Tails and Tassels

How Sterling “TrapKing” Davis Blends Hip-Hop Culture with Community Cat Rescue

• Gemma Smith • Season 2 • Episode 4

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In this week’s episode, Gemma sits down with Sterling “TrapKing” Davis – a  rapper turned community cat advocate and founder of TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions. Sterling shares how he went from life on the road to trapping, neutering, and returning cats around the world, and why he believes you don’t lose cool points for compassion. He breaks down what TNR really is and how his #SameTeam and One United Paw philosophy is changing the way rescuers work together.

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[00:04.846] Gemma Smith:
Hello, hello, kitty cats, and welcome back to another episode of Tails & Tassels, the show where you learn about the lives of burlesque and nightlife performers, their craft, their cats, and the way the two worlds collide.

Today's interview is with someone I've been excited to have on the show for a long time, Sterling “TrapKing” Davis. If you're a creative cat lover, you already know why he's the perfect guest.

We talk about his journey from touring as a musician to becoming one of the most influential voices in community-cat work. We talk about how he discovered Trap-Neuter-Return and why more men and people of color are needed in the rescue world.

Sterling shares the story behind his advocacy, his music—yes, he does rap about cats—his #SameTeam message, and the creative ways he's educating and lifting up cat lovers everywhere. You'll also hear about his own cats, some truly impressive TNR missions, the importance of collaboration in rescue, and a little tease about new projects he has coming up.

But before we dive into today's episode, just a quick Catbaret update.

I want to give a huge meow to everyone who came out to our Meowloween show at Caveat on October 31. It was a packed house, over 100 cat lovers, and truly such a fun night.

A big thank you to our sponsor, Weruva, for helping make the show possible and for donating $500 worth of cat food to Rescue NYC, the incredible nonprofit we highlight at every show. We featured their adoptable cats during intermission because part of Catbaret’s mission is to always help our feline friends find safe and loving homes.

And my goodness, kitty cats, it was truly the biggest show yet. When I started producing Catbaret in 2018, it was a small crowd—maybe 10 to 15 folks for the first several shows. And wow, it's grown into this com-mew-nity, I love to say. And my heart is so touched and I'm so excited. I feel like we've just entered a new chapter for Catbaret.

[02:30.210] Gemma Smith:
So that said, I'm really excited to share we'll have three Catbaret shows in 2026, plus a bonus community-building event.

First up is A Cat Lady Purr-Tea on Thursday, March 5. Last year it was a paw-ty, this year it's a purr-tea. I'm playing with some fun audience engagement ideas, like having everyone write down what being a “cat lady” means to them and reading them throughout the show.

And even though the theme is around being a cat lady and reclaiming that in a positive way, this show is for everyone. Maybe we can think about being a cat lady as a state of mind and not a gender.

I also submitted this show to an exciting festival coming up that would be that same week—fingers crossed. Either way, we're celebrating female-identifying performers and non-binary performers and their love for cats.

And I'd also love to encourage attendees to wear their best cat-lady looks. My stage kittens and I may be on the prowl in the audience looking for our favorite styles, with prizes.

And then in June, we're gonna have a group at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. We're gonna march as “permaids.” That is a goal of mine. I gotta look into it, but I'm really excited to share more when the time comes, just to all be together and celebrate Coney Island and cat-themed mermaids. Come on—it sounds perfect.

We'll also be back next year with Meowloween on Halloween and Meowie Christmas and Happy Hanukkats in December.

So if you're a performer and you want to be part of Catbaret, please email catbaretshow@gmail.com. It's a variety show, so I'm looking for all kinds of acts, not just burlesque. We typically only have two burlesque numbers per show, so slots are limited, and the March show is pretty much booked.

But I always love welcoming new folks, and I read every email and respond to every email I get.

[04:51.180] Gemma Smith:
And one exciting update as Catbaret continues to grow: starting in 2026, all raffle proceeds will be donated to local rescue.

Producing the show does come with costs. I pay all the performers, rent the space, print flyers, hire our wonderful illustrator. But with sponsorships coming in, we can give back even more to rescue organizations, which is really important to me.

Main Interview

[00:00.310] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
I need to refill more.

[00:06.248] Gemma Smith:
All right, let's get into today's interview. Sterling “TrapKing” Davis, thank you so much for being here. You are truly the purr-fect guest for a podcast about creative cat lovers.

[00:19.320] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Thank you, thank you for having me. I like the cat puns. Purr-fect, I like that. I'm for it, I'm for it.

[00:23.535] Gemma Smith:
Good, because there might be—there's a lot of them.

And I was so excited when I learned more about you. I wanted to have you on the show because you embody what Tails & Tassels is all about. You use creativity and compassion to make the world better for cats and for the humans who love them.

And so to get us started, you know, I was lucky enough to meet you at CatCon in August in person, and I got to see you talk and learn a bit about your journey. But for our listeners, I would love for you to share how you started your career in music and entertainment and how you ended up in cat rescue—specifically community-cat work and Trap-Neuter-Return. So how did that happen?

[01:11.662] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
That's crazy, right? Every time I talk to people about it, it's always like, “How did you go from that to that?”

But I always—I did always like cats and I've always loved animals. I will say that first. But I didn't know anything about rescue, cat rescue, none of that stuff.

I've been in the music my whole life. So it was in between music tours that I heard about just a rescue needing help with the cats. And at that time I had a cat—I had a cat named Rick James of my own. So I was like, you know, in between music tours, this would be something easy to do. I'll just go up there and do that for a minute.

And that's when I learned about TNR, rescue, like all of that stuff. And they really wanted me to stay. But I was like, at first, I'm like, nah, I'm not doing that. There's no money in cat rescue—at least not what I'm making on a music tour.

But, you know, in the little time I was there, I really saw how big of a deal it was for a man to be even in cat rescue. So it was a lot of things that I saw being a person of color. Like, Black people—it's not a lot of Black people in cat rescue dealing with TNR.

So when I saw that it was something that was big and needed, like, I was like, “Man, I think I can do this. This might be the reason why I did music. I'm comfortable on stage, so I could better deliver this type of message.”

So it was like an epiphany-type moment. It was wild.

[02:50.123] Gemma Smith:
I love that. How long ago did that shift happen, or that epiphany?

[02:54.962] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
That was probably like 2011. That was probably like 2011 where I was like, “I'm not going back on this music tour. I'm about to get into this whole rescue world.”

[03:01.709] Gemma Smith:
Yeah, so you've been out here trapping cats for a while.

[03:09.878] Gemma Smith:
Nice.

[03:19.307] Gemma Smith:
It's interesting because it seems there's a correlation. A lot of artists that I know love cats. A lot of folks I know work in animal welfare as a day job, and they're also artists.

I'm wondering if that kind of compassion and putting yourself, maybe as a storyteller, in other people's shoes also lends itself to helping animals.

[03:38.425] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, it's weird because even when I worked at the rescue I started at in Atlanta, I remember we were sitting around and we talked about that. It's like everybody at the table that was in our little rescue group—like, nobody had children, everybody had cats, and everybody was into music.

And it's like, is that... that's like a strange coincidence. Like, how did that happen?

[04:05.374] Gemma Smith:
Yes, totally. I'm here for the child-free cat people as well. Our fur babies are our babies.

And for folks who don't know—who I hope a lot of folks are familiar with Trap-Neuter-Return—but if you could share with our listeners what you want folks to know about community cats and TNR and why this work is important, I think that would be really great to enlighten our listeners.

[04:32.886] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, so what TNR is, is Trap-Neuter-Return. So it's the humane alternative to death and euthanasia for stray and feral cat populations.

For the most part, for years before TNR was even thought of, cats were overpopulating and spreading disease at alarming rates. So they would euthanize—for a long time they were euthanized—and that was thought of as the only way, the only option.

TNR is: you know, we catch them in humane traps, take them to low-cost spay and neuter clinics where they're spayed, neutered, vaccinated, and then we return them back to the colony—back to where they came from.

But this way they don't overpopulate or spread disease. They still deal with the things you do want around—some people don't want mice and things like that around, and cats will help keep that away.

So they can stay in their colony, live their life, and not be in the way or hurt anybody—instead of euthanasia. So that's basically what TNR is.

And again, it's important because there was a time where euthanasia was thought of as the only way. And even now still, this is happening in some areas where they don't know TNR or they don't practice TNR, and it's still looked at as euthanasia being the answer. It's definitely not a humane solution.

[05:55.966] Gemma Smith:
You're definitely saving lives.

I was emailing with you a while back to get this conversation started, and you had told me—and I can't remember the number—but you were like, “I'm out today and I trapped like 80 cats.” I don't know, is that a normal number? It sounded very, very high to me.

[06:13.572] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, like, it's because I'll go... I usually deal with a lot of big TNR missions. Like, I went to Greece and did TNR. So we did—I remember it was like 200 cats in two days. Like, crazy numbers.

But usually it's like that. I'm usually going to events or situations where it's, like, an event around trying to trap a certain colony—like they're gonna go tear this certain building down or this structure down or something, and there's a lot of cats in there and we need to try to get them out.

I do a lot of stuff like that. Trailer parks too.

[06:51.823] Gemma Smith:
Yeah, that makes sense—that there are big communities of cats and it's a big project. And you really, I mean, 100 percent saving lives.

And I wanted to also ask you a little bit more: you advocate, you teach and educate folks so that they are prepared to make a difference in their communities as well. Is that right?

[07:13.846] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like, one of the things that I tried to really do with people when I started—because, like I said, at first I worked at the rescue, the shelter. I worked there for about five years as the TNR coordinator.

And eventually I started my— I started TrapKing Humane Cat Solutions, my own nonprofit. And when I started, I felt like I just dove in heart first, you know.

But there were some things that I probably should have done and gone about before I jumped out there and did it. So I try to educate people that want to get started.

For example, one thing that a lot of people will do: they'll start a nonprofit, a rescue. They want to help, they see an issue and they want to help it, and the first thing that they do is they just jump out there, start a nonprofit, and start doing it.

But if you're gonna start a TNR nonprofit, you should probably look and see who around is already doing TNR. Because maybe fostering is needed. Maybe adoption is needed. Transportation. So your nonprofit could work with that other nonprofit.

It's a lot of situations where I go to states and different cities and there's four TNR groups within, like, a 20-mile radius, and they're all doing the exact same thing—not working together.

It's, you know, it's hurting the mission a little bit. They're not being as productive as they could be. So stuff like that, I try to help educate and talk about and just let people know, like, “Hey, ask around. Learn a little more. Maybe join another board before you just start your own board.”

Because I've made every mistake you could make with starting a nonprofit.

[09:04.682] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis (cont.):
It's definitely good to slow down, because most people do just dive in heart first, like, “I'm about to save all the animals,” and it's like—make sure you're being effective though. Make sure you're really helping.

[09:17.578] Gemma Smith:
That's really wise. And I like that you said “dive in heart first.” I've actually never heard that, and I really like that. Really like that phrase—that resonates with me.

And that makes sense. For our listeners wanting to get involved, like, yeah—if there's a lot of TNR, maybe you could foster or work with that team that's already getting the work done.

And kind of diving into now your creative process and your music and how it relates, I'd love to learn a little bit about your creative process.

Now, I imagine before you got into cat rescue, you rapped about all different things, like musicians do. But now you also rap about trapping cats. And I got to see you perform at CatCon—I loved it.

So how do you approach writing something that's both fulfilling creatively and catchy, but also can spread that message?

[10:11.934] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
You know, at first I didn't want to do it. At first, I felt like maybe rapping about cats was a mockery of my music that I made before. So I was like, at first, I didn't want to do it.

And then a friend of mine, Moshow—I don't know if people know IAmMoshow—he's a very good friend of mine. We're actually really close. He raps about... he's a cat rapper. He's the cat rapper.

So I was like, “I'm not gonna... I don't want to do that. I don't want to—that's Mo's thing.”

But I saw that it helps. It helps. Music is—you know, you listen to a song a few times and you pick it up, and before you know it, it's educating, it's teaching you something because you like the chorus of it.

So it helped me out relaying a message to kids, to different demographics, and just looking at it in a different way—a fun, entertaining way.

It's definitely different, but I like how challenging it is. And because “trap king” is something that we use in the hip-hop culture so much, it's a fun play on words that I can do with that a lot of times.

[11:28.168] Gemma Smith:
It's purr-fect again. Paws-itively delightful.

And I really have been wanting to bring up your #SameTeam message. I was like, “Should I bring it up earlier?” Because you were kind of circling around that, because it applies to artists and music and creativity. That really resonates with me big time.

So tell our listeners a little bit about the #SameTeam idea and how you feel like that resonates in animal rescue as well as creative spaces.

[11:56.671] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, Same Team is just kind of like—we're, especially when we're all doing the same thing. It's enough room, and everybody wants respect amongst their peers.

So I think the Same Team thing is: hey, we all on the same team. It's enough for everybody. Together we're stronger. Divided is tough, it's bad, it just makes it more difficult.

Especially within cat rescue, because just like what I was saying earlier, you'll have so many of the same nonprofits doing the same—the same groups doing the same thing in the same area, and then they're arguing and they're fighting. And it's like, “Hey—Same Team, y'all. We the same team. We're working together. We don't have to fight.”

And that's as far as artists as well, too. Like, there's really no need. I was never one to really like the battling with other artists as much as I was wanting to try to create something with everybody.

[12:58.118] Gemma Smith:
I'm here for that. I agree. I love collaborating with folks. When I find out there's other cat-themed burlesque performers, I'm like, “Come be in my show.”

And I know you know Luna Lovely from Show Me Your Kitties Cabaret—I just interviewed her, her podcast episode is dropping tomorrow. And she does a similar thing that I do—a cat-themed variety show. We have slight differences; you know, I'm East Coast, she's West Coast.

But whenever I find someone like that on Instagram, I'm like, “We gotta collaborate, we gotta lift each other up, we gotta amplify each other. We're all cat-loving creatives.”

And more good, I feel like, comes to you when you're helping others and celebrating others doing the same thing, same message. I feel like that energy—and we can work together and just better things will come.

So I really loved hearing you talk about that.

[13:45.250] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah. That's definitely my thing. I've tried to collab—I've worked with and collaborated probably with every cat person you see on social media.

If they on social media messing with cats or rescuing cats, at some point I've probably worked with them and rescued cats with them.

[14:04.422] Gemma Smith:
Yes, I've seen your social media. You're with a bunch of different people presenting or going to different conventions or working together.

I think I saw you with Mission Meow recently. Love it.

[14:15.116] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, I work with Mission Meow a lot. Shout out to Sally.

[14:20.505] Gemma Smith:
Nice!

And I also wanted to ask you—tell our listeners about your performance at Show Me Your Kitties, because now they've already listened to Luna's episode, and if they're on the West Coast they know a little bit about her show for the Little Lion Foundation in Long Beach.

What did you perform? What song did you rap?

[14:43.188] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
So I have a song—and I gotta walk into it because it's kind of fun. I want to make sure it's understood.

Again, it hasn't historically been a lot of men in cat rescue. It's usually like—all who trained me, it's all women. Older women trained me, literally. And that was it. There weren't any men.

I had to ask them, like, “Where's all the men and the Black people at?” And they're like, “It's just you.” I'm like, “Man, that's crazy.”

So I wanted to do things to get men and people of color more engaged in cat rescue. And I see that it's always a masculine thing—like, it's always this hyper-masculine thing that guys can't be with cats or guys can't do this stuff.

So I wanted to make fun of that.

So the song that I performed is called “Me and Yo Mama Be Trappin’.” When I say trappin’, of course I'm talking about trapping cats.

But the whole point of it is hilarious, it's funny, because it's kind of a jab at guys that are like—they're too tough to go out with their mom or help with cats or even have a cat as a pet.

It's like, “Okay, well, you know, I'm gonna come pick your mama up. We're gonna go out and trap some cats. We're gonna be out all night, don't wait up. And I'll bring her back, you know, sometime late, depending on when surgery is—we'll see.”

I wanted it to sound funny, like, “What you mean you're gonna be out with my mama all night?”

So it was pretty hilarious.

[16:27.174] Gemma Smith:
Hilarious. I'm sure the audience loved it.

Yeah, I saw you perform this at CatCon and it was a packed house. The audience loved it.

It's nice to shift the narrative—like, dudes love cats too, and they're some of the best men I've ever met. You know, like, it's an animal—why does it have to be gendered?

[16:43.170] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. How do you gender...?

But I've always gone through that. I've always been considered an eccentric guy—with painting my nails. My hair—I would wear my hair long. My hair was long most of my life.

It's funny that I'm bald now, because most of my life my hair was like down my back. And I would always be a little bit “weird,” as people would say. So I'm used to it. Of course I'm gonna love cats.

[17:16.613] Gemma Smith:
That's the best. Weird is the best way to be. I mean, you're an artist. You're expressing yourself—self-expression.

[17:24.164] Gemma Smith:
Now, how do you see yourself—as an advocate first or an artist first? Or are they blended now, those roles?

[17:33.759] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
I guess blended, because I don't think—you can't, you can never stop being an artist if you are an artist.

I think that the creativity thing is just always... even not being in music or working in that industry like that, I still feel the need that I want to reinvent myself as an artist, or something like that. I still feel that sometimes.

So I think it's blended, because I'm definitely going to rescue cats for the rest of my life. That's not changing. I'm gonna do more—I have a lot more that I want to do.

And it definitely has to be combined, because some of the stuff that I'm working on now with cats and music together is going to be pretty hilarious. It's some different stuff.

But even outside of that, I want to start helping with getting some laws changed too, as far as TNR, rescuing, and some of the stuff that I see as far as rescues getting more help—people that's trying to help getting more help to them.

So I'm always gonna be involved in both. I would have to say I'm both a popular rescuer and an artist. I don't know.

[18:50.497] Gemma Smith:
Love it. These days, there's multi-passionate people. We're multi-passionate, multi-hyphenate creatives—and creative and passionate about cats.

[19:12.556] Gemma Smith:
Yes. And is there anything that you want to tease or share with our audience that you can share? Because I know folks may have projects in the works, but if there's anything specific that you'd really like our listeners to know that you're working on, please let us know.

[19:27.354] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Man, I'm working on—I always have a ton of stuff going on. I'm headed out to a cat event right now.

I know I'm preparing again. Me and a buddy of mine, Nathan the Cat Lady—earlier this year we went out to Spain to rescue dogs. That was... yeah, usually it's cats.

We actually rescued 32 galgo dogs and brought them back to America, where they were all adopted. And of course, with us being there, we had to rescue some cats too. So we did bring three cats as well with 32 dogs.

[20:10.712] Gemma Smith:
How did you bring them all back?

[20:25.198] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
We flew—they were in crates, and we flew them back. Yeah, we flew them all back.

The process was—a lot, because the dogs aren't small. Galgos aren't—they're not small dogs. I mean, they're thin in nature, you know, in stature, but as far as their height, these crates were pretty big.

So yeah, it was a wild process. But the dogs—it was dogs that had been getting tortured. They race them, they hang them, they use them for hunting. It's a lot of weird laws out there.

And so we went out there to do that. We'll be doing that—we're planning it now to do that again next year, sometime in April. So I'm looking forward to that too. I'm looking forward to going back out there to Spain.

I like going to different countries and people don't know about the rescue mission as much. They don't know what's going on. So to be able to educate people—so I'm excited about that.

I got that coming up. I got... can't, don't wanna—I'll say this: there's definitely new music. I do have more music coming up. Real creative stuff. Real, real creative stuff. But I don't want to... I can't say—I think I'll ruin it if I say the person I'm working with. So I'm just going to say new music.

[21:38.979] Gemma Smith:
Yeah, just tease it. We'll just have to—everyone's gonna follow you on Instagram.

And we have a couple more questions for you, but go ahead and plug that Instagram. It'll be in the show notes too.

[21:50.433] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah, so on Instagram it's the_original_trapking, but it's the underscore original underscore trap king.

Yes, I made it difficult. I don't know why I did that. I'm not—I tell people all the time, I'm not a social media influencer. I'm a popular cat rescuer, because I am not good at social media at all.

But please follow me because I do have a lot of dope stuff on there. And if you love cats—my God, I got enough of them.

But the_original_trapking on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok... yeah, I think that's about it.

[22:32.353] Gemma Smith:
And you're right, you do have a lot of cats on there—not just the cats you're helping, but you have your own beautiful cats.

So can you share with our listeners your cats' names and maybe just a little bit about their personalities?

[22:43.726] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
So my oldest, who is... she is actually walking—she's probably about to walk over here to scream.

My oldest is Demita Jo, and she is... she's very attached. I bottle-fed her.

When I rescued her, I was actually trying to catch—I was trying to trap her mom, trap and fix her mom. Her mother was unfortunately hit by a car, but Demita and her brother and her sisters were in bushes, like right near where her mom got hit. And they were babies.

So I ended up bottle-feeding Demita and adopting her other siblings out. So she is super attached. She's the diva. Everything in the house has to go through her—Demita Jo runs the show.

My baby Alanis Meowsette, who is over here knocked out—

[23:38.614] Gemma Smith:
I love a cat-pun name. All the cat puns. Yeah.

[23:45.985] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
So yeah, Alanis Meowsette, she's my middle one. She's the sweetest one. She's my baby—the nicest cat ever that I've ever had. She's a big softie.

And then Nipsey Cuddle over here, my boy, my youngest, who I wasn't supposed to adopt. He just walked out of the trap and walked right around my leg and curled around me, and I knew it was over.

He is a wild one. Nipsey is the boy, the little brother—he terrorizes the both of them. Although Demita will kick his butt. But he's like the annoying little brother that always wants to play.

[24:28.019] Gemma Smith:
It sounds like a good dynamic. Sounds like a real, yeah, sibling dynamic.

[24:33.306] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah.

And I'm about to get adopted soon by one of the outdoor cats that I take care of.

So it's a colony outside of my house. I built a little cat door for them to go underneath my mobile home, and I fixed them all—I TNR’d all of them.

But one of the cats that I named Method Man, he runs in the house every day when I go feed. And now he's starting to just come in randomly. If I walk to the store and I come in, he'll just walk in the house with me.

He was just in here earlier today getting treats with the rest of the cats. My indoor cats are getting along with him. So it's literally a matter of time before my little orange god Method Man is in here with me as well.

[25:23.701] Gemma Smith:
I like how you said you're about to get adopted by him.

[25:26.702] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
I'm definitely—oh yeah, he's doing this. Because he just ran in the house.

The first time I opened the door to feed, he just ran in like, “What's up, man? What we got in here?” And I'm like, wow.

The orange cats—oh yeah. They always say that in cat circles: the orange boys, the orange tabbies are always the ones. Yep. So you know.

[25:39.369] Gemma Smith:
He chose you.

[25:45.887] Gemma Smith:
I have one. I have one—my Lion-o, and he's 12 and he's my everything. He's a big orange boy and he's very smart.

And he's had two urinary blockages, though—two urinary blockages—and he's on Prozac. So we just gotta keep him peeing, you know, every day. But I love him. I love orange boys.

[25:53.058] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah. Oof, oof. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Aww. Yeah. They are the ones. They are always the ones.

[26:11.025] Gemma Smith:
Yes. I don't like when people say things like—people say, “Oh, orange cats aren't smart.” And I'm like, no. Intelligence isn't based on their fur. That makes me so upset.

Yeah. My Lion-o is smart.

[26:19.094] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
No!

[26:31.351] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Right—that's crazy. They're the fun ones. What are you talking about?

[26:39.252] Gemma Smith:
Yes, they are the fun ones.

Well, for our listeners who are creative-cat people, we always ask our guests to share a piece of advice or a favorite tip for fellow cat creatives.

Could just be cat parents—whatever comes to mind. But do you have any advice or thoughts you'd like to share?

[26:55.214] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Interact.

You know, I would say “interact outside of interacting with your cats,” but we’re all cat lovers—we do that.

But I will say this: clicker training and whistle training are great. Like, clicker training and whistle training both are—when I feed my cats, I feed them, they know when I blow the whistle, they all come to eat.

So my cats are usually behind my couch area, and they'll wait till I make the food and I blow the whistle. I started them young doing that, and it's so helpful.

For one, it's fun because you can teach them to do different tricks, but it's also helpful with going to the vet or in case of an emergency. Because your cats will just naturally hide, or they'll see the carrier and be like, “Forget that.”

If—like my cats—if I blow a whistle right now, they, whatever they're doing, they're gonna come to me. So that makes it so I can put them in a carrier, or if it's an emergency, it's good to know.

And that “aha” moment that your cats get when you work with them and train them—it's easy to start moving into other tricks. So I would say that.

I just literally thought of that. I was thinking about saying something else, but I was just thinking about, man, that's so helpful. Like, that has really helped me out.

[28:18.856] Gemma Smith:
It's helpful for me to hear because I have heard about clicker training and how good it is, and I haven't tried it.

I didn't know, though, also you could use a whistle. It's like the same concept with the timing.

[28:28.915] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah. Yeah, because it's just knowing...

[28:35.121] Gemma Smith:
No, you go ahead.

[28:37.388] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Well, no, I was just saying that it's just a matter of treating for the reward. You reward, and then they come, and you just get them in the habit of that. And that just helps. It just makes it super easy.

[28:50.801] Gemma Smith:
And do you think even if you start cats older, they could still have the ability to learn it?

[28:56.590] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Heck yeah. My cat—as a matter of fact, I didn't start it with my cat Rick James.

Rick James was like 12 years old when I first got Demita and I started it with her. And Rick understood in a week's time—like, every time the whistle would go off, she's eating.

So he instantly picked up on it, and he was like 12, and I had never done any tricks with him.

I've done a... Demita, she does a lot of tricks. She also sits on her mark. She sits pretty on her mark. She's got a bell that she rings. She does a lot—she’s got a lot going on.

[29:39.207] Gemma Smith:
Okay, that's awesome. I feel like my two have me clicker trained—like, when they scratch at something, that means they want food and then I feed them.

So I know, I work in animal welfare also by day, but I know I can be better. We're gonna try to reverse it. I'm gonna try to train them.

[29:53.295] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Well, that's cats though. They kind of do train us more than... I mean, that's a cat.

[30:03.775] Gemma Smith:
Yeah, and that's why we love them. I mean, they've got their personalities.

Well, it has been so awesome chatting with you. I'm so grateful to have you on the podcast, because you do so much to truly help so many cats—and you're an artist.

Is there anything else about your art or your work that you'd like to share with us?

[30:26.254] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
I've been, like I said—Same Team, One United Paw. I've been working on a thing called One Up: One United Paw.

And this is pretty much pushing the Same Team narrative of people working together—just being stronger working together.

In my world, in the rescue world, the breeding community and the rescue community have fought forever. It's like an ongoing fight, and it's crazy.

So I've been using that One Up initiative to at least try to come to positive solutions instead of just an ongoing fight, you know—so we can work together and try to find ways to help what we love, who we love, which is cats.

[31:09.522] Gemma Smith:
That's so important. One United Paw, everybody.

And it's true. I mean, even here in New York, I hear rumblings or things—sometimes people are upset with other people in whatever world we're in. And it's good to remember, like, we're all here to help animals.

Let's just try to focus on conflict resolution, working together, hearing each other out, and moving forward and helping the cats.

So I loved when I heard you say that at CatCon.

[31:36.344] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yeah. Thank you, thank you.

Yeah, I've been trying to—the fighting, like I say, the fighting isn't going anywhere. Together, it's only gonna be more people to help the cats.

That's the reason why I dove in heart first like that, because I was like, “Wow, there's really no men and people of color really in this. I could probably make it cool and make a difference and get more engaged.”

[32:01.681] Gemma Smith:
Yeah, you're definitely a role model for folks—young people looking up to you and getting involved in cat rescue because they see someone like them, and that's really important.

Oh my gosh. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure—paws-itively delightful, as I like to say—chatting with you, learning more about your craft, your cats, your work in animal welfare and advocacy.

And I just want to thank you so much. And everybody, follow @the_original_trapking.

I'm going to have your website in the show notes so folks can click on that and your Instagram and just follow along. And we can't wait—I cannot wait—to see which artist you're going to work with and what this news is that we officially teased today.

[32:46.722] Sterling “TrapKing” Davis:
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

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