The Community Cats Podcast

"People have to feel like they are making a difference, not earning a buck."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Neighborhood Cats' TNR Certification Workshop.
Debra Magaldi never set out to run a nonprofit. What began as feeding a neighborhood stray in her alley turned into a chance encounter with Helen Sanders herself, and after Helen's passing in 2005, a small fund to feed her jetty cats grew into CatPAWS, a Long Beach and Orange County organization now operating with an all-volunteer board, paid veterinary contractors, and a growing spay/neuter program. Sixteen years in, Debra brings her business background and MBA to a mission she says still runs on a fundamentally different fuel than any company she's worked for.
Debra and host Stacy LeBaron dig into what it actually takes to build a volunteer-run organization that lasts. Debra pushes back on the advice to "run your nonprofit like a business," arguing that while structure and strategy matter, people show up because they believe in the cause, not because of a bonus or a quota. She's candid about the cost of starting a new program: it takes far more money than founders expect, and grant and donor funding won't arrive until there's a track record to earn it. She also talks through the hard boundary-setting that comes with leadership, including learning to say no to well-meaning ideas that don't fit the organization's priorities.
On the ground, CatPAWS has scaled its spay/neuter access dramatically, moving from a mobile trailer serving only community cats in 2023 to a full surgical suite that opened in 2025 and now serves owned cats as well, with almost 700 cats served since the start of the year and typical wait times of only one to two weeks. Debra also walks through CatPAWS's approach to the question every community cat organization fields constantly: what to do when someone finds a litter of kittens. Her answer starts with checking whether mom is coming back, since kittens who stay with mom have far better survival odds, and points to the organization's "Help, I Found a Cat" guide and DIY kitten kit program as tools that keep vulnerable kittens out of shelters that aren't equipped to bottle-feed around the clock.[/one_second]
[one_second]Press Play Now For:
How CatPAWS grew from a single alley cat colony into a 16-year-old nonprofit
Why Debra treats volunteer time as equivalent to a financial donation
The real difference between running a nonprofit and running a business, and where the "run it like a business" advice breaks down
What it actually costs to launch a new program, and why grants and donors won't be there on day one
CatPAWS's mobile trailer-to-surgical-suite spay/neuter expansion and current wait times
What to actually do when you find a litter of kittens — and why waiting for mom matters
Resources & Links
Helen Sanders CatPAWS
CatPAWS Spay/Neuter Assistance
CatPAWS Who We Are & What We Do

"It is not a lack of care or love. They love, love, love their cats. They would do anything to give their cat a longer life."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Feline Infectious Disease Summit 2026.
Host Stacy LeBaron talks with Gina Fortunato, Executive Director of CATalyst Council, and Kristin Wuhrman, the organization's Chair and co-founder/Chief Experience Officer of CatsOnly Veterinary Services, about a stark gap in feline care: cats now make up nearly half of U.S. household pets, yet get only a fraction of the veterinary visits dogs do. CATalyst Council, founded in 2008, exists to close that gap with data.
Gina explains how a decade-old feline usage study first exposed the problem, while years of "veterinary visits are declining" headlines actually masked cat visits quietly climbing as dog visits fell. She also flags a number that matters to TNR advocates directly: over half of cats are acquired through informal channels rather than shelters, meaning they may never enter a system connected to routine care.
Kristin breaks down the real barriers between cat parents and the vet — affordability, carrier stress, and the myth that adult cats need less care — and the data behind them: 93% of cat parents call wellness visits important, but only 51% follow through. She and Gina talk through what's actually working: reframing reminders around a longer life rather than a routine shot, flexible visit schedules, and mobile vet care reaching cats who'd otherwise go without.
The conversation closes on Kristin's own work building CatsOnly Veterinary Services, a feline-only hospital model minimizing stress from car to exam room, and a lighter note: the "crazy cat lady" stereotype no longer holds up, with cat ownership now split evenly by gender and a rising share of millennial cat dads.
Press Play Now For:
Why cats now outnumber dogs in growth rate, yet get only a fraction of the veterinary visits
How CATalyst Council uses data to separate the "dog visits are down" headlines from what's actually happening with cats
The surprising stat that over half of cats are acquired through informal channels rather than shelters or breeders
The four biggest barriers standing between cat parents and the vet — and which one might surprise you
Why 93% of cat parents say wellness visits matter, but only 51% actually follow through
How reframing a vet reminder around a cat's longer life can change a cat parent's behavior
The growing role of mobile veterinary care in closing the access gap
An inside look at CatsOnly Veterinary Services, a new feline-only hospital model built to minimize stress from car to exam room
Why the "crazy cat lady" stereotype no longer matches the data — and the rise of the cat dad
How the broader animal health and welfare ecosystem can better collaborate to serve every cat, from community colonies to household companions
Resources & Links
CATalyst Council
CatsOnly Veterinary Services
Mission Meow

"The more I work in this field, the more there is to learn — and there's multiple strategies that you have to implement."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Feline Infectious Disease Summit 2026.
Pallavi Kamath grew up fostering kittens in Mumbai, studied animal science at UC Davis, earned a master's in animal public policy, and returned home to lead The Feline Foundation — an NGO she describes as the first in Maharashtra to systematically address the needs of community cats. With an estimated one million cats on Mumbai's streets and no existing population data to work from, the Foundation built its entire approach around a Logical Framework Matrix: a structured problem tree that mapped every welfare challenge and converted each into a program goal, giving the organization three focused pillars — population management, healthcare, and community involvement.
On the ground, that means zone-by-zone sterilization across Andheri West, Mumbai's largest suburb. The Foundation divides the area into zones, conducts exhaustive street-by-street cat censuses, organizes local feeders into "carer collectives," and sets monthly TNR targets before returning to repeat the census. Once a zone hits 80% sterilized, it moves into maintenance mode — with community members taking the lead. Six of their 12 zones have crossed that threshold.
Pallavi and Stacy also dig into the logistical realities most programs never face: nearly zero access to commercial traps, a handful of expert cat catchers who learned entirely on the job, and a city so geographically dense that sterilizing one neighborhood means immediately contending with cats flowing in from the next. The conversation closes on scalability — how a cat cafe can seed community buy-in, why Mumbai's municipal government is a rare progressive funding partner, and what it would take to open additional centers across a city that still has nowhere near enough sterilization resources.
Press Play Now For:
How a Logical Framework Matrix turns a problem tree into an organizational blueprint
The zone-by-zone census methodology: every street, every building, every shopkeeper — before TNR begins
What a "carer collective" is and why organizing local feeders before you start trapping changes everything
The 80% threshold: how the Foundation defines population stability and transitions to maintenance mode
The reality of trap access in India — and how a visit from an international colleague transformed the team's efficiency
Why Mumbai's dog sterilization history may have contributed to a massive cat population explosion
How a cat cafe can function as an adoption engine and community awareness hub
Why Mumbai's municipal government is one of the few in India providing grants for cat sterilization — and why it's still not enough
Resources & Links
The Feline Foundation
The Feline Foundation on Instagram
The Feline Foundation on Facebook
The Feline Foundation on YouTube
The Feline Foundation on LinkedIn
CCC TNR Certification Workshops

"The goal isn't so much a set number as the area, and 100% sterilization — which is a lofty goal. But the only thing we can do is keep going."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Feline Infectious Disease Summit 2026.
Louise Holton has been working to protect cats for decades and across continents — from TNR work with the Johannesburg SPCA in the 1970s, to helping establish TNR programs in the UK, to founding Alley Cat Rescue in 1997 as the first national organization in the US dedicated to all cats, friendly and feral alike. She's joined this episode by Debbie Holzer, who has worked alongside her since 2020 and brings a nonprofit development background to ACR's writing, programs, and day-to-day operations. Together they share how their own early connections to cats — Louise's mother's habit of rescuing strays, Debbie's childhood cat she called her best friend — set the stage for lifelong advocacy.
Stacy and the team dig into how the community cat landscape itself has shifted: TNR programs built in the '90s for antisocial, "spitfire" feral cats now have to account for a growing population of social, unowned cats living outdoors without a dedicated caregiver. Debbie and Louise talk through what that means for how programs prioritize care, and why leaving a friendly, adoptable-seeming cat outdoors can still be the better outcome when shelter capacity can't absorb every cat that could technically come inside.
The conversation's centerpiece is Alley Cat Rescue's African wildcat conservation work. The African wildcat — ancestor of the modern housecat — is losing genetic purity as it interbreeds with domestic and stray cats along the borders of places like Kruger National Park. ACR's strategy is a sterilization "buffer zone" along those borders: spay/neuter and rabies-vaccinate every domestic cat in town after town, closing one community at a time to stop the intermingling. To date, the program has sterilized around 6,000 cats on Kruger's borders and roughly 11,000 more in the Cape region, where a local caregiver has identified seven hybrid cats through DNA testing.
Louise and Debbie are candid about the obstacles: a severe veterinary shortage in South Africa (many vets have emigrated), unreliable population data, and almost no dedicated funding for small wild cat species. They highlight mobile vets like Dr. Ina Visser, who packs her own equipment into a car — or a plane — to set up clinics in remote farming communities, including one stop at an abandoned diamond mine with 120 free-roaming cats. The episode closes with a reminder that nobody needs a veterinary degree to help build spay/neuter capacity in their own community, and an invitation for listeners' vets to join Alley Cat Rescue's Feral Fix Challenge, the annual global TNR initiative that has helped sterilize over 600,000 community cats to date.[/one_second]
[one_second]Press Play Now For:
The story behind Louise Holton's lifelong devotion to cats, sparked by a single sighting of an African wildcat in Kruger Park at age 14
Debbie Holzer's path from a childhood "best friend" cat to a career in cat advocacy
Why today's TNR programs are dealing with more social, unowned outdoor cats than the antisocial ferals of decades past
A crash course on the African wildcat: what it is, where it lives, and why it matters to every housecat's ancestry
How hybridization between domestic cats and African wildcats threatens the wildcat's genetic purity — and how DNA testing confirms it
Inside Alley Cat Rescue's sterilization "buffer zone" strategy along the borders of Kruger National Park
The hard numbers: roughly 6,000 cats sterilized at Kruger's borders and 11,000 in the Cape region so far
Why rabies vaccination is built into every TNR catch in South Africa, and the public health stakes involved
The reality of practicing veterinary medicine in rural South Africa, and how mobile vets like Dr. Ina Visser reach cats that have no other access to care
Why you don't need to be a veterinarian to help build spay/neuter capacity — and how to get your own vet involved in the Feral Fix Challenge
Resources & Links
Alley Cat Rescue
The Feral Fix Challenge — sign up your veterinarian
Alley Cat Rescue's African Wildcat Conservation Program
Contact Debbie Holzer: debbie@saveacat.org

"That's my own formula — passion and compassion tempered by dedication and humor."
This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund, OcuTrap, and Drop Traps: Beginning and Advanced Certification Workshop.
After more than five decades behind the exam table, Dr. Kevin Lynch has treated thousands of pets, mentored generations of veterinary staff, and built one of Long Island's longest-running animal hospitals. His new memoir, Off the Leash: Tales From a Lifetime of Healing Pets and Wonder, traces that journey from a 13-year-old kid who talked his way into a part-time job at a local animal hospital to a veterinarian whose guiding philosophy is simple: treating the animal is only half the work, and tending to the person on the other end of the leash is the rest.
Dr. Lynch and Stacy dig into one of the thorniest debates in animal welfare: the divide between "indoor-only" advocates and the realities of outdoor and community cat caregiving. Drawing on his own farm-cat memories from working summers on a dairy farm before vet school, he makes the case for listening over judging, and for meeting cat caregivers where they are instead of where a textbook says they should be. From there, the conversation turns practical: how should trappers and community cat program managers actually approach a veterinarian for the first time? Dr. Lynch's answer centers on intention, relationship-building, and showing up with a plan rather than a crisis.
The episode also gets personal. Dr. Lynch opens up about compassion fatigue and burnout, a topic he says is as urgent in veterinary medicine today as it's ever been, and shares the daily habits, including a deliberately disciplined relationship with his phone, that keep him from burning out after 51 years in practice. He and Stacy also revisit one of the most harrowing chapters of his career: volunteering with search-and-rescue dogs at Ground Zero after 9/11, an experience he says revealed both the depths of tragedy and the best of human nature.
Rounding out the conversation, Dr. Lynch shares a few of the stories from his book, including an unforgettable lesson in slowing down before attempting a DIY tick removal. He also talks about where listeners can find his memoir, his YouTube series The Pet Mindset Show, and the dental care device he invented for dogs and cats.
Press Play Now For:
How a 13-year-old's unpaid job at a Long Island animal hospital turned into a 51-year veterinary career
Dr. Lynch's perspective on the indoor-only versus outdoor/community cat debate, and why he believes there's no one-size-fits-all answer
His honest advice for trappers and caregivers on how to approach a veterinarian for the first time
Why showing up with "a plan" rather than a crisis is the fastest way to build trust with a vet
The role of compassion fatigue and burnout in veterinary medicine, and the daily habits that help him stay in the game
His "physical mailbox" approach to managing phone use and protecting mental bandwidth
A first-hand account of volunteering with search-and-rescue dogs at Ground Zero after 9/11
The story behind a Rottweiler named Big Shot, and the unexpected humanity he witnessed during that crisis
Two unforgettable cat stories from his memoir, including a lesson in patience before attempting DIY pet care
Where to find his memoir, his YouTube series, and the dental device he invented for pets
Resources & Links
Off the Leash: Tales From a Lifetime of Healing Pets and Wonder (Amazon)
Dr. Kevin Lynch's website
The Pet Mindset Show (YouTube)
Plaque Be Gone dental device