Regina Swarn Audio Series Presents
Life Topics, Real TalkLove and Relationships, Religion, Music, Movies, Reviews, and more.The content on my Podcast is G-rated (for all ages)😎I promise you won't be disappointed! My Disclaimer Is **I'm Not A Doctor**I'm Not A Lawyer**I'm Not A Nurse**I'm Not A PsychiatristTopics I Discuss are solely my opinion.
Regina Swarn Audio Series Presents
PART 2 ON LOCATION with JERRI CLAY HAYS* The Journey of Rescue Cats
What makes a perfect home for your feline companion? In this knowledge-packed episode, Regina Swarn sits down with Jerri Clay Hays of Rescue Cats Incorporated for the second installment of their enlightening conversation about cat care and adoption.
Jerri draws on her 26 years of rescue experience to share practical wisdom about creating clean, cat-friendly environments. She explains why daily litter box maintenance matters, how the right water bowl can dramatically improve your cat's hydration, and why cats need a "safe room" when first arriving at a new home. For anyone preparing to welcome a cat, these insights are pure gold.
The conversation shifts to adoption ethics as Jerry breaks down the true value behind that $125 adoption fee. While "free kittens" might seem economical, she reveals how adopting from a rescue organization provides comprehensive veterinary care worth over $300—including spaying/neutering, vaccinations, microchipping, and disease testing. This investment not only ensures a healthier pet but supports the continued rescue of other animals in need.
Jerri tackles several specialized topics with compassion and clarity: the TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) programs that humanely manage feral cat populations, vacation planning for pet owners, and perhaps most poignantly, how to recognize when it's time to say goodbye to an aging or ill pet. Her guidance on quality-of-life assessment provides a compassionate framework for the most difficult decision pet owners face.
Ready to expand your feline knowledge or considering adding a cat to your family? Visit rescuecats.org to learn more or meet adoptable cats at the Mount Zion PetSmart in Morrow, Georgia on Saturdays. Mention this podcast during your visit for a special adoption discount!
RESCUE CATS INC
EMAIL - rescuecats@hotmail.com
678- 817-9647
JERRI - 404- 304- 9210
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Season 8 my words
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Contact
swarnregina@gmail.com
Hello, welcome back to another episode of Regina Sworn Audio Series Presents. As promised, we're here with part two of my interview live on location with the wonderful and amazing Jerry Clay Hayes Rescue Cats Incorporated, located in Fayetteville, georgia. Now last month Jerry brought forth so much great share it with us, so much great information about those cats and about if you love animals honestly. You could take away from that interview alone and just you'd be surprised, you would be surprised. So I'm not going to prolong the time this morning because we got quite a few things that we need to cover and we will cover quite a few today and possibly do a part three because, again, when you got a wonderful person filled with so much knowledge, as I do with Jerry and people like Jerry, she's amazing y'all.
Speaker 1:But anyways, I'm going to go ahead and give you a place. You can contact me. Contact me at swornregina at gmailcom. We do have a thing called fan mail. Now, right up under the podcast you see where it said fan mail. You can ask any question. You need to ask questions about Jerry or whatever the topic is about. Yeah, feel free to ask questions or share your opinion about the podcast and just however you want to support. Go ahead and do it. But we're going to go ahead and get right into part two of my topic with the wonderful and amazing Jerry Clay Hayes from Rescue Cats Incorporated, again located in Fayetteville, georgia. Good morning Jerry.
Speaker 2:Good morning, good morning Regina. Good morning everyone. All of our listeners. Thank you for being with us today. We hope we have a great informative session based on some of the questions and comments that other people had had before when we did the podcast, so we're going to try to cover some of those today.
Speaker 1:All right Now. Since our last podcast, you wouldn't believe how many people have contacted me. I got to let Jerry see this. Some major how can I put it? I don't want to put the person on the spot, so I want to say that right now, but he's a major business owner. I'm sure you all know him Once they tell you who he is. He's going to be on the podcast later this summer, but he was listening, obviously, to the podcast from last month and I'm telling you a lot of people love those cats. They love their cats, they love their animals. So today, cherry, I think that I think I'm going to start off with the question I want to ask you is why is it so important to have a clean environment? What do you? Why is it so important to have a clean environment? What do you think that's so important to have a clean environment for you?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely Having the environment clean, because cats are naturally clean, they take their own baths and they are truly clean animals and before you bring a cat or kitten home you want to make sure your house is ready for that animal. You'd make sure that you have, of course, appropriate litter pan Some people call it a cat box, cat litter, potty box, whatever and have a place for the food and water and a bed. Not all cats will like a little bed. Most of the time they like that in the wintertime and just knowing that having your house prepared, ready and you have the clean environment for them, they like it much better. They're just naturally clean animals. So we can kind of go into a couple of those things more extensively.
Speaker 2:I know one is a litter pan, we call it a litter pan, right, but to have the scoopable litter opposed to clay, now, some people that's a preference. So it's whatever you like. It's a little easier for us to just scoop and go just every day. And that's most important when I said every day, the litter pan needs to be cleaned, because cats do not like to use a dirty litter pan. No for one, that's not good for tracking, you know, through your house. They step in and then they track that over on your hardwood floor carpet, whatever. So keeping that litter pan clean every day and that's a good chore for your young ones. The children can easily learn that task and that can be incorporated in their you know chores. I know my granddaughter. That's her chore. She's only seven but she takes care of cleaning the litter pans and I've noticed that a lot of people have just a say, like a butter dish or plastic for their water bowl. Go to the metal or the glass, and now I see more and more of those water fountains that are free flowing water, and they've got several out there. I don't endorse one or the other, of course that's not like an influencer here but I think the stainless steels are the way to go. If you're looking at the watering dish and then have your food that's another topic of discussion where free feeding is. What most of we recommend is having the you know the food out all the time and then giving them a little wet food once a day. That's up to you, but we found that having both is the best mix for their internal system. So having a little bit of wet food helps with the kidneys and all of your, you know your bowels and whatever, having making sure that you have both the dry food good for the teeth, you know, crunchy food, and some people mix theirs a little, right, and that's you know. That's fine, as there is a preference. Um, so that's the.
Speaker 2:The environment, your home environment is most important, having the having everything clean, ready to go before the kitty comes home. And one thing that we have found to be proven successful is start off with one room of the house. When you bring, you know, the new kitty, have a safe room, whether it's the bathroom or the bedroom or wherever Some people have, like a big laundry room, so they can start getting used to the new environment, the new smells, the new cat, you know you, and they feel safe in that one room for you know, for a little while. Then start doing the supervised visits and open that up and and having the kitty come out and visit, close off a few of those extra bedroom doors, right, um, so they won't get too overwhelmed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally understand that, because when I, you know, when I each time I bring a cat home for the first time, you know, you know, sometimes they intimidate it. But once I just leave them in that one area sometimes it'd be in my bedroom and they're very, very comfortable there and then, slowly but surely, they stick their head out the door and they want to come out, and then I say, okay, I guess I'll let you out for a minute and then, but they want to run back in too. But, like you said, the last interview we did with like the 333 that was something new to me when we talked about that that really kind of like that their safe room.
Speaker 2:I tell adopters when they come in it's like moving from an apartment to the White House, right, it's just overwhelming. So you have that safe room, the kitten, especially a kitten, that they have the room that they want to most feel comfortable in, right On environment.
Speaker 1:So I just wanted to throw that one out there first, because a lot of people, a lot of friends of mine, they would say, well, you're the cat I'm not going to come over there of mine. They would say, well, you're the cat I'm not going to come over there. And you just don't understand. This cat's got to have a clean environment from the start because they are clean. And so you walk in my place. You don't even know that there's a cat there, because it smells so clean in there and any of my family members or anybody could tell you that it smells so good, it looks so clean, because they're just clean cats. You're not bragging on them, but they're clean.
Speaker 2:You want to be able to walk in the house and not go, oh, you've got cats. Yeah, you, you know that keeping the litter pan clean. A lot of people have their preference on litter and actually cats really doesn't care if it's scented or unscented. That's really for us, that's for the humans, that's true. So they, they really just keep it clean, yeah, and then, you know, once a month take it out and just wash it out with a water hose, start all over. Uh, it's always good to have extra litter pan if you have two cats, is they? The rule of thumb is to have an additional litter pan. The rule of thumb is to have an additional litter pan, especially if you have a two-story house, three-story house. Have one on each level. With the kittens it's like a two-year-old. They wait to the last minute to go to the bathroom and they have to actually think, oh, where is my litter pan? So sometimes accidents will happen, but adding that additional litter litter pan, you will be happy that you did that.
Speaker 1:You know what, jerry, I was thinking about, um panther here. For a moment he would. I wondered why, for the longest? Why would he go and use one litter pan and the other one is, you know, on down the hall, then he'll get in that one.
Speaker 2:I was like he just got out of the litter pan, but now he did different things in different pans and a lot of cats will, um will, for the sake of being being, uh, correct here, uh, they will go with number one in one litter pan and go down the hall and go number two in the other because they they want it clean, they don't want to step in to what they had just went to the bathroom. So it's just always a good idea. And I tell people, especially if they get a siamese siamese are real difficult sometimes with the litter pan issues so have two litter pans if you get a siamese. That is just my opinion, um, over the years of 26, seven years of experience, that the siamese really like their, their little perspicuity on that, and they really like the two litter pan system for sure, wow.
Speaker 1:So so, as I said, the last, our last interview, we covered so many different topics. You know, I've had different people write to me, call me and said wow, who was that lady on there? She had so much knowledge I didn't know and I, sadly, I had to say I didn't know either. But, jerry, you know we went over some things that we're going to speak about today and, jerry, when I say she's ready, she's always ready and she knows what she's talking about. So that's why I go through her organization whenever I want to get another cat and because I know she knows what she's talking about and she's very professional and I love what she's doing out here. I really do love it.
Speaker 2:So, terry, what do you got to share with us today?
Speaker 2:Thank, you so much for all the accolades, as you're on the frequent flyer cat program we have several. Well, a lot of our adopters come back to rescue cats and that's where you know you've done a good job, where somebody adopted 18 years ago and then they give you a call and say, know, I'm so sorry I had to put my cat to sleep, but I'm thinking about another kitty and they come back to the agency and it's it's just. That's part of to me is customer service. You know you, it is a business in that respect, but we want to make sure we treat the adopters, you know, right and have you know for them to come back and follow up. And we give free nail trims on Saturday. I think we're the only agency that does that, where you can bring your kitty back up to PetSmart while we're here on Saturday and we do free nail trims for you and we get to communicate with you How's the kitty doing Any questions problems and answer that we're here for you. So we've been in business since 1999. And I think that's.
Speaker 2:We have a good follow-up, you know, with all the staff members and the team, the adoption team that will be able to answer questions. But that kind of brings me to the thought of why would you actually adopt from a rescue company or agency, opposed to getting that free kitten at Walmart? Yes, somebody is out there in the parking lot trying to give away free kittens and they'll say, oh, I'm not, I don't want to pay $125 for the kitten when I can go get a free one. I've heard that a lot. Yeah, I've heard that before. Absolutely. Or you know, people see it on Facebook or Instagram or Marketplace.
Speaker 2:Wherever Free kittens, free kittens. Yeah, well, here's the short of that. We do charge about $125. Sometimes some kitties are a little bit more depending on, you know, the medical or the hair length or the specialty breed. But what you're paying for is the services that we provide for that cat or kitten. We spay, neuter. Of course spay is for females, neuters for male, so we'll go ahead and do that surgery so you do not have to. That is most important to stop the overpopulation. So the combo test, where we combo test for FIV and feline leukemia and that has to be negative and we make sure that you know that. Now I will say this there are some agencies that no longer combo test, and that is something you might want to check into, because to me that's important that you already know that they do not have you know either one of those diseases.
Speaker 2:So important Absolutely that they do not have you know either one of those diseases. And there's so important Absolutely. Then we microchip them, we deworm, we get flea treatment, we check for ear mites and the exam is done by a licensed vet. That's a lot. We do the series of the booster shots, or you know, they're called the RCP or FVRCP and that's their vaccines. If they're over that five-month area, we go ahead and give the rabies vaccine. Wow, and all of that is done for $125. That's a lot.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's a lot. Think about it coming out of your pocket to do that.
Speaker 2:Now I checked with a local vet and asked them what would they charge for everything that we do? And if you went to a local vet, anywhere from $300 on up to do those same services so we can get it done cheaper because we have so many animals going through the veterinary office so we could do it almost at cost. So you definitely want to go through an agency, and the good thing about the agencies or adoption partner people they are not in competition. So if you go down to another PetSmart or you go to one up in North Atlanta and they're all rescued, we're all in the same trend where we want, you know, the cat to get a home.
Speaker 2:Whether you adopt from us or you adopt from another company down the street. It doesn't really matter, because you're giving a cat a home and you know that's most important, You're adopting. We don't sell cats. A lot of people ask that no, it's really adopting that you're, we're leaving our agency going to you. So, um, it's, it's not a competition. So definitely look into your rescue companies, your agencies most. Every pet smart has a pet partner that partners with PetSmart and they do adoptions most of the time on Saturday. Some companies will do adoptions during the week and we are fortunate to do adoptions in Fayetteville at our main facility as well as here at the Mount Zion PetSmart in Morrow, and that's true for most of your adoption partners. So, adopting from an agency, you do save money in the long run and you have their knowledge base and they know about the kitten. They can tell you about their personality with the adult cat or where it came from, and opposed to that free kitten from Facebook.
Speaker 1:So just be careful of that I can't help but think. It's been some years now, long before I met Jerry, and I remember one of the most popular malls not too far from here I'm not going to say but I wanted an extra cat. I was still living with my mom and dad at the time, so I wanted another cat to go along with my other cat, and so I went to this store. It was a store where you can buy the cats. I bought him but fell in love with the cat. My other cat fell in love with the cat too, but that cat didn't live very long because they didn't know his background. Yeah, so I wished at that point that I had actually went to an adoption place or a shelter or something, instead of buying it out of the store. Absolutely, absolutely. So I made a mistake.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's you know we all have. I mean, I don't think way back in the earlier years they had adoption agencies. In the earlier years they had adoption agencies and even I remember growing up we didn't alter our male cat. I mean, he was just always getting into fights, and that's a whole other topic right there, because of the testosterone that so builds up with the male cats. They're fighting for the attention, fighting over the female, and they're all the time getting into fights. So I guess that kind of stemmed my love for animals from back then. We just didn't know to get our animals, what we call fixed, altered. Yeah, fixed, that's definitely a southern term and I'm fixing to do this and get the cat fixed.
Speaker 1:Um, and sometimes you think you hate to say this, you think you're killing them, but you're just doing what's best for them you know, yeah, and that could be another podcast right there.
Speaker 2:Why fix your animal and just to touch on that, it's the overpopulation. There's so many cats and dogs out there that are not altered, that just keep breeding. I mean because animals it's not like a birth control thing, that's Mother's, that's mother nature. They're going to continue to breed and we find that, you know, they can have two or three litters in a year and in the warm environment. So, um, you multiply that and of course, there's no such thing as the word incest when it comes to animals. They don't know. So the mothers and the and the sons, and all of them can, uh, can, be together and then things start happening right by the by uh, as you.
Speaker 2:You know where I'm going with that right so and a lot of people don't know that they, they have no idea that the brother and sister could actually mate. And they do. They certainly do. They don't know, yeah, usually that um. Someone had asked the other day about what's the age of um. You know, sexual maturity and we've seen it as early as five months, and in cats and dogs, and sometimes it's later.
Speaker 2:You know, I had a person that had to bring in a kitty and they they said, oh, he's never been fixed, he's never been neutered and he's almost two years old. And after we started talking, the reason she wanted to give it up is because he was spraying all around the house. I said he's marking his territory, he smells an in-heat female. He can smell an in-heat female from two miles away and they will mark the territory. If you have an in-heat female in your house, you're going to have males all around your front porch trying to get to that female. So you definitely get those animals fixed. That's one of them.
Speaker 2:Another topic that has come up recently that I hear more and more talk about is TNR and if you look that up, that's where we have the cat colonies out there and there are a lot of agencies, a lot of independent people that will trap, neuter release, or some people call it trap, neuter return, and there's a lot of different views out there with your agencies about is this the right thing to do? But looking at individuals, alliances and agencies, they go out, they trap and they alter the cat and then release them back to that colony. Now they will feed the colony A lot of times. They'll go once a day. They'll check on them. I know one group has game cameras set up so they can watch to see who's coming into the feeders.
Speaker 2:And, something that is most important, that you will see, if the ear clip or ear tip where they get the cat spayed or neutered, release them to that colony and you can have a visual because the ear is just a little clip. So if you ever see that, don't think somebody cut it, you know, for any reason other than it is to show a visual, oh, that cat's already altered, meaning spayed or neutered, and we don't have to trap it again. So the whole point of the TNR program is stopping this overpopulation. Now some people go oh well, that's just a feral cat. Yeah, it is, but it's a life you know, it's given to us to take care of.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people dump their cats and they don't want them anymore, they throw them in a colony and then the colony kind of absorbs them and they turn a little bit wild. Now people say, oh, I've taken in a kitty before and it was feral and after a year I can now touch it, hold it. And yes, those can possibly happen. It did for one of my cats. He was hanging around my house for a year and a half. I'm like, well, you're going to be fixed. So I trapped him and neutered him and he's now inside, outside kitty. That's how he came to me.
Speaker 2:Great cat, very big hunter. I can't keep him inside but he lives on the porch. But we know he's fixed. He's no longer populating any other females, no more making babies. No, absolutely Absolutely. And we have several people that work really hard in the TNR program and they do a great job of making sure that that whole colony is taken care of and fed properly. So we commend all of those in that TNR world out there. So that's something I know a lot of people have asked about. You know, is that what? What about those cat colonies that somebody's feeding behind home depot and, um, if they've got the ear clip, we're good to go, they are good and you hear people did so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people talking to say so much crazy stuff oh gosh, yeah, um.
Speaker 2:And someone said, um, not too long, how long do they live? And I did a little research on that. Everybody has a different, because sometimes you get the cat and you really don't know how old they are. When you get the kitty and they say in about five years in the feral colony, give or take, but that's out in the wild feral colony, yeah, give or take, but that's out in the wild.
Speaker 2:Um, and the, the people that take care of it, they do try to medicate if there's a situation where, uh, they need to re-trap. It's hard to re-trap because cats are smart. They don't want to go back in that trap again. So, um, sometimes we have to do that as well. And a lot of these people, I say they pay for that out of their pocket and there's several low-cost spay and neuter companies that will work with them, take them in a trap and they do the low cost for the community quality. And I know Lifeline has been always a front runner in that population and jazzy paul down here in the lovejoy hampton area. They have done a phenomenal job of taking care of those feral colonies, as in the medical needs for them.
Speaker 1:So we command our tnr people out there yeah, you know, like not a lot of the big or some of the big organizations might say this mean, but when you look at it, that's really saving their life and keeping them from you know, making all these extra babies out here. That's right, that's right so you know. So I think it's a great thing I really do Well we definitely support our TNR people.
Speaker 2:support our TNR people.
Speaker 1:So they do a great job. So, terry, like I said last time, we talked about this water bowl, one of the things that came up a lot, a lot of the emails I got, people were saying, oh wow, they say you can get a big water bowl, something about the whisker, certain things that just came up in the last interview that I did with you. And another one that came up was by about the whisker, and my nephew is one of the people that was talking. He said he said I didn't know that about the whisker, uh, touching the water ball. He said he said that was just really interesting. It's like you think it's like she could come down to macon and and they could do a, a um, like a class or something. And I was like, yeah, and he's like we'll pay for whatever we need to.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, that's uh, that is important. I always encourage any adopter get the large water bowl. Um, and you know, because I think it was like 60 of the cats do not get enough water. I believe I read that when if it's a tiny little bowl they will lick a little, but their whiskers are so sensitive, they're sensory receptors and if they are touching the side of the bowl it's really irritating to them. So I have a big dog bowl. I have quite a few cats in the house and they have several water bowls, but they're really big stainless steel.
Speaker 2:I went to a friend's house I do some pet sitting and he just recently bought that new stainless steel water fountain and I really like it. So I'm thinking about maybe doing investing on that. But it keeps the flow of water. Because if the cat, if it has dust, particles and hair on top of the water, the cats are not going to drink it, they're going to go away. And then you're going to say oh Jerry, why are they drinking from the toilet? Well, it's not really a nasty thing. Just think about that toilet flushes. That's cool, fresh water that just flowed in there. They're not thinking what. They're thinking a ceramic bowl, nice, cool water. They're not thinking it's a toilet. So that cool fresh water they really like, they like to drink it out from the sink or put their paw under it and drink it.
Speaker 2:Maine coons love to do that. They like to play in water. So check into those. Like again, I don't endorse, you know, not like. Tiktok where I get paid for something, but the ones that seem to be the best are the ones that are quiet, that you don't hear that humming motor, and you can throw them in the dishwasher. You take it apart, make sure you clean it and you don't have the scum around it.
Speaker 1:You know you wouldn't want to drink from that? I think so one of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, plastic harbors all that bacteria unless you're washing it every single day. But the stainless steel glass, pyrex, whatever everybody's got extra Pyrex bowl, that is good. You can get those at the dollar store, but those are much, much better for the cats, I think Right.
Speaker 1:I want to say this right quick, which is much better for the cats, I think. Right, I want to say this right quick. It's something I want to mention how important it is to donate to agencies like Rescue Cats, because you know that's their means of taking care of the animals. If you see you may be spending out what $125, but look how much that you're getting in return so much more, and I recommend that people make donations. Whatever you can do is just really important to do that Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That means a lot and that's with a lot of agencies. They're 100% donation-based. That means they're not subsidized by the state. They do not get extra monies as some other agencies do, and the support that we have is independent, whether the money comes from special sponsors, donations, fundraising, maybe even a GoFundMe We've done that a few times for a critical ill cat Corporate sponsors we have yard sales all the time, spaghetti dinners I know another agency just had a spaghetti dinner Raffles, thrift stores, car washes, barbecue, whatever.
Speaker 2:Raffles, thrift stores, car washes, barbecue, whatever any type of fundraising we can think of to be able to support the cats and the. The funds are our operating funds. That's for your medical, your, your um, food litter, all the needs for the cats because, because it comes out of somebody's pocket being a volunteer, a lot of the volunteers give a lot of money towards the group that they work with. So looking at the donations, I mean that is just immense. You can pay you know PayPal. We always have donation jars set up for adoption fair. We always have donation jars set up for adoption fair and you can go online and and certainly, you know, use zelle or any other form of payment, um, but we appreciate donations.
Speaker 2:You just wouldn't believe, and a lot of now also, besides monetary donations, people come and bring, you know, food and litter and beds and you know little cat houses. We take all donations so you know nothing is turned away. It always can be repurposed and reused. You know we wash it, clean it, give it away or give it to the fosters that have cats in their home, and so the donations are so appreciative.
Speaker 1:It's tax deductible 100% tax deductible.
Speaker 2:Take it off your taxes. If you are a corporate or a business that is looking for a write-off, a donation write-off, certainly Rescue Cats would love to accept your donation and you know we need a tax letter. We can certainly provide that for you. But fundraising we have a big yard sale down in Hampton and that's where a lot of our monies come from. Just to the medical piece of it, wow. So definitely those donations are graciously appreciated.
Speaker 2:I think we're probably. We stay in the hole most of the time. Yeah, we try to end up even, but it is hard when you, you know, have to do eye surgeries or an amputation or things Very expensive stuff too.
Speaker 1:Yes, medical, oh my God. Yes, I've got. Another thing I want to speak about is this podcast. You know, originally I just did musicians, you know, like you know, I brought their story. You know, I talked, you know, did interviews with them Some of the top musicians but I always wanted to bring the story from people with all walks of life, from all walks of life, and the stories about these animals and about the cats, whatever kind of pet you got. People need to hear these stories as well, and so I just feel like the stories you're hearing today, that's how and again, I'm not going to give the guy's name out, because he is a, he's a two big CEOs. They actually heard this podcast right here. Well, the last one, he heard the podcast.
Speaker 2:That is awesome.
Speaker 1:The last one from that popular restaurant I was telling you about, yeah, and the one from the hospital. I didn't know, you guys were affiliated with them already, but the other one from the I wouldn't say it's so bad, but from the major food chain, okay, and he heard that podcast and I'm telling you. That's why I want to bring the stories from people all walks of life, because you never know who's listening. So I love the musicians, don't get me wrong, but everybody got a story. That is so true. Everybody got a story. You hear a lot of times this guy's a billionaire.
Speaker 2:I know, with certain political figures they will talk about their dog or whatever. I'm thinking of just so many different actresses out there that, just you know, have two or three cats or two or three dogs, whatever, and you know they're part of their life and it doesn't matter, like you said, their background. You know they might be making $50,000 a year and they might be making, you know, $3 million a year. It doesn't matter, the animal doesn't care. The animal wants the love from that human.
Speaker 2:This is my love and it's reciprocal right, that it all walks of life. It doesn't matter your ethnic background, male, female, where you come from and who you are. The animals still need that love. You, you know, give that love back.
Speaker 2:So we're all human and I'm not trying to be famous or anything, no, no, no, I come from a a very, a very poor background and, um, but we always had animals. We always had, you know, animals as growing up and it seemed like they would. You know, if it was an owl that fell out of a tree, I would bring that home. Uh, if it was, you know, the, the neighbor's dog that that was sick, we'd bring that home and try to medicate. Um, so we had quite a few animals growing up and I guess that's, you know, uh, from from a poor background to the, the wealthy, all walks of life, and I hear that people live longer if they have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I just say that the last time. You know I gotta bring this up too. I'm not gonna put the lady on the spot, but the last, last time I was speaking with her about the last podcast that we did and she said, yeah, but you're just talking about cats on this one and pets. She said, but next time you might be talking about something else and I'm going to tune in. But see, had I listened to her and the people that talk like that, then this guy who is I'm sure they've had his food before he wouldn't have been listening to the other ones. He wanted to hear this one. Oh yeah. So say, if I had to just go the direction of the one that they want to hear you want to hear the one about the church, you want to hear one about the musician? Okay, what if I had to do it that way? Well, this guy probably wouldn't be interested in that.
Speaker 1:That's right, but he was interested in the one I did with you the last time, Jerry.
Speaker 2:You never know who's listening. I can't wait to tell her this when I talk to her again, or what they're interested in.
Speaker 2:I mean you never know. I can't remember the percentage I want to say 85% I could be way off on that Of people that own a pet, whether it is a bird, you know whether it's fish, whether it's a gerbil, you know a snake, whatever. You know they have some type of pet and a lot of it it transfers. You know the care of an animal that it transfers. You know the care of an animal and you know when you're able to. You know love, whatever pet I mean. Some people are those amphibian type critters and some want those little furry things that you can hold. So each one. And there was a young lady that had four turtles and she would no longer be able to keep them. So, uh, not that I'm in the turtle adoption business, but I was able to find the best home for those four turtles and they are happy in in a most beautiful pond and, um, you can see them anytime you go. They're, they're there, they're always, always there on the logs and they're happy you have to rehome that um, they kind of.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we have what's your time frame. I was being that summertime, most people are going on vacation and that, oh, that's a good one, ray. Yes, that raises a question what am I going to do with my pet? What am I going to do with the cat, the dog, whatever? Just wanted to, because I do a lot of pet sitting for people. I have several friends within our agency that does as well and we trade stories back and forth about, you know, pet sitting type adventures.
Speaker 2:But when you're thinking about vacation, going out of town, you have a couple options. What are you going to do with the pet One? The best option is to leave the pet at home, in their natural environment, in their happy place, where they're comfortable, they know the surroundings and they're less stressed. They there at the house and then have either family member, a pet sitting service, someone you trust, of course, to come in, take care of the animal, whether it's a dog, cat, whatever and feed water, take care of the litter pan, walk the dog and then, you know, come back the next day on some cats, you can go every other day. You know, come back the next day On some cats, you can go every other day, but we encourage you to leave out, you know, extra water, extra litter pans and whatever for them. But now some of the clients that I work with, they want me to come every day.
Speaker 2:My babies, they're great and that's perfectly fine, it's whatever you set up. But leaving the kitties there at the house and the dog, uh, instead of taking them somewhere, uh, that's their, that's their home, there's their natural environment, plenty of. Leave some lights on, leave a radio on, tv clock, whatever. Have some stuffed animals out there for the babies to cuddle up with extra toys, to give them some activities. But that's kind of option one that I think about is probably the best option if you're able to do that. And option two is using the, a pet hotel. I know pet smart has a pet hotel and or a vet sitting services, boarding services, where you take the animal to them and they stay. And I'll be honest, they will stay in a cage. You know that. They take them out, they take them to go to the bathroom or sometimes they have like a special cat room where they can run and play, but they're put back into their cage. I found that sometimes they don't eat for a couple days. They will not go to the bathroom for a couple days. They're very stressed, they just huddle in the back of the cage. It's not the best environment for your animal, but if you have to go and leave and vacation, that's the only option you have, then certainly it will work. But I think keep it at home. I go back to that. I think home is best. That's it. Home is where the heart is. It is, it is. You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2:The other, of course, is take the pet with you. Now that raises a lot of questions. Um, if you fly wherever you're going, you definitely want to have an approved carrier, and you could go on. I know delta has a whole section exactly what to have for that pet carrier. Uh, for cat, dog, whatever you're flying, but the animal just be cognizant of the cargo, because in the back of the plane, where cargo is, it can get very, very hot, or in the winter it can get very, very cold. So normally I tell people to get the carrier and put it under your seat, fly it with their under your seat and you know the kitty is usually pretty good. Hopefully it's not a long flight to, you know, alaska is usually pretty good.
Speaker 2:Hopefully it's not a long flight to Alaska, but that would be the last option. But people do. They fly with their pets and you know they're moving back home from Germany or where they fly their pets.
Speaker 1:I see how did Braxton get me Tell me that another time. I want to know how he got home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Case in point Braxton came from Germany. They flew that cat from Germany.
Speaker 1:My baby from Germany.
Speaker 2:He was born in Germany and flew him back over here and he did great. They had the approved carrier Wow, and had the underneath the seat and he did very well on that flight coming back. So if you have to, you know there's certain situations you have to fly your pet, but just take all precautions. For that I believe they have to have the paperwork in hand, especially a rabies vaccination and the proof to show that. I would have all the vet records, have made copies, just in case you know they want to see all those copies, have like a portfolio for the animal and have three tags on that carrier and cage. So there's no question of who the animal belongs to.
Speaker 2:You don't want that tag to come off. I would have it on there at least three times because you know it could get torn off during transport. But we can touch on that a little bit later if that's something of interest of how to transport a pet, um. But yeah, I go back to option one. If, if you're able to get that pet sitter and you know we have some that are great, established pet sitters that work for us full time and you know the prices y'all negotiate the price. That's when I pet sit. The money that I make goes into my fosters. That's the things that I buy for my foster cats and kittens at the house.
Speaker 1:So I just use it back for the animals. That's a great idea, though you can't beat that having them right in their environment.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. So. Vacation, and everybody wants to get out there and go on vacation. So options for the kitties and I don't want to just say all cats, because you know dogs as well or other pets- so you know, every time I talk with jerry I always have I want to just continue on and on and on.
Speaker 1:It's like I can't do enough. I kept speaking with her and so it's going to be a part three. It's going to be a part three because you know, you guys, it's loving this now and then again I don't know who's out here listening now that I know that we got a major ceo from a major food chain that I'm sure a lot of you like his food. So, um, I just didn't know. But anyway, we're gonna have a part three. But, cherry, is it anything else you want to speak about today? Or bring it, bring to our attention today that we didn't hear about? Do we have?
Speaker 2:time to talk about. This is a touchy subject and I guess I didn't mean to save it for last, but it is. When is it time to say goodbye to a pet? And that is the hardest because it's so emotional and each person has to make those decisions depending on their situation. We call it PTS put to sleep, or euthanization, or having the cat put down.
Speaker 2:All of those mean the same thing and it's, you know, looking at the situations, is the disease or whatever they have, is it fatal? You have to look at different factors and one the age of the kitty, the severity of that disease or what they have, if it's something like cancer. And also this is always a touchy one the cost involved. There are some surgeries and some things out there, three, four, five thousand dollars, but it does not guarantee a hundred percent. You know, the life expectancy of the calf. So I think, looking at a couple of things, a lot of times people will say, oh well, he's still eating or he's still purring, or you know as the Southern term making biscuits or making dough. That's another podcast. That, yes, those are some comforting things. When he does the purring, some comforting things. When he does the purring, it means he's happy, but it means also he's comforting himself in a time of crisis. So it can mean several things.
Speaker 2:The items that you want to look at, or the characteristics is, when they stop grooming and they stop eating, drinking, not using a litter pan, their personality changes. They're grumpy, they're growling. Maybe If they always feel warm, they feel hot to the touch, they're hiding. Cats and dogs will go hide when they know it's about their time, because that is, um, uh, from mother nature. You know they go off by themselves to get away from the herd, not to bring attention to the herd, because they know they're the weak one right. So hiding is definitely a symptom. When they know it's probably their time and they don't want to seem to be sociable, they're losing weight. All are characteristics.
Speaker 2:And if you go through, if you have, of course, a vet that you go to and and y'all sit down together and and you have to make those decisions. But I usually tell people, you know, a lot of times we are selfish, we want to keep that baby forever. You know he's 15 years old, but I want him to live another year. You know we do that with humans. We, you know, with my mother, we wanted her to live another year and but she chose, she made those decisions. So with animals, sometimes they do pass in their sleep and they made that decision. But then then again, there's sometimes us as humans. We have to make that decision and that's the hardest thing to do if, um, you know when, when you know it's time and you're driving that day, or when you're driving to the vet's office and you know, today's a day I've got to put my cat down or put my dog down.
Speaker 2:It is heart reaching. It's. It's so emotional because that's your buddy, your best friend, you're. You know something that's gone through everything that you've gone through. You started reliving all the things you've been through exactly and, and a friend of mine, she went through a horrible divorce and, uh, the dog had been there the whole time Because they can sense when you're going through trauma, when you're going through stress, they can sense and they're very comforting to you. And then later on, the dog got cancer and it was just incurable. So she had to put him down and it is so hard and I know we've all had to put him down and it's it is so hard and and I've you know, I know we've all had to go there and and but you, you have to make those decisions and not a selfish one.
Speaker 2:Um, look at the quality of life. Is this going to, you know, prolong the quality of life for this surgery or for this treatment or whatever? And so that's a hard subject. But you know we do have to address it and you know, with life, that always comes to death, and that's true for you know human life as well.
Speaker 2:So I, I do, um, you know, um, I always have to say something about when people call me and ask, you know, is it time? And I kind of go through everything and and think, you know, if it hadn't eaten for three days and it's hiding under the bed and just really feel hot or maybe jaundice, you know, the ears, the ears, the eyes are yellowish. That can mean the liver shutting down. So you have a lot of other issues with renal failure and other diseases that can take place. That, you know, is at that time. So those are a couple of things to look at, a list of different things. And, you know, meet with your vet, talk to them, talk to, you know, the people that's gone through it before. That always helps comfort you.
Speaker 1:Woo. So again, I know I'm going to get letter after letter, like message after message, more people contacting me and thank you so much for that, absolutely. And boy, I mean to have this CEO. I mean, when he's on here he's going to probably be talking about this himself. So I thank God for that. But, sherry, can you tell I'm going to put in the write-up, but can you let everybody know where they can contact you at?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. My email is very easy jerryclay at gmailcom, j-e-r-r-i-c-l-a-y at gmailcom. That's easiest to get me there. And you can always go to the Rescue Cat website. All of my other contact information is there. If you're thinking about adopting, we would love to talk with you now if you're found some kittens or some issues. Right now we are so full, but we do have a relinquishment form. You can go online at rescuecatsorg and fill out the form. We can't't take in every single cat. We have at least 10 calls a day, so we try to do the best we can. At least we could give you resources or help that way. But we are easy to contact, looking up through the website, and you're certainly email me if there's any questions or how we can help, and I'm usually at the Mount Zion PetSmart on Saturdays unless it's a holiday from about 930 until 3. And we'll be glad to assist and help and I can't wait to do another podcast. We've already got some topics and we're looking at from you.
Speaker 1:This is fun. This is getting to be a lot of fun because bringing the cats and the pets to people's attention now I'm talking, I'm really loving this. We appreciate.
Speaker 2:Miss Regina going out and over and beyond her call of duty doing the podcast. So we're excited and I know a couple of topics that we might be looking at in the future is talking about all the different types of diseases that cats can attract, and dogs as well. I mean I don't want to leave out our canine buddies and we could talk about some of those as well.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't want to leave out our canine buddies, amen, and we could talk about some of those as well, so that might be upcoming. Yep, we got a part three coming up. Y'all. It's like a podcast a month, but thank you so much, jerry, for engaging my audience today on the podcast. I appreciate you so much, right, I enjoyed it. Thank you so much for right, I enjoyed it. Thank you so much for listening everyone. Always so much fun. You know, knowing the cats are over there and you can see them and you can feel them and, oh my god, looking at them, they're just. Oh my god, they're relaxed.
Speaker 2:Look at them now they want to come out I've just thought of another piece on our next podcast about giving up a cat oh make notes of that, when people have to surrender their cat for some reasons. Right, so that's it might be on our next one.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of websites out there. I meant to mention that you can get some great information. Of course, google is great. Uh, jackson galaxy is the cat daddy, as people call him. He does a show cats 101 and some other shows. Cornell cat watch is super. Uh. Then you have pet mdcom, cat mdwycom. They have a great website. Yep, chewy, I've heard of that one and WhalePet, and that's W-E-L-P-E-Tcom.
Speaker 2:Those are just some that have great information out there, that and you can see where that information comes from, what veterinarian and it is based from them. So jump on there. Look at some of those websites Right.
Speaker 1:So again, we appreciate Jerry coming out with this today, me coming up to PetSmart and doing an interview on location. It's been so much fun. I always hate leaving, I hate to leave, but the podcast will be with you. So think about that. You can contact me at swornretina at gmailcom, and the podcast will be posted up on tomorrow. And I think you got an adoption coming up this saturday, don't you?
Speaker 2:yes, big adoption fair this saturday. Love to come out and, if you mentioned, you heard it from the podcast. I think we'll give 20 off adoption, or give you a box of litter or something, if you mention the podcast so come on out.
Speaker 1:come on out if you're in the area or if you're surrounding area. You may be in another state, but you want to just come on out. Come on out because, uh, jerry and team, they are the absolute best and I appreciate them so much. Thank you so much, jerry, and today we're going to say goodbye, all right. Thank you, goodbye everyone. Thank you again and have a wonderful, wonderful day.