April 18, 2025 • 40 mins
The conclusion of our discussion with Rachel Goyette from the Jefferson SPCA to shed light on vital animal welfare issues in our area and the importance of spay / neuter. Discover resources available in Jefferson Parish and how you can get involved to support a more humane community for all animals.
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Episode Transcript
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Dixie (00:02):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Welcome everybody, and we are backto finish up our conversation with
Rachel from the Jefferson SPCA.
Rachel (00:15):
So yes, I have 15 dogs that's the weird thing about whenever I go
places and I bring my dachshunds places,they're like, oh, do you breed 'em?
No.
Like why?
Just 'cause I have a lot of them.
I don't wanna say you should have alicense to own a pet, but sometimes I
feel like you should have to go throughanimal shelter training to own a pet.
So you realize what's happening inyour own backyard that you don't know.
The people that were at the rabiesdrive, the majority of people
(00:36):
that had intact animals were pitbulls and they were breeding 'em.
And I was like, there are dogsthat look exactly like your dog
in the shelter homeless right now.
And they're like, nuh.
I was like, oh yeah.
And they're like, there's no way.
I'm like, yes way.
There's beautiful colors blue.
The tri colors that they're liking now.
Everything that you want from ananimal is probably in the shelter.
Dixie (00:58):
I seen in one of my groups, somebody post Maine coon cats.
Rachel (01:03):
Ugh.
Dixie (01:04):
And I didn't know if she was a breeder, and so I asked
her, Hey, are you a breeder?
Oh, of course.
She's very proud about that.
She's a breeder.
And so I'm like I hope you're spayingand neutering 'em, before they go out.
And she's oh, these are pedigree.
And I'm like, they're adime a dozen in the shelter.
They're all over the shelter.
Rachel (01:23):
Yeah.
I just don't care.
But even if the ones that arelike mixes that's like the hard
thing with the adoptions, if youput like a certain breed, people
come and they fight over him.
We had a kitten so cute onetime he wasn't maine coon, but
he was just like long hair.
And one lady was like, I will adopt sixcats plus him if you let me have him.
Like it didn't matter.
Like she would've doneanything and everything.
I wanted just to get that longhair cat and like it blew my mind.
(01:46):
People come in all the time like askingus, do you have this, but I feel like
those cats usually end up gettingturned in because there's some like
medical issue the person can't afford.
Anyway, I feel you've had a lot of
pure bred
things lately.
I try to stay away from 'em.
I had the one bengal because ofone of our connection of one of our
volunteers, but the frenzy that'saround them and then, but they're so
high maintenance and I just don't know.
(02:08):
I'd rather just the lowmaintenance, domestic short-haired
cat if I was gonna have one,
Dixie (02:14):
Definitely the ones that I just had, I can't imagine the
amount of brushing and groomingthat those two would require.
His hair on his tail was probablyabout six to eight inches long.
It was insane.
Rachel (02:29):
Yeah.
And that's why, I feel likeyou have to go through classes.
Some of ours, like whenever wedo adoptions, like we like to do
sleepovers, especially if they'relike, with the bunnies and stuff,
we'd like to do foster to adopt.
And so I like to give you like, four tosix weeks to make sure, and then you're
like, Hey, is this really what you want?
Do you want to scoop alitter box every day?
Do you want to brush the hair every day?
Do you want to make sure this is gross?
(02:51):
But rabbits, if their poop's not a certainway or consistency something's wrong.
Red flags.
And are you okay that if there'san emergency, you're driving
the LSU or you're paying $500,you don't have any options.
Like you have like for an emergency.
I'd rather people be like,okay, this is not what I really
wanted and give it back to me.
Versus me adopt and be like, returnit and hide it, or, oops, sorry.
Hide it or dump it somewhere else.
(03:12):
That's my fear.
I'd rather you try it out and be,and come to me and say, no, I'm
sorry, this is not what I wanted.
Because it's just, you just don'tknow what you're getting into.
But like the longhaired thingI have two long hair, three
longhaired dogs and I hate it.
It's not that the hairin the house bothers me.
Vacuuming, sweeping that is nothing.
Keeping up with grooming andlonghaired animal is awful.
(03:33):
Like I just, I don't know why peoplejust go absolutely haywire over it.
And I'm like, I would rather, sitin a playroom somewhere and have 50
cats running around and the one thatlike bonds to me, no matter what it
looks like, is the one I would want,
Dixie (03:47):
yeah.
And it's a shame because peopleare always attracted to the more
pretty ones, with the longer hair.
Rachel (03:51):
Yeah.
' Dixie (03:52):
cause I'm the same way, I.
I like the one that's gonna come to me.
Rachel (03:56):
Yeah.
And maybe it is fluffy.
Occasionally, maybe it is like the mostgorgeous thing ever, but for the majority
of the time it's a brown tabby for me.
Dixie (04:05):
I've got the
tuxedos.
Rachel (04:08):
You're like one of our volunteers, Julie, she loves a black and white cat.
Can't pass it up.
Dixie (04:11):
I'm not even that much of a fan of tuxedos, but it just
seems like all I get are tuxedos.
Yeah, that's it.
All the ones that love me are tuxedos
Rachel (04:19):
I have two tuxedos right now with FIV.
You know what?
Anybody that wants 'em,they're a bonded pair.
I took them from a vet that rescued them.
. That's another thing I wanna talk about.
FIV You ever really think about that?
I saw a meme shared the other day orlike a graphic and it said if your
vet tells you if you have a FIVcat, it can't be around other cats
(04:40):
or anything like that, or you have toeuthanize it, fire your vet immediately.
I agree with that because I guess likethey have to tell you like the risk of
it, but so many vet cats have been cheeredaround recently about being FIV positive
and everyone is pushing that they haveto be the only cat and they don't, and
it's just so frustrating and infuriating.
We have so many like that wetake, I wanna take 'em all
(05:02):
because I wanna break that stigma.
So I think it's something we needto talk about like more frequently.
Or like Cole and marmalade.
I dunno if you ever followthem on social media.
Dixie (05:11):
Yeah, I'm
familiar with them.
Rachel (05:12):
Marmalade was FIV positive.
So frustrating.
Like the things we dealwith in rescue all the time.
Like I, I'm counting downthe days till I can retire.
Like I just go work atMichael's and Craft.
Dixie (05:28):
So how do you think the community could get more involved to help?
Rachel (05:33):
Spaying neuter is like the only way that we're ever gonna get out of this.
The only way.
So that is talking to your neighbors,that is learning to trap cats.
Even if you're not even a catperson, like some people will come
in and say, I'm not a cat person.
Neither am I really?
I have 15 dogs.
I don't have a cat.
I have a porch cat, but he broke up withme for the neighbor across the street.
(05:54):
But I did get him fixed.
But trapping cats is the greatest need.
If we could just have akitten season that wasn't so
overwhelming, that would be amazing.
I remember when I first startedvolunteering at the shelter in 2012,
and that was just like when I wasat the West Bank, 42 cats would
come in the front door every day.
And you could only pop so many cans.
(06:14):
There are times when we get frustratedand our cat caretakers are like
breaking down and it's so sad.
And they're babies and they're so little.
And then, sometimes they're born,like I see some of the colonies.
They're born with deformities.
If like you would've fixed thatmama Cat five litters ago wouldn't
have this problem, wouldn't have catsuffering, wouldn't have like endless
Door opening of
(06:35):
Hey, I need someone to take these kittens.
Dixie (06:37):
And another thing about that is when you see baby kittens, do not
take 'em unless you know that the mamais absolutely not coming back for 'em.
Rachel (06:45):
Yep.
Definitely don't catnap.
Definitely.
But I wish people wouldjust reach out before then.
It's talking about spay neuter,
Dixie (06:50):
right
Rachel (06:51):
like even if you're not a person that wants to trap cats, then
tell your neighbors like, Hey, do youknow that there's a TNR program in
Jefferson Parish and like it's freeto get your cats fixed Or, I had a
person reach out to me last week.
They have 28 cats that theyfeed, that they have tracked
and logged on their cameras.
They're so proud ofonly one is ear tipped.
Dixie (07:10):
Nice.
Rachel (07:10):
But I wanted to reach out because one is injured.
You couldn't reach outto me like 26 cats ago.
No.
So it's just.
I don't know how to change that.
So it's more about just education,talking to your neighbors, maybe
your neighbor's not on social media.
Maybe they don't, listen to podcasts.
Maybe they don't know.
Like they live under a rock.
(07:31):
They love cats, but they justnever thought to get 'em fixed.
It doesn't make sense to me.
Like, how can you see a mama cat?
Just give birth over and overand you not want to like, fix it.
Dixie (07:39):
Yeah.
I know once I was talking to somebodyand she was telling me she feeds cats.
And so whenever somebody tells me that,I'm like, oh, are they spayed or neutered?
And she said, no, they are not.
And I'm like don't feed 'em unlessyou're gonna spay or neuter 'em.
And her response was I can't not feed 'em.
(08:00):
And I'm like, just take 'em toget 'em spayed and neutered.
I'm like, it's free.
But it's no interest there.
None.
Rachel (08:06):
Yeah.
It's gonna come out the sky andsomeone else is gonna fix it for me.
And that's the part, like ourwellbeing matters too like we matter.
And so like I can teachyou how to do something.
It's like the teach the manhow to fish kind of thing.
Like that whole theory, like you cantrap and you can save endless lives.
We had a trapper that went with a lady.
She's I don't want you trapping 'em.
But the neighbor called because she wastired of her dog killing the kittens.
(08:29):
That was the problem.
She's I don't mind the cats.
I really don't.
But I have a German shorthairpointer, and he's very active.
He was killing kittens.
She's like picking up dead kittensin my backyard all the time.
It's just weighing on meand I can't keep doing it.
And so the neighbors agreed.
All the different neighbors werelike, Hey, you can trap in my
yard, you can trap in my yard.
So we got 'em all fixed.
(08:50):
Unfortunately one of the mama cats died.
The lady's response was, she's hadlitter after litter for many years
and she'd never had a problem.
Now you just killed her.
You were so worried about her passingaway, but you weren't worried about
the 20 kittens that she had nextdoor that your neighbor's dog killed.
Like how does that mass?
Dixie (09:09):
Yeah,
Rachel (09:10):
like she passed away.
And that's super unfortunate, butit's probably 'cause she's inbred
and she's allergic to anesthesia.
It happens.
There are so many cats and youjust don't know what's going on.
We can't do pre-opblood work on every cat.
It just,
Dixie (09:21):
And it's rare
too.
Rachel (09:22):
Yeah, it's rare.
It's not very often that we lose one.
It's not, we try very hard not to.
We've had some have allergic reactionsand we've caught it and reversed 'em
and then try, there's another anesthesiamethod they can do, but I just can't see
how you can keep feeding cats and thenknowing that they're out there not fixed.
I can't imagine like it's just.
Not having healthcareand like having babies.
(09:42):
That's how I feel about it.
I guess like some people like have it intheir mind with their animals and they can
have babies, but they can get babies stuckin their birth canal and they can die,
Dixie (09:50):
I don't think people think of that at all.
Rachel (09:52):
Yeah.
Or people got really mad at us whenwe removed most of the bunnies from
all the parks, but they didn't know,
so we had five babies and a mom andone of the babies was getting sick.
And so they came and got meand they're like, Hey, can you
rush this bunny to Avian vet?
And I said, sure, I can do that.
Not a problem.
And one of our employees came aroundand she's Hey, there's a, something's
wrong with the babies in the cage.
And I'm like, I know I'm about to come.
(10:12):
I'm just grabbing my purse and my keysto get, she's no, there are fetuses in.
Like little tiny fetuses in the same cage.
And I was like, what do you mean?
Her babies are in the cage andthey're like four weeks old.
And she's no, like more of themare coming out of her right now.
So that's when I had to look uplike rabbit gestation period.
So it was like 30 days.
Dixie (10:30):
Yeah.
I learned that from,
From James.
Yeah.
With Lola and friends.
He actually told me about that, thatthey trapped the mom with the babies
and then the mom had more babies.
And I was like mind blown.
Rachel (10:42):
And they all died.
Dixie (10:42):
I
did not
know
Rachel (10:43):
that they all died.
Then that makes me think like, howlong was she in that Kenner park under
that shed just having dead fetuses,like dead babies all the time, where
is like her suffering ending?
I wouldn't mind like bunnies inthe park if they were fixed and
microchipped and like we could eartip 'em in some kind of fashion.
Or tattoo their ear or something.
And I knew that they were safe.
Like they weren't gonna belike, attacked by coyotes,
(11:03):
that'd be different, theyshouldn't be out there anyway.
They're prey animals.
But I just can't imagine thinking aboutthat bunny every night and you're so mad
you took that bunny away from my park.
It's so cute.
And I'm like, it's so cute that she'sjust giving birth to dead fetuses,
like over and over every 30 days.
How is that okay?
If you don't see the animal suffering,like in the front lines in your face,
(11:24):
like, why do you think they're not right?
Like, why would you want a catto just give birth over and over?
Dixie (11:29):
And
people don't wanna see it too.
'cause I've been brought kittensthat have been practically dead.
Rachel (11:35):
Yeah.
That happens
Dixie (11:36):
People just don't wanna see it.
So it's like they'll see something
going on and they're like, here,you take it, you deal with it.
Rachel (11:41):
Yeah, there, there was a guy that ran in the store yesterday in Jefferson
Feed, and he was on a jog and saw asquirrel fall out of a tree came like in
his tiny short snow shirt and everythingwith the squirrel in a box help.
It's like, why is there a guywithout a shirt in the stool?
He was on a jog with a squirrel.
But it's just awful.
I know that on for April Fools, weplayed the joke for the fix a raccoon.
I really wish we could it'dbe so awesome if we could spay
(12:03):
new possums and raccoons too.
But who knows, like maybe in 10, 15years we'll be that advanced and we will.
But I just can't think about like, allthose animals, like out there, over
and over just making babies and, on theway to drop so we have the van and we
do the mass appointments every week.
You can drop 'em off to, geton the party bus as we call it.
And one of 'em was givingbirth as I was driving.
(12:25):
Like I heard it like the baby cryingI've always seen baby kittens, no big
deal, but the sack the baby came out of.
I'm sorry, I know I'm an animal welfare.
I see gross things.
I scoop my dogs poop every day, but ugh.
I texted Rebecca she's thetrapper that trapped the cat.
And the sad thing is it's a baby.
Like she's probably four anda half months at the most.
She's a young mother.
(12:46):
She was terrified.
Like thankfully she's calmeddown, made it very quiet.
Our volunteers came and played some noiseand she delivered two more overnight.
She's okay now, but just tosee that thing like loose.
And then I was like, okay.
So I didn't wanna move her inthe van because I know they're
supposed to eat it or whatever.
Oh.
I was like, ah, this iswhy I don't have children.
I can't, this is gross.
(13:06):
I felt so bad.
I was like, Rebecca, it's all your fault.
But she was out there trapping.
She's trying, it's not like she wasn'ttrying, but that, yeah, that was that.
That's what stinks.
We have 20 appointments on Tuesday,and I only had six cats, so that's
14 appointments that went to waste.
And I can't, I need more trappers.
Yeah,
if a person that was feeding every singleday could just set a trap and get me one
(13:29):
and bring it in, like it's not that hard.
Dixie (13:31):
I have a male that keeps coming around here and I swear he knows
when Tuesdays and Wednesdays are.
Rachel (13:36):
Okay.
The male's easy.
You can give me that any day.
If you catch it Sunday throughThursday, I will buy coffee or
lunch or donuts for somebody.
I will get it fixed.
A male is easy peasy.
I can beg, borrow and steal that.
I can please stay late.
I'll bring you more coffee.
I can get that fixed.
So Sunday through Thursday Ican get it as a pregnant female.
It's a little harder sometimes, but I'llstill beg, borrow and steal for that.
(13:57):
But I mean they're tricky, butPopeye's Chicken works, Cane's
chicken, like I'll know that.
One of my board members,the vice president.
If I'm like out trapping, like she doesn'twanna get involved 'cause she feels bad.
'cause it's hard for her to watch thesuffering and then like to know that
they go back out there and they'relike just cats out in the street.
She's if they're not in asafe colony, I can't do it.
But she'll go get me Popeye's andbring it to me wherever I'm trapping
(14:18):
if I'm struggling so I appreciate it.
It works,
Dixie (14:21):
yeah, it
does.
I like Popeyes and I like Jack mackerel.
Rachel (14:25):
Jack mackerel, huh?
Dixie (14:26):
Oh, it's disgusting.
Yeah.
You go buy it in a can.
Rachel (14:29):
Yeah.
Dixie (14:29):
And it's like the whole fish.
But it's it's one of those things, likeI find if I can't trap a cat, I always
resort to Popeye's or Jack Mackerel.
Yeah.
And always get 'em after that.
Rachel (14:42):
Yeah.
It's just the different things I like.
Lately I've been do the tuna fish and oil.
Because that's the one that like thekitten lady recommends in her video.
And I've been like, I'll keep that one.
And I was like, I use fancy feast foodpate most, but I keep that and I'm
like, oh, this is getting frustrating.
And I usually get 'em with that.
But I was having the patience.
I don't know trapping usedto be so relaxing for me.
I miss doing it sometimes, butat the same time, I feel like I
(15:04):
wanna teach more people how todo it versus just me doing it.
But it's such a great thingif you're a book reader.
Like you can read a bookwhile you're cat dropping.
I could sit in my car on a springday and you hear that little
noise whenever the trap closes.
It's just like you won the lottery.
But it's just so nice.
So trap cat, cat p,why can't I talk today?
Trapping cats can be relaxing in a sense.
(15:26):
So I think people need to get overthe stigma and the fear and like
to say you're not a cat person.
Like you don't have to be a cat person.
But I guess Rebecca was a cat person.
She like with JPRD, like she'sthe one that's doing our, the
TNR training class right now.
She does it once a month on Saturdays.
The first Saturday of the month,and, she now has six cats.
(15:47):
She's not a good foster.
She's not allowed to foster anymore.
She had two cats when she startedvolunteering, but now she's like a
little cat trapping machine, onceyou learn it, just the bug bites you.
Dixie (15:58):
That's what I hear.
A lot of people say that.
Rachel (16:00):
Yeah.
Beth Cooney's, one of the trappersI've, I trained and I like, love,
her passion, and she'll go scaryplaces at night and get so many cats.
So it's just really, I wanna teach morepeople to do it because I think it's
just so easy and people have that fear.
And I don't want anybody tosay the age thing like that.
You can't there's like an 80-year-olddisabled woman, like there's a.
Some of our other trapperslike have bad back problems.
(16:22):
They're like, I can set it,I just can't pick it up.
And now I'm like, that's fine.
Because if she can set it and justthrow a towel over it so it's not
freaking out, I can go pick it up.
That's not a problem.
We can find someone to come pick itup, but there's no reason that we
could not place a trap on your porchand you couldn't set it and watch it.
There's no reason.
Dixie (16:40):
Now I know with the TNR too, there's always cat haters out there.
So you might be trying to trap inyour neighborhood and you might have
that neighbor that's oh, the catsare using my garden as a litter box.
Or the cats are coming up on my porch.
And so do you have anydetterants that people
could use?
Rachel (17:01):
I
find the motion activatedwater sprinklers work the best.
There is a video floating around onFacebook of me getting sprayed with one.
I do have a new video I have notposted yet where I tortured some
of the employees at Jefferson Feed.
I put one in a potted plant on thepatio and then we got our store
Cat Giuseppe to run in front ofit and like it sprayed all of us.
It was very entertaining.
(17:22):
They are cheaper in price,like I get 'em on Amazon.
They used to be $75.
I think they were down to 45 or 50.
I find that they're the best.
Some people will argue that they work atfirst and they don't continue to work.
If you read the instructions, you'resupposed to move it every seven days.
So the cats don't learn the pattern,
And then you have to make surethe motion activated sprinkler,
(17:43):
it's the one I'm talking about,I think it's called the enforcer.
You can put the sprinkler head at thetop or you can put it at the bottom.
You wanna consider a cat, a small animal.
So you want to at the bottom andsome people are installing it
and putting it at the top, andthey're not doing it properly.
The one lady that her and her husbandthat took my advice on it, they set it
up and she was like, it's miraculous.
The raccoons are gone.
The possums are gone.
(18:04):
I love it.
She even bought a cat trap to trap 'emherself to like at least get 'em fixed.
She donated her trap to me.
She said, thank you.
They don't come in myyard anymore, so Oh great.
Yeah.
Motion activated sprinklersare the only thing that worked.
Like the coffee and the forks andthe, I know like on cars, I do
think the what do you call 'em?
Like the plastic spikes?
Dixie (18:23):
Yeah, I know what you're talking
about.
Rachel (18:24):
Scat mats.
Yeah.
Those work, like I actuallyhave a feeder who traps, but she
just didn't want 'em on her car.
She's I feed 'em, I love 'em.
I just don't want themon my brand new car.
So she uses scat mats to train'em not to jump on her car.
So there are cat lovers thatstill use those same, tools
that they want 'em out of 'em.
I think that's the onething as being a feeder.
(18:45):
If you love cats and you don'twant to upset your neighbors.
Whenever you start feedingthat one, like I fed the one
and I trapped him immediately.
I still only have the one, but he actuallylives across the street with Kiki.
He likes Kiki more.
He wanted a girlfriend.
I get it, but I only have the one.
So that's the importance.
Like you need to thinkHey, I'm feeding this cat.
Maybe I should get it fixed.
(19:06):
Like it needs to beforeit becomes a problem.
Before you upset the neighbors, beforeyou ruin all the gardens on the street.
Our neighborhood's full of cats, butit's only one or two here and there.
Like my entire street, there's,everyone has just a couple.
It doesn't get outta hand.
And no, I didn't trap all of 'em.
I've only trapped like three of them.
So like the people were doing it justbeing responsible along that street.
(19:27):
Or along my street beforeI even got involved.
I was only becoming thecraziest cat trapping lady.
I guess I knew about TNR 2000 16, 17, 18,maybe like maybe when best friends like
first came here and like my friend Lisaused to release a lot at the shelter.
But I didn't actually do it myselfuntil 2020 to look for all the
things and the ear tips and the tell.
(19:49):
But I hate the cat haters or I dislikethem very much, but I also understand it.
But the motion activatesprinklers work the best.
I think you have an obligationif you're a feeder, you have the
obligation of being a good neighbor.
I think if my, if I had a cats and ifI was feeding 'em and it was my fault, I
would probably wanna say, Hey neighbor,can I come scoop your yard here and there?
I'd wanna be a good neighbor.
(20:11):
Like whenever you have your elderlyneighbor, like you pick up their recycle
bin or you pick up their trash can I feellike if you're a cat feeder and you're
causing the problem and they're gonnago in other people's yards, you have
to be the good neighbor and scoop it.
I feel it's like whenever you putall the signs for you to scoop your
dog's poop, like people say, it'snot really my cat, I just feed it.
If you feed it.
(20:31):
It's yours.
Sorry for you.
If you like had a child and youfed it, you know it is yours.
So I think that being a cat feeder,you have a responsibility one to trap
them, have the population under control.
You're the easiest person to trap them.
They're gonna trust you, theylove you, they know you, and
(20:52):
you wanna be a good neighbor.
So if you can corral 'em to stay in youryard, if you could create a litter box.
Pine pellets are very cheap.
It's not like the best thing forlitter, but the cats will go in it.
You can get like an oversizedplastic bin from like Home Depot
and put the pine pellets in it.
I think it's maybe five or $6a bag for the pine pellets.
They sell 'em at JeffersonFeed or different feed stores.
(21:13):
And that's so much cheaper.
And then at least give your cats aplace to go to the bathroom so they
don't wanna go to your neighbor's yard.
So I just feel likeyou have an obligation.
I have my 15 dogs.
I try to get 'em in at night.
If I listen for 'em, I have camerasin my backyard to make sure they're
not disturbing my neighbors.
Like you have obligations as a petparent to not disturb your neighbors.
Yeah, I can agree with that.
(21:34):
Yeah.
So I just, I see both sides.
I had a person reach out to meyesterday that they think someone
in the neighborhood's trapping.
'cause he said the cats are disappearing.
He said, I'm not really like one ofthe, I think maybe he was a feeder,
but he doesn't feed that much.
And he knows that most of 'emhave the eart tips, but he said
now he's not seeing them at all.
And I said, look for our trapshave labels that say we're
trapping or humane or whatever.
(21:55):
And I said, usually like otherofficial cat trappers usually put
their name on their traps and theylabel 'em and stuff like that.
And I said, go get a picture of the trap.
If it doesn't have a label on it,or like a name or like a cover.
If it's not lined with newspaper,like looking like someone humanely
cares about what they're doing.
It probably is someonenot doing it properly.
(22:16):
So if you see someone doing that, you needto record it and have video because it is
against law to trap a cat and relocate it.
Like you can bring it to J Paws, liketechnically in the ordinances, you can
bring it to the parish, but most likelythey're going to fix it and bring it back.
And your tip it, so like you'regonna have it back at your house.
But those are your only options.
You TNR it yourself or you bring itto J Paws and they bring it back.
(22:40):
You can't relocate it.
It's just not fair for us to justwanna keep euthanizing animals.
'cause you don't like them.
But
if you think someone is trapping andthey're not doing it, if it's not labeled,
if it's not, it doesn't have a trap cover.
Like the people that don't use newspaper,it, ugh, it like hurts my heart.
I'm like, think about walkingon those bars yourself.
They're probably notdoing the right thing.
(23:00):
So definitely put your spideysenses up, video it, make
conversation, ask what they're doing.
Get someone involved, likeit is against the law.
You can, if you have video proofand evidence, I remember being
a kid following my neighbor.
My mom was like, get in the car.
We're following him.
I was probably 13 or 14 and hewas doing something with puppies
(23:21):
and my mom's get in the car.
That was before smartphones,but we were going.
Like you wanna have the evidence and youwanna, like you're protecting animals.
That's, there's something wrong with that.
Dixie (23:30):
I see that a lot when people will say, oh, I saw somebody trapping cats.
I think they're trapping them and dumpingthem, but they don't get any evidence.
Rachel (23:36):
Yeah.
Dixie (23:37):
And I'm like, but you go complain about it, but you're
not getting any evidence.
And with smartphones, there's no excuse
for it.
Rachel (23:45):
I get fascinated every day with the project NOLA cameras,
like the stuff they do every day.
I'm like, that's so awesome.
And like the facialrecognition, everything.
It's just like cameras are soimportant and they can do so much,
but in every crime committed,you have to have evidence.
We've all watched, legallyblonde a million times.
Like you have to have evidence.
If you're accusing someone ofthat, you need to record it.
You need to, put it in your pocketand record the conversation or
(24:07):
whatever and get the camera outor, say that you're recording 'em.
If you're out there protecting ananimal, you're not doing anything wrong.
Dixie (24:13):
When it comes to your biggest need for volunteers, would it be cat trappers?
Rachel (24:18):
Yes, definitely.
We love volunteers in our adoption centerat Jefferson Feed, we do, but it's also
hard, like I, I prefer adults that areCAT ladies that know what they're doing.
So they can just jump in there,start scooping litter boxes
and know what's going on.
Because sometimes, like it's a lot,we do have a lot of animals to take
care of and, a short day and wedon't have that many employees, so
(24:41):
volunteers that would be needed.
Either, cat trappers, it's just endless.
That's what I want, like morethan anything in the world.
If I could my dream would be tohave a map of Jefferson Parish
and every a five mile square.
Maybe think about I dunno howfar is too far for you as like
where you live to go trap.
(25:01):
Like I could trap in my neighborhoodand it's okay and I can check on it,
but if I like sent you an address andyou're like, okay, I'll go set a trap.
So like you could have, two tothree traps or up to five traps
that you kept at your house.
And I could just say, Hey, thisaddress just sent in a request.
And you go out there and you set the trapsand then you're like, Hey, this is done.
And then it could be like, we couldcome in the van and pick 'em all up.
So if we had the entire parish mappedout where like we had the one person
(25:25):
in like that, two to three mile radiusor whatever that knew how to do it and
they could just jump in on it and go.
Dixie (25:30):
Have you thought about trying to do something like that?
Rachel (25:34):
Yes and no.
The goal, Rebecca came up with the goalthis year, Jefferson Parish turns 200.
And that's why shewanted to the TNR class.
She's what if we could train 200people how to trap cats next year?
But no one signed up last month at all.
Dixie (25:49):
Oh that's sad.
Rachel (25:50):
Yeah.
The first,
The first month, I think there was three.
The second month there may have been five.
And then for March there was zero.
Dixie (26:00):
Yeah.
I, thought about doing, trying to dosomething just to raise awareness..
So we thought it'd be cool for likecat trappers to see how many you trap.,
you take a photo of everysingle one that you trap.
And keep track of it and see at theend of the year who gets the most.
Rachel (26:14):
Yeah.
Dixie (26:15):
Just to see, what everybody's doing.
Rachel (26:17):
Yeah.
I know.
I wish I had kept better notes.
We keep a spreadsheet, we have a Googlesheet that I invite like all of our
trappers to if they wanna be part of it.
And like you can see the addressesand the request as we get 'em.
Most of the time they'll comefrom the shelter or like I
said, I have that Google form.
People can submit it.
Or if they just know somebodythat's been trapping forever.
Some of our longtime residents orsome of our longtime trappers, they
(26:37):
just get, referrals from other people.
But, we keep track and like some of thevet clinics will put how many if they
were pregnant, like some people just,some of the vets just put pregnant.
Some of the clinics put like pregnanttimes four, pregnant times five.
So we'll keep that like on the spreadsheetsometimes, like, how many did we abort?
Like that's how many cats yousave from life on the streets.
(26:58):
That kind of thing.
And keep track of someof that just to like.
Keep the statistics.
But the list, it's just endless.
It's rare whenever you can highlight onegreen to say that it's done and clean
because, they're just, they show up.
That's my I just wantfeeders to like trap more.
So much you're the one there,when the new one shows up.
If you're just learning about it andyou need me to come help you trap 15
(27:20):
to 20 to get caught up, totally fine.
I'm there for you.
But like the one off, I needyou to trap that one off.
So yeah, trappers endlessly likedonations are great that we use every day.
Like food, litter.
But like trappers hardcore always,like if there was a shortage
of kittens, best feeling in theworld, like I just, oh my goodness.
(27:44):
If you had to like.
Just settle.
Like people had to havethe best application.
Like it would just, Idream of that all the time.
Dixie (27:51):
Yeah.
And kittens are overrated.
Rachel (27:53):
Yeah.
Oh, gimme old animals.
All day ah, no puppies, no kittens.
Dixie (27:57):
They're
cute for five minutes.
Rachel (27:59):
No, yeah.
And the kitten poop isthe worst smell ever.
I don't understand whypeople love some ugh.
Like I remember like when I firststarted volunteering, my friend Anita
was fostering kittens and she's Hey,since you go to the West Bank shelter
every day, 'cause you're addicted, canyou bring my foster kittens to get fixed?
And they like pooped in the car, likein the carrier raining on the way there.
(28:19):
So couldn't roll the windows down.
I thought I was gonna die.
I was like, Ugh.
Kitten poop is the worst smell ever.
Old animals all day, every day.
Big old giant cats.
I don't have a tuxedo right now,but I have this black and white cat.
He looks like a smallJaguar, I'll tell you that.
Like he's bigger than a normal house cat.
I don't know what he is.
(28:40):
He's white and black, but he's huge.
Like he barely fits in a cage.
I feel so bad.
He was adopted through our Petcopartnership and apparently he
had like maybe five or six cats.
'cause I think Spaymart took some back.
He died and his family put allhis cats outside in November.
. And so the neighbors were takingcare of him and slowly trapping
him and scanning their chips andfiguring out, so we got two back.
(29:04):
And I just, I remember adoptingthis cat out, or bringing him
from the shelter to Petco.
They usually don't comefrom us at, the shelter.
We go to J Paws, pick him up,bring him straight to Petco.
And I remember the name ofhim, but I don't remember
him being this big of a cat.
He's not fat.
He's not overweight.
He is big boned.
I have no clue what he is.
He's just huge.
Dixie (29:22):
Yeah.
Cats, I think they reach their fullsize actually at five years old.
Especially like your bigger breeds.
'cause I had a Norwegian Forest cat mixthat was a rescue, and when he was like a
year old, he might've been like 10 pounds.
And by the time he was five yearsold, he could steal stuff off of the
counter without jumping on the counter.
Rachel (29:44):
Oh man.
Dixie (29:45):
So yeah, 26 pounds.
Oh.
And he was a little runt kitten that wasfound right before Hurricane Katrina.
Rachel (29:53):
Oh my goodness.
Dixie (29:54):
Like in, in New Orleans East.
Rachel (29:56):
Yeah.
It's just funny the things thatyou get you find people like
want the purebred everything.
But some of the best street things wefind are like the sweetest babies ever.
Like my mom's ditch dogs.
I love them to death.
I don't know what they are.
But my mom went into assistedliving, and so now I have her dogs.
And she wasn't the best mother of them.
And like, whenever I knew her dogs.
I feel like I saw 'em, I took care of 'em.
(30:16):
I dropped off flea preventionand, heartworm prevention
here and there for her.
But I saw a video from like Mother'sDay, like four years ago and Kenzie's,
like walking in the background.
And now that I have him and Ifeed a fish diet, I'm very like a
strict mom, feed all good things.
He looks like a fullblown golden retriever.
He's huge.
And the hair is just like luscious.
And mom found him in a ditch.
(30:37):
Yeah.
And I'm just like, Ilove this dog so much.
I don't know what he is.
He looks like a golden retriever.
His nose is black, so I don't think he is.
I have to DNA test him, but I'm like,this ditch dog is the best dog ever.
Dixie (30:50):
So where can people find more information about getting
involved with the Jefferson SPCA?
Rachel (30:58):
The best thing right now is to email me.
You can go to our website,jeffersonspca.org.
Or email me Rachel, R-A-C-H-E-L,at jefferson spca.org,
and I will put you in touch withRebecca to learn to trap, or I'll
find one of our trappers that'sgonna trap so you can ride along.
Yeah, we'll find you a ride along.
Dixie (31:20):
Yeah I like the idea of a ride along.
That's cool.
Rachel (31:22):
Oh, definitely.
Uhhuh.
You can ride in the undercover van.
, our van's not wrapped.
It's just white, so wealways make jokes about it.
But I do have a license plate thatsays most likely a van full of
cats on the way for snip and tip.
Dixie (31:37):
Okay.
So before we end, is there anythingelse you would like to add?
Rachel (31:41):
I don't know.
I dream of a place where there wasjust a shortage of animals and we had
stricter laws in and law enforcement,like it would just be a dream.
I don't know that I wannabe the person that does it.
'cause I'd probably be veryhotheaded, but I like helping people.
I like, helping people keep their pets.
(32:01):
If they wanna do right by'em, that does make me happy.
If they can't afford 'em, I totallyunderstand it, but if they wanna
keep 'em, I wanna help 'em, keep 'em.
But if you don't like, truly loveyour animal like family, or you
think of it as like a side hustle,I don't have respect for you.
Animals are life.
I love them.
My husband knows what he got into.
I know that he knows he did we datedseven years before we got married.
(32:24):
But did he really know He'sgetting into, I don't know.
But animals are life.
They're just so loving.
And I love watching all thetransformations of all the animals
that I've rescued, especially old ones.
If you wanna change a life, like I, Iknow everybody comes for the kittens.
I don't get it.
Love an old animal.
It'll be like the greatest love of yourlife of just, you just gotta do it.
(32:47):
Don't get the wholelike, they're gonna die.
It's not like that.
It's the love you can give a senioranimal in the end, there's no better love.
Dixie (32:55):
I had 2 17-year-old cats.
There was a lady that waspassing away from cancer and
she had no family to take 'em.
So this was about 10 years ago, but Itook in the two 17-year-old cats and they
lived in an additional two years.
Rachel (33:09):
Yeah, it'll be like the best two years of your life.
They're just like so loving andI have one now that's blind.
I cannot believe he went blind,but he had detached retinas.
We were doing all the medication.
We saw the eye specialist, all that.
But he just cracks me up.
He's a little character,just like loud as can be.
He's blind, but he walksaround, gets around.
He's probably only eight pounds.
He had no hair when I got him,and now he looks like cousin.
(33:30):
It.
He just like, whenever he knows thatit's like breakfast time, his bark, ugh.
It makes my heart so happy.
I'm just like, look at this little olddog, like you had no food and you were
bald and you were covered in, fleas anddirt and everything and just, I love it.
We call him the Charlesbark and he barks food.
It just, yeah.
Let go of the stigma of baby things.
There are kittens and kittens needhomes, but if we could spay and
(33:51):
neuter all of them there, maybethere wouldn't be that many kittens.
But get an adult animal
Dixie (33:56):
and don't pick up kittens that are older than eight weeks old.
if they haven't been tamed becausethey're not tamable at that point,
Rachel (34:03):
no.
We have one that lives in ourplayroom and none of us can pet him.
A certain volunteer that fostered,like a connection of a connection
through a neighbor or something, herhusband can come in and pet this cat.
It's lived in our playroom for four years.
It was too late, but atrapper picked him up and Yep.
I don't wanna let him go back.
To that trapper.
So he's uncle Rip.
(34:24):
He loves cats.
Does not like humans.
Yep.
So I you're nice.
I say five weeks, six weeks,
Dixie (34:32):
Yeah.
I mean there's that point is if likeseven is like the breaking point.
If you don't get 'embefore then just you're
better off the TNR 'em.
Rachel (34:41):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean we have some that wehad to ear tip 'em yesterday.
We've had 'em for six or seven months.
They've had no interest.
They're still very skittish.
We've tried.
So we sedated 'em yesterday and had'em ear tipped and microchipped them
or they were microchipped 'causewe're trying to adopt 'em out.
And I called the feeder and she'sabsolutely they can come back.
So we're gonna doexchange and put 'em back.
(35:01):
And it's unfortunate, but in my mindI can't keep holding onto the three
of them taking up an entire cage.
When we're about to start kittenseason, we don't have Joan anymore.
Rightfully I don't blame her.
Retire.
Where's the next waveof the younger people?
I don't blame you.
You have to have a life.
I wanna live my life at some pointI'm gonna have to hang my hat up.
(35:21):
I know people want me to dothis forever, but I can't.
But I have to be realistic.
If I can't get 'em adopted, like theme we have that we had to celebrate
this week, Dottie and Violet, thetwo cats we've had for 615 days
this week got adopted yesterday.
Dixie (35:36):
Really?
Yes.
Oh wow.
Rachel (35:37):
So I haven't posted yet.
We're gonna post it tomorrowfor some feel Good Friday, but,
Dixie (35:41):
Oh wow.
Rachel (35:41):
615 days.
Dottie, no one wanted her becauseshe has herpes in her eye.
Uhhuh, and everybody's oh, herpes.
They're so grossed out by it.
Dixie (35:48):
Wow.
That's wonderful.
Rachel (35:50):
It's just that one home that like changes a life.
It doesn't happen asoften as we want it to.
We have so many special adult catsthat like we are obsessed with and
the ones that we are so in love with,
we had a lady come a coupleweeks ago and was like, I don't
want your youngest kitten.
I don't want your smallest kitten.
I wanna help an adult.
I wanna be a good person.
(36:10):
She picked the twosmallest kittens we had.
Dixie (36:14):
Yeah.
That's like yesterday a conversationthat I had was, somebody's looking
for a kitten to live outdoors.
And I'm like I might be ableto find they a nice adult cat.
Oh, we wanna experience a kitten.
And I'm like, how are you experiencinga kitten if you're throwing it outside?
Rachel (36:31):
Yep.
There was a guy yesterday, therats are eating my tomatoes.
I need another outside cat.
I was feeding them like occasionally withtreats and now my neighbor fell in love
with 'em and let 'em come in her house.
I'm like have you seen videosof coyotes ripping cats apart?
It's not great for 'em to live outdoors.
I love TNR.
I'm okay with it, but at the sametime, I still don't want 'em outside.
If you're not gonna spoil thecat and love it the way that our.
(36:53):
Caretakers, Amelie and Reesiare, as we call her, Maly, you
can't have one of our cats.
Dixie (36:58):
Yeah.
I want my babies to go indoors.
Rachel (37:00):
Yeah.
My heart broke when I read that story theother day on social media that A tail in
need posted where that cat got adoptedin January and then a good Samaritan
found it outside, beat up in March.
Like cuts on its nose, all blood,
Dixie (37:14):
yeah.
It was horrible.
Rachel (37:15):
And then the lady's that's my outside cat.
Dixie (37:17):
That did not look like an outside cat that looked like a
cat that they didn't want anymore.
Rachel (37:23):
Yeah.
That cat looked terrified and all beat upand bloodied in the face, like injured.
It did not wanna be outside.
So I just, I don't Howdo you sleep at night?
I don't get it.
And that's why I'm strict.
I know i's so hard.
But.
The Miracle Homes, likethey're far and few between.
And then not everybody couldbe having, double digit animals.
(37:44):
I don't blame anybody, I don'texpect anybody to do that.
But eventually, like all the goodhomes, like they're gonna run out.
There's just not enough.
If we keep at the pace that we're inI never thought I would see French
Bulldogs in the shelter and there'sfive or six a week posted stray.
Never thought that.
Golden doodles, they're euthanizing someof them because they are just very evil.
(38:05):
Not just they're mutts essentially.
Some mutts are great, but it's apurebred mutt that they're making.
It's not a good mix.
And like they've had one thatattacked like humans and animals.
It just, I don't know.
It's heartbreaking.
All the things that, I feel likeyou need a class, like a permit.
Like you have a permit to like,shoot guns or whatever, fishing or
whatever craft or hobby or whatever.
(38:27):
You have a license or a training class.
I think you should have to go tothe shelter and learn that before
you own a pet to see what happens.
Like the people that came to therabies drive so much and they're
like, oh no, we want puppies.
I'm like, why do you not knowhow many homeless dogs are in the
shelter that look just like this?
No,
(38:48):
outta sight outta
mind.
. Dixie (38:50):
Yeah.
I wish there was a way to changethat stigma because it's full of
pedigree animals in the shelterand people just don't wanna go
accept that fact or go look even.
Rachel (39:00):
Yeah, I'm the crazy dachshund lady.
Every one of my dachshunds all rescues.
Every single one of 'em.
And that's why it's like people like,oh, you're gonna breed 'em because
I have long hair, I have dapplesand piebalds, all that, all rescues.
Yeah.
So it's, sometimes youhave to have patience,
it's crazy.
I don't know, like when I firststarted volunteering, like it was,
there are still a lot of pit bullsin the shelter, don't get me wrong.
(39:22):
That's still very common.
But like the beagles are somistreated in our parish.
Out of control with the ear, theyclip their ears to like tag 'em.
Like whoever's that's their dog.
Every single one of 'emis heartworm positive.
They're skinny.
The worms, the parasites, they'rein like deplorable condition.
I had one that fostered throughheartworm treatment and I got her
adopted and she died nine months later'cause of damage in her lungs from
(39:45):
coughing from heartworms so long.
Killed her.
It's just don't get an animalif you're not in it for life.
Don't get one bottom line.
Dixie (39:52):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much forchatting with me today.
Rachel (39:56):
Oh, thanks for having me.
It's fun.
I can't wait to.
Listen to more of them.
Dixie (40:01):
Hopefully I can get you to come back too.
Rachel (40:03):
Oh, definitely.
Thanks for having me.
Dixie (40:04):
All right.
And that's all the time wehave for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue, or ifyou know someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show
. Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues making adifference in the lives of animals.
Welcome everybody, and we are backto finish up our conversation with
Rachel from the Jefferson SPCA.
Rachel (00:15):
So yes, I have 15 dogs that's the weird thing about whenever I go
places and I bring my dachshunds places,they're like, oh, do you breed 'em?
No.
Like why?
Just 'cause I have a lot of them.
I don't wanna say you should have alicense to own a pet, but sometimes I
feel like you should have to go throughanimal shelter training to own a pet.
So you realize what's happening inyour own backyard that you don't know.
The people that were at the rabiesdrive, the majority of people
(00:36):
that had intact animals were pitbulls and they were breeding 'em.
And I was like, there are dogsthat look exactly like your dog
in the shelter homeless right now.
And they're like, nuh.
I was like, oh yeah.
And they're like, there's no way.
I'm like, yes way.
There's beautiful colors blue.
The tri colors that they're liking now.
Everything that you want from ananimal is probably in the shelter.
Dixie (00:58):
I seen in one of my groups, somebody post Maine coon cats.
Rachel (01:03):
Ugh.
Dixie (01:04):
And I didn't know if she was a breeder, and so I asked
her, Hey, are you a breeder?
Oh, of course.
She's very proud about that.
She's a breeder.
And so I'm like I hope you're spayingand neutering 'em, before they go out.
And she's oh, these are pedigree.
And I'm like, they're adime a dozen in the shelter.
They're all over the shelter.
Rachel (01:23):
Yeah.
I just don't care.
But even if the ones that arelike mixes that's like the hard
thing with the adoptions, if youput like a certain breed, people
come and they fight over him.
We had a kitten so cute onetime he wasn't maine coon, but
he was just like long hair.
And one lady was like, I will adopt sixcats plus him if you let me have him.
Like it didn't matter.
Like she would've doneanything and everything.
I wanted just to get that longhair cat and like it blew my mind.
(01:46):
People come in all the time like askingus, do you have this, but I feel like
those cats usually end up gettingturned in because there's some like
medical issue the person can't afford.
Anyway, I feel you've had a lot of
pure bred
things lately.
I try to stay away from 'em.
I had the one bengal because ofone of our connection of one of our
volunteers, but the frenzy that'saround them and then, but they're so
high maintenance and I just don't know.
(02:08):
I'd rather just the lowmaintenance, domestic short-haired
cat if I was gonna have one,
Dixie (02:14):
Definitely the ones that I just had, I can't imagine the
amount of brushing and groomingthat those two would require.
His hair on his tail was probablyabout six to eight inches long.
It was insane.
Rachel (02:29):
Yeah.
And that's why, I feel likeyou have to go through classes.
Some of ours, like whenever wedo adoptions, like we like to do
sleepovers, especially if they'relike, with the bunnies and stuff,
we'd like to do foster to adopt.
And so I like to give you like, four tosix weeks to make sure, and then you're
like, Hey, is this really what you want?
Do you want to scoop alitter box every day?
Do you want to brush the hair every day?
Do you want to make sure this is gross?
(02:51):
But rabbits, if their poop's not a certainway or consistency something's wrong.
Red flags.
And are you okay that if there'san emergency, you're driving
the LSU or you're paying $500,you don't have any options.
Like you have like for an emergency.
I'd rather people be like,okay, this is not what I really
wanted and give it back to me.
Versus me adopt and be like, returnit and hide it, or, oops, sorry.
Hide it or dump it somewhere else.
(03:12):
That's my fear.
I'd rather you try it out and be,and come to me and say, no, I'm
sorry, this is not what I wanted.
Because it's just, you just don'tknow what you're getting into.
But like the longhaired thingI have two long hair, three
longhaired dogs and I hate it.
It's not that the hairin the house bothers me.
Vacuuming, sweeping that is nothing.
Keeping up with grooming andlonghaired animal is awful.
(03:33):
Like I just, I don't know why peoplejust go absolutely haywire over it.
And I'm like, I would rather, sitin a playroom somewhere and have 50
cats running around and the one thatlike bonds to me, no matter what it
looks like, is the one I would want,
Dixie (03:47):
yeah.
And it's a shame because peopleare always attracted to the more
pretty ones, with the longer hair.
Rachel (03:51):
Yeah.
' Dixie (03:52):
cause I'm the same way, I.
I like the one that's gonna come to me.
Rachel (03:56):
Yeah.
And maybe it is fluffy.
Occasionally, maybe it is like the mostgorgeous thing ever, but for the majority
of the time it's a brown tabby for me.
Dixie (04:05):
I've got the
tuxedos.
Rachel (04:08):
You're like one of our volunteers, Julie, she loves a black and white cat.
Can't pass it up.
Dixie (04:11):
I'm not even that much of a fan of tuxedos, but it just
seems like all I get are tuxedos.
Yeah, that's it.
All the ones that love me are tuxedos
Rachel (04:19):
I have two tuxedos right now with FIV.
You know what?
Anybody that wants 'em,they're a bonded pair.
I took them from a vet that rescued them.
. That's another thing I wanna talk about.
FIV You ever really think about that?
I saw a meme shared the other day orlike a graphic and it said if your
vet tells you if you have a FIVcat, it can't be around other cats
(04:40):
or anything like that, or you have toeuthanize it, fire your vet immediately.
I agree with that because I guess likethey have to tell you like the risk of
it, but so many vet cats have been cheeredaround recently about being FIV positive
and everyone is pushing that they haveto be the only cat and they don't, and
it's just so frustrating and infuriating.
We have so many like that wetake, I wanna take 'em all
(05:02):
because I wanna break that stigma.
So I think it's something we needto talk about like more frequently.
Or like Cole and marmalade.
I dunno if you ever followthem on social media.
Dixie (05:11):
Yeah, I'm
familiar with them.
Rachel (05:12):
Marmalade was FIV positive.
So frustrating.
Like the things we dealwith in rescue all the time.
Like I, I'm counting downthe days till I can retire.
Like I just go work atMichael's and Craft.
Dixie (05:28):
So how do you think the community could get more involved to help?
Rachel (05:33):
Spaying neuter is like the only way that we're ever gonna get out of this.
The only way.
So that is talking to your neighbors,that is learning to trap cats.
Even if you're not even a catperson, like some people will come
in and say, I'm not a cat person.
Neither am I really?
I have 15 dogs.
I don't have a cat.
I have a porch cat, but he broke up withme for the neighbor across the street.
(05:54):
But I did get him fixed.
But trapping cats is the greatest need.
If we could just have akitten season that wasn't so
overwhelming, that would be amazing.
I remember when I first startedvolunteering at the shelter in 2012,
and that was just like when I wasat the West Bank, 42 cats would
come in the front door every day.
And you could only pop so many cans.
(06:14):
There are times when we get frustratedand our cat caretakers are like
breaking down and it's so sad.
And they're babies and they're so little.
And then, sometimes they're born,like I see some of the colonies.
They're born with deformities.
If like you would've fixed thatmama Cat five litters ago wouldn't
have this problem, wouldn't have catsuffering, wouldn't have like endless
Door opening of
(06:35):
Hey, I need someone to take these kittens.
Dixie (06:37):
And another thing about that is when you see baby kittens, do not
take 'em unless you know that the mamais absolutely not coming back for 'em.
Rachel (06:45):
Yep.
Definitely don't catnap.
Definitely.
But I wish people wouldjust reach out before then.
It's talking about spay neuter,
Dixie (06:50):
right
Rachel (06:51):
like even if you're not a person that wants to trap cats, then
tell your neighbors like, Hey, do youknow that there's a TNR program in
Jefferson Parish and like it's freeto get your cats fixed Or, I had a
person reach out to me last week.
They have 28 cats that theyfeed, that they have tracked
and logged on their cameras.
They're so proud ofonly one is ear tipped.
Dixie (07:10):
Nice.
Rachel (07:10):
But I wanted to reach out because one is injured.
You couldn't reach outto me like 26 cats ago.
No.
So it's just.
I don't know how to change that.
So it's more about just education,talking to your neighbors, maybe
your neighbor's not on social media.
Maybe they don't, listen to podcasts.
Maybe they don't know.
Like they live under a rock.
(07:31):
They love cats, but they justnever thought to get 'em fixed.
It doesn't make sense to me.
Like, how can you see a mama cat?
Just give birth over and overand you not want to like, fix it.
Dixie (07:39):
Yeah.
I know once I was talking to somebodyand she was telling me she feeds cats.
And so whenever somebody tells me that,I'm like, oh, are they spayed or neutered?
And she said, no, they are not.
And I'm like don't feed 'em unlessyou're gonna spay or neuter 'em.
And her response was I can't not feed 'em.
(08:00):
And I'm like, just take 'em toget 'em spayed and neutered.
I'm like, it's free.
But it's no interest there.
None.
Rachel (08:06):
Yeah.
It's gonna come out the sky andsomeone else is gonna fix it for me.
And that's the part, like ourwellbeing matters too like we matter.
And so like I can teachyou how to do something.
It's like the teach the manhow to fish kind of thing.
Like that whole theory, like you cantrap and you can save endless lives.
We had a trapper that went with a lady.
She's I don't want you trapping 'em.
But the neighbor called because she wastired of her dog killing the kittens.
(08:29):
That was the problem.
She's I don't mind the cats.
I really don't.
But I have a German shorthairpointer, and he's very active.
He was killing kittens.
She's like picking up dead kittensin my backyard all the time.
It's just weighing on meand I can't keep doing it.
And so the neighbors agreed.
All the different neighbors werelike, Hey, you can trap in my
yard, you can trap in my yard.
So we got 'em all fixed.
(08:50):
Unfortunately one of the mama cats died.
The lady's response was, she's hadlitter after litter for many years
and she'd never had a problem.
Now you just killed her.
You were so worried about her passingaway, but you weren't worried about
the 20 kittens that she had nextdoor that your neighbor's dog killed.
Like how does that mass?
Dixie (09:09):
Yeah,
Rachel (09:10):
like she passed away.
And that's super unfortunate, butit's probably 'cause she's inbred
and she's allergic to anesthesia.
It happens.
There are so many cats and youjust don't know what's going on.
We can't do pre-opblood work on every cat.
It just,
Dixie (09:21):
And it's rare
too.
Rachel (09:22):
Yeah, it's rare.
It's not very often that we lose one.
It's not, we try very hard not to.
We've had some have allergic reactionsand we've caught it and reversed 'em
and then try, there's another anesthesiamethod they can do, but I just can't see
how you can keep feeding cats and thenknowing that they're out there not fixed.
I can't imagine like it's just.
Not having healthcareand like having babies.
(09:42):
That's how I feel about it.
I guess like some people like have it intheir mind with their animals and they can
have babies, but they can get babies stuckin their birth canal and they can die,
Dixie (09:50):
I don't think people think of that at all.
Rachel (09:52):
Yeah.
Or people got really mad at us whenwe removed most of the bunnies from
all the parks, but they didn't know,
so we had five babies and a mom andone of the babies was getting sick.
And so they came and got meand they're like, Hey, can you
rush this bunny to Avian vet?
And I said, sure, I can do that.
Not a problem.
And one of our employees came aroundand she's Hey, there's a, something's
wrong with the babies in the cage.
And I'm like, I know I'm about to come.
(10:12):
I'm just grabbing my purse and my keysto get, she's no, there are fetuses in.
Like little tiny fetuses in the same cage.
And I was like, what do you mean?
Her babies are in the cage andthey're like four weeks old.
And she's no, like more of themare coming out of her right now.
So that's when I had to look uplike rabbit gestation period.
So it was like 30 days.
Dixie (10:30):
Yeah.
I learned that from,
From James.
Yeah.
With Lola and friends.
He actually told me about that, thatthey trapped the mom with the babies
and then the mom had more babies.
And I was like mind blown.
Rachel (10:42):
And they all died.
Dixie (10:42):
I
did not
know
Rachel (10:43):
that they all died.
Then that makes me think like, howlong was she in that Kenner park under
that shed just having dead fetuses,like dead babies all the time, where
is like her suffering ending?
I wouldn't mind like bunnies inthe park if they were fixed and
microchipped and like we could eartip 'em in some kind of fashion.
Or tattoo their ear or something.
And I knew that they were safe.
Like they weren't gonna belike, attacked by coyotes,
(11:03):
that'd be different, theyshouldn't be out there anyway.
They're prey animals.
But I just can't imagine thinking aboutthat bunny every night and you're so mad
you took that bunny away from my park.
It's so cute.
And I'm like, it's so cute that she'sjust giving birth to dead fetuses,
like over and over every 30 days.
How is that okay?
If you don't see the animal suffering,like in the front lines in your face,
(11:24):
like, why do you think they're not right?
Like, why would you want a catto just give birth over and over?
Dixie (11:29):
And
people don't wanna see it too.
'cause I've been brought kittensthat have been practically dead.
Rachel (11:35):
Yeah.
That happens
Dixie (11:36):
People just don't wanna see it.
So it's like they'll see something
going on and they're like, here,you take it, you deal with it.
Rachel (11:41):
Yeah, there, there was a guy that ran in the store yesterday in Jefferson
Feed, and he was on a jog and saw asquirrel fall out of a tree came like in
his tiny short snow shirt and everythingwith the squirrel in a box help.
It's like, why is there a guywithout a shirt in the stool?
He was on a jog with a squirrel.
But it's just awful.
I know that on for April Fools, weplayed the joke for the fix a raccoon.
I really wish we could it'dbe so awesome if we could spay
(12:03):
new possums and raccoons too.
But who knows, like maybe in 10, 15years we'll be that advanced and we will.
But I just can't think about like, allthose animals, like out there, over
and over just making babies and, on theway to drop so we have the van and we
do the mass appointments every week.
You can drop 'em off to, geton the party bus as we call it.
And one of 'em was givingbirth as I was driving.
(12:25):
Like I heard it like the baby cryingI've always seen baby kittens, no big
deal, but the sack the baby came out of.
I'm sorry, I know I'm an animal welfare.
I see gross things.
I scoop my dogs poop every day, but ugh.
I texted Rebecca she's thetrapper that trapped the cat.
And the sad thing is it's a baby.
Like she's probably four anda half months at the most.
She's a young mother.
(12:46):
She was terrified.
Like thankfully she's calmeddown, made it very quiet.
Our volunteers came and played some noiseand she delivered two more overnight.
She's okay now, but just tosee that thing like loose.
And then I was like, okay.
So I didn't wanna move her inthe van because I know they're
supposed to eat it or whatever.
Oh.
I was like, ah, this iswhy I don't have children.
I can't, this is gross.
(13:06):
I felt so bad.
I was like, Rebecca, it's all your fault.
But she was out there trapping.
She's trying, it's not like she wasn'ttrying, but that, yeah, that was that.
That's what stinks.
We have 20 appointments on Tuesday,and I only had six cats, so that's
14 appointments that went to waste.
And I can't, I need more trappers.
Yeah,
if a person that was feeding every singleday could just set a trap and get me one
(13:29):
and bring it in, like it's not that hard.
Dixie (13:31):
I have a male that keeps coming around here and I swear he knows
when Tuesdays and Wednesdays are.
Rachel (13:36):
Okay.
The male's easy.
You can give me that any day.
If you catch it Sunday throughThursday, I will buy coffee or
lunch or donuts for somebody.
I will get it fixed.
A male is easy peasy.
I can beg, borrow and steal that.
I can please stay late.
I'll bring you more coffee.
I can get that fixed.
So Sunday through Thursday Ican get it as a pregnant female.
It's a little harder sometimes, but I'llstill beg, borrow and steal for that.
(13:57):
But I mean they're tricky, butPopeye's Chicken works, Cane's
chicken, like I'll know that.
One of my board members,the vice president.
If I'm like out trapping, like she doesn'twanna get involved 'cause she feels bad.
'cause it's hard for her to watch thesuffering and then like to know that
they go back out there and they'relike just cats out in the street.
She's if they're not in asafe colony, I can't do it.
But she'll go get me Popeye's andbring it to me wherever I'm trapping
(14:18):
if I'm struggling so I appreciate it.
It works,
Dixie (14:21):
yeah, it
does.
I like Popeyes and I like Jack mackerel.
Rachel (14:25):
Jack mackerel, huh?
Dixie (14:26):
Oh, it's disgusting.
Yeah.
You go buy it in a can.
Rachel (14:29):
Yeah.
Dixie (14:29):
And it's like the whole fish.
But it's it's one of those things, likeI find if I can't trap a cat, I always
resort to Popeye's or Jack Mackerel.
Yeah.
And always get 'em after that.
Rachel (14:42):
Yeah.
It's just the different things I like.
Lately I've been do the tuna fish and oil.
Because that's the one that like thekitten lady recommends in her video.
And I've been like, I'll keep that one.
And I was like, I use fancy feast foodpate most, but I keep that and I'm
like, oh, this is getting frustrating.
And I usually get 'em with that.
But I was having the patience.
I don't know trapping usedto be so relaxing for me.
I miss doing it sometimes, butat the same time, I feel like I
(15:04):
wanna teach more people how todo it versus just me doing it.
But it's such a great thingif you're a book reader.
Like you can read a bookwhile you're cat dropping.
I could sit in my car on a springday and you hear that little
noise whenever the trap closes.
It's just like you won the lottery.
But it's just so nice.
So trap cat, cat p,why can't I talk today?
Trapping cats can be relaxing in a sense.
(15:26):
So I think people need to get overthe stigma and the fear and like
to say you're not a cat person.
Like you don't have to be a cat person.
But I guess Rebecca was a cat person.
She like with JPRD, like she'sthe one that's doing our, the
TNR training class right now.
She does it once a month on Saturdays.
The first Saturday of the month,and, she now has six cats.
(15:47):
She's not a good foster.
She's not allowed to foster anymore.
She had two cats when she startedvolunteering, but now she's like a
little cat trapping machine, onceyou learn it, just the bug bites you.
Dixie (15:58):
That's what I hear.
A lot of people say that.
Rachel (16:00):
Yeah.
Beth Cooney's, one of the trappersI've, I trained and I like, love,
her passion, and she'll go scaryplaces at night and get so many cats.
So it's just really, I wanna teach morepeople to do it because I think it's
just so easy and people have that fear.
And I don't want anybody tosay the age thing like that.
You can't there's like an 80-year-olddisabled woman, like there's a.
Some of our other trapperslike have bad back problems.
(16:22):
They're like, I can set it,I just can't pick it up.
And now I'm like, that's fine.
Because if she can set it and justthrow a towel over it so it's not
freaking out, I can go pick it up.
That's not a problem.
We can find someone to come pick itup, but there's no reason that we
could not place a trap on your porchand you couldn't set it and watch it.
There's no reason.
Dixie (16:40):
Now I know with the TNR too, there's always cat haters out there.
So you might be trying to trap inyour neighborhood and you might have
that neighbor that's oh, the catsare using my garden as a litter box.
Or the cats are coming up on my porch.
And so do you have anydetterants that people
could use?
Rachel (17:01):
I
find the motion activatedwater sprinklers work the best.
There is a video floating around onFacebook of me getting sprayed with one.
I do have a new video I have notposted yet where I tortured some
of the employees at Jefferson Feed.
I put one in a potted plant on thepatio and then we got our store
Cat Giuseppe to run in front ofit and like it sprayed all of us.
It was very entertaining.
(17:22):
They are cheaper in price,like I get 'em on Amazon.
They used to be $75.
I think they were down to 45 or 50.
I find that they're the best.
Some people will argue that they work atfirst and they don't continue to work.
If you read the instructions, you'resupposed to move it every seven days.
So the cats don't learn the pattern,
And then you have to make surethe motion activated sprinkler,
(17:43):
it's the one I'm talking about,I think it's called the enforcer.
You can put the sprinkler head at thetop or you can put it at the bottom.
You wanna consider a cat, a small animal.
So you want to at the bottom andsome people are installing it
and putting it at the top, andthey're not doing it properly.
The one lady that her and her husbandthat took my advice on it, they set it
up and she was like, it's miraculous.
The raccoons are gone.
The possums are gone.
(18:04):
I love it.
She even bought a cat trap to trap 'emherself to like at least get 'em fixed.
She donated her trap to me.
She said, thank you.
They don't come in myyard anymore, so Oh great.
Yeah.
Motion activated sprinklersare the only thing that worked.
Like the coffee and the forks andthe, I know like on cars, I do
think the what do you call 'em?
Like the plastic spikes?
Dixie (18:23):
Yeah, I know what you're talking
about.
Rachel (18:24):
Scat mats.
Yeah.
Those work, like I actuallyhave a feeder who traps, but she
just didn't want 'em on her car.
She's I feed 'em, I love 'em.
I just don't want themon my brand new car.
So she uses scat mats to train'em not to jump on her car.
So there are cat lovers thatstill use those same, tools
that they want 'em out of 'em.
I think that's the onething as being a feeder.
(18:45):
If you love cats and you don'twant to upset your neighbors.
Whenever you start feedingthat one, like I fed the one
and I trapped him immediately.
I still only have the one, but he actuallylives across the street with Kiki.
He likes Kiki more.
He wanted a girlfriend.
I get it, but I only have the one.
So that's the importance.
Like you need to thinkHey, I'm feeding this cat.
Maybe I should get it fixed.
(19:06):
Like it needs to beforeit becomes a problem.
Before you upset the neighbors, beforeyou ruin all the gardens on the street.
Our neighborhood's full of cats, butit's only one or two here and there.
Like my entire street, there's,everyone has just a couple.
It doesn't get outta hand.
And no, I didn't trap all of 'em.
I've only trapped like three of them.
So like the people were doing it justbeing responsible along that street.
(19:27):
Or along my street beforeI even got involved.
I was only becoming thecraziest cat trapping lady.
I guess I knew about TNR 2000 16, 17, 18,maybe like maybe when best friends like
first came here and like my friend Lisaused to release a lot at the shelter.
But I didn't actually do it myselfuntil 2020 to look for all the
things and the ear tips and the tell.
(19:49):
But I hate the cat haters or I dislikethem very much, but I also understand it.
But the motion activatesprinklers work the best.
I think you have an obligationif you're a feeder, you have the
obligation of being a good neighbor.
I think if my, if I had a cats and ifI was feeding 'em and it was my fault, I
would probably wanna say, Hey neighbor,can I come scoop your yard here and there?
I'd wanna be a good neighbor.
(20:11):
Like whenever you have your elderlyneighbor, like you pick up their recycle
bin or you pick up their trash can I feellike if you're a cat feeder and you're
causing the problem and they're gonnago in other people's yards, you have
to be the good neighbor and scoop it.
I feel it's like whenever you putall the signs for you to scoop your
dog's poop, like people say, it'snot really my cat, I just feed it.
If you feed it.
(20:31):
It's yours.
Sorry for you.
If you like had a child and youfed it, you know it is yours.
So I think that being a cat feeder,you have a responsibility one to trap
them, have the population under control.
You're the easiest person to trap them.
They're gonna trust you, theylove you, they know you, and
(20:52):
you wanna be a good neighbor.
So if you can corral 'em to stay in youryard, if you could create a litter box.
Pine pellets are very cheap.
It's not like the best thing forlitter, but the cats will go in it.
You can get like an oversizedplastic bin from like Home Depot
and put the pine pellets in it.
I think it's maybe five or $6a bag for the pine pellets.
They sell 'em at JeffersonFeed or different feed stores.
(21:13):
And that's so much cheaper.
And then at least give your cats aplace to go to the bathroom so they
don't wanna go to your neighbor's yard.
So I just feel likeyou have an obligation.
I have my 15 dogs.
I try to get 'em in at night.
If I listen for 'em, I have camerasin my backyard to make sure they're
not disturbing my neighbors.
Like you have obligations as a petparent to not disturb your neighbors.
Yeah, I can agree with that.
(21:34):
Yeah.
So I just, I see both sides.
I had a person reach out to meyesterday that they think someone
in the neighborhood's trapping.
'cause he said the cats are disappearing.
He said, I'm not really like one ofthe, I think maybe he was a feeder,
but he doesn't feed that much.
And he knows that most of 'emhave the eart tips, but he said
now he's not seeing them at all.
And I said, look for our trapshave labels that say we're
trapping or humane or whatever.
(21:55):
And I said, usually like otherofficial cat trappers usually put
their name on their traps and theylabel 'em and stuff like that.
And I said, go get a picture of the trap.
If it doesn't have a label on it,or like a name or like a cover.
If it's not lined with newspaper,like looking like someone humanely
cares about what they're doing.
It probably is someonenot doing it properly.
(22:16):
So if you see someone doing that, you needto record it and have video because it is
against law to trap a cat and relocate it.
Like you can bring it to J Paws, liketechnically in the ordinances, you can
bring it to the parish, but most likelythey're going to fix it and bring it back.
And your tip it, so like you'regonna have it back at your house.
But those are your only options.
You TNR it yourself or you bring itto J Paws and they bring it back.
(22:40):
You can't relocate it.
It's just not fair for us to justwanna keep euthanizing animals.
'cause you don't like them.
But
if you think someone is trapping andthey're not doing it, if it's not labeled,
if it's not, it doesn't have a trap cover.
Like the people that don't use newspaper,it, ugh, it like hurts my heart.
I'm like, think about walkingon those bars yourself.
They're probably notdoing the right thing.
(23:00):
So definitely put your spideysenses up, video it, make
conversation, ask what they're doing.
Get someone involved, likeit is against the law.
You can, if you have video proofand evidence, I remember being
a kid following my neighbor.
My mom was like, get in the car.
We're following him.
I was probably 13 or 14 and hewas doing something with puppies
(23:21):
and my mom's get in the car.
That was before smartphones,but we were going.
Like you wanna have the evidence and youwanna, like you're protecting animals.
That's, there's something wrong with that.
Dixie (23:30):
I see that a lot when people will say, oh, I saw somebody trapping cats.
I think they're trapping them and dumpingthem, but they don't get any evidence.
Rachel (23:36):
Yeah.
Dixie (23:37):
And I'm like, but you go complain about it, but you're
not getting any evidence.
And with smartphones, there's no excuse
for it.
Rachel (23:45):
I get fascinated every day with the project NOLA cameras,
like the stuff they do every day.
I'm like, that's so awesome.
And like the facialrecognition, everything.
It's just like cameras are soimportant and they can do so much,
but in every crime committed,you have to have evidence.
We've all watched, legallyblonde a million times.
Like you have to have evidence.
If you're accusing someone ofthat, you need to record it.
You need to, put it in your pocketand record the conversation or
(24:07):
whatever and get the camera outor, say that you're recording 'em.
If you're out there protecting ananimal, you're not doing anything wrong.
Dixie (24:13):
When it comes to your biggest need for volunteers, would it be cat trappers?
Rachel (24:18):
Yes, definitely.
We love volunteers in our adoption centerat Jefferson Feed, we do, but it's also
hard, like I, I prefer adults that areCAT ladies that know what they're doing.
So they can just jump in there,start scooping litter boxes
and know what's going on.
Because sometimes, like it's a lot,we do have a lot of animals to take
care of and, a short day and wedon't have that many employees, so
(24:41):
volunteers that would be needed.
Either, cat trappers, it's just endless.
That's what I want, like morethan anything in the world.
If I could my dream would be tohave a map of Jefferson Parish
and every a five mile square.
Maybe think about I dunno howfar is too far for you as like
where you live to go trap.
(25:01):
Like I could trap in my neighborhoodand it's okay and I can check on it,
but if I like sent you an address andyou're like, okay, I'll go set a trap.
So like you could have, two tothree traps or up to five traps
that you kept at your house.
And I could just say, Hey, thisaddress just sent in a request.
And you go out there and you set the trapsand then you're like, Hey, this is done.
And then it could be like, we couldcome in the van and pick 'em all up.
So if we had the entire parish mappedout where like we had the one person
(25:25):
in like that, two to three mile radiusor whatever that knew how to do it and
they could just jump in on it and go.
Dixie (25:30):
Have you thought about trying to do something like that?
Rachel (25:34):
Yes and no.
The goal, Rebecca came up with the goalthis year, Jefferson Parish turns 200.
And that's why shewanted to the TNR class.
She's what if we could train 200people how to trap cats next year?
But no one signed up last month at all.
Dixie (25:49):
Oh that's sad.
Rachel (25:50):
Yeah.
The first,
The first month, I think there was three.
The second month there may have been five.
And then for March there was zero.
Dixie (26:00):
Yeah.
I, thought about doing, trying to dosomething just to raise awareness..
So we thought it'd be cool for likecat trappers to see how many you trap.,
you take a photo of everysingle one that you trap.
And keep track of it and see at theend of the year who gets the most.
Rachel (26:14):
Yeah.
Dixie (26:15):
Just to see, what everybody's doing.
Rachel (26:17):
Yeah.
I know.
I wish I had kept better notes.
We keep a spreadsheet, we have a Googlesheet that I invite like all of our
trappers to if they wanna be part of it.
And like you can see the addressesand the request as we get 'em.
Most of the time they'll comefrom the shelter or like I
said, I have that Google form.
People can submit it.
Or if they just know somebodythat's been trapping forever.
Some of our longtime residents orsome of our longtime trappers, they
(26:37):
just get, referrals from other people.
But, we keep track and like some of thevet clinics will put how many if they
were pregnant, like some people just,some of the vets just put pregnant.
Some of the clinics put like pregnanttimes four, pregnant times five.
So we'll keep that like on the spreadsheetsometimes, like, how many did we abort?
Like that's how many cats yousave from life on the streets.
(26:58):
That kind of thing.
And keep track of someof that just to like.
Keep the statistics.
But the list, it's just endless.
It's rare whenever you can highlight onegreen to say that it's done and clean
because, they're just, they show up.
That's my I just wantfeeders to like trap more.
So much you're the one there,when the new one shows up.
If you're just learning about it andyou need me to come help you trap 15
(27:20):
to 20 to get caught up, totally fine.
I'm there for you.
But like the one off, I needyou to trap that one off.
So yeah, trappers endlessly likedonations are great that we use every day.
Like food, litter.
But like trappers hardcore always,like if there was a shortage
of kittens, best feeling in theworld, like I just, oh my goodness.
(27:44):
If you had to like.
Just settle.
Like people had to havethe best application.
Like it would just, Idream of that all the time.
Dixie (27:51):
Yeah.
And kittens are overrated.
Rachel (27:53):
Yeah.
Oh, gimme old animals.
All day ah, no puppies, no kittens.
Dixie (27:57):
They're
cute for five minutes.
Rachel (27:59):
No, yeah.
And the kitten poop isthe worst smell ever.
I don't understand whypeople love some ugh.
Like I remember like when I firststarted volunteering, my friend Anita
was fostering kittens and she's Hey,since you go to the West Bank shelter
every day, 'cause you're addicted, canyou bring my foster kittens to get fixed?
And they like pooped in the car, likein the carrier raining on the way there.
(28:19):
So couldn't roll the windows down.
I thought I was gonna die.
I was like, Ugh.
Kitten poop is the worst smell ever.
Old animals all day, every day.
Big old giant cats.
I don't have a tuxedo right now,but I have this black and white cat.
He looks like a smallJaguar, I'll tell you that.
Like he's bigger than a normal house cat.
I don't know what he is.
(28:40):
He's white and black, but he's huge.
Like he barely fits in a cage.
I feel so bad.
He was adopted through our Petcopartnership and apparently he
had like maybe five or six cats.
'cause I think Spaymart took some back.
He died and his family put allhis cats outside in November.
. And so the neighbors were takingcare of him and slowly trapping
him and scanning their chips andfiguring out, so we got two back.
(29:04):
And I just, I remember adoptingthis cat out, or bringing him
from the shelter to Petco.
They usually don't comefrom us at, the shelter.
We go to J Paws, pick him up,bring him straight to Petco.
And I remember the name ofhim, but I don't remember
him being this big of a cat.
He's not fat.
He's not overweight.
He is big boned.
I have no clue what he is.
He's just huge.
Dixie (29:22):
Yeah.
Cats, I think they reach their fullsize actually at five years old.
Especially like your bigger breeds.
'cause I had a Norwegian Forest cat mixthat was a rescue, and when he was like a
year old, he might've been like 10 pounds.
And by the time he was five yearsold, he could steal stuff off of the
counter without jumping on the counter.
Rachel (29:44):
Oh man.
Dixie (29:45):
So yeah, 26 pounds.
Oh.
And he was a little runt kitten that wasfound right before Hurricane Katrina.
Rachel (29:53):
Oh my goodness.
Dixie (29:54):
Like in, in New Orleans East.
Rachel (29:56):
Yeah.
It's just funny the things thatyou get you find people like
want the purebred everything.
But some of the best street things wefind are like the sweetest babies ever.
Like my mom's ditch dogs.
I love them to death.
I don't know what they are.
But my mom went into assistedliving, and so now I have her dogs.
And she wasn't the best mother of them.
And like, whenever I knew her dogs.
I feel like I saw 'em, I took care of 'em.
(30:16):
I dropped off flea preventionand, heartworm prevention
here and there for her.
But I saw a video from like Mother'sDay, like four years ago and Kenzie's,
like walking in the background.
And now that I have him and Ifeed a fish diet, I'm very like a
strict mom, feed all good things.
He looks like a fullblown golden retriever.
He's huge.
And the hair is just like luscious.
And mom found him in a ditch.
(30:37):
Yeah.
And I'm just like, Ilove this dog so much.
I don't know what he is.
He looks like a golden retriever.
His nose is black, so I don't think he is.
I have to DNA test him, but I'm like,this ditch dog is the best dog ever.
Dixie (30:50):
So where can people find more information about getting
involved with the Jefferson SPCA?
Rachel (30:58):
The best thing right now is to email me.
You can go to our website,jeffersonspca.org.
Or email me Rachel, R-A-C-H-E-L,at jefferson spca.org,
and I will put you in touch withRebecca to learn to trap, or I'll
find one of our trappers that'sgonna trap so you can ride along.
Yeah, we'll find you a ride along.
Dixie (31:20):
Yeah I like the idea of a ride along.
That's cool.
Rachel (31:22):
Oh, definitely.
Uhhuh.
You can ride in the undercover van.
, our van's not wrapped.
It's just white, so wealways make jokes about it.
But I do have a license plate thatsays most likely a van full of
cats on the way for snip and tip.
Dixie (31:37):
Okay.
So before we end, is there anythingelse you would like to add?
Rachel (31:41):
I don't know.
I dream of a place where there wasjust a shortage of animals and we had
stricter laws in and law enforcement,like it would just be a dream.
I don't know that I wannabe the person that does it.
'cause I'd probably be veryhotheaded, but I like helping people.
I like, helping people keep their pets.
(32:01):
If they wanna do right by'em, that does make me happy.
If they can't afford 'em, I totallyunderstand it, but if they wanna
keep 'em, I wanna help 'em, keep 'em.
But if you don't like, truly loveyour animal like family, or you
think of it as like a side hustle,I don't have respect for you.
Animals are life.
I love them.
My husband knows what he got into.
I know that he knows he did we datedseven years before we got married.
(32:24):
But did he really know He'sgetting into, I don't know.
But animals are life.
They're just so loving.
And I love watching all thetransformations of all the animals
that I've rescued, especially old ones.
If you wanna change a life, like I, Iknow everybody comes for the kittens.
I don't get it.
Love an old animal.
It'll be like the greatest love of yourlife of just, you just gotta do it.
(32:47):
Don't get the wholelike, they're gonna die.
It's not like that.
It's the love you can give a senioranimal in the end, there's no better love.
Dixie (32:55):
I had 2 17-year-old cats.
There was a lady that waspassing away from cancer and
she had no family to take 'em.
So this was about 10 years ago, but Itook in the two 17-year-old cats and they
lived in an additional two years.
Rachel (33:09):
Yeah, it'll be like the best two years of your life.
They're just like so loving andI have one now that's blind.
I cannot believe he went blind,but he had detached retinas.
We were doing all the medication.
We saw the eye specialist, all that.
But he just cracks me up.
He's a little character,just like loud as can be.
He's blind, but he walksaround, gets around.
He's probably only eight pounds.
He had no hair when I got him,and now he looks like cousin.
(33:30):
It.
He just like, whenever he knows thatit's like breakfast time, his bark, ugh.
It makes my heart so happy.
I'm just like, look at this little olddog, like you had no food and you were
bald and you were covered in, fleas anddirt and everything and just, I love it.
We call him the Charlesbark and he barks food.
It just, yeah.
Let go of the stigma of baby things.
There are kittens and kittens needhomes, but if we could spay and
(33:51):
neuter all of them there, maybethere wouldn't be that many kittens.
But get an adult animal
Dixie (33:56):
and don't pick up kittens that are older than eight weeks old.
if they haven't been tamed becausethey're not tamable at that point,
Rachel (34:03):
no.
We have one that lives in ourplayroom and none of us can pet him.
A certain volunteer that fostered,like a connection of a connection
through a neighbor or something, herhusband can come in and pet this cat.
It's lived in our playroom for four years.
It was too late, but atrapper picked him up and Yep.
I don't wanna let him go back.
To that trapper.
So he's uncle Rip.
(34:24):
He loves cats.
Does not like humans.
Yep.
So I you're nice.
I say five weeks, six weeks,
Dixie (34:32):
Yeah.
I mean there's that point is if likeseven is like the breaking point.
If you don't get 'embefore then just you're
better off the TNR 'em.
Rachel (34:41):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean we have some that wehad to ear tip 'em yesterday.
We've had 'em for six or seven months.
They've had no interest.
They're still very skittish.
We've tried.
So we sedated 'em yesterday and had'em ear tipped and microchipped them
or they were microchipped 'causewe're trying to adopt 'em out.
And I called the feeder and she'sabsolutely they can come back.
So we're gonna doexchange and put 'em back.
(35:01):
And it's unfortunate, but in my mindI can't keep holding onto the three
of them taking up an entire cage.
When we're about to start kittenseason, we don't have Joan anymore.
Rightfully I don't blame her.
Retire.
Where's the next waveof the younger people?
I don't blame you.
You have to have a life.
I wanna live my life at some pointI'm gonna have to hang my hat up.
(35:21):
I know people want me to dothis forever, but I can't.
But I have to be realistic.
If I can't get 'em adopted, like theme we have that we had to celebrate
this week, Dottie and Violet, thetwo cats we've had for 615 days
this week got adopted yesterday.
Dixie (35:36):
Really?
Yes.
Oh wow.
Rachel (35:37):
So I haven't posted yet.
We're gonna post it tomorrowfor some feel Good Friday, but,
Dixie (35:41):
Oh wow.
Rachel (35:41):
615 days.
Dottie, no one wanted her becauseshe has herpes in her eye.
Uhhuh, and everybody's oh, herpes.
They're so grossed out by it.
Dixie (35:48):
Wow.
That's wonderful.
Rachel (35:50):
It's just that one home that like changes a life.
It doesn't happen asoften as we want it to.
We have so many special adult catsthat like we are obsessed with and
the ones that we are so in love with,
we had a lady come a coupleweeks ago and was like, I don't
want your youngest kitten.
I don't want your smallest kitten.
I wanna help an adult.
I wanna be a good person.
(36:10):
She picked the twosmallest kittens we had.
Dixie (36:14):
Yeah.
That's like yesterday a conversationthat I had was, somebody's looking
for a kitten to live outdoors.
And I'm like I might be ableto find they a nice adult cat.
Oh, we wanna experience a kitten.
And I'm like, how are you experiencinga kitten if you're throwing it outside?
Rachel (36:31):
Yep.
There was a guy yesterday, therats are eating my tomatoes.
I need another outside cat.
I was feeding them like occasionally withtreats and now my neighbor fell in love
with 'em and let 'em come in her house.
I'm like have you seen videosof coyotes ripping cats apart?
It's not great for 'em to live outdoors.
I love TNR.
I'm okay with it, but at the sametime, I still don't want 'em outside.
If you're not gonna spoil thecat and love it the way that our.
(36:53):
Caretakers, Amelie and Reesiare, as we call her, Maly, you
can't have one of our cats.
Dixie (36:58):
Yeah.
I want my babies to go indoors.
Rachel (37:00):
Yeah.
My heart broke when I read that story theother day on social media that A tail in
need posted where that cat got adoptedin January and then a good Samaritan
found it outside, beat up in March.
Like cuts on its nose, all blood,
Dixie (37:14):
yeah.
It was horrible.
Rachel (37:15):
And then the lady's that's my outside cat.
Dixie (37:17):
That did not look like an outside cat that looked like a
cat that they didn't want anymore.
Rachel (37:23):
Yeah.
That cat looked terrified and all beat upand bloodied in the face, like injured.
It did not wanna be outside.
So I just, I don't Howdo you sleep at night?
I don't get it.
And that's why I'm strict.
I know i's so hard.
But.
The Miracle Homes, likethey're far and few between.
And then not everybody couldbe having, double digit animals.
(37:44):
I don't blame anybody, I don'texpect anybody to do that.
But eventually, like all the goodhomes, like they're gonna run out.
There's just not enough.
If we keep at the pace that we're inI never thought I would see French
Bulldogs in the shelter and there'sfive or six a week posted stray.
Never thought that.
Golden doodles, they're euthanizing someof them because they are just very evil.
(38:05):
Not just they're mutts essentially.
Some mutts are great, but it's apurebred mutt that they're making.
It's not a good mix.
And like they've had one thatattacked like humans and animals.
It just, I don't know.
It's heartbreaking.
All the things that, I feel likeyou need a class, like a permit.
Like you have a permit to like,shoot guns or whatever, fishing or
whatever craft or hobby or whatever.
(38:27):
You have a license or a training class.
I think you should have to go tothe shelter and learn that before
you own a pet to see what happens.
Like the people that came to therabies drive so much and they're
like, oh no, we want puppies.
I'm like, why do you not knowhow many homeless dogs are in the
shelter that look just like this?
No,
(38:48):
outta sight outta
mind.
. Dixie (38:50):
Yeah.
I wish there was a way to changethat stigma because it's full of
pedigree animals in the shelterand people just don't wanna go
accept that fact or go look even.
Rachel (39:00):
Yeah, I'm the crazy dachshund lady.
Every one of my dachshunds all rescues.
Every single one of 'em.
And that's why it's like people like,oh, you're gonna breed 'em because
I have long hair, I have dapplesand piebalds, all that, all rescues.
Yeah.
So it's, sometimes youhave to have patience,
it's crazy.
I don't know, like when I firststarted volunteering, like it was,
there are still a lot of pit bullsin the shelter, don't get me wrong.
(39:22):
That's still very common.
But like the beagles are somistreated in our parish.
Out of control with the ear, theyclip their ears to like tag 'em.
Like whoever's that's their dog.
Every single one of 'emis heartworm positive.
They're skinny.
The worms, the parasites, they'rein like deplorable condition.
I had one that fostered throughheartworm treatment and I got her
adopted and she died nine months later'cause of damage in her lungs from
(39:45):
coughing from heartworms so long.
Killed her.
It's just don't get an animalif you're not in it for life.
Don't get one bottom line.
Dixie (39:52):
Absolutely.
Thank you so much forchatting with me today.
Rachel (39:56):
Oh, thanks for having me.
It's fun.
I can't wait to.
Listen to more of them.
Dixie (40:01):
Hopefully I can get you to come back too.
Rachel (40:03):
Oh, definitely.
Thanks for having me.
Dixie (40:04):
All right.
And that's all the time wehave for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue, or ifyou know someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show
. Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.
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