The Captain’s Log entry: Week of 12 October, the year of our Lord 2025
Gimme shelter - the surprising connection between pets and homelessness
As always, this newsletter drops amidst inclement weather, social unrest and uninterrupted stretches of trauma and healing for many communities in the here and now. And to that point, if you’ve not listened yet to our latest episode, Housecats! with YouTube star Jackson Galaxy, Community Cats podcast host Stacy LeBaron and The Urban Resource Institute - click that link for a dose of hope and survival.
AT OUR LAST PORT OF DISEMBARKATION
In which the editorial director of this newsletter, Captain Kitty reports on our past destinations.
We here in Casa Kitten are very, very fortunate to be among the global 5% along with the vast majority of the documented U.S. population with solid, spacious shelter and the ability to keep us and our loved ones clothed, fed and able to access reasonable opportunities for leisure.
But what’s unique about the U.S. is that the median and mean (average) net worth of individual households have a huge disparity, due to the growing extremes of wealth and poverty. And because the U.S. specifically lacks a social safety net (defined as programs that provide temporary or ongoing relief for basic needs including health care, shelter and food), generational wealth and even lifetime net worth can be drained due to a single catastrophic incident or a cycle of them that prevents the “upward social mobility” that is somewhat implicit in the so-called American Dream - and has stalled dramatically, leading to greater anticipated economic disparity in no small part due to the anticipated upcoming great Baby Boomer wealth transfer.
And what this means is that long-term homelessness will increase, exponentially.
Now, what does this have to do with a fun, lighthearted, quirky and playful podcast about cats? You may wonder.
Well, it’s October. October in the U.S. is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And that, my friend, is where cats come in.
Domestic violence - where one partner in an intimate, romantic, domestic or sexual relationship exerts power and control over the relationship and those in it through physical, sexual, economic and other forms of abuse - is the leading cause of homelessness in the great city from which we broadcast, per Teal Inzunza, AVP of Justice Initiatives at the Urban Resource Institute (URI). And as we heard from our special guest Jackson Galaxy, most homeless shelters and safe houses aka domestic violence shelters exclude pets.
But thanks to URI, programs like the People and Animals Living Safely (PALS) program have enabled survivors, including our special guest Elizabeth Rose, to finally find home with their cats (and other animals). Which is dealbreaker for over half of all those surviving abuse who are considering leaving.
It’s holistic programs like this that integrate solutions for both humans and their fur family - programs that create what Community Cats Podcast host and founder Stacy LeBaron calls “the mosaic of support” - a mosaic which forms when existing initiatives come together to adapt sustainable solutions using existing programs. Ones that are more often than not created by and for the communities they serve.
The most sustainable solutions are ones that address the root causes - which have a ripple effect on the other issues they touch on. And in this case, when an individual or family is safely and happily housed, so are their pets.
Speaking of homelessness - the solution for the non-human homeless among us - the undomiciled domesticated housecat is multifactorial, but efforts like the initiatives Stacy described in our episode and certainly programs like URI PALS go a long way toward breaking that cycle. We’ll need many, many more thoughtful systems and infrastructure to truly solve the twin traumas of domestic violence and homelessness. And we are so grateful to spotlight current initiatives that are already making a big difference.
And if you’d like to contribute to a cause that benefits these cat and dog (and other animal) families, here is a link to contribute to URI PALS: https://urinyc.org/donate-today and check out our post from September 30th for cat rescues that can use your help.
NEWS FROM THE CREW!
Here is where my team will share their updates.
We will be dropping our season finale in two weeks on Tuesday, October 28 TBA! Thank you for your patience - we’ll update when we have the corrected delivery date. #LifeHappens. Tune in for a very timely take on legacy, where we’ll travel from Egypt to Peru…and query what it all means. You’ll see!
And we are honored to have been on the TrueFans Creators podcast with
and , talking about the business side of life as an indie podcast producer! Check it out here - TrueFans is a listening platform that has built-in creator support features that you can access up front. Check it out here and consider downloading it from your app store!In the meantime, keep your kitties close this spooky season and if you are around, use MEOWVIP for Catbaret’s Meowloween at Caveat (NYC) to lock in your $15 tickets. There will be tons of fun purr-formances, raffle prizes and yours truly will be running around as a stage “kitten” (stage hand) in black. Kind of like those kabuki ninjas, come to think of it…
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Folks, this aggression will not stand. F*ck ICE, actively push back against cruel and violent behavior you see and appeal to the humanity of yourself and others, always. We are in this together!
Thank you kitties, and all animals, for tolerating the mess we’ve made of this world - and for making it a warmer, furrier place.
🛟 Never forget that everything is connected. 🛟
Captain Kitty, Binky, Snuggles and Peanut