The Community Cats Podcast

"You can both celebrate them and advocate for them at the same time."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Drop Traps: Beginning and Advanced Certification Workshop.
Dan Rimada didn't set out to start a movement. He just started noticing cats. During the stillness of COVID, when New York City slowed down enough to actually look around, he began noticing the cats living in the bodegas of his Fort Greene, Brooklyn neighborhood and photographing them on his iPhone. What began as a hyper-local Instagram project quickly grew into something much larger — a citywide archive, an advocacy platform, a walking tour company, and now a forthcoming book. Today, Bodega Cats of New York is the most detailed documentation of working cats in New York City corner stores ever assembled, built on four years of relationship-building across all five boroughs.
At the heart of Dan's work is a real tension: bodega cats are beloved New York City cultural icons — neighborhood anchors, pest controllers, familiar faces — and they are technically illegal. Under current New York City Health Code, keeping a live animal in a food establishment can result in fines between $200 and $1,500. Dan's 14,000-signature petition changed that conversation. It led to City Council legislation that would eliminate those fines and fund spay/neuter and vaccinations for bodega cats — with Council Member Frank Morano now carrying the bill forward after Keith Powers was term-limited out. A parallel state-level bill, introduced by Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, goes further, establishing official care standards: designated cat zones, clean water, nutritious food, rest areas, and mandatory spay/neuter. The two bills are designed to work in tandem.
Dan also co-founded Cats About Town Tours with cat historian Peggy Gavan, whose blog hatchingcatnyc.com and books on New York City's animal history made her the perfect partner. The tours run through Brooklyn Heights, the Lower East Side, and the Financial District, uncovering the hidden feline history of New York from the 1800s and 1900s — and every ticket sold triggers food donations to a 501(c)(3) cat rescue. His book, Bodega Cats of New York, featuring photography by Gulce Kilkis, arrives from Quarto Publishing in October 2026.
Press Play Now For:
How a COVID-era iPhone project in Fort Greene grew into New York City's most comprehensive bodega cat archive
What a bodega actually is — and why working cats have been part of that culture for generations
Why bodega cats are currently illegal under NYC Health Code, and what the legislation would change
The two-pronged legislative strategy: the city council bill and the state-level Assembly bill, and how they work together
How Dan's $7,400 fundraiser and 14,000-signature petition translated into real legislative action
The spay/neuter and vaccination funding mechanism proposed in the city bill — and where the money could come from
Why some rescue groups want an outright ban on bodega cats, and Dan's more pragmatic take
The story behind Cats About Town Tours and the hidden cat history woven into New York City's streets
What to expect from the Bodega Cats of New York book, coming October 2026
Resources & Links
Bodega Cats of New York — Dan's archive, advocacy updates, and book waitlist at bodegacatsofnewyork.com
@bodegacatsofnewyork on Instagram
Cats About Town Tours — NYC's cat history walking tours, running April through November
The Hatching Cat of Gotham — Peggy Gavan's blog on the history of cats (and dogs) in New York City

"With animal welfare, we're basically waiting till the roof falls in — when the animals are at the shelter, that's the roof falling in. We have to catch them earlier."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and The Kitten Conference.
What if the animal welfare system stopped waiting for families to walk through the shelter door — and started showing up before they ever got there? That's the question driving BJ Adkins, disabled veteran and founder of Animal Angels Foundation (AAF), a prevention-first nonprofit serving seven counties in central Alabama.
After years of fostering and watching intake numbers refuse to budge, BJ decided to stop patching the system and start rebuilding its missing layer. AAF isn't a rescue organization. It's prevention infrastructure: programs designed to solve the problems that force pet surrender before surrender ever becomes an option.
Those programs include SNIP, a spay/neuter assistance initiative with a $100 stipend for income-qualifying owners; The Bridge, which addresses the financial and housing barriers that most often precede surrender; Finder-to-Foster; Adoption Boost; Landlord Partnership; and Sniff and Greet. Connecting it all is the Animal Welfare Resource Network (AWRN) — a shared technology platform that replaces organizational silos with real-time coordination across shelters, rescues, vet clinics, and community partners. Three participation levels and no cost to join means even change-resistant organizations can get on board.
To measure what's working, BJ is partnering with a University of Tennessee researcher to build the evidence base for prevention-first animal welfare — while already fielding calls from Colorado, Tennessee, and the Canadian SPCA. The data is being collected. The network is growing. And if BJ has anything to say about it, the roof won't have to fall in anymore.
Press Play Now For:
Why BJ compares the current animal welfare system to waiting for the roof to fall in — and what "upstream" intervention actually looks like
A breakdown of AAF's six core programs and how each one targets a specific point of failure before shelter intake
How the Animal Welfare Resource Network (AWRN) replaces organizational silos with a shared, real-time coordination platform
The SNIP program's $100 stipend model and why removing financial friction matters for low-income pet owners
BJ's strategy for bringing change-resistant organizations into the network — with three levels of participation and no cost to join
How AAF is partnering with University of Tennessee researchers to build a data-driven case for prevention programs
Practical advice for new nonprofit founders: research first, build relationships, and find the gap nobody else is filling
Resources & Links
Animal Angels Foundation Website
Animal Welfare Resource Network (AWRN)
Maddie's Pet Forum (where Stacy and BJ connected)

"Mother Nature provides us with all the food and medicine that we need. Food is medicine — and it is the number one thing you can do for any person or animal to help them stay healthy and help their immune system operate."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and The Kitten Conference.
What if the best medicine for your community cats isn't found in a bottle — but in a bowl? In this episode, host Stacy LeBaron sits down with Angela Ardolino, a certified cannabis and fungi clinician with over 20 years of expertise in holistic pet wellness and founder of MycoDog, MycoCat, and CBD Dog Health.
Angela's path to holistic animal care began with her own recovery from rheumatoid arthritis using plants, mushrooms, and diet — which led her to discover that every animal shares an endocannabinoid system, the body's master regulatory system. With no quality animal products on the market, she spent two years formulating and testing full-spectrum hemp extract and medicinal mushroom tinctures at her rescue farm before bringing them to the public.
Stacy and Angela dig into the real cost of kibble — not just financially, but biologically — and make the case for real food, even in small increments, for both owned cats and colony cats. Angela also offers practical guidance on supporting senior and geriatric cats with full-spectrum hemp extract, how to spot trustworthy supplements (look for a COA), and why the endocannabinoid system is the key to keeping cats healthy from the inside out.
Press Play Now For:
Why kibble is the wrong foundation for feline health — and practical, budget-friendly alternatives for pet owners and colony caregivers alike
How the endocannabinoid system works in all animals and why supporting it is key to preventing disease
How to administer full-spectrum hemp extract to cats you can touch — and cats you can't
Why 85% of supplements on the market (for pets and humans alike) aren't worth buying, and how to identify the ones that are
When a cat becomes a "senior" vs. a "geriatric" — and why that distinction matters for their care
The feline grimace scale, telehealth options, and emerging tools that help caregivers monitor cats without a vet visit
A vision for mobile veterinary care that extends to colony sites, not just indoor pets
Resources & Links
Angela Ardolino's Website
CBD Dog Health
MycoDog
Your Natural Dog Podcast
Follow Angela on Instagram
Follow Angela on Facebook
Follow Your Natural Dog on Instagram

"When we look at things on a neighborhood level and we're noticing patterns, noticing new colonies — when something's predictable, it's preventable."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and The Kitten Conference.
What does it look like to build a community cat program from scratch — not just logistically, but with real intention about how change happens in a neighborhood? In this episode, Stacy LeBaron speaks with Tonya Cook, Community Cat Program Manager at Ohio Alleycat Resource (OAR) in Cincinnati, about her remarkable journey from neonatal kitten foster to full-time community cat advocate, and what she's learned about scaling impact when you're a team of one.
Tonya's path into animal welfare began in 2020 when she started fostering neonatal kittens with Cincinnati Animal CARE. Night feedings and fragile lives gave her a front-row seat to how many kittens were being born outside — and how few resources existed to stop the cycle at the source. That question drove her toward TNR and, ultimately, toward a complete career change. In 2022, she left behind 15 years as a professional photographer to pursue animal welfare full-time, gaining hands-on experience at UCAN and Cincinnati Animal CARE before joining OAR in 2025 to build its community cat program from the ground up.
In its pilot year, that program has facilitated the TNR of over 400 cats — most of them trapped by Tonya herself, two days a week, before she recognized the limits of that approach. When burnout began to set in, she did something harder than trapping: she stepped back. That decision led to the creation of OAR's Neighborhood Cat Ambassador Program, which embeds trained volunteers directly into high-need zip codes identified through shelter and rescue data. Ambassadors walk their streets, distribute flyers with QR codes linking to a community cat census, connect caregivers to resources, mediate neighbor disputes, and trap for those who can't. The result is a program that feels less like a service and more like a movement — and one that's bringing neighbors together in the process.
Tonya also shares an inspiring story from a mobile home park 20 miles outside Cincinnati, where she spent last spring trapping 58 cats. Earlier this year, the park reached back out — not to ask for help, but to learn how to do it themselves. They've since purchased their own traps, gone door to door, posted on social media, and started bringing cats in weekly. That's the long game Tonya is playing: not just TNR, but teaching communities to sustain the work themselves.
Press Play Now For:
How fostering neonatal kittens led Tonya to TNR — and a complete career change
Why Tonya insisted on doing the work herself first before bringing in volunteers, and what she learned from that approach.
The story of Sonny, the neighborhood cat who introduced a whole street of strangers to each other
How OAR's Neighborhood Cat Ambassador Program works, who it recruits, and why ambassadors stay engaged longer than traditional trapping volunteers
A mobile home park success story: from one organization doing the work to a community sustaining TNR on their own
Why "when something's predictable, it's preventable" is the mindset shift that defines neighborhood-based cat management
How to find common ground with neighbors who hate cats and neighbors who love them
Resources & Links
Ohio Alleycat Resource (OAR) — Website
OAR Community Cat Program
OAR on Instagram (@ohioalleycat)
OAR on Facebook
Tonya Cook on Instagram (@cincycatlady)

"If you wanna have a real superpower, learn cat first aid."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Strategies to Reunite Lost Cats with Families Certification Workshop and Increasing Your Impact With Targeted TNR Certification Workshop.
Cats are both predator and prey — and that dual nature means they respond to emergencies unlike any other animal. They have five weapons of mass destruction, a flexible spine, and no apologies. When the uh-oh happens, are you ready? In this episode, Stacy sits down with Arden Moore, bestselling author, host of the longest-running pet podcast on the planet, and founder of Pet First Aid 4 U, to talk about what every cat caregiver — whether you're a TNR volunteer, a shelter worker, a foster, or a pet parent — needs to know when a cat is in crisis.
Arden draws on 15 years as a master certified pet first aid and CPR instructor to break down how to safely approach an injured or unconscious cat, the right way to perform two-handed CPR (and yes, even kitten CPR), how to transport an injured cat without spiking their fear and stress, and what to keep in your car and home to be truly safety-ready. Stacy and Arden also talk about why community cats present a unique challenge — and how many of the same skills transfer directly to TNR work in the field.
You'll also hear about the surprising void in veterinary education around pet first aid, why even vets have frozen during a pet emergency, and how Arden's famous sidekick, Pet Safety Cat Casey — a shelter alum from San Diego Humane Society who stole the show at the Virginia Cat Festival with over 350 people in the room — makes learning these life-saving skills both practical and fun.
Stacy and Arden are proud partners through the Community Cats Central e-learning platform, where group packages allow organizations to get their entire teams certified together. If your group of 10 wants to watch, learn, and get individually certified, this is the course for you.
Less than 5% of pet owners have ever taken a pet first aid class. That's a big void — and this episode is your invitation to fill it.
Press Play Now For:
Why cats in emergencies are nothing like small dogs — and how to adjust your approach for their unique physiology and stress responses
How to perform one- and two-handed CPR on a cat, including two-finger CPR for neonatal kittens
The kitty Heimlich, safe towel-wrapping technique, and the right way to use a top-loading carrier for transport
What to keep in your car and home for a pet first aid kit — and when to check it (hint: sync it with clock changes)
Why TNR caregivers are uniquely positioned to respond to field emergencies, and why a transfer cage may be better than a carrier
The ASPCA Poison Control and Pet Poison Helpline as 24/7 resources for toxic ingestions
Why you should always call ahead to the vet — and put your hazards on during transport
How Arden's "Arden's Army" of 500+ certified instructors is spreading life-saving skills across shelters, rescues, vet clinics, and beyond
How to become a certified pet first aid instructor yourself through the ProPet Hero instructor program
How the Community Cat Central / Pet First Aid 4 U partnership works, including group certification packages
Resources & Links
Pet First Aid 4 U
Arden Moore's Website
Oh Behave! Podcast on Pet Life Radio
ProPet Hero Instructor Training
Arden Moore on YouTube
Arden Moore on Instagram
Arden Moore on Facebook
ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center  (888) 426-4435, available 24/7
Pet Poison Helpline  (855) 764-7661, available 24/7