Cat Chat®

#320: Filmmaker Asako Ushio joins Tracie to talk about her extraordinary documentary set on Japan’s remote Tashiro Island, where cats live in a fascinating space somewhere between wildness and domestication. Featured in the 9th Annual NY Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City, the film follows a photographer devoted to documenting the island’s cats while revealing a much bigger story: an aging human population, a cat colony largely left to nature, and an uncertain future for both. Asaka and Tracie explore how differently cultures approach animal welfare, why the islanders intervene so little in the cats’ lives, and what this unusual place can teach us about our instinct to “fix” nature.

#319: Documentary filmmaker Molly Dennis joins Tracie to talk about her film Cat People, which will be featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City. The documentary shines a light on the remarkable network of veterinarians, trappers and everyday volunteers caring for Greece’s estimated three million stray cats. Molly describes following the people who devote their own time, money and energy to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), feeding colonies and providing medical care — often one cat at a time. They discuss the disconnect between the charming “street cats of Greece” tourists see and the much harsher reality those cats face, why controlling populations through TNR works, and the extraordinary commitment of the people who keep showing up for cats who depend on them.

#318: Stephen Quandt of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ talks about the various ways that children can be involved in choosing a cat from a shelter and then enhancing the bond in living with them. Children on the autism spectrum may get particular benefits from the right cat entering their life, which Stephen explains. 

#317: Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds consulting talks about all the ways that cats can find to wake you up in the middle of the night — and how to manage nocturnal cat activity.

#316: Mike Phillips tells the history of the Urban Cat League — rescuing cats after the World Trade Center bombing, making a refuge for them — and continuing to improve the lives of street cats to this day.

#315: A listener wrote Tracie to ask how it was possible that two different cats she's had want to get in the shower with her!  Resident cat expert Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the likelihood of this unusual feline predilection and how to handle a water-loving cat.

#314: The nonprofit EveryCat Health Foundation financed a study across 5 countries of mammary tumors in cats, with surprising results explained by Dr. Maggie Placer, the veterinarian who is the Science Program Manager for the Foundation.

#313: Dan Rimada is leading the push to legalize and protect bodega cats by creating a citywide archive of cats in NYC bodegas (estimates are 5,500 of them) which he and fellow volunteers have started documenting through field visits, photos, owner conversations, and release forms to get them legalized so the bodegas they protect against rodents don’t have to pay a fine. 

#312: Andrey (who created Brook Fountain) reports that his adopted cat, Vincent, who was completely hooked on kitty krack, transitioned off unhealthy kibble by starting with Dr. Elsey's CleanProtein dry food, then going all the way to wet food with canned CleanProtein, putting a smile on Andrey’s lips. And reminding other cat people that enticing “food toppers” are deceptive because they are not a healthy balanced diet.

#311: Sheila Massey talks about her Hard Hat Cats NYC, which puts unadoptable cats from the NYC shelter into breweries, restaurants and retail stores where they provide non toxic rodent control in return for safety: a litter box, food and shelter.

#310: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds cat behavior consulting, explains that you cannot — nor should you — try to stop a cat from scratching, which is a natural and essential behavior. Instead, you need to offer a variety of sturdy, tall scratching posts in the areas where you spend time. Better yet, do like Mikel does and transform the back of your couch into a stylish array of scratchers!

#309: Allison Ward, the founder of Salty Cat, launched her company with the intention of creating a lower-priced cat food with premium ingredients. How did she do it? Simple! By lowering her profit margin, while also creating an egalitarian management structure in the small company.

#308: Cat behaviorist Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado explains another way to look at “vertical peeing” — cats who raise their butts like a rising elevator to pee behind themselves. But because they have all four feet in the litter box, it is not “marking.” She recommends some litter box accessories to manage the problem.

#307: Dr. Dean Vicksman, the Board Chair of the nonprofit EveryCat Health Foundation, talks about how their grant funding for feline health science has helped crack the code for managing long-COVID in humans. 

#306: Cat behaviorist Dr Mikel Maria Delgado shares Tracie’s dismay at what has become “litter nonsense” (to appease IG and TikTok content creators) instead of using “litter common sense” and giving cats what they need: comfortable clay clumping litter without any added chemical colors and scents. They both extol the virtues of Dr. Elsey’s litters but they miss his signature litter invention the "Touch of the Outdoors” — but he has gone 100% scent free for the sake of the cats.

#305: Cat behaviorist Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) discusses the stress to people and other cats in the home when an otherwise friendly cat suddenly displays unexplained aggression towards a family member — and how to make sense of it.

#304: Andrey Gregoryev, who invented the Brook glass fountain, recently adopted Vincent, a kitty from a hoarding situation, who will not touch anything but dry kibble, which Tracie calls Kitty Krack because it is harmful and addictive to cats. After giving many tips to get him off the dry food, Tracie said that Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein dry food is the only one she can recommend because of how it is made and the ingredients, which respect a cat's natural prey.

#303: Rachel Geller helps people understand their cats better with free advice through her personal nonprofit All Cats All the Time. She always recommends putting a new cat in one room in the house and only introducing him/her to the rest of the environment little by little. She often has to convince people that one space is not prison for a cat — it's doing them a favor by not overwhelming them. 

#302: Cat behavior consultant (https://felineminds.com/) Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado describes the slow and patient process of introducing your cat to a harness — then experimenting letting the kitty walk you indoors and possibly outdoors to see if it suits his/her personality.

#301: Jay Ingram wrote "The Science of Pets" so people could better understand the science and facts of their pets' behavior — and in particular how to understand what makes their cat tick, as well as what s/he may be feeling.

 #300: Stephen Quant of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ often gets consulted about a cat peeing on vertical surfaces, usually by backing up to the area in question. Often with a high and quivering tail. The cat will then shoot a stream of urine on the vertical surface. Stephen explains that this is not intended as urination, but is actually spraying as a territorial marker, so he explains ways to reduce the cat's need to do that. 

#299: When Andrey Grigoryev invented the Brook glass fountain in his quest for enrichment and hydration for indoor cats, he never expected it to become the best-selling cat fountain. Cat lovers snatched up the clear glass fountain for its aesthetic appeal, the purity of the filtered water, the health benefits of drinking for their cats and that they could pop it in the dishwasher. 

#298: Tracie reads from this sequel to Syou Ishida’s prize-winning best-selling first book “We’ll Prescribe You a Cat,” which she discusses with Jennifer Mowdy from The Literary Cat Co. bookstore as part of the successful phenomenon of translated Japanese fiction generating worldwide attention.

#297: Deborah Magaldi talks about the Helen Sanders CatPAWS organization in Orange County California, where they are saving very young kindles of kittens from a certain death in the shelters (where there's nobody available to bottle feed them every 3 hours) by providing a DIY Kitten box for the people who bring in kittens that are not yet weaned. This gives Good Samaritans a chance to actually really save the kittens by taking them home to feed and care for them long enough for the kittens to eat solid food and have a real chance at finding homes. 

#296: Mikel Maria Delgado of https://felineminds.com/ explains how cat lovers tend to have a bias towards certain colors of cats and have (mistakenly) ascribed personality traits to colors that they are projecting onto cats. In fact, a cat's temperament is not genetically linked in any way, but a cat's personality can be influenced by their gender. Dr Delgado explains how that works — but she and Tracie urge everyone to view each kitty as an individual with their own bag of attributes. 

#295: Rebecca van Laer's memoir, "Cat," is for everyone who can relate to her "love letter" to the kitties who have graced her life, using her own cats as a lens to understand what it means to be a "cat person." 

#294: Dr. Heather Davis from PRN (employee-owned by the veterinarians) explains why they developed Felycin®-CA1, the first weekly therapy developed for cats with subclinical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), since this heart problem affects 1 in 7 cats (and 1 in 3 senior cats). She suggests videoing your own kitty while sleeping so you can see whether he takes less than 30 breaths a minute (good) and share this with your own vet to determine if more tests or medication are needed to protect his heart.

#293: Jae & Adrienne talk about how their huge cat-loving following has grown organically, all from a place of mutually caring about cats and wanting them to be well, which is how their own supplement company evolved.

#292: Susannah Fullerton speaks from her home in Sydney Australia about the delight of researching her instantly sold-out book  “Great Writers & the Cats Who Owned Them,” with in-depth chapters chronicling the close relationship of 17 celebrated authors around the world who adored cats, with one in particular stealing their heart. Susannah also discussed the captivating  literary tours she leads around the world for Australians Studying Abroad.

#291: Rachel Geller — of the non-profit cat behavior practice All Cats All the Time — discusses Feline Non recognition Syndrome when one of your cats suddenly treats his former housemate as a stranger, often with hostility — usually when returning from the groomer or vet clinic.

#290: Mikel Maria Delgado talks about the variety of ways that cats communicate with different vocalizations, and the fact that cats meow almost entirely to humans and not to other cats (other than mama cats and kittens).

#289: Karen Dendy Smith is a trained animal communicator and devoted cat lover, who explains how her training as an intuitive guides her to receive messages from a person's cat, here or in the afterlife.

#288: Rachel Geller’s new book has won some prestigious literary awards and is named for her own philanthropic nonprofit (through which she helps people “work things out” with their kitties without charge). “All Cats, All the Time” is filled with solid advice and suggestions for managing feline issues in Rachel’s signature calm, patient nonjudgmental style.

#287: Kaan Kerman in the Department of Psychology at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, talks about getting international attention for his research study that showed cats vocalize more with the male humans in their lives than the women. The study was designed reliably — so what conclusion can we draw from its conclusion?

#286: Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) says the time to get your cat ready for the new sights, sounds and smells of a newborn are before your baby comes home. Get a recording of baby crying sounds and play it quietly at first then increase the volume. Elevate the cat’s food and water bowls in anticipation of an eventually crawling baby. Bring in all the baby furniture and equipment you can and let the cat investigate it. And if you know someone with a babe in arms, ask them to come over and let your cat see and hear it.

#285: Jerry D. Moore’s nonfiction book “Cat Tales: A History” is a long look back at how cats evolved alongside humans and made a pact to cohabitate with us (on their terms!)

#284: Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the variety of positions in a cat’s tail and how it reflects their feelings and mood, which is very particular to each kitty. Tracie likens deciphering cat tails to learning to read Morse code signals.

#283: Stephen Quandt (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) suggests ways to make a cat-centric city apartment including a space-saving cat climbing tree that is suspended from the ceiling and a window perch. 

#282: Keoni Vaughn, the Executive Director and caretaker of 767 cats (!) at the Lāna‘i Cat Sanctuary on the tiny Hawaiian island of Lāna‘i, explains its history and how they look after these previously feral cats (40% of whom become so tame they are adopted out to some of the nearly 20,000 tourists a year), while protecting a rare and vulnerable local bird population.

#281: Jennifer Mowdy of the Literary Cat Co bookstore and cat cafe (where you can buy the book) joins Tracie to discuss this beautiful, quirky posthumous book of collected works (prose, poetry, drawings) relating to cats, from the late renowned science fiction author, Ursula K Le Guin.

#280: Dr. Michelle Dulake discusses the ingredients in her Fera Pets Kidney Support for cats: how it binds the phosphate in their diet, which is the culprit in most chronic kidney diseases. Tracie recommends that the sooner you start the supplement (and switch to an all wet food diet!), the better chance you have to stave off the inevitable kidney disease that affects all cats as they age.

#278: Mikel Maria Delgado talks about how very much cats dislike covered litter boxes — which might be aesthetically pleasing to humans, but can be scary for cats who feel trapped because there’s only one way in and out and no way to guard against intruders.

#279: David Stirling wrote “The Cat That Followed Phantoms” and “The Cat That Chased Cadillacs” which Tracie compares to Richard Adams’ “Watership Down,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “Stuart Little" and “Alice in Wonderland,” introducing us to an utterly believable alternate feline universe in which cats have fully realized inner and outer lives in which they talk, wear nice outfits, solve mysteries, have interpersonal dynamics — and boil water for tea in their little kettles. 

#277: Jennifer Mowdy — owner of the Literary Cat Company book store and cat rescue — discusses this magical, allegorical Japanese best-selling novel by Yuta Takahashi, about a restaurant that appears only to those who need closure with a departed loved one and need to have one last meal with them.

#276: Dr. Bruce Elsey talks about the $17 million he and his wife Kathy [a Multiple myeloma survivor herself] have raised over the years for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation through their Dr. Elsey’s Fund to Cure Cancer — through litter coupon donations and an annual million dollar matching grant — because all cancer research helps find treatments and cures for every kind of cancer and the Elsey’s feel fortunate that their cat-centric company has been able to make a difference.

#275: Stephen Quandt (Certified feline behavior specialist in private practice  (https://catbehaviorhelp.com/) working virtually with clients works in feline behavior and for the Animal Care Centers of New York City)  gives recommendations on traveling with a cat, whether in a car or plane — for holiday travel, relocation or emergencies.

#274: Filmmaker Tania Bashkatova discusses her film “Loki, Ukrainian Cat,” (which will be in the 8th Annual NY Cat Film Festival premiering in NYC October 26th) chronicling the journey her cat Loki had to make with her to escape the Russian attacks on Ukraine.

#273: Mikel Maria Delgado's kitties love the Cat Sushi bonito flakes but are uninterested in other crunchy treats - proving how important it is to have friends with cats who can happily receive your food and toy “rejects!” 

#272: Film director Kim Best discusses having two films (yet again!) in the upcoming NY Cat Film Festival — “Paws and Purpose,” a documentary about a cat rescuer in North Carolina and “When Left is Right,” about a “southpaw” kitty.

#271: Author of "The Cat Men of Gotham," Peggy Gavan leads cat-centric, architectural and historical walking tours of three different Manhattan neighborhoods at Cats About Town Tours.