206. How Mission Meow Empowers Cat Rescues

0:00 Welcome back pet parent, I have something a little bit different for you today, but something that is kind of passionate for me because y'all know I am a long time cat lady. I have had at least one cat in my life since the day I turned 18, the day I moved out. And I still have cats today, even though most of you know me for dogs. And that's OK. I am a canine nutritionist. I'm a holistic pet health coach, but I work with both dogs and cats because I love them both equally. And today's guest is Sally Williams, and she's here to talk to us today about a really cool nonprofit called Mission Meow.

0:42 And I just please stick in for this because I think this is going to be this is yes. I'm probably going to ask you to check it out and donate at the end. But I promise you, this is not gonna be like a sales pitch. We're not gonna be like playing the Sarah McLachlan song for you. That's not how I roll. But I am very curious. First of all, thank you so much for being here with me today, Sally. It has been such a pleasure to just kind of know that you're out there in my sphere of people that I know because you have such great energy and I appreciate what you do. So if you wouldn't mind starting off by just telling me a little bit about like you and I know you have a big history and in the nonprofit space. And so I just like to learn a little bit about like how you got into all of this.

1:32 Sure. Hi and thank you Jessica for so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here and be a guest on the show and introduce Mission Meow to more people as we were talking before we started recording. It is honestly the greatest joy of my life along with my family and my my kitties and I like you. I may have 3 cats but I am a true animal lover and I've had dogs and cats my whole life but I feel like my mom. It was the beginning of all this. When my mom was pregnant with me, our cat Sandy slept on me on her belly. And when I was born, Sandy slept in the bassinet with me, and that was it.

2:16 It was like this unbreakable bond with cats was formed. And we had a dog at the time too, this gorgeous Basset Hound named Callie, who I adored. But Callie couldn't make it up into the bassinet with me. You know, Basset Hound and all that. She. Wanted. Yeah, yeah. And. That bond just just grew and grew and grew and grew. There's never been a point in my life where there wasn't a cat with me. Even in in college, I broke the room rolls and had a cat in my dorm room. So cats have just always been a big part of my life. I think I was a pet sitter at a very young age. I was one of those kids who went around to the neighbors and said if you ever need somebody to feed your cats, I'm happy to do it.

2:59 And I always just wanted to be around cats. And then my career took me a different way and worked retail for many, many years. And then something happened in my late 30s where I started to not feel well. And this all ties into how all of this started. And I couldn't work. I got sick with multiple autoimmune disorders but had an amazing Doctor Who said to me, I think you should volunteer. Volunteering is very healing. Find something where you don't have to have a set schedule. Without thinking, tell me what you would do. I'm like, well, I would want to pet cats, he said. So go find a place where you can pet cats.

3:39 And I did that. And I went to a local shelter and became a volunteer and then became an adoption counselor and inevitably studied behavior, studied animal Reiki, just really immersed myself in that world. And then one of my cats was diagnosed with cancer and I, we decided to treat. He had a nasal tumor. We knew with treatment we would get the gift of time. And that's really what we wanted. Brody was 13 years old and we just really wanted more time with him, Good time. We were very mindful. This wasn't about us, but we thought he could get good quality of life. But when I was at the vet's office, I was hearing all these conversations and for the first time, I heard the term economic euthanasia and was horrified that people might have to put a cat or a dog to sleep, even though the cancer could be treatable or they would get time. And that's where the first nonprofit came from. I founded something called the Brody Fund, and for eight years we gave grants to families that couldn't afford cancer treatment.

4:45 And it was amazing until I just, I didn't realize I've been in, you know, a volunteer in the cat sector for a long time, volunteer with in different ways with local nonprofits. Never experienced burnout. Did not know that it would happen as a nonprofit director, but I was so immersed in the pet cancer world. It became overwhelming and sad. And we as a board got together, made the very challenging decision after a long period of time that we were going to close the Brody Fund. It had done amazing work. We threw it off and quite a fashion, had a big party, gave legacy grants. We made it very proud. And then I took some time off and I thought it was interesting. I was listening to podcasts like crazy at that point. So we were just coming out of COVID. Everybody, I think, was listening to podcasts to that point.

5:35 And there were two that really changed my life. When was the J Shitty one about burnout where I could recognize what was going on and this was normal, what I was experiencing? And the second one was a Brené Brown one where the the guest kind of took over the interview and told her that she was doing too much and she needed to take time off and get bored. That really struck me as something bored. And she said, I don't mean antsy bored, bored, like your mind is clear. And I thought, gosh, I can't remember the last time that happened. And I did it. And I took this time to myself. Lucky. I have a very supportive husband, and I spent a lot of time outside in nature.

6:18 And one day it hit me. I miss running a nonprofit. That's what I'm missing. There are so many other things I could be doing. I could go back to work in the traditional sense, but I really missed a nonprofit. And I recognize at that point that's my calling. This is what I should be doing. It's very purpose driven. That's not financial driven. It's not going to make me $1,000,000, but it feeds my soul in a way that nothing else did. That was it. OK, so now I know that's what I want to do. And then it becomes who do I help? OK, I have a lot of experience in the cat world. I have a background in behavior. I'm volunteering for organizations, one in particular that had a very successful Cat Cafe adoption center.

7:02 They hosted conventions and yet COVID really impacted them and they had to downsize, move to a different location. And I thought, well, if an organization that's that well known that well run is dealing with these challenges, where else is it happening? So I became a keyboard warrior and just start playing New York State Cat Rescue, closing Colorado Cat Rescue, just going state by state by state with different, you know, changing the words up a little bit, but still the general idea. And it was clear that this was happening all across the country. And the reality is that a lot of these groups, the small feline centric nonprofits, they're the grassroots organizations, they are really at the heart of the problem.

7:47 Many of them are doing TNR and many of them are taking the senior cats, the special needs cats. Many of them have the contracts with the counties in the towns for the stray cats coming in to have the, you know, to have the ferals coming in to be doing the TNR. If these organizations are struggling, we the cat community are in big trouble. So I had, all right, here's my nonprofit. Now I know who I want to help. And then it became, how do I help? And I thought, well, it can rule out the things I don't want to do. When I had the Brody Fund, we were very event driven and fundraising in the very traditional way of individual donors.

8:27 And it's a lot of work. The parties are fun, right? When you have events, there are a lot of fun. But I will say this, they cost money and the outcomes are unpredictable. The ones that you think are going to be fantastic sometimes can flop. And the little ones you think might not do anything end up being a really a gem of a fundraiser. But I thought, well, all right, let's eliminate those. How can I hit the ground running fast and raise a lot of money quickly? Because if my mission now as I know who I want to help, these small orgs don't, they don't need a $500 grant. They need a big grant that can really change things for them and help them grow. Because that's they don't get those.

9:09 When you do your research, you find out they get small community grants, which are wonderful. They'll get a occasionally a larger chunk of private donor will give them a nice size, but nothing like 10,012. They they don't get those again back out in the backyard, swinging in the hammock with my cat, thinking, OK, you know, now I I've got got The Who I want to help. What's the name and how do we get to the big money? My cat when I kept putting out there, what's my mission? What's my mission? Just let out a tiny little meow. There it is. We're mission meow. That's the name came and then it was OK. Now how do we get started? I reached out to two people in the cat world, said I need 2 board members to be able to form a fancy three. They agreed, had my foundation of the organization and then it was OK.

9:59 Fundraising. The thing that nobody wants to do, nobody wants to talk about. I'm actually quite passionate about it and oddly it came to me and it's a sad situation, but it nevertheless it was the inspiration. The town next to me had a family that had had a fire. They lost their house, lost everything, and you know what happens when the communities come together. But what I found really interesting is, was it just the community members? It was the local businesses and they had a whole weekend. They did sipping shops, they had private parties. They gave a percentage of sales. That raised a lot of money. And I thought, that's it. I can business crowdfund, I can reach out to businesses in the cat community and ask if they will contribute and be the foundation of our organization. So that was kind of the genesis of it. And then it became OK.

10:51 Then there's the details. How often are we going to collect this money? How often are we going to give? And we just came up with a very, a very simple way of doing it. We give quarterly, we give in January, April, July and October. And we do that for two reasons. One is it's less stress on anybody you're asking. Only need to give 4 * a year. That's it. The rest of the time you could be helping local organizations or not help at all. If you're a small business, maybe you don't have the bandwidth to do more. So just 4 * a year. It also allows Michigan meow the downtime we need, right? So we have a big fundraising month, then we reorganize, we give the grants, we do check ceremonies, that takes a whole month.

11:34 Then we start the grant process again. We take applications for two weeks. We vet them for almost 2 weeks. We choose it, and we start that fundraising all over again. And probably in your mind, you're thinking, well, why do you have to fundraise if you have business partners, They are the foundation. We know that we now we have 82 business partners that are going to be contributing. But to give a really big grant, we need individual donors as well. So in the fundraising month, which we just had in April, we tell the story of the organizations we pick. So let's use this example. We had two in April. 1 was LIC Feral Feeders which means Long Island City Feral Feeders and they are a TNR organization founded and run by women and they are an urban organization so you can imagine what TNR looks like there. They find themselves in alleys and then situations that are not ideal and they are out there doing this hard work and they needed a safe place to have cats pre surgery, post surgery and before they are released and they needed cameras and some equipment.

12:43 So that was 1 grant. The other grant is Tomato Foster Club in New Orleans which I just think I don't. I never even asked them where the tomato part came from and it may be in their grant application but I think it's a call name. Probably is a cat named Tomato. Their focus are special needs kittens and their grant application was for 8 incubators and the oxygen so that they can save the neonates, the special needs orphan kittens that, you know, without an incubator, you're, you're piecemealing things together. You know, you have a bottle warmer, you've got all these little things for under a blanket like the old school, you know, those little yeah, rubbery warmers. I mean, you're doing it that way and you can do it, but having incubators is priceless. 8 incubators. That's going to save a lot of lives. So what we do in that time frame is we tell all about these organizations, what makes them so special. We interview people, we'll share adoption stories, all these different things.

13:43 And now our individual donors get to see the heart of these organizations and what makes them so special. And that's kind of how that's how the whole process works for us. And then there's a whole other side that I can tell you, but you might have questions. I can tell you about the business partners side of things too. But my favorite part is telling their stories because I want people to know how special they are. So the support continues well beyond after Mission. Meow gives them the money. Yeah, Well, that so storytelling, marketing is something I'm very actually passionate about. I love it. I think, you know, organic content creation stems from storytelling.

14:26 And I just love that you kind of embody that. And I do have questions but really quickly I'm just feeling really called to say this because I think I don't know who else out there may need to hear this, but apparently I needed to hear this today. And so I'm just going to tell the story really quickly. Sally and I were supposed to record 3 days from now and I messaged her and I was like, is there any way you can record tomorrow instead? And she was amazing. Was like of course we can record tomorrow. And so you just told the story about listening to J Shuddy and Brené Brown. And when you started talking about the guest taking over and telling her that she needs to be bored, I, I don't know if you saw me, I was literally over here crying.

15:10 And it was. What are you doing but OK? And it's so random, but I think the universe works in really strange ways. And so I just want to acknowledge that like I received that message and I feel like I feel like maybe all of this happened and we rescheduled and you were supposed to tell me that and I'm supposed to call this out because I don't know if anybody else needs to hear this. But I feel like for me, like I needed to hear that message. I listen to Bernie Brown, but not regularly. And I didn't, I didn't hear that particular podcast. I feel like I needed to hear that with like everything going on in my life and what I'm doing right now. I feel like that's exactly, I don't know, it just hit me and I it literally, I was like trying so hard not to cry.

15:55 I'm like, I'm crying right now and this is. Fine. It was such an awakening for me. It was like I was meant to hear that. I mean, look what happened. I don't think any of this would have happened had I not been listening that day and really felt it, like Raw felt it and was this is what I need to do, this is what I have to do. You have to listen to these messages. I mean, I've had so many in my life that when I was going in One Direction and something happened in a door shut that pushed me in another way and I ended up where I was supposed to be and I was fighting for some reason going one way and there. Were.

16:41 Roadblocks that I kept like, Oh no, I've got to push past that when no, those roadblocks were there so that I would move in another way. Yeah, I believe that so much. Glad that you that you've received something that you needed to beyond just having a wonderful conversation about a world that we care deeply about. Yeah. So I just, yeah, I just wanted to put that out there in case somebody listening also, I don't know, maybe you heard, maybe you heard that message the same time I did. But I want to acknowledge that it it's, it's a pretty powerful message. And I think it's very certainly in our society today, like counter culture to do that to to pause. Like we're definitely live in like a whole hustle culture, which I feel especially for women is, is not healthy at all. Yeah.

17:35 So being bored. Goodness. I love the way that it that she explained it that not, you know, when you get bored and you just get uncomfortable. But yeah, antsy bored. This guest said no, I'm talking about past that past that point to where you're completely your mind is completely freed up and the space is available for what's supposed to come next to come in. And when it does, you're going to be like, and I reached, I mean, I hadn't read a book at that point. I couldn't even tell you. I was so busy all the time. I wasn't reading books. I wasn't going to parks anymore. I wasn't getting out in nature. I wasn't really giving my cats what they needed. They're being met either.

18:21 And all of that happened. And now I have this amazing gift, which is also now taking up an enormous amount of time. And I'm back in that hustle world. But that's always back here. I'm taking some time off coming up because I said I need for me to plug in and recharge means to actually unplug. And that's what I'm going to be doing soon. And if we don't do that, I feel like I know for me personally that I've had health issues when I pushed and pushed and pushed and mission meow gives me so much more than I could ever imagine. I get very emotional when I get really deep talking about it, but it still needs me to take time off and, you know, take care of myself so that I can. Especially these days, I feel like the world is more complicated.

19:08 At least I, I'm 58, I'll be 59 this year and then my 59 years. I feel like this right now has been a very the most challenging time externally too. Yeah, just mean I've had, I've had lot, you know, losses in my life and all that, but just I felt so much heaviness in the world recently and as a sensitive person, it's it's a challenging space to navigate because I want to be giving so much to the organizations and that now they're in need more than ever. But on the flip side, we have our business partners who are also experiencing challenges too. And this is a unique place to be that I have two sides that are both being tested right now and we want to support both of them because my our business partners are like family to me.

20:00 I feel so incredibly lucky that they are. If you're thinking everybody needs to buy things for your pets, this is not to push any businesses. But seriously, our business partners are partners because they love the cat community, they love the animal community, they love giving back. They don't have to. They made a choice to do this and I am. So I just love them all so much. And I have really, I honestly, if I was to have a conversation with a business and I didn't feel like we're not quite aligning, I don't think they would be a part of Mission Meow. Yeah, the energy of that is really important to me and I don't know how to do anything other than lead with my heart and have a very personal relationship with somebody. So if that's not something that fits for them, probably Mission Meow is not the right organization for them. It's just the fact of how we are. Yeah, so with Mission Meow, I actually, and I don't know if I've ever told you this, I started in this world, this pet space with doing TNR.

21:08 That's how I started and it was. I'm also a very empathetic person who feels everyone's energy very intensely. I've actually had to work very hard at trying to not internalize other people's energy. It's, yeah, it's, it's it's a thing that I'm still working on, quite honestly, especially if I meet somebody new that I'm. Challenging because you don't want to completely shut everything out like I don't believe in. Like if, if people understand Reiki, you can set a protective bubble and keep everything out. But keeping everything out to me isn't good either. So it's finding that balance of letting enough in where you remain human and empathetic and kind, but also it's not hurting you.

21:53 Right. Yeah. And so, you know, this was back in my early 20s when I was doing TNR and I got burnt out really quickly just because. TNR is hard work. It's it's, I don't mean just physically challenged. It's emotionally very challenging. It is and honestly that first time I had to let cats back outside, I was like, that killed me. Killed me. Cuz I'm like, I understand logically that these are not adoptable animals, but like you care for them so much even though you've never, they've never let you touch them. Yeah, but I'm so I have, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for cats and so. And it is definitely I also always talk to people anytime I do like a cat centric episode, which I don't, but I mean, I try to do at least a few times a year because it is, it's important for me that I do that because I feel like that's like it grounds me a little bit back to my roots and, and where I came from.

22:55 I mean, the fact that I do still have cats, but it is, I think a lot harder. I think there are certainly like cats rule the Internet. Don't get me wrong. Like, you know, there are cat memes everywhere and everybody likes, you know, laughing and sharing cat memes. But there is a very different feeling, I think for not all people, of course, but for a lot of people in in our society that like, we just, we care for dogs and cats differently. And so it has to be really it, it, it has to just have an extra layer of challenge, I guess is is. Where I'm going, we work very hard in the cat community because yes, it's true. You can, you can find any kind of meme, any kind of anything. But when it comes to veterinary care, it's not the same. I, I am always challenged with that offices that practices. It's very easy for, you know, we have a a beautiful new hospital nearest that was built and they have a space that's supposed to be where the cats come in.

24:02 But it's this little tiny space and the walls don't go up to the ceiling. There's no door. The dogs are still coming in. And all the money in the world didn't make this a good space for cats. You get into a vet practice, it's not set up very cat friendly. You can walk into any of the Super pet stores. The cat stuff is not the dog stuff is one whole aisle and then you'll have like fish, reptiles, bunnies, and then they make us go all the way to the back for cats. And yet we're spending tons of money. So there's there's some sort of disconnect. I think it's changing.

24:49 I think there's still work to be done. Yeah, But I do think, I do think it's changing a lot and especially in the in the area of holistics, I think that cat folks are really driving that. That to me is an area where you're where we're talking all the time. I mean, I knew for me all my cats have an integrative approach to veterinary care, especially having lived through, you know, having had four cats with cancer. It was all, all that and you know, I'm very much into things being, you know, I, it's interesting because I'm a Reiki practitioner. I'm very careful with what I eat. I have autoimmune disease, but I'm also that person where I understand not everybody has the money to be feeding. I mean, the really healthy foods, a lot of them are very expensive and you put a roof over their head. You love them and you do the best you can. That's the space I come from, right? There's, there's, there's wonderful things happening in the cat world.

25:57 Let's just say that I think things are really, really changing. And I, it should be that way for both. I love dogs. The only reason I don't have a dog is because, and I did this should have something I should have asked before we got married. I just assumed because my husband grew up with dogs that he would want to have a dog too. And then the conversation came. We were, I don't know, probably in our 30s and we had two cats like, all right, let's go get the dog. These cats are great. They're they would be wonderful. I don't want a dog. We mean you don't want a dog. So we never got a dog. You know what we did? I went out two more cats because two more cats equaled the size of the dog that I would like to have. Oh.

26:37 My goodness, that's. That's funny. Yeah, so funny. Yeah, cats are. And this is another conversation I have often when I have cat people on. In fact, the first time I ever said it on this podcast was with Jay and Adrian. And they were like appalled with me because I was like, cats are so much harder to take care of and dogs. And this is just my experience, but I think. A lot of people say the other thing. They say, Oh my gosh, it's so easy to take care of a cat. You just put food and litter. No, no, all animals it, it doesn't matter. Cats, dogs, some are easier than others, some are harder than others. They're I mean, they're all different personalities.

27:18 It's. Yeah, yeah. And it's also put into it, right? I mean, it is well, and that's the thing that so many people do have that mindset of the cats are easy, put food down, clean the litter box, hopefully clean the litter box and that's all they need and it's absolutely not all they need. And guess what? The humans are missing out on the all the really fun stuff. They really are. I think so too. The way you engage with a cat, the way that you provide them enrichment is very, I mean it's similar but in some ways, but very different from a dog. You just to see them like they are.

28:01 They are like apex predators and living in your home end. Up going and doing that whole prey sequence. Yeah. It's it's so, you know, they get going, they get the butt wiggle and then they go and I don't know. And here's the because I had a behavior business for seven years, the contented cat working with people and talking about enrichment. One of the things I heard all the time was that my cat doesn't like to play. And my answer is, well, you haven't found the right toy yet. That's all. Yes, you need to find out what they like. Some, like I am a huge fan of the bird and it's got these big long feathers, but I have a very shy cat who doesn't like it because that one moves in a way that he doesn't like so much where a wand toy that has a little mouse on the end that I just tug along the floor. He's all about that.

28:52 Some would rather I have thatchers. I have one cat that will fetch all day long, you know, get a nice softball, throw it up the stairs. He'll run up and down until finally he's just done just panting. So they all have their thing and all mine are harness trained too, so all mine go outside and I here's a shout out. Thank you Jay and Adrian. Their flea and tick formula is a godsend. You know, my lawn doesn't have any pesticides on it. So I feel very safe going out there with them. I just, I had had one experience with a cat and personally with the topical flea treatment. So it's just my personal choice not to use it and their flea and tick.

29:34 I can spray it in my hands and I have autoimmune disease and I, I don't spray it on them because they don't like that. So I spray it in my hands and then it becomes a grooming session, you know, just rubbing it all over them. Then we take them outside and that just, it's a hunt. It's been 100% and I love it so much. And I, you know, it took some time to train them on harnesses and I do it the right way. Anybody who says just throw it on and take them outside, please don't do that. Them inside, start them with just a collar and that collar might last 2 minutes and then give them some treat and try again the next day and then extend it and then eventually make it the harness. And then you can leave them through the house by dropping treats or holding a churu and leading them through the house. And then and then you can get them outside. Because I know a lot of people want to do, if they're like, my cats hate it.

30:21 We'll go back to square 1. And there's great resources out there. I mean, we have a couple companies that have great resources if anybody wants to do that. Yeah. So if somebody out there does have a business and they're interested in potentially, you know, sponsoring. Being a business partner, yeah. How? How does that work and how what do? You it's so easy. It is so easy and so inexpensive and so impactful. You can be a small, small business or you can have a big business. And if you look at our partners, you will see all of them. I use an example. I love Pam Webster. She has the, she's the crocheting cat behaviorist.

31:01 It is a small, newer business. So she figures out what she can contribute and she can contribute that. There's no set expectation. Is it easier in some ways to manage when everybody has a set amount? Sure. But we want people to feel good about giving and we want them to feel no pressure about giving. I don't want somebody to say, I'm going to give you $500 a quarter and then their quarter comes and they're like money's a little tight right now. So the bigger companies are more apt to say we're going to pick an amount. That's what we're going to give every, every quarter. Smaller businesses, some do percentage of sales, some do special events, some picked a product and the proceeds from that product go to us. We do not tell our business partners how much and we don't tell you that you have to pick a set amount. We do say give quarterly.

31:53 Some set it up so money comes in every month that makes it easier for them, harder for our bookkeeping, but easier for them. So we encourage people to give quarterly if they can. You determine the level that you want to come in on and that's where you go. We try to get the businesses and you'll probably be like what to start around 202 fifty 1/4. So even the bigger companies that's only 800 to $1000 a year. And people like, well, that doesn't seem like a lot of money, but when you have 82 partners, it is a lot of money. And it's, it's not about the individual give, although that's what we need. We need the businesses to give. It's about how much it is coming together. We do not tear.

32:37 Nobody gets more on social media. No one gets a bigger space on the website. It's not about that. It is truly about coming together. As far as the partnership part of it, we give what we call is the business partners perks package and they in a fundraising month get benefits back to them and set number of social media mentions, blogs, emails, all the different things that we do to highlight them. And it's easy to highlight companies that you're supportive, right? This is that we, I use their products that I'm passionate about. So my cats have a surfer cat harness. We have a litter robot upstairs that Desmond that's his go to and we have options. We have three.

33:22 No, we have four boxes and three cats. And so we have options. I have sheer fun. I just highlighted them. That is one of my favorite go to toys. And if people do not have a sheer fun, you should have a sheer fun. And I knew them before I started missing me out. And so these are the things like these are products that initially I reached out to. Who did I know at conventions, when I was at conventions for the Brody Fund? What products in my house do I love? And you know, because I want to feel, I want to feel I've had some sort of investment in them. I wouldn't, I don't like the idea of, oh, we're just going to pick a random business. I like knowing something about the business.

34:03 Or if a new company comes along and we find out about them and we're really excited about them, we want to bring them on board. And they also have to get that mission. Meow feels like a family. If you're not comfortable with that, you might not be the right fit for us. Do we have an attorney? Do we have an accountant? Do we do all the things the right way? Yes. Do we have full transportation? Yes. But until maybe we're, you know, a multi $1,000,000 nonprofit and even then I still think I would struggle with it. I I like that personal feel. I like that I have a personal relationship with all these businesses. It makes me feel good about especially right now we're doing something called the Summer Mission Meow Summer of support because the economy has been a little unsettled and because some of our smaller and medium sized businesses are really feeling the impact of the tariffs. I mean, this is a real thing that it's not it's not I don't I don't get into the minutiae of politics. It's just a fact that a lot of the smaller companies, even the bigger companies, they, even though the products are made here, they're getting bits and pieces from other places because they wouldn't be able to afford having a business if they did not, right.

35:18 So we know they're feeling the impact now. So we decided to take the entire summer and highlight our businesses. So you're going to see in our social media, and I wish I had it right here. I would show you sheer fun because I love it so much, but I don't want to get up and walk out on your interview. That's OK. Look up. Sheer fun. Yeah, it's this sheer fabric that has a border that. You know what? I wonder if I do? Oh, my. In my office. Perfect timing, right? I keep Sasha's choice. Can actually show you. Awesome. This is so cool. I swear to you I had no intention that I looked over to grab something and there it was. This is sheer fun.

36:01 OK, Yeah. And so it crinkles. Yeah. So they love the border. And what you can do too is throw it over a box and now they're in the box and trying to get out from underneath that. You could hide toys underneath it. You can put it over a cat and then they're the 2 cats, one's under it. It's genius. It's so simple, It's so genius. And she makes a product for shelters too, that you can hang this up outside a cage and it's a privacy screen. It's like. I. Know favorites and I just order I have so much over in my I just got this from another one of my business partners Princess dreams.

36:47 She hand makes cat toys, not just her she has a team but I just this was a new one that I got from her and I love it so much. Look at this. It's an ear of corn. And it it crinkles. Doesn't have to. Yep, it crinkles. This is one of our business partners as well. I mean gosh, she sent me this. This is 1 new one of hers too. She's made these beautiful flowers. Oh. My goodness. But if you if you go to our website, you will see our business partners. I couldn't be more proud of all of them. And and they are like we have behaviorists. Michael Delgado is, is a member. I think we have 5 or 6 behaviorists they're so passionate about. We do.

37:30 I mentioned Michael Delgado easily because she's a board member too. So she's very involved in our organization. We have very small toy companies. We have very big, you know, toy companies. We have Doctor Elsies who's been in with us. We just signed on Litter Genie recently. So it really there's and it's so cool. It's like we have, I've received emails at the holidays. Thank you so much for your website. It was one stop Christmas shopping. I had no idea. That's amazing. And we're also connecting people because we have brick and mortar stores. We have several of those that in different States and they have gone to our site and they found wholesalers and now they're carrying products in their stores because of their connection to Mission Meow. I love that.

38:16 I love that. So much I didn't expect, right there are there are so many things in the past 2 1/2 years. So it's been 2 1/2 years, 23 grants given and think we give quarterly 23 grants given for $186,000. That's amazing. I love that. And all to small organizations. And what I think it's it's really important for people to know is that these groups are the foundation of rescue, whether it was on a dog side or the cat side, the small organizations are really the ones doing just the tough stuff. I mean, right now they're the ones taking in these teeny tiny kittens and finding them all the time because they're the really ones doing most of the trap neuter returns. So they're the ones finding these tiny kittens and tomato foster club that we work with, they're one of the ones that taking special needs.

39:14 Special needs kittens are more expensive, you know, and some people say, Oh, well, you know, maybe we shouldn't be trying to save them. You could be saving more if you were putting that money somewhere else. So guess what? There's enough room for everyone. I love their mission. You go to their page and see the faces of these beautiful kittens, you wouldn't think twice about doing it. And guess what? They're in New Orleans. There are plenty of other organizations around them doing TNR, doing foster, having the traditional rescue build. There's plenty of that. This is their mission, right? So there's room for everybody. And I love what they do. So I just especially right now, this is kitten season for people that really are not immersed in the cat world.

40:01 There's a small part of the country down South that really has kitten season non-stop. And I don't know how they do it, I really don't. But for most of the country, it happens when we hit that 50° mark and the female cats start going into heat and next thing you know. We have lots of kittens being born outside and I wish, I wish I could tell you the pyramid right now of what 1 cat turns into, but it's pretty darn fast. Because if one cat could be four months old, has a litter of four kittens, if three are females and they're not fixed those females in four months while having babies and on and on and on. And it happens very quickly. TNR is the humane solution for this. So we really need to be supporting our trap neuter return organizations as much as possible. Because if we understand a bit, because I think it's talked about more the veterinary community, we talk about burnout all the time and a lot of people in this community know that it's the highest suicide rate of a career. Now our veterinarians that translates to rescue. It is happening in rescue, suicide, burnout, compassion fatigue, organizations closing to take a break because it's too much.

41:17 It is that way because their hearts are so big. They're so big. The organizations that we help, these people have full time jobs. They are not being paid to do this. There's not these huge salaries in these organizations. They do it because they believe in the work. They know the impact it's having and it has to be done and they love cats and so they do it. But it doesn't mean they still don't struggle. They put on a brave face. I see them, I talk to them all the time. They're amazing. Then we also have mission Meow has a Facebook group for everyone. So everyone we give a grant to, we invite them into our Facebook group and I see the communications, you know, I'm talking to them all the time. We try to zoom every month or as often as possible. Right now it they're in it, they're they're in. And so we didn't get to zoom.

42:12 It would have been this week, but they're I just, I can't stress enough how amazing they are and how we owe them so much more than we give them. Because here's a here's a another. We can go off on another topic. So I was talking about business partners and I ended up back on my. OK, no. Organizations we help, but we we gave a surprise grant one month. It was very early on and we picked an organization that we wanted to help that was launching a foster program. But there was another group that we really wanted to help. We didn't know yet if we could give two grants in the month. They didn't know if we had that kind of money. But one of the things they were looking for was a fire alert system and not just really stuck with me.

42:56 I thought, Oh my gosh, how am I going to sleep knowing that somebody, you know, and that I don't want people to think that. Oh, well, how could they not afford that? Being small means that you're paying for food, litter, rent, medical bills, all that. And the fire alert system may sound obvious, but it's expensive and it has to be installed. And there's a cost to that, too. And all their money needs to go for the care of the cats. That was the thing so that their, their grant was for that and they needed to replace some ceiling tiles and some lights. There had been a leak in the ceiling. And you know, but the fire alert system was the big deal to me. So I reached out to my business partner, sent emails to some of my donors and saying if minimally we can just raise the money for the fire alert system and not even the whole 6000, I'll be happy with that. In a week we had the $6000 and at the end of that month, I was able to get them on the Zoom.

43:49 I didn't tell them why, but I got them on the Zoom and told them we have the money, we're surprising you. We're giving you a $6000 grant. You're going to get everything you wanted. First of all, they're crying because they can't believe this has happened because all the money goes down the road. 15 minutes to the shiny bigger organization. But wonderful that they're doing that work. But this group, the very next day, the director of this organization called me and said, Sally, you have no idea what you've just done. We were going to close at the end of the year. And I was blown away because I I'm Privy to their budgets. I see their budgets. They had the money. It wasn't about that. They thought nobody cared.

44:32 They thought nobody saw them. All the money goes down the road to the shiny shelter. We're always, you know, we have enough, but never to do more, never to buy the fire alert system or to have a safety net if, like, a washer or dryer breaks. Like, we're always able to care for the cats and do all the things we need, but not more than that. And secondarily, isn't it nice to be recognized they're working their butts off and nobody is telling them? Good job amongst each other they are, but it's nice for them to hear it from somebody else. So when Mission Meow says good job, it's me, it's my board, it's my volunteers, it's the business partners, they now look at the list of businesses and say they all know who we are, they care about us, they see the work that we're doing.

45:20 They are still around today. They move to a bigger building. I mean, these are the kinds of things we now we just made A1 pager that we're going to put out called the Mission Meow Ripple Effect. Because I started taking notes about all the things they're getting new board members, they're getting more volunteers. The impact it has on the volunteers, like they just feel so proud of the work that just to be recognized, you know, to be validated for the work that you do. They get looked at more often for grants when they apply. Once you've gotten a big grant, next time you apply, you list that on that grant application that is going to help you. It helps you get more donors.

46:05 You know, we highlight them, they get their social media grows. It's so much more than just the money, and the money is so important, but the rest of the stuff is what really gets. You. I'm crying. Got you right? I'm crying again. Well, I mean, it's just so, well, I'm OK, I'm going to tell a story because I was just talking to a veterinarian yesterday who actually closed her practice seven years ago because, well, mainly because she had a child and wanted to raise that child. But she said at the same time, I couldn't stay in the system any longer. And she's, the reason that I'm connected with her is because she's now in a program, like I'm mentoring her through a program where she's learning integrative and holistic modalities for veterinary care.

46:56 But she said to me after the first 100 times somebody screamed at me and told me I was going to hell because I was charging for my services, I became callous to it. And I'm like, I don't even hear it anymore. And it reminded me that like we talk on, on this podcast, at least about veterinarians a lot because I, I appreciate them so much. So a lot of, a lot of the things I say and a lot of the topics I have on this show kind of kind of put veterinarians in a bad light. And I, and it's not intentional toward veterinarians. It's just that there's so much more out there and, and there's a lot of fear around going outside of the medical establishment and things like that.

47:41 And it's just a big, like listening to you. It's just a bit, it's a big reminder that it's not just veterinarians, it's everybody out there that is trying to care for animals in whatever way that they're trying to care for animals, because there are so many different ways that it's hard. It's it's hard. You know, somebody like that's potentially getting a grant or applying for a grant from Mission Meow. They are probably inundated with people who, and I've seen this so many times where it's like you have to put signs up because people won't even do the right thing and contact you and try to get an animal to you. And you're like, they literally just drop them off and leave them sometimes in plastic bags.

48:24 You know what I mean? Like it's, it's like it breaks your heart in a million pieces to think about. But like, that's the reality of it is. The reality, it's why I can't, I can't do that. I can do that. Like you said when you talked about how, how TNR, how you felt about that. I can go out short term and do some trapping. Like I love to go out and just be a part of the day and have the experience. Not what I could do. I spent eight years in the in the shelter. I, I know I could never do it again. I know I can't. I can't foster. You just know, but I can do this.

49:05 And I love the people and I love getting to know the organizations. That's selfishly, the Facebook group is just as good for me as it is for them because these are amazing people. Yeah. Met the most amazing, kind, generous people. And what we also need to recognize is and it's true in the vet profession, it's true in the tech profession is true in the rescue world. There are a lot of people that are a little bit awkward around people, but love animals need to also remember that that sometimes they may not they might be a little bit more on the introverted side, but they're really good at what they do with animals. So we we should be a little bit patient and we should also understand that in the veterinary world and in the rescue world, you don't know what situation they just came from before they are now in front of you.

49:57 I mean, we should always extend that kindness to people in general. It's how I try to live my life. But in rescue and in veterinary medicine, somebody you know, that's often they come into an appointment after having just to euthanize a 15 year old family pet, right? In rescue, they might be having a foster at home who was doing well and just faded and passed. And now they're in front of you taking in more fosters. And maybe they're not fearing feeling they're most cheery. But this is this is what rescue is. So I think we just have to be mindful of that. And right now, people should be thinking about if I'm trying to reach out to an organization because I need help and they don't get back to you in a couple days, don't be angry. Understand that.

50:50 That's the best that they can do right now because your phone call is one of how many others are coming in and they can't get to everybody as much as they want to. Especially the groups we work with, they're so small. There's one person maybe checking that e-mail who's also checking their social media, who is also out trapping, and they're doing everything so they're wearing all the hats. And it's important that people think about that. We want to support them, and supporting them means, yeah, we can be helping them financially like we do. But these organizations need volunteers all the time and people shouldn't discount anything that's possible. You don't have to physically be able to go into organization to help. What are you good at?

51:32 What, what do you like doing? You know, get, pick up the phone, call them and say, I'd like to volunteer, but I can't come in. What else can I do? Well, what do you like to do? Well, you know, I love sending emails or making phone calls or, you know, I'm good at making graphics. I, I do graphic design. I could, I could maybe give an hour. So maybe every week give me the graphic. Everything makes a difference. These organizations always need help. Are really, they're, they're tiny, but so mighty. And it's so much more rewarding to me to be involved with those organizations. I mean, they're like these families whenever I meet them and we get to do the check presentations, it's incredible.

52:13 I wish we try to, so if we can go out and give a check in person, we do that and we'll bring one of the big, big checks. And I try to get either a volunteer or business partner donor or somebody from my organization to come with me. And the stories even just like when you make the phone call, I've had people like, I got one woman on the phone. She's like, hold on, hold on. I can hear her. She puts the phone like, Oh my God, Oh my God. She's like, so sorry I had to pull over. I was on the highway. But Oh my God, Oh my God, you get them crying. I got one group that was an Apple picking festival when I made the call and she's like you, I have to put you on speakerphone. Everybody's here. My board is here, my volunteers are here.

52:55 They all erupt and are cheering. I, I wish everybody would have a chance to, to hear that, to experience that, because you'd want to get involved, whether it was with them or with us, you would want to be involved in some way. It's just, it's incredible. I love that, I love that. So you have the foundation of businesses, but individuals can still donate. And it's, and we need them to, it's important, we have to have both to really, because the reality is, so in a month, let's say this past month, we needed to raise $16,000. That is enough to pay the grants. We do that in the month. So we get the business partners and remember, they fluctuate.

53:39 So sometimes the business partner might have given $400.00 in the next quarter. No, it's tax time and tariffs hit. And next thing you know, they can only afford $50.00. So there can be a big fluctuation. We, so our, our individual donors, it's all the same. We need them both equally. And it's easy to donate. You can, you know, we even snail mail, we still get checks, checks from donors, but our, our websites, missionmeow.org and it says on the website, you can donate through PayPal. There's fees with that. Zell. We also send a Venmo. That's just the way the world is right now. So you can donate through Venmo to Mission Meow.

54:20 And it's really important. And I know that you've people hear this all the time, but I cannot stress it enough. Every dollar makes a difference, $5 makes a difference. We have 100 donors that give us five, $5, that's $500. Yeah. It it all makes an impact. I don't want anybody to think, well, I only have $5 this month, what's that going to do? But if everybody thinks that way, then nobody donates that. And if everybody really understands the impact that that makes, you will donate it. That $5 does make a difference every time. I because I'm the one who sees them, I give all the notifications. It's not like every single dollar. I'm so excited that that money came in because that's five more dollars.

55:06 It gets us closer to making our grants happen. Plus we nobody likes to talk about this, but we have, we have things we have to pay for as well. Have a website, we have design programs so we can make graphics. There are things that because, you know, we in an ideal world, we would have volunteers that could do everything. We just don't. So some things we have to do in house. And so we have bills too. We keep them very lean. You can trust somebody who ran a pet cancer fund for eight years to never want to spend more than they need to. But we also, we go to conventions. There's a cost to those. You know, we have to pay, get there. We have to pay for hotels.

55:46 We have to pay for a booth, but it's important for us to be there. It's how we get into communities and introduce ourselves to potential grant recipients, potential business partners, potential donors, potential volunteers. It's everything. It's not just out there looking for money. The only way we can build an organization is by filling all those roles, and there's just too many business partners. But if we don't have grant recipients, who are we giving to? And if we don't have volunteers, none of this happens. Yeah, that's. All of these things. And so yes, money comes in that feeds Mission Meow too. So it's very important that our our donors know that in a grant fundraising month, if we raise more, you are helping Mission Meow make it through the next few months for us to do the things that we need to do and then go into the next grant cycle.

56:40 Yeah, Well, I just think, you know, this is such an amazing thing that you're doing. I appreciate it so very much because I know, you know, it's easy, especially around the holidays. And it's like, you know, donate to the Humane Society, blah, blah, blah. And I like for so many years, I, I felt uncomfortable saying that because I know how much with a lot of these, especially the larger humane societies does that, you know, doesn't actually go to the animals. And so I appreciate being able to highlight an organization that is very lean and like, it really is there for the animals and just appreciate so much of what you do. And so definitely check out the show notes, get all the links, go to social media, follow Mission Meow, whatever you can do, please do that.

57:31 And again, just thank you so much for being here. They can reach out to me. You know, there's, there's the e-mail on there. If you have questions, you're going to, you're going to come to me. So if you want to find out how you can help, what you can do more or how you can help in your community, we can try to always connect you too, because we get those questions. I want to help in my local community. We've helped all across the US. If they see on our grant page, you look at the organizations we've helped, they're all looking for help too. There's always a way that you can give back. I promise that. And if it's not through Mission Meow, we can try to guide you. I love. That of course I love dogs, but I very much appreciate that it is cat centric because I think as we talked about earlier, I think they get kind of lost sometimes and. The reality is that in the US, when we're talking about overpopulation and where there's an issue, it's the cat community.

58:25 Sure, there are places in the US down South where we hear about the dogs, and we know there's transports that bring dogs up from the South to save them because, you know, it's just different down there. But if we're talking about a country as a whole, in the animal world, the population issue is cats. Yeah. And so we need to get a handle on this. And by supporting these small organizations, the grassroots ones, we're really targeting the root of the problem. That's amazing. I love it. Thank you so much for. Being here, it's been too long. We got to talk about something I'm passionate about. I know, I know, it has been too long and I can't wait to see you again and hopefully that won't be too much longer.

59:10 But until then, I I'm actually I'm I've been looking at so my do it, another podcast who everybody listening is very familiar with because I posted here. It's called the weekly pet roundup with Isabel Alvarez Arada. I know, I know. She's. Love both of you. That's a great. I love that the two other. Yeah. And I know she's one of your business partners and I've been looking at that and I'm like, I need to do that too. Join It's a big, wild, crazy family. Yeah, much. Fun. Maybe one day we'll have a mission, meow convention and we'll all come together. Oh. My gosh, let's just do a cruise.

59:51 Let's just all go on a cruise. I can't be on a boat that big, but we'll figure it out. I'll mute you at the destinations. OK, no cruise. Got it. Well, yeah. So, Sally, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for what you do, for taking care of these kitties and the best way you know how, which is a very, very important way. And I just appreciate you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me as a guest.