I’m Stacy LeBaron, the host of the Community Cats Podcast (CCP), and the title of this post is the tagline I use in my introduction to each podcast episode. I started the podcast in 2016 as a way to help connect people who are helping to create a humane community for cats. I was very pleased when the Humane Society of Huron Valley reached out to me to ask whether I’d to contribute a blog post for their TNR page. Based on the great work I hear is happening there,  I was happy to contribute. And I’m also pleased to say that Clinic Director and former Cat Wrangler Gary Evans has agreed to be a guest on my show as well – keep an eye out for that!

Doing TNR can be very isolating, but it doesn’t have to be that way. During my time in animal welfare, I have started MASH-style free spay/neuter clinics for cats, two mobile spay/neuter clinics, a program to help with medical costs for cats, and so much more. My podcast offers inspiration and education for anyone who cares about cats, and there is now a library of almost 400 episodes available for download. My main message is that I don’t want anyone to feel alone in this work.

If I could share one tip for folks working to help cats in the community, it’s that you need to focus on accessibility to care and spay/neuter services—really focus on being strategic in your work! To help with this, I created the Community Cat Pyramid which can help you understand how to use your resources most effectively.

As I often say, it all starts with “Adam and Eve.” We want to make sure that Adam and Eve’s families all have access to affordable or free veterinary care so that if Adam and Eve are left behind, then at least they will have been spayed/neutered.

In addition to the podcast, the CCP offers a community cats grant program and online education events like the Online Cat Conference, to be held Jan 29–31, 2021, Trapper Training Certification, free webinars, and much more!