I remember the day like it was yesterday. Dan and I were in the car on our way to work and I found myself questioning my life. I remember saying it out loud. “Is this it?”  “Isn’t there something more to my life’s purpose?” Dan and I had a job in the same company, but we were not emotionally fulfilled or satisfied with our careers. I didn’t know what it was that I wanted or what I felt was missing, but there was a certain emptiness in my life. Read more

FixNation of Los Angeles officially opened its doors to the public on July 16, 2007 and is the first of its kind organization dedicated to reducing the population of homeless stray and feral cats by providing full-time, free spay/neuter services to caregivers of community cats and low-cost services for tame companion cats. When I was presented with the opportunity to interview with one of the founders, Karn Myers, I jumped at the chance. FixNation had recently made the news with an exciting funding raising event in honor of World Spay Day on February 28th called “FixNation’s 2012 Spay Day Celebration.” Our friend Jackson Galaxy of My Cat From Hell was the special featured guest and I just knew this was an organization I wanted to be affiliated with and help spread the good word about. Read more

I had known Marg of the popular blog, Marg’s Pets, in the background of my mind though the many cat blogs I was beginning to visit on a regular basis. Though each blog I frequented was unique, any comments left by Marg had one common theme – she was a humble and kind-hearted soul looking out for the welfare of animals, feral cats in particular. Everyone else also had a warm word for Marg and I soon began to develop a friendship with this humanitarian. Read more

Gracie at her feeding station - one of the Loews cats in jeopardy of being relocated.

Sometimes in life you do something for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. As the weeks continue in the Loews Portofino Resort battle versus the feral cats residing on the property, it appears no real compromise has been made as groups such as CARE Feline TNR, Alley Cat Allies, and Orange County Animal Services try to reason with hotel management to keep the cats safely on the property rather than relocating them as planned. The hotel has no legal obligation to provide for these cats, other than the implied fact of moral responsibility that they have knowingly allowed these cats to remain on premises since 2004 when Bellman, George Ricci, first discovered a wet, cold, hungry, and motherless kitten at the Loews Royal Pacific location (it should be of note that although we refer to the Loews Portofino in debate, the feral cats in both the Royal Pacific and the Portofino are subject to relocation).

Realizing that this story has much more to it than meets the eye, I decided to go to the source himself, George Ricci, for an exclusive interview to get a firsthand account as to the background of this now very complicated situation to try to make sense of it all. George first started at the Loews in Denver, Colorado in 1992 and moved to the Orlando Royal Pacific location in 2003 and then transferred to the Portofino in 2008. He was a Bellman in all three locations and at the end of 2011 he voluntarily went to “on-call” status to devote more time to his studies at becoming a court stenographer. Read more

Christine and Mon Cherie

Christine Michaels, caretaker of the Riverfront Cats Downtown Miami, was what you would call a classic and devout “dog person” for most of her life.  Like many people, she had serious misconceptions about the feline species and now admits that her mindset was due to ignorance. She never had a cat of her own to care for from kitten to adulthood and reflects that she based her opinion other people’s cats rather than her own experience.

As we continue part two of the series, The Mainstreaming of a Feral Cat, we find out how her life took a profound change in direction and why she now so tirelessly dedicates herself to her greatest passion – educating people about the misconceptions of stray and feral cats and saving their lives. Read more