Ep240 - Daniel Spehar

03/24/18 • 23 min

Interview! Daniel Spehar, Co-Founder of the Together Initiative for Ohio’s Community Cats

“I hope all of us can focus on a shared goal of fewer community cats instead of focusing on the differences. Let’s focus on the most effective and humane ways to reach our common goal.”

Daniel works to enact animal-friendly legislation as a volunteer with the Humane Society of the United States, along with working with the Together Initiative for Ohio’s Community Cats. This specific group is committed to promoting and facilitating collaboration among community cat stakeholders of around 150 members, who work together to accomplish their goals. They run workshops and events, as well as provide other educational opportunities.

He co-authored two recent published papers about the effectiveness of TNR and how it has reduced free-roaming cat populations and has also been conducting research on community cats and their management since 2013. He will be presenting findings of a Case Study, which examined an iconic TNR Program (Newberry Port) at the 2018 HSUS Expo.

Daniel’s passion for cats began when he was a boy, and in 2003, he had a group of feral kittens move into his yard. He ended up learning how to trap them and learned specifics about TNR and how to help them, and his passion further was ignited. This led him to decide that he wanted to dedicate the rest of his career towards the wellness of animals, specifically cats.

Through his research and case study work, he has learned of so many innovations that have been implemented that have become standard practice in many TNR programs around the country. It has helped to create a kind of “toolkit” for animal welfare, that can be used as a guide. This is what was the inspiration behind the Together Initiative for Ohio’s Community Cats, which has turned into a 2-pronged mission:

Education and Outreach
Promote and facilite collaboration

Daniel can be reached through his program at communitycatsohio.org, which also has his article available.

Interview! Daniel Spehar, Co-Founder of the Together Initiative for Ohio’s Community Cats

“I hope all of us can focus on a shared goal of fewer community cats instead of focusing on the differences. Let’s focus on the most effective and humane ways to reach our common goal.”

Education and Outreach
Promote and facilite collaboration

Daniel can be reached through his program at communitycatsohio.org, which also has his article available.

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Ep239 - Dr. Lynn Bahr

Interview! Dr. Lynn Bahr, Feline Veterinarian and Owner of Dezi and Roo

“I like to look at life through a cat’s point of view, not my point of view, and I think that that helps me to understand them better, to communicate with them better, and to know what they need.”

How did a dog-loving legal secretary end up becoming a cat-only veterinarian and founder of a cat toy company? By meeting the right cat, of course! Dr. Lynn Bahr didn’t even know she liked cats until she met her first cat, Rudolph. Rudolph went on to change Lynn’s life, inspiring her not only to go to veterinary school, but also to become a feline-only practitioner who focuses on the unique needs of cats. Fast forward nearly forty years, and Lynn’s current cats, Dezi and Roo, have now inspired her to become an entrepreneur, starting a company called... you guessed it: Dezi & Roo. The company sells cat toys and catnip alternatives as a way to address the specific needs of today’s indoor-only cats. The move to an indoor-only lifestyle for so many cats has, in fact, been the biggest challenge of Lynn’s career. She feels that vets have done a great job promoting the health and safety benefits of an indoor-only life for cats, but not such a great job on helping owners know what to do with their cats now that they are inside. Lynn thinks of indoor-only cats almost as a new breed, and in her veterinary practice, she is seeing cats developing diseases and illnesses tied to being solely indoors. She worries about indoor-only cats lacking enrichment, getting little sunlight and fresh air, and having no ability to eat grass. As a veterinarian, Lynn has been able to talk with her individual clients about these issues, but over time, she found she wanted to be able to reach a larger audience—which is how Dezi & Roo got started. Through the company, Lynn hopes to provide not only specific tools to help with enriching the lives of indoor-only cats, but also education for cat owners. Lynn wants her clients and customers to try to see life from a cat’s point of view, and hopes that Dezi & Roo’s products—like the Hide & Sneak cat tunnel, a combination of three of cats’ favorite things: paper, boxes, and tunnels—will help. Lynn points out that toy rotation is very important in order to keep cats interested in them, as is cat owners physically playing with their cats, not just leaving out a basket of toys. She wants owners to think about bringing the outdoors in for their cats in the form of cat grass, a varied diet, and by allowing their cats to “forage” for their food in a variety of ways, including things as simple as putting food up on a table to encourage cats to jump up to it. You can follow Lynn’s blog and learn more at deziroo.com.

Next Episode

Ask Stacy! Online Cat Conference Review

Interview! Ask Stacy! Online Cat Conference Review

“I’m passionate about the idea of having a dedicated annual cat conference nationally and this was a great way to work towards providing access to everyone.”

Stacy is back to discuss all of the in’s and out’s of how the first Online Cat Conference went this past January! She always wanted to do an online cat conference and it was a great way to provide access to people who wouldn’t be able to afford an in-person conference. She was determined to make it something that was extremely accessible worldwide.

When the thought began, Stacy wasn’t working with specific themes in mind, but she knew she wanted to have the ability to have international exposure. Luckily, she knew that the online component was there, with her Cat Tech Guru, Kristen, by her side.

The main challenge Stacy faced was placing her faith in the technology at hand. While she felt sure it would all work out well, she had visions of her computer melting down and was nervous about things crashing. It was more a fear of the unknown than anything specific.

There was preparation beforehand, though. All of the speakers were able to test things out with a dry-run the week before the conference and main issues were addressed before they became a bigger problem. It also allowed Kirsten to be more present during the actual conference, so she could grab pictures of people watching the webinars with their fur-babies and make it a little more entertaining.

Another highlight of the weekend were the raffles that were presented. Thanks to some fun cat trivia, the raffles turned out to be extremely successful and many prizes were contributed from different organizations.

There were 114 attendees from all over the country, as well as from Europe, Australia and Canada. Sponsors for the event were the International Cat Association and Feline Fix by Five, which Stacy can’t thank enough for taking a chance on a first year online event!

After the event, Stacy sent out a form to all of the attendees to see what could be done better next year, and to find out what the highlights of the conference were for different people. She was pleased to learn that many organizations used the webinar as a chance to highlight these different topics! For example, the San Francisco SPCA had the entire conference streaming all weekend in their community room. Snacks and drinks were provided and people could come and go as they pleased to check out the different webinars. What a great way to bring the community together within their own organization!

Hot topics that have already come up for next year: Allowing different attendees to chat with each other to give more of a sense of community, along with having a little bit more capability with videos. Overall, it was a huge success and if anyone has any ideas, thoughts or ways that we can improve for next year's conference, please don’t hesitate to email Stacy!

Also, hear about Taco’s story, which was a result of the Online Cat Conference!