incredible. All the phone calls that I've had with our business partners, I'm already thinking about, okay, how can we have a mission meow convention so we can have all our vendors together?

[01:05:38]
Because there are all these beautiful, amazing people that I want to talk to every day. If I could I'm just connecting with them because they all have these huge hearts. They all care so much about that community that they love this cat community. They know that these shelters and rescues have experienced burnout and fatigue at a level that they've never experienced. Because of the pandemic, it was harder to raise money.

[01:06:06]
Some of them downsized, some of them lost spaces and now are just foster based. Some of them like the first organization we're working with this month, Catsbury Park, they had to give up their big cafe space. They've got a beautiful adoption center now, but we're going to pay for their expansion because they have an opportunity to grow that space.

[01:06:29]
This group of businesses care so much about that community.

[01:06:36]
You can tell I get very emotional about it because it matters so much.

[01:06:46]
Especially with the cat population. People don't realize, like you said, there's so many more cats out in our homes and our families and they get so much less publicity. I would say almost. You don't see them on news. Oh, look at this great cat story.

[01:07:06]
Now. You hear the dog stories and all of these things and even like you were talking about how your cats have helped you in dealing with autoimmune disorders. I have some as well, and my cats have been that comfort, that support, that therapy that I've needed and oftentimes even something like that. People only think dogs can do that. There's so many ways that we can expand the knowledge and understanding and just getting help to cats in need.

[01:07:33]
So I think it's such an amazing thing that you're doing. Thank you. I'm so proud. I still can't believe it went from this little idea till we launched on October 1. Sadly, we got rained out for our event, but we're having it on the will be back at Casper Park and with vendors and it's adoption day.

[01:07:55]
It's going to be really fun. But it's amazing that it exists right now. This thing that this amazing team, this board of directors that I couldn't have. It's like a dream team to have these people support. So tomorrow arcelanians the vice president.

[01:08:16]
She wrote the Book Shopcats of New York. She has a blog, I have cat. She's a marketing background. She's like this powerhouse. Michael Delgado.

[01:08:27]
Dr. Michael Delgado. She's a behaviorist and author. She's our treasurer. Jen from Volanacote is our board.

[01:08:36]
Dr. Liz Bales is on our board. Jen Bower, who owns a business, the Catball is on our board. And we have a man. Yeah.

[01:08:45]
Mixed in Los Angeles. Oscar and Klaus is on our board. Yes, I saw when he posted that he was working with you guys, I'm like, that's so great. I followed Oscar and Klaus forever. Yes.

[01:08:57]
These people are amazing. All of them in their own right, in the areas that they do. And the fact that their part of Mission Meow just blows me away. But it shows you how much we really believe in this and we're just at the beginning now. I can't imagine where we'll be in a year, two years, three years.

[01:09:18]
It's just going to explode things. Yes. Well, I have to say that I think it's really amazing, the idea and how it's come to light and whatever I can do to support it. Thank you. I didn't grow up with cats, but I found my first baby when I was 25.

[01:09:40]
And ever since, I have become a certified cat lady. They are my people.

[01:09:47]
And anyway, that yes, crazy cat lady. Oh, yeah, that's me. Anyway, I can support any of the podcast. Can support. I'd be happy to do spotlight interviews with any of your businesses or nonprofits or anything.

[01:10:02]
There's so many wonderful ones out there I'm learning about. There are so many businesses that I didn't know about that I'm a huge fan of spiller woods. Who. Annie makes these beautiful blown glass pieces.

[01:10:21]
I wouldn't have met. I've connected. We just had lightning. That's not good. If I want to go pickleball later.

[01:10:32]
Yeah, I guess that's going to change.

[01:10:40]
I just heard the cats just all went. I have to say, I'm going to close my eyes and imagine that's happening here because I would love us under. It could send the rain your way. That's so great. I'm so grateful to have this time.

[01:10:54]
I feel like I met a kindred spirit as far as the crazy forecast, ladies. And yes, there are so many people that I would love to introduce you to that would be incredible guests for you to talk to. Yeah. Any way that I can help mission me out itself, help all of the partners involved. I started this podcast because I love pets and I have stories to tell.

[01:11:21]
My friends have stories to tell as a pet sitter. Now I have even more stories to tell. Yeah, right. Me too. But like you said, once you dip your toe into this community, whether it's the pet community or the cat community, you just realize the expansiveness of the businesses and the nonprofits and the work and the need and the help of the pets need and just all of it.

[01:11:45]
So, you know, that's what's keeping me going and that's how I want to expand. For people like you that can highlight where there's a need or shine the light on somebody that's doing something amazing, we're going to be announcing we're doing a meowathon on Instagram the 19th of this month with some very special guests with the idea of shining the light on people that are doing amazing things. So there will be some stuff posted. I can't tell you who our guests are yet because we're going to be announcing it soon. But like what you're doing, we want to highlight the people specifically for me in the cat world that are doing amazing, there are so many people out there that are like the people out there doing TNR work my heart, that's them every day.

[01:12:41]
Nobody's really seeing what they're doing. Unless you're a big organization that's really good at social media, these people are out there every day doing the work. And most people, even cat people, excuse me, don't realize what the feral population really is here. And where I live in central California, it's outrageous because we have a lot of agriculture and all of that, but just people in every day don't realize every city, every town, every state has areas where they are overrun with the federal population. Very misunderstood.

[01:13:17]
Very good. The thousands, probably hundreds of thousands across the whole country. I know our local county shelter has fixed 100 pets with their spaniard or clinic, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. So, yes, there's so many things that people aren't aware of. They only see the happy, shiny things sometimes.

[01:13:43]
Right? I mean, that's why we have pets for the cute pictures and the snuggles and the funny videos. But there are so many things out there that we can do to help even more. So I'm excited to share this. Yes, I'm glad to share this, let people know what you're doing and just continue to help support you and all the amazing people you're working with so.

[01:14:10]
That we can do a follow up down the road. When we're in that next stratosphere, we'll circle back. I'm sure we'll have lots to share. Well, Sally, I want to thank you again for being here. Literally, I don't think I've ever taken this many notes during one of my podcast recordings.

[01:14:31]
I'm like, yes. So I will have lots and lots of info and links in the show description, and I will post all of it on social media as well. And I appreciate you sharing your personal stories and my pleasure, your grief and your loss. I think it's so important when somebody else hears someone share, they realize it's okay, but the way they've been feeling. And they can share.

[01:14:57]
Not alone. Absolutely. Listeners, thanks for joining us, and I can't wait to have you all listen to this amazing episode. And we will be back with another episode soon.