Love Your Feral Feline: A Special Podcasthon Episode

Podcasthon Special: How Love Your Feral Felines Is Saving Cats in San Diego County with Volunteer Tammy Kaehler

Host Julie Marty Pearson shares a special Podcasthon episode of The Story of My Pet Podcast, part of a coordinated March 2026 global charity event, featuring an interview with Tammy Kaehler, a volunteer with Love Your Feral Felines (LYFF), an all-volunteer cat rescue serving San Diego County. Tammy расскаnts how a former feral “backyard cat” led her into cat rescue work and describes LYFF’s mission and programs, including foster and adoption efforts, a free-roaming adoption center, barn cat placements, community education, and trap-neuter-return (TNR) work. They discuss cat overpopulation, the challenges feral cats face in shelters, ways people can help beyond fostering (transport, photos, writing, grants, supplies, and social sharing), and how to support LYFF through donations, wish lists, volunteering, cuddle hours, and adopting.

To learn more about Love Your Feral Feline, Visit their Website or Follow them on Facebook Instagram & Youtube

Transcript

Julie Marty-Pearson 0:02

Welcome to a brand new episode of The Story of My Pet Podcast. I am your host, Julie Marty Pearson, and I am super excited to bring you this new episode, which is also a special episode that is a part of a global event happening right now in the podcasting world called Podcasthon. Podcasthon is about convincing as many hosts of podcasts as possible to dedicate one episode of their show to a charity of their choice. We are releasing these episodes simultaneously in a coordinated effort right now in March of 2026. The intention is to create a massive and. International wave of inspiring audio content. We are doing all of this to raise awareness for a large number of charities worldwide. I have participated in this event before and it is very near and dear to my heart as the purpose of the story of my pet is to advocate and educate for animal rescue fostering and adoption. In this episode, I interview Tammy, who is a volunteer with the rescue Love Your Feral Feline. Love Your Feral Feline is a small but mighty rescue servicing the San Diego County area in California. They do so much for cats and kittens in their area from finding fosters and adopters for the cats in their care to coordinating trap neuter and return efforts in the county, and providing a safe space for cats and kittens to grow and thrive and find their forever homes. Thank you so much for being here and supporting the podcast. I hope you enjoy this episode. Hello, my friends and fellow animal lovers. Welcome to a new episode of The Story of My Pet Podcast. I am your host, Julie Marty Pearson, as always, and I am very happy to welcome a new guest to the podcast, Tammy Kaler. Tammy, thank you for being here.

Tammy Kaehler 2:19

Thanks for having.

Julie Marty-Pearson 2:21

So Tammy is coming to us from San Diego, California area, and her and I connected at Cat Con this year, which if you know, you know, if you're a cat lover, Cat Con is the place to be.

Tammy Kaehler 2:36

It's amazing.

Julie Marty-Pearson 2:38

Was that your first Cat Con or have you been there before?

Tammy Kaehler 2:41

Second. Second. The rescue, I volunteer with who I was at the booth for. That was our second year and we, yeah, the first year was like just your hair blown back by all of it. By all the good stuff, all the good stuff and the volume of it.

Julie Marty-Pearson 2:54

I went many years ago. And I had thought about going a few times since but hadn't. And so when I went, it was like, wow, this is like on a whole other level of what it had been and what it is now. And when I tell people about it, they're kind of like. What do you mean Cat Con? I'm like, well, if you don't get it by me saying it, then you just won't get it.

Tammy Kaehler 3:15

Right. Well, and but this year was especially wild and busy and all that because it was the 10th anniversary. Right, so it was even more than the year before. Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 3:23

Yeah. I was, I think I was just astonished. I knew like. You know, looking at the list, how big it would be. But you go from one room to the next room and there's people waiting in line to get to booths. It was just kind of this wow cast cat lovers, we really do love this. We love this bonding with fellow cat lovers, having fun, helping cats, all of that stuff. It was overwhelming, but so much fun. And how did that work out? For the rescue, having a booth, did it seem to help get a lot of education out there?

Tammy Kaehler 3:53

Yeah, for us it's a combo of education trying to reach some people because the Cat Cons in Pasadena we're north San Diego County. So trying to reach some people who might come to see our adoption center, see our cats, visit our cuddle hours. You know, on a visit from that part of town. Right. And then also raising some funds because we were selling some merch and all kinds of fun stuff. So it, it was good for the second year in a row. It was worth it to be there for us. And yeah, a lot of that though is sort of spreading the word, meeting people like yourself, other vendors, other rescues, that sort of thing.

Julie Marty-Pearson 4:27

Yeah, that's great. So we will talk more about the rescue we keep mentioning. Yes. But first, I always like to start so listeners could get to know you a little better. So as someone who I know is obviously a cat lover. A cat mom now, have you always loved pets? Did you grow up with pets in your family?

Tammy Kaehler 4:44

Yeah. Interesting. So I grew up with a dog child to college ish. My mother was allergic, still is allergic to cats. Ask me about the time she last visited and sat on one of the cat's pillows. So then I married a man who was allergic to cats, so we was just never really in the picture. But what happened was we lived in, long Beach, California for a long time, and we had a backyard cat. It was originally very feral. We couldn't even look at her. She'd run away. And by the end of our time in that house, she was very attached. We were very attached. We'd been feeding her. We went away one time for three days, and when we came home, she just, she let out a meow that had to be like 45 seconds long, like, where the hell have you been and why? And so we went, okay. We were moving to North San Diego County and we're like, we have to take her. I don't know how this is gonna work. But we have to do it. And lo and behold, my husband is no longer allergic.

Julie Marty-Pearson 5:44

It does change. I can say it does. I've always had allergies, very miserable. And where I live, there's a lot of, agriculture around, so I've suffered, and when I was little, the test showed I was allergic to dogs and we had dogs, so it was like. I'll just live with it because we're not getting rid of our dogs, but,

Tammy Kaehler 6:00

right.

Julie Marty-Pearson 6:01

A lot of times growing up, we do or don't have pets because of our parents or our family, or wherever we're living.

Tammy Kaehler 6:07

Right.

Julie Marty-Pearson 6:07

And oftentimes. Who we're meant to be connected to like your cat in the backyard, they find you and show you like, Hey, we're meant to be family.

Tammy Kaehler 6:17

Yep. Yep. And that cat, I mean, changed my whole life, our lives. We, she was a senior and we took her in and it was only about a year and a half. After she was living inside with us, that she got sick. And so it was a little more than a year of kind of hospice care and we finally had to let her go. But we just discovered how much we loved having cats around. So now we have three. And I'm volunteering for the rescue. My husband has less time, but, supports the things that, that I do with that.

Julie Marty-Pearson 6:50

I think until you have one, you don't realize that they're all unique. They have their own personalities and you can really bond really, closely with cats.

Tammy Kaehler 6:59

Yeah, absolutely.

Julie Marty-Pearson 6:59

And it sounds. That's what happened with you and your husband?

Tammy Kaehler 7:02

Yeah, we absolutely have. He'd always loved cats. I just didn't know much about them. 'cause again, allergic mom so yeah, for him it was sort of the fulfillment of a lifetime of really adoring cats. And for me it was just this huge learning curve. But yeah, I love that. Sometimes they don't need you. Sometimes they do, and you get to know the, no, that's the hungry meow. And that's the, I'm about to bite you. Meow. And all the different they're fascinating.

Julie Marty-Pearson 7:27

Yeah. You know, it's so funny, I recently. We have three cats as well and they have different meows for us versus each other. When I hear one of mine do a certain meow, I know she's talking to our oldest boy who she's always tried to love and he's just like, has no interest in her. And we're like, Frenchy, it's been 12 years, girl, when are you gonna take a hit and just stop bothering him?

Tammy Kaehler 7:51

I mean, all the vocalizations are fascinating 'cause. I'm sure you know the thing about that cats meow to humans. They don't actually, they evolve to meow to humans, but that's not how they communicate with each other. So one of our cats he quacks more than he meows. But, that sort of applies equally to cats and humans. But the others, yeah, the others have different sounds for each other than us. And it's, yeah, it's endlessly fascinating. My, big black cat, and he's very large. He's stretched out behind my computer now and he's chattering at a bird out the window.

Julie Marty-Pearson 8:22

I love the chatter when they do the chatter. We see ours do it with birds or we have backyard cats. We have feral cats in our neighborhood and we're one of the few yards without a dog right on the street. So they like to hang out here because they know they're safe. So how did you go from an cat adopting you and you bringing her with you to your new home, into volunteering and helping with a organization rescuing cats?

Tammy Kaehler 10:44

Yeah, so when we were going through the Marquette, our first cat's illness. In general with cats you find a food they like and you buy a bunch and they then no longer like it, but Tripoli, so when they're sick right? And they're not really wanting to eat and those sorts of things. So I kept having all of these extra supplies that I wanted to donate somehow, and I looked for a rescue and I found this one that was actually called Love Your Feral felines. They go by love your feral felines or the acronym LYFF, or life rescue. And I thought, well, I appreciate this feral feline and that I took in and, I don't know, they just, they had an event nearby. I dropped some things off to them. I kept them in mind. And then they were supplying the, they had cats at a cat cafe locally. We went a couple times because you get a nice coffee and you have your hour in playing with cats, and that was fun. And that was sort of a fun thing to do for family coming into town and things. And then when we finally had to say goodbye to our senior, we. Unlike a lot of people, and I know even my family sort of questioned it, we went right out and got kittens because, it had been this year and a half of anticipation of this and we just, we felt like we had so much love to give and we wanted Cat joy in the house after all of that. So we got these two kittens and we went and got them from this rescue and just love them to pieces. Still do. They're five and a half now. And. It was, that all happened during, that was 2020, so that was during COVID and things were different. And as we all know, at that point, and long about January, 2021, I decided, I wanna see if I can volunteer. And so I got in touch with them. And what I do as a profession is I'm a writer. So I said, look, it's COVID. I'm not, I'm not fostering, but I can write things for you. And so I started really slowly doing that. I was writing some bios for the adoptable cats and I was doing things like, you know, such and such as a former broadcaster for the National Kitten Soccer League and whatever. And then I need, then someone needed a bio for, a person written and then someone needed this and this, and it's just evolved. And I do a lot of writing. I do a bunch of presenting because our founder is actually a. Tremendously camera shy, thinks she's gonna throw up if she's, in front of a camera, in front of a group of people. But I can do that. So just a lot of different things. I foster some, I do some emergency kinds of things. I go to events like Cat Con and work the booth and talk to people. I, do these kinds of interviews, just sort of wherever I can be useful.

Julie Marty-Pearson 13:33

Right.

Tammy Kaehler 13:33

And I just, I've, what's nice is I've found. It's fulfilling to do that and help save lives, right? Because cat overpopulation problem, it takes all of us and everything we can do helps. But I've also found a community which especially, coming out of COD, we had only been in this new city to us a couple years, hadn't really, so like this has helped find some people and. Not every one of us is in sync on every topic, but we all sure love cats and we all sure appreciate what this rescue is doing, and that's really a wonderful thing to have to be able to have a community like that.

Julie Marty-Pearson 14:13

Two things you said. One is the community piece and when I started this podcast back in 2021, I had no expectation of what was gonna happen. But for me it was connecting me with this community of people all over that, oh, there are other people like me. We don't have human kids. We love our pets. We wanna help more pets in our community. And that's turned into different ways of us helping. And I also think what you talked about is important for people to realize that. If you wanna help rescues or shelters in your area, that doesn't have to be fostering or volunteering inside.

Tammy Kaehler 14:45

Yeah,

Julie Marty-Pearson 14:45

it can be. What are you good at? And can you do that for the rescue? Because they all need social media help. They need. Better photos taken, they need pr. There's so many things you can help with that. It sounds like you've done so much of the communication and the writing, which all of those little things add up to more cats and kittens being adopted.

Tammy Kaehler 15:06

100%. And I make that point, if I'm at events or if anyone ever asks about volunteering is sure. We're always saying, we need people to work a shift at our adoption center and take care of the cats and we need fosters. But we need all kinds of things., We need people that can just run a cat back and forth from Oceanside to East County once in a while we need. People that are good at accounting or data entry, and we need people that are writers and we need people that, can be Mr. Or Miss fix it when, a little something, a screw pops outta the wall at the adoption center. We have people we who've simply receive shipments of supplies and take them to the adoption center. The food, the litter, the weekly or biweekly. Shipments of that to keep us stocked up. Every little piece helps. And I think, there are lots of people out there that can foster, there are not as many people out there that can research for and write grant applications, which is another piece of what I do. I try and like everyone has a unique talent and chances are a local rescue could use it.

Julie Marty-Pearson 16:08

Yeah, that's such a good point because I know I often feel like, oh gosh, I wish I could be fostering right now too. And this, and I did. I have volunteered, I have fostered pumpkin who I mentioned earlier, is someone that, she was one of six we fostered and she's the one we adopted and but. I also am running my own business and doing all these things. So podcasting is how it's easy for me to fit it in and help educate. And, all rescues, no matter how small or big need visibility, they need people to share. There's so many little things that you can help. That doesn't mean you're physically there or having to have, fosters in your home. So talk a little bit about love your. Feral fee lines kind. What is their focus or goal within the community?

Tammy Kaehler 16:55

Yeah. Well, we are an all volunteer nonprofit cat rescue organization. We were founded, and hence the name, we were founded as basically a barn cat program. There was a woman 14 years ago, who she, for her birthday, wanted to do something like for the community instead of just, about herself. And she started volunteering at an animal shelter and she became just horrified at the outcomes. Lack of them really for feral cats that were brought in. There's just no pathway out of a shelter where, you know, for cats that can't really be adopted. So she founded our organization as a Barn cat placement program and has had tremendous success. And a few years later someone that she had worked with at the shelter, left the shelter for, various reasons. Actually, I think it was to start a family mostly, but still wanted to be involved, wanted to have her own fostering program to do it the way she wanted. And so she joined with our founder and together they're basically running it now. And so we added the foster and adoption program and that's the biggest thrust of what we do right now. We. Have our own adoption center. It's a little tiny slot in a strip mall, but we can house about 30 cats. They're all free roaming, they're not in cages at all. We have one big room, that's the teens and adults, and then a couple smaller ones for kittens or small groups that, need different food or whatever it might be. But they all are roaming all the time, and we have different shifts that go in to take care of them. And so we probably adopt out f. 5, 7, 800 cats a year through the foster and adoption program, maybe more like five or six. I always wanna, I think I always come out with a higher number in someone else with the rescue, who knows the data's like Tammy, but down in we have adoption events every couple weekends. The adoption center is open, to the public on the weekends, but we also do. A lot of other things we have had in the past and will have again a low cost spay and neuter program for the community. We do TNR work. We're working on rebuilding again. We've had in the past, working on rebuilding it now a TNR program that will help community members when they, need some help. But we do practice the TNR on our own sort of for. Volunteers who are willing to go out and do something or find a colony themselves and so on and so forth. We've also got educational material on the website. We try and go to events and educate the community too. There's not just one focus, but it's really the full circle solution. Right? Right. I mean, we can't foster and adopt our way out of the overpopulation crisis. You gotta address the root of that somehow. Yeah. So we're doing what we can as resources, wax and wane, but it's always right. It's always on our mind, so, yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 19:50

Yeah. And here in California, and this isn't how it is in all states. Cats are considered free roaming here. So, city, county, municipal shelters often have different rules around whether they can even take in cats that people bring in. And the shelters where I live can only take cats or kittens if they are sick, injured, or too young to care for themselves. But just because they come into the shelter, that doesn't mean. They have a good survival rate, like you said, right? If it's a true feral cat and it's injured or sick and they help get better, shelters don't have the time or the resources to get a feral to become, adoptable. And I saw firsthand where a lot of times those ferals are the ones that end up on euthanasia lists when there's a lack of space. It breaks my heart because. It is so overwhelming the span of what the overpopulation crisis is. And I would say in our state it's complicated by the feral aspect and people not understanding TNR and how important it is right to trap and neuter and return. There's so many layers to it. But it sounds like your organization is really trying to help the community. As much as it can within that whole circle of the issues that we face.

Tammy Kaehler 21:02

Absolutely. Yeah. As much as we can. It's sometimes it feels like just a drop in a giant lake, but everyone, we're doing, you do what you can. I mean, one of, one of the philosophies I really like about our organization that our founders repeat is we save all the cats. We responsibly can. And that's, being responsible to the cats and it's being responsible to the volunteers. Like we, we do everything we possibly can, but we don't hoard and we don't, crowds, sick cats together and, whatever else it might be. We, are act responsibly for all living parties. And yes. Does it break our hearts to not do more? Yeah, absolutely. But. We can't keep doing it for years if we don't take care of ourselves. And also.

Julie Marty-Pearson 21:49

Absolutely. And I think that is such a good perspective to have that is to focus on what we can help and how many we can save versus how many we can't. Because I think where we are in our country with overpopulation, there's always gonna be more that need help. But we've got, saving five or 600 cats a year is huge, right? Those are 500, 600 cats that would've multiplied times however many if you hadn't stepped in and fostered and spayed and neutered and got them adopted and all of those things.

Tammy Kaehler 22:18

Yeah. Yeah. Two, an un neutered male and an un neutered female. And is it four years can or seven years can produce 420,000 cats? Just from the, it is

Julie Marty-Pearson 22:30

insane.

Tammy Kaehler 22:31

Just from the two. Yeah, it's, we, we did a, we did a series of, uh, we actually had a panel discussion. We created a series of videos recently about the cat overpopulation problem and we had a local veterinarian, one of our former partners, and she dropped a fascinating fact. I gotta drop it just 'cause it's so fascinating. She said cats are really, really good at reproducing. Female cats are induced Ovulators. They don't have a cycle. If they get a whiff of a Tomcat, they'll go into heat.

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:02

Wow.

Tammy Kaehler 23:03

Isn't that wild? No wonder there are so many.

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:07

Yeah, because it's it literally, their body does it

Tammy Kaehler 23:10

right

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:11

on purpose.

Tammy Kaehler 23:12

Right. That's how you know they can get pregnant while they're nursing. They can get pregnant every four months potentially, even if they have a litter. Just that's how the numbers can get that high. It's crazy.

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:22

Yeah. And one litter can be multiple. Dad cats.

Tammy Kaehler 23:26

Yeah, that too.

Julie Marty-Pearson 23:26

I've seen that where they, when the cats are born, they're literally, you can tell they're at different ages that some of them haven't developed as far, or they're very different color patterns or things like that.

Tammy Kaehler 23:37

The other, the heartbreaking statistic is that only one in four. Kittens born outside survives to six months. Because, that one at two weeks had worms and fleas and, probably borderline anemia and, couldn't go that long without food and got let, just you couldn't one in four. I mean, that's, that's awful.

Julie Marty-Pearson 24:00

Yeah. And I think people don't realize also what the mom cats go through. Like he and is not pleasant. It's actually quite miserable for them be,, getting pregnant is not a good thing for them. It's very hard on them and it's also stress on them when they give birth.

Tammy Kaehler 24:15

And typically there's not a lot of food supply.

Julie Marty-Pearson 24:19

Mm-hmm.

Tammy Kaehler 24:19

And you know, I've, we've seen sometimes. Mamas come in that are, just emaciated and, their kittens look great. Their kittens might be pretty, kind of plump and happy, but, mom is killing herself, basically caring for these kittens

Julie Marty-Pearson 24:34

right.

Tammy Kaehler 24:35

Yeah. Sometimes, the mom barely survives and the kittens don't because there isn't enough food. So, yeah. There are just many out there,

Julie Marty-Pearson 24:42

so many ways that it can go wrong I think one thing that I've thought about doing. At some point when I'm able to is, you can also foster a mom cat in her kittens. Give her a safe place to raise her babies. You get to feed her and give her all the things she needs.

Tammy Kaehler 24:58

Yeah,

Julie Marty-Pearson 24:58

you can help her with the kittens, make sure they're gaining weight and keep an eye on them because you don't have to do as much. Because you're not having to necessarily bottle feed. But that is a huge need, I think, for mom cats and their litters to have safe places to be able to grow up healthy and then give them a chance of finding adoptive homes.

Tammy Kaehler 25:18

Absolutely. Yeah. I had, I took in a mama, I had her, I think it was only a week I'm for a lot of times I'm an interim stop, for a week or a few days. Like we need to get 'em now, but the foster isn't ready, so I'll take him. I had a mama that was. She was skinny. She ate I think three cans of food when I first got her. Like she was just so hungry. Ate kittens. Eight kittens and they were all like four weeks old. So they were big and they were just, they were all on top of the most amazing picture of her. Propped up on her front legs, just looking at me like, make it end.

Julie Marty-Pearson 25:52

No, those poor mama cats, they really, and a lot of them are really great moms, they need support to be, eight kittens, that's a lot on a body.

Tammy Kaehler 26:02

It was a lot. It was a lot. Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 26:04

Yeah. But I think. That's an important point to make, that you don't even have to be a long-term foster, you know? Right. When we fostered pumpkin and her siblings, which they were bottle babies, so let me tell you, it was a full-time job. Those were, 'cause it was like, I'd get to number six and number one was hungry again.

Tammy Kaehler 26:20

I know. Yeah. Well, and that many, yeah. We try and split up. Like if it's a big litter and it's bottled, we try and, two or three per person. Yeah,

Julie Marty-Pearson 26:28

right. But sometimes, like you said, they, you just need somewhere for them to go for a couple days or for a week or even overnight. And I think also you mentioned transporting, like I know a lot of small. Use, they just need someone to pick it up from here, drive a half hour or an hour to get them to the next place. Like those are huge resources that make it harder to move animals around to the people that can help.

Tammy Kaehler 26:52

Yeah. And we're as a rescue, we're so dispersed around San Diego, which is great, but it's also then challenging. I mean, I'm 45 minutes east of most people and all the way out to the coast and all of that. So yeah,, it takes a whole community to get it done,

Julie Marty-Pearson 27:07

right. Yeah. And I think some people probably that don't know, you hear about San Diego, but that San Diego County is huge same where I live in Kern County.

Tammy Kaehler 27:15

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 27:15

You know, we have. Towns and cities in all directions. An hour, half hour from me. So, our county shelter covers a huge span of places and they have limited resources. They can only do so much and any way that someone can step up and reach out and say, Hey what help do you need as a shelter or a rescue? I am sure anyone you ask, they will always be taking donations as money. Yep. As supplies. Yep. As volunteers. Cleaning an adoption center or shelter a day gives staffs time to do something else. Or like you said, writing stories, taking photos, writing newsletters. Yeah. There's so many ways that people can help.

Tammy Kaehler 27:58

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Julie Marty-Pearson 28:00

So if. Anyone is listening to this and wants to support, love your feral felines. What would be the best way for them to support your organization to get in contact with you or whatever else?

Tammy Kaehler 28:16

Well go to our website, which is love your feral felines.com. We have a page. The donate page is where you can donate money if you wanna do that. We also have wishlists for Amazon and Chewy for the supplies that we need all the time. There's a volunteer page that talks about all the different opportunities and, it'll focus again on fostering, working at one of the adoption centers. If you're interested at all, fill out the form and someone will talk to you and you can say, look, I can't do these things, but I have a marketing background, or I have a, business accounting background, or I have whatever background I might be able to help in some way. All of it is useful. So yeah, just reach out any way there is. And, follow us. Even if it's just follow us on social media and repost. We're posting every day. A lot of it is, here's our adoptable cat that, most days it's spotlighting an adoptable cat. Sometimes it's talking about coming to cuddle hour. That's another thing people could do if you're in the area to support. So we're open on the weekends from 12 to five every Saturday and Sunday, and we're open to the public and there's a small donation and you can spend an hour. Walking around all the rooms of the adoption center and playing with all the cats. So cuddle hours and all of that money, every penny goes toward paying for their litter and their medicine and their food and all of that. So yeah, there are a whole bunch of ways even if it's just sharing social media posts, helping us get more. Audience for the cute cats that are adoptable for, whatever message we're trying to spread. You never know who you know. They might know someone that, wants to support or wants to come to cuddle hour or do a volunteer shift or something like that. So it that all that'll, and,, all the social media games about engagement makes it easier for us to reach people.

Julie Marty-Pearson 30:05

The more something is shared, the more likely more people see it and Right. It's a domino effect. And I've seen, there's some amazing. Volunteers at one of my local shelters, and really all they do is go in, get to know the animals, take videos, and post it, and then I do my best go in there and just reposting and reposting because we've seen dog people come from Southern California out of. State to adopt a dog because it was a certain breed they're looking for. They just fell in love over social media. You never know what could happen. And luckily we do have the power of social media now versus even five or 10 years ago. It's a big powerful tool.

Tammy Kaehler 30:43

Yes. Absolutely. I mean, it's, a blessing and a curse because you're, you live and die by it, but yeah. Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 30:50

One more thing to do for a rescue is to post and all of that.

Tammy Kaehler 30:53

Yeah. Well and you know that you were saying,, people come in, take videos, take photos. Please, if you have any skills and you're interested in that, we always need that. We've got volunteers doing their shifts and playing with the cats and checking them for,, medical issues and. Scooping the litter and cleaning the whatever, filling the food bowls. And we're also asking them to try and get some videos or try and get some photos of these cats. And, so we're always struggling for good representations. Video or photo of different cats and Right. there's so many needs that people don't think about.

Julie Marty-Pearson 31:23

Yeah. And all of those little things add up. I've seen professional photographers volunteer for rescues and shelter.

Tammy Kaehler 31:29

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 31:30

Because, in the shelters they just take a photo when it comes in and then they do this and they're, and so especially with kittens, they grow so fast. Yeah. You may be looking at an intake photo from four weeks ago and it doesn't even look like the same kitten. And all of that helps people. Want to adopt and all of that. So any way someone can help, even if you think it's little, every little bit helps. Especially small rescues like yours that are all volunteer run.

Tammy Kaehler 31:54

A hundred percent. Yeah. Because we're, we don't have actual staff. Again, everything is sort of a cycle. Sometimes we're more on top of it and engaged and sometimes we're scrambling going, oh no, we haven't ever posted this cat and we need to get something up and we gotta do it now. And, every tiny piece helps. We have a fun time with each other at events and, at the adoption center and even just on our internal messaging,, talking about things. So it's, yeah, it's a fun group. Yeah, and I'm sure it's the same for all rescues and organizations. You get people with a shared goal there and it's. Nice.

Julie Marty-Pearson 32:28

And also, in California, especially us in the more southern areas, you know? Yes, there is a quote kitten season where it does seem to get busier, but really, yeah, kitten season is all year long because it's, it doesn't get super cold and we, it, we don't have snow in a lot of areas, so kittens are constantly mating and creating more. So small cat rescues really need support because it is an all year round. Process that it's constantly coming. New kittens and cats are coming in.

Tammy Kaehler 32:59

It's true. And the thing I didn't mention is adoption. Please, if you wanna adopt a cat or kitten, come to us. Kitten season doesn't really stop. Adoptions have high and low seasons, and we are in the low season now, which is tough. We've got all these sweet cats, so if you know anyone who's looking for a cat and orange County. Yeah. San Diego County. Riverside County, yeah. Send 'em our way.

Julie Marty-Pearson 33:21

Yes. What I've been seeing with the economy and everything, getting more expensive, adoptions are going down for that as well. Mm-hmm. And, support a rescue by paying an adoption fee. Not only are you getting an amazing cat or kitten that has probably been socialized in some way, you're getting an animal that has been taken care of, their health has been taken care of, so you aren't coming in blind with, not knowing.

Tammy Kaehler 33:44

Well, even just the cost of spay and neuter today to go to, your local vet our adoption fee. I'm pretty confident. Is less than a lot of spay and neuter fees. Mm-hmm. At local veterinarians, no offense to them, it's just everything's expensive. Working as a rescue, we can get it done a little more cost effectively. But yeah, when you adopt from us, you're getting spayed and neutered, vaccinated, socialized, vetted, like they're good to go. You shouldn't have, any of those big costs. Oh, I'm gonna, buy one from a breeder. I have to do all the work. Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 34:20

Absolutely. And a lot of times rescues have covered those costs and so you don't have to take 'em to the vet for a year to get their next vaccine. Mm-hmm. And yeah, I've seen. Spay and neuter is like a couple hundred dollars at a vet. And it's not that the vets are gouging you, it's just that's what it costs because of the medicine and the time they're taking care of the animal. Where you can get a really discounted rate, especially if it's a spay and neuter clinic. Sometimes they're free, sometimes they're,, 20 or 30 or $50. And so if you're listening to this, even if you're not in one of the areas we're talking about, check out your community because most communities, whether it's a nonprofit or. A city or county shelter has some type of program that with reduced costs for vaccines and spay and neuter.

Tammy Kaehler 35:02

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 35:03

Because no matter what we want, the animals spayed and neutered, they live longer, they're healthier, and you don't have to worry about unwanted litters.

Tammy Kaehler 35:10

Please, everyone, if there's one thing you take away from this, please spay and neuter your.

Julie Marty-Pearson 35:15

Yes. And I, it's one of the things that, doing this podcast, I've realized it's really a lack of understanding and education. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah. And I've learned so much about, you know, when you spare neuter a pet, dogs and cats, you're reducing the risks of several cancers. Yeah. Spay and neutered. Pets live longer. Absolutely. And you're also, the younger you do it, the easier it is for them to heal. And, I've seen kittens be like, what? I had a surgery today. I'm fine. I'm chasing things around.

Tammy Kaehler 35:43

Yeah.

Julie Marty-Pearson 35:45

Well, Tammy, thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit of your. Experience and how you came to be a proud cat mom.

Tammy Kaehler 35:54

Yes.

Julie Marty-Pearson 35:54

And working with the rescue. Love your feral feline. Sounds like you guys are doing a lot of amazing work for the cats and kittens in your community. I will put all the links in the show notes. Please follow, share and support in any way that you can.

Tammy Kaehler 36:10

Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Julie Marty-Pearson 36:16

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Story of My Pet Podcast. I appreciate you listening and supporting the podcast. And if you haven't already, wherever you are listening to this episode, make sure you hit follow or subscribe and leave us a rating or review. All of that helps the podcast grow and get to even more listeners and help us. Educate and advocate for animals in need around the world. If you haven't done so already, make sure to check out our YouTube channel story of my pet podcast. Again, hit the subscribe button, give us some likes and comments on our videos, and that will help the podcast grow on YouTube. Thank you so much for being here and much love to you and your pets.