89: Pets in Crisis, Knoxville Pet Travel & Reptile Love

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Speaker 1 (00:00):

Pets, add Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the human animal bond with Kristen Levine and Chris Bonafide, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv. And joining me for the second time, as always, is Harrison Forbes. Harrison, welcome back. You were such a pleasure. So nice. We could happen twice. Thank

Speaker 2 (00:25):

You. I don't want to wear out my welcome. But it's great to join you guys again and see you and good to be talking about some pets.

Speaker 1 (00:34):

Yeah, absolutely. And hey, we're celebrating a fun little holiday here this week. It's National Cat Day.

Speaker 2 (00:41):

I need my Claritin already. There

Speaker 1 (00:43):

We go. Yeah, I am in the same neck of the woods as you Definitely allergic to cats, but so in love with 'em, I've had 'em my whole life and they bring me such pain to the throat and eyes. It's ridiculous. I've met so many people who've seen me in my own home, look like I have the flu. I've just got liquid coming out of my eyes and nose and I say, oh my God, what's wrong? What's going on? I say, oh, it's just allergies. They're like, oh, what are you allergic to my cat? And they're like, what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:15):

The suffering you do for the cat?

Speaker 1 (01:17):

I guess love these little freaks so much. They bring us so much joy. So we have a little cat themed episode. We've got a special guest that is going to be doing an interview with us that we've recorded a while ago, but we saved it for this big holiday. A big name. I'm not going to spoil it. You're just going to have to stick around and find out. We've got some cat themed questions, some cat themed stories. I've got some cat themed products. It is just cat day. It's raining cats and no dogs. It's just raining cats today. Just cats. And so without further ado, let's hop into story time. Kristen and Chris, present story time. Alright, it's story time here on the Powell podcast. Harrison, you want to take it away? You want me to go first again?

Speaker 2 (02:13):

You go first. I want to hear your cat story.

Speaker 1 (02:15):

Yeah, so this is last episode. You were talking a lot about how you're in Tennessee, go vols, that whole thing. Well, I was a Boston College boy. So Boston College is technically in Boston, but it's almost like saying it's really on the outskirts and there's a lot of fun little colleges all in the outskirts, the suburbs of Boston. And one of my favorite college suburbs of Boston is Somerville, which is like this weird little town in North Boston. And I saw this story come up and before I knew where it was from in my head, I went, this is something Somerville would do. And it is from Somerville. The headline, I'm not going to read the headline because that actually kind of spoils it, but they have a very famous bike path there that people travel through used for exercise and whatever. And last year somebody had elected a bike path mayor and it was their cat and they just placed signs around because this cat would go into the bike path and it would do its little hunting and it would greet all the people.

(03:28):

It's kind of right outside this person's house. So they became the honorary mayor of the bike path. Well, this year honorary wasn't good enough. The town of Somerville had an election that drew a pool of 70 feline and canine candidates for the mayor of the bike path. And they ran an actual campaign and the mayor even dropped an endorsement. The mayor of Somerville dropped an endorsement. It was a whole big thing. And I think it is so funny because it's just such a fun parody of the electoral system. There's all these signs that are out there, and I'm going to put the link of the show notes so you guys could see some of these signs. It's just like one that's vote orange cat. They don't even name the cat. The cat is just says vote orange, cat the vote for Duke and Ella, you got anyone better? More kibble for all, just all these blanket campaign promises. But the winner get this, Harrison, you're going to join this. The winner was a cat named Minerva. It got 6,000 votes and Minerva's, one word campaign slogan was just crime. The signs just said it, crime and had a picture of the cat and said, vote Minerva. So I guess keeping

Speaker 2 (04:53):

It simple,

Speaker 1 (04:53):

Keeping it simple. We're not saying what we're doing with crime, we're not saying how we're fixing it or if we're doing more crime, the answer is just crime. I thought this was a really fun celebration of community bringing the pets into the community. These people use the bike path here, especially September, October, such a popular time to be outside there in New England and it let the people who use that bike path get to know some of the pets who live around it. And I think it was fun that the mayor set up ballot boxes in them for all this, I guess a fun little community event that really shows how much we love our cats.

Speaker 2 (05:34):

And that's cool when they do public events like that because cats are not always the easiest to do. Some go out in public kind of things

Speaker 1 (05:42):

With.

Speaker 2 (05:43):

So mine that comes to mind again, I'm like you, I'm allergic to cats, to the point where I can't have one. And it's always been maddening because I'm super fascinated by cat behavior. I love watching cats and the amount of feral behavior they've been able to hold onto through domestication. The science behavior. Part of me always is fascinated by that. But so for almost a decade, I mc the New York Pet Fashion Show, which is 99% dogs. And I remember the first year that I was doing that as official mc, I'd been to it before. There was a big waiting area and a whole separate room where all the different press was in there interviewing different people that were involved in it. And there was this one, you had 200 dogs with all these outfits and costumes on and it was just kind of chaotic and dogs everywhere.

(06:43):

And there was this one stroller that was all done up and there was this one cat, and I wish I had footage of that cat because all night the look on its face was like, why am I here? I mean the cat, he had the most expression without, there was no tail wagon like a dog or anything like that. But he was just sitting there looking around, not really afraid, but just kind of looking at his pet parents going, what in the, why did you bring me here? What is wrong with you? I've got dogs all around me. This is awful. This sucks. Let's go to the cat parade or something. And all night, that cat just had the funniest expressions at the end of the night. I thought, wow, I wish we could have captured that and just done bubble script or some kind of thing on there. You could have done a whole, this was back before memes and things on social media about 12 years ago, but I'll never forget that cat's look of just like I am in the wrong place and this is not cool.

Speaker 1 (07:49):

That's so funny. Anybody who knows cats knows that look on a cat too when they're like

Speaker 2 (07:54):

I out of, yeah, but he wasn't hiding it. He was out of, he wasn't terrified or anything, he was just like, what In disbelief.

Speaker 1 (08:01):

That's so funny. I love that. I love that. Beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionalism, we are honored to welcome Jackson Galaxy, AKA, the cat daddy. Woohoo. He's a well-known and renowned cat behaviorist and host of animal planets, my cat from Hell. Great show. With over 30 years of experience, he has authored several bestselling books on feline behavior, including Ification and Total Cat Mojo. Jackson is also the founder of the Jackson Galaxy Project dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk animals. Jackson, thank you so much. Yes.

Speaker 3 (08:41):

For taking your time. Thank you to being here to join us.

Speaker 1 (08:43):

My pleasure. Nice to meet you. So let's just start with some background. My understanding is you had a career in music and you sort of made the transition career. Career. Yeah, we all have careers in music. I had a career music too. What inspired you to transition to the animal world?

Speaker 4 (09:03):

Well, because I had a quote career. I had quote no money at all. And so I took a job at an animal shelter, scoop and poop, and I just started working up the ranks there. But it was very early on that my coworkers were like, the cats really like you and I'm glad I don't have any experience. I had no experience with cats really very little. But it was true. The cats were just all over me. They just liked me a lot. And really at that point it was, I mean we were euthanizing a lot of cats and this was back in 90, let's say three, and I think at this point we were the euthanasia numbers in American shelters anywhere between eight and 10 million every year. And so whatever I could do at that point that would make a cat show themselves better get the heck out of the shelter. That's what I was doing. That's where everything I learned came from there. Spent 10 years there, really never left the shelters. I'm still working

Speaker 3 (10:03):

In

Speaker 4 (10:03):

Shelters. But

Speaker 3 (10:04):

Is that where you got the name the cat daddy or how did that come

Speaker 4 (10:07):

About? What's funny is that it started because the worst name in the world was starting to get passed around by all the shelter folks. They started calling me Cat Boy. And I was like, no, I do not want to be Cat Boy. So I came up with Cat Daddy because I was just like, yeah, you got to come up with something better than that.

Speaker 3 (10:24):

I love it. I love it. We have something in common. I started my pet industry career at the animal shelter too. Where at? In Tampa at the SPCA of Tampa Bay.

Speaker 4 (10:34):

Right on. I was at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley in Boulder, Colorado.

Speaker 3 (10:38):

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:39):

And it's

Speaker 3 (10:40):

Tough road. It's tough. Getting cats adopted is tough oftentimes because they hunker in the corner in their box.

Speaker 4 (10:48):

But that's the work. I mean, that was the thing. I started working with a dog trainer because she taught me clicker training and the idea was get the cat to the front of the cage and then the secret weapon was get them to do a high five through the bars

Speaker 3 (11:02):

So that

Speaker 4 (11:02):

As soon as adoption's open the cat's like, Hey, you got a treat. And someone's like, oh my God, the cat loves me. He loves me. He picked me on, he picked me, picked me on. So yeah, no, that's how it all started. Started with they

Speaker 3 (11:13):

Were getting adopted like hotcakes after that.

Speaker 4 (11:15):

And then that turned in years later with Jackson Galaxy Project, we had something called Cat Positive, which went to shelters all over the country, taught them how to do clicker training and how to get cats out of there faster.

Speaker 1 (11:27):

That's

Speaker 3 (11:27):

Fantastic.

Speaker 1 (11:28):

Yeah. That's awesome. And you did the TV show Mad Cat from Hell, you went in and addressed some difficult feline behavior. So obviously the world of animal ownership continues to change, new behaviors pop up. There's certain fads and things you see. So what are some of the big problems that you see today coming out of cats and how do we address those as cat mom and dads?

Speaker 4 (11:53):

To be honest, I don't think it's changed at all that much. I think it's still not enriching in the environment. So you got cats competing for floor space with kids and dogs and other cats and not considering that cats see the entire space floor to ceiling. And once we start enriching that space for them, things get better. Introducing cats to other cats or to dogs or to kids, that also tends to be a bit of a hangup. But the great thing is there's easy fixes for all this. The same on the show where the best compliment I would ever get on the show is when somebody would be like, oh, well that's easy. If I got to be the guy who probably points out the obvious, I'm fine with that. But yeah, I mean as long as people, the best thing is when that light bulb goes off and they're like, well, that's just common sense. And so whether it is codifying a space, whether it is learning how to play with your cat,

Speaker 1 (12:52):

Which

Speaker 4 (12:52):

People still don't know how to play with the cats. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (12:55):

I think a lot of people assign that stereotype to cats that they're low maintenance, which isn't necessarily true, maybe less than a dog, but certainly need attention and enrichment and all that other good stuff.

Speaker 4 (13:09):

Yeah, they're just not as squeaky a wheel. I mean, that's the thing. The dog has a need. The dog will let you know if they've got a need. The way the cats let you know is not, they don't speak human as well as dogs do. That makes sense, of course, because we didn't domesticate cats the way we did with dogs. And so we don't have that common sort of Rosetta Stone where we speak each other's languages as well as let's say we do with dogs. So if that's my job forever, which is just to have you learn how to speak cat and show you how easy it is, then I'm glad to do it.

Speaker 3 (13:47):

Let's talk a little bit about creating cat friendly environments, because sometimes it is that easy, right? Yeah. It's just modifying their environment. So you wrote a book called Ification. Tell us what some of the highlights were there.

Speaker 4 (13:59):

I mean, it was funny. It was a New York Times bestseller and the great thing was that it then inspired the next book, which was ified of Satisfy. So two design books, which, and what's funny is I met a guy on the plane coming over here and he was like, I know I know you from somewhere. And he goes, oh, you're the guy who says, play with your cat and give him shelves. Yeah, that's me. That's it.

Speaker 3 (14:24):

That's what it boils down to.

Speaker 4 (14:25):

Just shelving. You know what I mean? And what's really cool, Kate Benjamin, who's my co-author on those two books, we actually paired up teaching shelters how to just, again, make life easier for cats. And we showed that using IKEA hacks, which don't tell anybody here, but you use Ikea hacks, you can totally codify a space the size of a walk-in closet for a hundred bucks. From a hundred dollars. You can make it perfectly cat friendly, using levels, letting them get up and down using the concept they call the Cat Super Highway, which is basically create a lane of traffic that's above the floor where they can go around the room without touching the floor. And that's your super highway. That's cool. And it always works. It always works for cats as long as we just remember that when they walk into a room, I walked in here, I say hi to you guys, I see the table, I sit down, cat walks in a room, they're looking at the ceiling, they're looking like, how do I get the hell out of here? I want to know what that is. And they're looking at every square inch of this place. And that's what we cater to architecturally and always works, always makes for a happier staff.

Speaker 1 (15:33):

I want to take a second and pivot to your nonprofit, the Jackson Galaxy Project. Can you tell us a little bit about some of your initiatives and the impact you've had so far? Thanks

Speaker 4 (15:43):

For asking. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I never left the shelters. It came from the Jackson Galaxy Foundation. We started back in 2013, then Greater Good Charities came along and said, listen, if you want, we'll do the fundraising and you can just concentrate on the programmatic stuff and that's it. So I merged with them in 20 15, 16. And yeah, cat Positive was one of those things that we took around the country, taught everybody how to click or train cats, and it resulted in cats going home faster, cats staying in the home because we would teach the new adopters how to do those tricks and high fives and stuff like that. And also just expanded people's heads as to what cats can do that they can hang out with you in a way that's not just like them sort of DAMing to sit in your lap or whatever. And then that grew into Cat Positive 360, which was a tip to tail, sorry, way of looking at cats and sheltering where we changed everything for them. We've taught over 1400 shelters and rescues and yeah, it's been a hell of a ride. It's been great.

Speaker 3 (16:55):

Yeah, that's got to be the most fulfilling part of your work because that's where you got your start.

Speaker 4 (16:58):

Absolutely. Exactly. Taking it full circle for me is the most important thing I can do right now, because cats are still in sheltering just where they were. I mean, there's still is such a lack of understanding and I just love going out there anyway. I mean, to me it's my favorite part of the work right now. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:19):

Well, and you have an incredible line of products too. At the time of this interview, we're at Global Pet Expo. So what are you doing here at the show? And talk to us about some of your products.

Speaker 4 (17:29):

I mean, I still make a lot of stuff from toys, toys to beds to lick mats to stain remover, which cats and dogs, it'll always come in handy. And it was great. I had a partnership with Petmate for quite a number of years, and when we ended that relationship, I kept those products. And so we're still putting out the same toys we made for years and years and we kept growing the line and now we are just breaking out a new harness this week and some new ceramic bowls and a new fountain coming out. So I'm trying to touch on everything that I think the industry needs to be thinking about. So if I got to sort of push it along, somebody else can come along and clean up. But it's all good that way. I mean, it's great. I mean, to see how Cat products are really going through the roof right now. I mean, everything seems to be cat, which makes sense. Post pandemic,

Speaker 3 (18:31):

People

Speaker 4 (18:32):

Went back to work and all of a sudden they're like, I think I need a cat. And also younger people are really accounting for a lot of that too. So I mean, there's always going to be a place for cat products and more than anything, just want to stay relevant in the space where I'm showing you all of the potential that your cat has to have a better relationship with. And that's what all the products are about.

Speaker 1 (18:57):

That's awesome. Well, we don't want to take up much more of your time, but before we let you go, why don't you let our wonderful viewers and listeners know where they could follow your story, see some of these products, and maybe contribute to the nonprofit?

Speaker 4 (19:09):

Thank you for asking. Yeah, you can always go to jackson galaxy.com. There'll be links to everything you need. If you're looking to make your cat's life better, you can always go to YouTube, just look up my name and you'll find close to 500 videos on how to make your cat's life better. But you can get the books and the products on jackson galaxy.com.

Speaker 1 (19:28):

Awesome. Well, from One Cat Dad to another, thank you for taking the time out of a busy schedule to join us today. It's

Speaker 4 (19:34):

My pleasure.

Speaker 1 (19:34):

It was a real treat. Thank

Speaker 4 (19:35):

You so much for having you guys.

Speaker 1 (19:40):

Not going to lie A little bit starstruck meeting Jackson Galaxy. Really cool. I mean, he is like OG Cat Dad that is one of the guys who made being a cat dad. Cool. So it was really cool to get to talk to him and shake his hand and talk to him after the interview too and ask him all sorts of questions. So that was a really special one.

Speaker 2 (20:02):

Yeah, I've known Jackson for a really long time and he's just got, I mean, his feline knowledge is so deep. Yeah, incredible. And he's just such a cool character. Anyway,

Speaker 1 (20:13):

Yeah, so wishing you a very happy national Cat Day, Jackson Galaxy, wherever you are out there. I hope you're listening. Happy National Cat Day.

Speaker 2 (20:24):

Alright, we are joined right now by Matthew Gray, Dr. Matthew Gray, and I'm super excited. Go ahead and hold that mug up. Let's just start this thing off right with that Tennessee mug. Go Vols. Awesome. Alright, go. So Dr. Gray is the president and CEO of Healthy Trade Institute, a nonprofit driving ethical and disease safe practices in the pet trade through science-backed certification adoption program. It's got two decades of experience researching amphibian pathogens, Dr. Gray LE's efforts to trace pathogen movement within wildlife trade and promote bio secure husbandry practices. Under his leadership HCI has launched a first of its kind nationwide herp adoption program in collaboration with Val's, university of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Yay. Ensuring surrendered amphibians and reptiles receive health screenings and care, while also providing essential training for future veterinarians. And let me go ahead and say too, I've been in the pet radio business and things for a long time and people mainly know me for my work in working dogs and dog training and all that. However, I was a snake man before any of the dogs started. I got a corn snake named Ginger when I was six years old. She was awesome. And I had snakes all the way through college. And in my twenties and actually my sophomore summer in high school, I interned at the Herpetological House at the Memphis Zoo

Speaker 4 (22:01):

Right on.

Speaker 2 (22:02):

And really loved that and got to see a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. And in my, I guess sophomore year of college, I had the second, at the time, the second largest reticulated python in the us. She was 19 feet four inches and I took her back to the Memphis Zoo and we bred her to a snake that they had there and she ended up laying 73 eggs. Oh my goodness. And she was massive right before she laid those eggs. So

Speaker 1 (22:32):

I feel like it's the cursed sequel to 101 D Nations.

Speaker 2 (22:37):

So I'm super excited to talk to you today. So yeah, boy that takes me back. I loved all the snakes. Alright, so tell us a little bit about what inspired the creation of the Healthy Trade Institute. I mean, I feel like this is really timely now to of after COVID with all of the wildlife transmission scare and it's something that a lot of people had not thought of before. And it sounds like you guys are addressing some of that when it relates to reptiles and amphibians.

Speaker 5 (23:12):

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So the Healthy Trade Institute, the HTI was created in 2024. And our goal is really to try to reduce the amount of pathogens in the pet tray that are moving through that are negatively impacting the industry itself and also are impacting pet owners' homes when they bring an animal home that they think is healthy. But it ends up not being, and maybe passing if you have a snake maybe passing a disease from one snake to the other and then they end up losing animals. The other thing that we are trying to do is to prevent the release of reptiles or amphibians that folks have as pets when they no longer can take care of 'em out in the wild. And so it's really kind of our programs that we have really have a twofold mission, reducing pathogens and trade and reducing the release of animals into the wild.

Speaker 2 (24:23):

I mean, the whole Burmese Python infestation in the Everglades is absolutely mind blowing

Speaker 1 (24:30):

To

Speaker 2 (24:30):

Me of just, I mean the pervasiveness of it and how that invasive species has taken. And what is it about the Burmese that makes them the ones that, because I'm sure there's been probably Anacondas and reticulated other different large pythons that got introduced into that area. Is it just that it mimics so well their natural habitat overseas that they've been able to thrive?

Speaker 5 (25:00):

Yeah, absolutely. And also a very rich predator source. So lots of small mammals that are all over the place that they thrive upon and where their populations have really exploded to are areas that, parts of the Everglades, et cetera, that a lot of folks don't go into. So there are active programs to try to remove Burmese pythons from the wild, but it's also tough to get ahold of those animals too in really, really dense, thick wild habitat out there.

Speaker 1 (25:41):

And in an alternate life, I'd be a Burmese python hunter making my money down in the airplanes. But I'll ask, I'll just stick broadcasting for now. Yeah, I follow some of my Instagram who do that. I mean good for them. But I am very comfortable in my New England condo sitting on my couch doing podcast. I'll tell you that much. Dr. Gray. Talk to me a bit about the HTI Herp adoption program and not just about how it's great for people and pets, but also in terms of wildlife

Speaker 5 (26:15):

Conservation. Yeah, absolutely. So the HTI Herp Adoption Program is the first of its kind. It's a nationwide program. The thing that kind of separates us is that a lot of there are rescue centers out there that if you no longer can take care of your reptile or amphibian, that will take them a lot of rescue centers. But we will take them and plus you don't have to drop them off. We have a partnership with redline shipping. And so Redline shipping offers a 65% discount. They specialize in shipping animals, the transport of live animals from one place to another. They've been in this business for a very long period of time. And so redline shipping will send the appropriate shipping kit, they'll give instructions on how to package the animal, and then they will even print a FedEx label for you and tell you which FedEx Center to go to drop off because you can't drop off live animals at every FedEx center.

(27:21):

The animals are then shipped to us overnight. We get them here in Knoxville, Tennessee before noon the next day, and they go directly into our facility here. And so that's a really unique program we can accept across all 50 states. The other unique thing about our program is we're the only program that has a partnership with A VMA Accredited College of Veterinary Medicine. So the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, the HTI, we have a partnership, and this is really a win-win partnership. So the animals that are surrendered to us get health checks from the UT veterinarians, but they also, at the same time, their residents and their pre-vet students are also participating in the health checks. So the students and the residents are getting training in exotic pet veterinary medicine and care. And that's something that's lacking in a lot of college of veterinary medicines around the country. So is that exotic pet experience. And so we're helping train the next generation of exotic pet veterinarians and we're really excited to have that partnership, but it also gives reassurance. So when we then adopt out our animals, it gives assurance that folks are receiving a healthy animal.

Speaker 2 (28:56):

So quick question because back in the days, 30 years ago, 40 years ago when I was getting so many of the exotic pythons and things like that, were still coming in from overseas. And I feel like now you've got all these domestically bred hybrids. I mean, I can't keep up with all these different hybrid snakes that they're doing with the different pythons and constrictors. Do you see less of pathogens and transmittable diseases and things now than used to because there's less of the international trade? Or is that still a really big thriving thing?

Speaker 5 (29:37):

Yeah, that's a really good point. So the number of reptiles coming into our country has decreased in the past. The number of amphibians has basically been constant. So we're still getting a lot of frogs that are being shipped from across the world. And in some of our research that we've done, we've noticed that animals that are wild caught that come from the wild that are usually imported or caught from the wild here in the United States, tend to have more pathogens than ones that are captive bred. As far as the historical prevalence, we still see pathogens that are in the system. It usually is from an introduction case. We work with businesses to try to keep pathogens out. If there is a positive detection within their business, we can help them contain that, treat the animals and eradicate the disease. As part of what the HTI does, that's one of our specialties. And usually it's by buying an animal from elsewhere. And so there are pathogens still moving through the captive trade. Without a question, both in reptile industry and in the amphibian industry, there's been several kind of big outbreaks just recently in the last year.

Speaker 2 (30:58):

But to be clear, just so people don't panic, you're mainly talking about pathogens that affect the animals that are not necessarily pathogens, that they are carriers that are affecting the humans.

Speaker 5 (31:14):

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. We're talking about things that are wildlife pathogens that will kill a snake or kill a lizard or kill a frog, your pet frog. Now, reptiles and amphibians are known to carry some things that like salmonella that are called zoonotic pathogens. So it's always recommended that after you handle your pet amphibian or reptile that you wash your hands. And that's just good practice with any pet really. But

Speaker 1 (31:51):

Yeah, because the only thing scarier than a hybrid python in the Everglades is a sick hybrid Python in the Everglades. We're coming up on time here, Dr. Gray. So why don't you let people know where they could find out more about HPI and the HERP adoption program and if you're out there on the socials where they could follow your journey?

Speaker 5 (32:15):

Yeah, absolutely. So you can go to healthy trade.org and there's also links to our social media, Instagram and Facebook that are there. So please follow us. If you go underneath of the services menu on our website, that's where you'll find the adoption program. And for the businesses that are out there that are maybe interested in becoming HTI certified and keeping diseases out of your business, you can look under the certification program underneath that services tab. And if you have any questions, you can email me at mGray@healthytrade.org.

Speaker 1 (32:54):

Awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time today to hop on the podcast. This was informative and very fun.

Speaker 2 (33:02):

Yeah, I'll be in Knoxville later this week. I'm going to give you a shout. I want to come by and take a look at that adoption program. That sounds awesome.

Speaker 5 (33:08):

Please do. Please do.

Speaker 2 (33:10):

Alright, thanks.

Speaker 5 (33:12):

Thank you,

Speaker 2 (33:16):

Man. I'll, my brain, he got me thinking about so many just things I haven't thought about in a long time. Of all the snakes growing up and how much I loved all that and working at the zoo that summer, and it's almost like a whole nother world. And I feel like there's a huge community and herpetology and all of that, but I feel like it's disconnected a lot from the standard talking about dogs and cats kind of thing that we do every day. And yeah, I think

Speaker 1 (33:45):

For me, I feel like I meet a ton of people in the penance, a ton of animal owners, and there are a ton of people with cats and dogs who couldn't tell you anything about their cat or dog from a scientific or anatomical perspective. I've never met somebody who

Speaker 2 (34:05):

Owns

Speaker 1 (34:05):

A snake who doesn't know everything about that

Speaker 2 (34:08):

Snake. Right.

Speaker 1 (34:09):

It's incredible the amount of passion that they bring into the industry, the passion and the knowledge. And you almost sort of, when you own reptiles, you almost become part scientists. You're constantly

Speaker 2 (34:22):

It's true though.

Speaker 1 (34:22):

Yeah, because they're fascinating creatures. They really, they're little dinosaurs. Well,

Speaker 2 (34:26):

I mean, let's be honest. They don't exactly dazzle you with all their acrobatics and running around and all that. So if you're going to get to know 'em, you got to do some research usually just kind of hanging out and not doing much. There you go. Sounds like me. Sounds

Speaker 1 (34:40):

Like me. The product of the week, it's time for the product of the week. And I love Cats, Harrison. I love them so much. But if I could change one thing about cats, it would be how much their pee smells. If your cat pees on something that it shouldn't, it's devastating. It is the worst. And I have found a great difficulty in getting that smell out of, especially when the cat was, obviously most cats very clean. I'm going to go in the litter box most of the time, but when Tiger got older, she had trouble getting into and out of the box and her pee would manage to get into the grout on the kitchen tile. Her box was in the kitchen, and that was brutal because grout is so porous, there's no easy way to clean it. But there's two brands that I would recommend for sprays.

(35:42):

One I've talked about before, Scouts Honor, make some really powerful stuff. But now that I have the baby around, I'm really more mindful of the chemicals that I'm putting into my home. And Mrs. Myers, the soap brand, makes a pet stain and odor remover, and I bought the stain and odor fighter for baby pee, which is not as bad as cat pee, but it works great. This stuff has been taking stains out of our, we have a white shag carpet that is way too close to the baby's changing station, and it's also where our cat like to come and drag ass across the floor. And so this stuff has been amazing. It's made with a much gentler formula, so I don't have to worry too much about any sort of bleach or ammonia that's in the product that might be dangerous to more sensitive skins and it smells pleasant, which is what I need. Nice. So if you've got similar problems, similar kind of household, I couldn't recommend it enough, but if you don't have kids scouts on, I've talked about 'em a bunch, that'll nuke any type of poo stain that your pet dog or cat that gets into your rugs, it'll absolutely nuke the hell out of it. So check those out,

Speaker 2 (37:06):

Right? That ammonia cat piece smell. It's terrible when you walk into a house or something and you get a full lung full of that, it's

Speaker 1 (37:15):

Like, yeah, my favorite are the cat owners who are like, yeah, my cat doesn't smell. And it's just like,

Speaker 2 (37:21):

Clearly it is burn nostrils.

Speaker 1 (37:23):

Yeah, you is used to it because believe me, cats can stink.

Speaker 2 (37:28):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So one of the cat products that I really like is something that I seem to have a lot of friends that have cats that just tear the corners of the upholstery, like on couch corners and chair corners that are upholstered,

Speaker 1 (37:48):

Just

Speaker 2 (37:49):

Wreak havoc on them. And I ended up finding something that was, and I think that it's available at other places now, but Ikea was the first place I found it where it's a jute kind of almost like heavy burlap kind of texture, but it's these wraps and you can Velcro 'em on the corners of couches or different stools and things like that where the cats are scratching and it covers that up and so they'll come back and scratch on it, but it's actually, they like scratching on that a little bit more. It's got some depth to it and things, but it protects the furniture and they're inexpensive and you can kind of put 'em on most things. And that's a nice inexpensive IKEA quick fix too. Sometimes it's tough to get a cat to leave something alone. So this allows you to just say, look, I know you're going to scratch here. You've already proven that and I can't combat it, so we're just going to cover it and put a little protector on there. But because they still like to scratch, they like that surface. It's not like putting a hard plastic shell or something where then they're just going to go find somewhere else to scratch. So they stay there, but they're doing it on something that you can take out, wash or replenish it when it gets torn up.

Speaker 1 (39:08):

I like to say that winning or having an argument with a dog is about winning the argument. Having an argument with a cat is about coming to a compromise, right? So I do think, yeah, sometimes there's no fixing the behavior and you just have to protect yourself.

Speaker 2 (39:26):

That's right. Minimize the damage. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (39:28):

That's good stuff q and a. All right. It's time for our favorite part of the show. That's right. We're going to answer two questions from our beautiful audience, and I know what you are thinking. Dear listener, you're thinking, man, I want Harrison and Chris to answer my question. Well, guess what? You get ahead on over to pets add life.org/podcast. Scroll on down to the bottom of the page and you will see a form to submit your question. Or if you're feeling as brave as Chris meeting one of his childhood heroes, Jackson Galaxy at Global Pet Expo, you could submit a voice memo. That's right. Record a voice memo, send it into our production team, and you could hear your question played live on this show. But without further ado, we got a couple of cat related questions here from our audience.

Speaker 2 (40:22):

I think this is placebo effect. Literally my eyes are watering and I feel like I'm going to sneeze. Just talk about

Speaker 1 (40:27):

All these cats. Yes, we're talking about cats and your body just knows

Speaker 2 (40:31):

Your

Speaker 1 (40:32):

Body, body knows. So our first question comes from Laura from Denver, Colorado. Thank you Laura. Huge in Denver, always getting questions from Denver. So Laura asks, my cat keeps waking me up around 4:00 AM every morning to be fed. How can I adjust her routine so I could get some sleep? This is such a classic cat question. And there you could hear the baby there in the background. Cats are like babies, man. Sometimes you can't really train them and the reason they're waking you up at four in the morning to be fed is because it works. Exactly. It's because it works. So the best thing you can do is fight through it and ignore it and try to teach them a lesson that this doesn't work. But I'm going to say something that is controversial in the cat community and that is don't let your cats in your bedroom.

(41:33):

I've been a cat dad forever and I've had five or six cats that live with me and only one was allowed in my bedroom, and that's because he never learned to beg for breakfast. I know a lot of people like to snuggle with their cats. A lot of people like to leave the door open in case something's wrong. I have typically slept in my bedroom with the cat on the other side of the door and the door closed and a little protector on the door to stop the scratching sounds that they inevitably make. I've had cats that are smart enough to work the doorknob and I've gotten toddler covers for those to stop them from working. Those like

Speaker 2 (42:11):

You're living with a little thief or something,

Speaker 1 (42:13):

You're living with a little thief and a lot of

Speaker 2 (42:15):

People think, yeah, well cat burglar, there's a reason for that

Speaker 1 (42:18):

And they think it's cruel or whatever. The cat's fine, man. The cat gets fed when the cat gets fed the cat. I pay attention to the macronutrients, the cat's getting fed enough. The cat is being brought to the vet almost every eight months for a regular visit. So the cat is fine and it's for my own health. I didn't want to wake up at 4:00 AM I don't know if you have any experience, Harrison, with nosy cats, but I take the slightly harsher route and I say bar them, ban 'em.

Speaker 2 (42:49):

I agree with you on that. And then also there's now some other options you might want to try. If your cat just you feel like you got to give them that 4:00 AM use some technology now, you can get some automatic feeders. Set the timer to that 4:00 AM where it automatically opens and feeds at 4:00 AM and then the cat will probably quickly learn that the feeders answering the call, not you. And so that might help too. And question

Speaker 1 (43:19):

Number two comes from Marcus. Marcus from Tampa, Florida, good old Florida. Thank you for your question, Marcus. He asks, I just adopted a kitten. Thank you for adopting and my older cat hisses whenever he comes near, what's the best way to help them get along? Well, Harrison, you're a dog trainer. I don't know if you've ever trained cats. I feel like that's not as popular of a profession, but you got any tips for a new household?

Speaker 2 (43:50):

I mean, I feel like one of the things that's always been interesting to me about cat owners is kind of this unwritten narrative because a lot of people end up with a lot of cats

(44:03):

And cats aren't really pack animals like dogs. So having a house full of cats or multiple cats is not the same genetic benefit built in like it is for dogs. So I would say, but even a kitten with an older cat, same almost with you bring a new puppy into a dog, there's going to be that 90 day period. I always like to put that kind of end mark on it of every few weeks or a month there's going to be incremental changes. It's usually that full rejection of what is this new thing doing on my turf? Why is this kitten here bugging me? I want to hang out and do my regular routine and it's messing everything up to then month two, it's kind of like, maybe this isn't so bad. I get to hang out and do some cat things and this cat knows how to play like mom and dad and we can do the rough and tumble. Maybe this isn't awful, but I still need my space. You still get on my nerves. Maybe, maybe not. Then that third month is more of kind of like, alright, you got your spot, I got mine. I know how to retreat or go to my quiet place. And so I think it's on the pet parent to provide as much, especially in that early 30 to 60 days, try and provide as much autonomy and carrying on the normal schedule that the cat had before you brought the new kitten in. So it's not such an abrupt change.

(45:39):

Put the kitten up a few hours a day in another room or something, or take 'em to let your older cat assume some of its regular routine as much as possible and then slowly integrate that in.

Speaker 1 (45:52):

Thank you for that question, Marcus, and thank you for listening to the show. Alright, well that brings us to the end of this episode of Pets at Life. Be sure to follow us on social media. Check us out on dog TV and the new dog TV Unleashed Fast channel where you can get all types of content, including the adoption show Vets A to Z, all these other great programs that are available on dog tv. Season two of the Dog Moms is airing Now, you don't want to miss that. And obviously you'll get to see plenty of my face on there as well as they continue to run my back catalog of pet's ad life like it's Seinfeld or something,

Speaker 2 (46:34):

Living in perpetuity, living

Speaker 1 (46:36):

In perpetuity. It's always scary when, because we have the Amazon TV and it learns what you watch and stuff. And now when I turn on my Amazon tv, it's like my face there and that's spooky. I don't like that. It's like, show me Timothy Chalamet or something. I dunno. Get that out of here. Harrison, you've been an awesome guest host, man. This is,

Speaker 2 (46:58):

Hey man, I've enjoyed it. This has been great.

Speaker 1 (46:59):

Yeah, I'm afraid you're going to steal my job. You sound great. You know so much more. You've been in it for longer.

Speaker 2 (47:05):

No, no, no. This has fantastic. You've got a professional

Speaker 1 (47:07):

Setup, got your own

Speaker 2 (47:09):

Exterior. I appreciate the opportunity to come on and spend a little time with you, and I'm sure hopefully in the future we'll get to chime in again and be a guest. And it's been great talking with you and so many good guests that you had and good interviews and I learned a lot today coming on the show, so I appreciate

Speaker 1 (47:26):

That. It's been great, man. I'm sure we'll have you back in some capacity, but until then, we're back to normally scheduled programming hopefully next week. So we'll see you all next Tuesday. Until then, be kind to yourself, be kind to your animals and we will see you in a week. Pets Add Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products, and the joy of the Human Animal Bond with Kristen Levine and Chris Bon, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv.