Cattitude

Sally Williams Founder and President

Sally Williams was the Founder and Executive Director of The Brodie Fund. The Brodie Fund was inspired by the love of a cat named Brodie and for 6 years offered financial assistance to families that had pets diagnosed with cancer. She was also mom to Marlin The Buddha Cat who bravely lived everyday to the fullest while living with cancer for 2 years. His legacy is Marlin Nation and his life is one of the inspirations for Mission Meow.

Sally is also the founder of Rescuing The Rescuers. This group is a safe space offering support and guidance related to compassion fatigue and burnout to those working in cat rescue, shelter, TNR, and the nonprofit community.

A lifelong animal lover and retired cat behavior consultant, Sally was a member of The Pet Professional Guild and the IAABC. Sally is a public speaker, animal advocate and long time volunteer for Catsbury Park. She is also a certified Animal Reiki Practitioner and member of the Shelter Animal Reiki Association.

Sally currently shares her home with The Pawsome Foursome aka West, Henry, Jonesey and Jameson.

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” Anatole France

Transcript:

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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets.

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Michelle Fern: Hello, feline friends, welcome to Cattitude.

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Michelle Fern: I'm your show host, Michelle Fern.

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Michelle Fern: So many of you are so passionate about your cats and so passionate about, you know, what goes on in the feline world for those cats you can't rescue.

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Michelle Fern: We're gonna talk to someone who is doing something about that and really helping nonprofits, but small nonprofits.

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Michelle Fern: We'll be right back after this break.

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Michelle Fern: Hey, Michelle Fern here, and you know, saving cats is near and dear to my heart.

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Michelle Fern: Did you know that there is an estimated 70 to 100 million free roaming cats in the United States?

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Michelle Fern: And without spay neuter, that number will keep growing.

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Michelle Fern: Not only does spay neuter mainly reduce the community cat population, but it also keeps cats healthier.

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Michelle Fern: Scooter, the neutered cat, is on a mission to give cats an extra life by making it hip to be sniffed.

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Michelle Fern: Visit his website, givethemten.org, to help pioneer a better world for cats.

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Michelle Fern: That's GiveThemTen, spelled out, T-E-N, dot org.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome back, everyone.

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Michelle Fern: I'd like to welcome Sally Williams.

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Michelle Fern: She is the founder and president of Mission Meow.

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Michelle Fern: I'm so happy to have you on Cattitude.

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Sally Williams: Thank you so much for having me as a guest.

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Sally Williams: I'm really, really excited.

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Michelle Fern: I'm so excited to have you.

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Michelle Fern: So, and we were chatting a little before.

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Michelle Fern: You've listened to a lot of the show.

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Michelle Fern: You know that, you know, TNR is near and dear to my heart.

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Michelle Fern: And I have so much compassion for everybody that does their part, no matter how big or how small, and in the feline community for rescues and so forth.

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Sally Williams: It could be overwhelming, but you can make a difference in so many different ways.

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Sally Williams: It's just, you know, it's, yes, TNR is one of the most important ways, but it's also one of the hardest ways.

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Sally Williams: And that's the thing that everybody can do, but everybody can do something.

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Sally Williams: That's what I like to think.

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Michelle Fern: Yeah, exactly.

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Michelle Fern: So let's talk about Mission Meow.

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Michelle Fern: What is it?

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Sally Williams: So Mission Meow is an organization that I like to say makes dreams come true.

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Sally Williams: So we give large grants to small, feline-centric non-profits across the US.

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Sally Williams: And we do it kind of in a unique way because the foundation of the organization is what we call kind of business crowdfunding.

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Sally Williams: And then, of course, we have our amazing individual donors.

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Sally Williams: But the foundation, because we know that they give to us in a fundraising quarter.

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Sally Williams: So we give grants in a quarterly way.

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Sally Williams: So we launched in October of 2022, and then that was our first grant.

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Sally Williams: And then come January, it's another grant.

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Sally Williams: Come April, it's another.

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Sally Williams: So it gives us time to kind of get ourselves back and organized.

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Sally Williams: And it also takes time to review applications for the next one.

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Sally Williams: But so back to the business partners, the reason why they're the foundation of the organization is they commit to give every quarter.

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Sally Williams: So we basically know how much money we have to start with before any individual donation or a grant.

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Sally Williams: We get grants too.

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Sally Williams: So before all of those come in, we have an idea of how much money we have.

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Sally Williams: And then we can go bigger because we know we're going to have more money and then whatever could possibly be left over goes back into the bank and is there for the next grant to give so that we know we can give even more.

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Sally Williams: Our goal is to every quarter, either give more in multiples of grants or more in the amount of grants, but specifically to small nonprofits, because they're the ones that if people don't realize, especially since COVID, across the US have been really struggling and they're doing amazing work, but it's really hard right now, and especially during Kitten Season.

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Michelle Fern: Yes, Kitten Season is definitely challenging.

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Michelle Fern: What made you decide to start this?

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Michelle Fern: Like, where did you see maybe a space in the feed line community?

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Michelle Fern: Now, where did you see a hole that said, you know what, if somebody was doing this, this could help a lot more?

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Sally Williams: Yeah.

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Sally Williams: So just so people know, I have a background.

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Sally Williams: I founded a previous non-profit, a random pet cancer fund, for almost nine years, a national organization.

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Sally Williams: So my background was in running a non-profit, but I'm also immersed in my local rescue community as somebody who volunteers, donates time, donates money when I can as well.

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Sally Williams: And there was an organization that I've been involved with for a long time called Catsbury Park in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

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Sally Williams: And during COVID, they had to move from their cafe space.

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Sally Williams: It became something that they just couldn't keep up with financially anymore.

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Sally Williams: And this was happening at a rate that was just massive across the US.

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Sally Williams: So what they did was they downsized.

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Sally Williams: And because people really weren't coming in face to face for adoptions, they pivoted and started doing a lot more TNR.

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Sally Williams: And so I thought, wow, you know, I wonder how prevalent this is.

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Sally Williams: Is this something that's happening everywhere?

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Sally Williams: And truly, it was.

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Sally Williams: And so I started reaching out to different people who I knew that were running organizations, and then they'd connect me to somebody else, to somebody else.

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Sally Williams: And it was a common theme that organizations were struggling, and that not just financially, but with burnout.

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Sally Williams: And so what I don't think people realize is that, you know, we're all familiar with the big, or everybody's got a big organization in their backyard.

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Sally Williams: I have one.

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Sally Williams: People know who best friends, Animal Society, as people generally know, who North Shore Animal League is.

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Sally Williams: We know who they are, and they're very well funded.

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Sally Williams: But not everybody may know that there's far more small nonprofits across the US., and they're the ones that are really the boots on the ground.

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Sally Williams: And without those organizations doing the really hard work, we're in trouble, especially with TNR, which is trapped new to return for anybody that doesn't.

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Sally Williams: I mean, that's what's going to control the cat population.

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Sally Williams: And so these small nonprofits, really, they need our help financially.

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Sally Williams: But one I also, I didn't really understand until I started giving the grants was they, it's like 1A1B, they need the money it pays for a program or a purchase or something that's just out of their reach.

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Sally Williams: But what it also gives them is they feel seen, heard and validated by a community that cares about them.

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Sally Williams: And that goes a very long way when these people are struggling with something that's called burnout.

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Sally Williams: And so it really, it's so important in both ways.

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Sally Williams: And so that was kind of where I came from, you know, I saw something happen in my local community.

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Sally Williams: I just thought, okay, if it's happening here, it's probably happening other places.

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Sally Williams: I had no idea how many organizations were facing these kinds of issues.

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Sally Williams: And I thought, well, you know, I successfully ran one nonprofit, closed it only because it was so hard to sustain myself in the pet cancer world.

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Sally Williams: I've lost four cats to cancer now.

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Sally Williams: And I wanted to do something that would be important for the organizations, but that would also bring me joy.

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Sally Williams: And this brings me so much joy.

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Sally Williams: It's incredible.

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Michelle Fern: I can imagine.

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Michelle Fern: So it also, as you're talking about this, you know, your expertise is here.

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Michelle Fern: A lot of the smaller nonprofits, their expertise might be feline centric, you know, as far as either with donations of food or collecting that or that, but not so much raising money.

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Michelle Fern: And the other thing is, and you had mentioned this too, about validity, because there's a lot of nonprofits.

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Michelle Fern: There are a lot of several, you know, I've not ever created a nonprofit.

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Michelle Fern: I'm sure there's, you know, there's several loopholes you have to go through.

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Michelle Fern: But people get inundated, you know, I'm a nonprofit, can you donate?

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Michelle Fern: With your business, you are taking a great deal of weight off their shoulders as far as you can focus on what you're good at.

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Michelle Fern: And we can help you with this.

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Michelle Fern: I mean, you can't sustain them, I think, you know, fully financially, but you can definitely help quite a bit.

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Michelle Fern: Because most of the nonprofits are people volunteering, I imagine.

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Sally Williams: Exactly.

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Sally Williams: Most of the organizations we're helping don't have staff.

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Sally Williams: We've helped organizations with budgets as little as $65,000 for a year, which is so tiny.

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Sally Williams: They usually have full-time jobs.

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Sally Williams: They're doing this because they love it, because they love cats.

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Sally Williams: They want to give back.

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Sally Williams: TNR is hard work.

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Sally Williams: Working in a shelter is hard work.

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Sally Williams: Fostering is hard work.

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Sally Williams: All these things, they're not easy.

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Sally Williams: People are doing this out of love, and it's hard to then have the time to fundraise.

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Sally Williams: They barely have the time to do what they're doing.

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Sally Williams: And if you're small, you don't have the bandwidth to raise this kind of money because you don't have the reach.

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Sally Williams: You've reached out to your community, and eventually you can tap out.

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Sally Williams: The funds just aren't there.

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Sally Williams: You can't keep asking the same people for money over and over and over.

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Sally Williams: So what we have done is take that away from them.

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Sally Williams: They don't have to worry about that.

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Sally Williams: They apply.

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Sally Williams: Here's the thing, when they apply for a grant with us, we don't pay rent, we don't pay for food, litter or medical bills.

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Sally Williams: They have to be organized enough that they're able to take care of the cats and the basics.

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Sally Williams: What they can't do is potentially renovate when they need to.

00:10:22.713 --> 00:10:31.573
Sally Williams: Pay for track meter return supplies to expand their organization, to build a catio, to pay for a transport van.

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Sally Williams: These are the kinds of things that can cost a lot of money that I actually in my research saw capital campaigns being started by organizations and then they stall.

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Sally Williams: They get going and the money is coming in, but then again, they reached all their donors and it slows.

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Sally Williams: Then a lot of times what happens is something happens.

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Sally Williams: Whether it's a medical emergency, ringworm, a washing machine breaks, a leak, anything, they dip into those funds and now their capital campaign is gone.

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Sally Williams: These are organizations, I'm telling you, that do the most amazing work.

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Sally Williams: When I talk to the directors of the organizations, the volunteers, people in all different positions, they're so proud of what they're doing and they accomplish so much, but they just don't have the reach to raise these kind of funds.

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Sally Williams: But it's so important for them to have it.

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Michelle Fern: We're going to get into more stories in the second half, but before we break, do you not supply some of the basics?

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Michelle Fern: Because you want to make sure that, I mean, if a non-profit is so small that they can't even, and just talking theoretical here, but if they can't sustain themselves in the basics, then how long are they going to be functioning?

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Sally Williams: That's exactly it.

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Michelle Fern: You have responsibilities with what you do, because if you were just rolling out, right?

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Sally Williams: You hit the nail right on the head.

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Michelle Fern: Okay, so-

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Sally Williams: We evaluate budgets, and then we see that they're able to maintain everything that they need to be doing to caring for the cats.

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Sally Williams: And that's their focus and should be.

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Sally Williams: We want to give them something above and beyond that, that's out of their reach, but we need to-

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Sally Williams: I mean, anything could happen theoretically.

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Sally Williams: You know what I mean?

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Sally Williams: There could be some tragedy.

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Sally Williams: But we do our due diligence in doing a lot of research before grants are given.

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Michelle Fern: Okay, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back and hear some stories to share about some of the non-profits that you help.

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Michelle Fern: We'll be right back.

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Michelle Fern: Molly, here's your dinner.

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Michelle Fern: Zeus, that's not your food.

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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets.

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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets.

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Announcer: On Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: Pet Life Radio.

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Announcer: petliferadio.com.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome back, everyone, we're talking to Sally Williams.

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Michelle Fern: She is the founder and president of Mission Meow, and we talked about what Mission Meow does in the first half.

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Michelle Fern: Now we're gonna hear some stories.

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Michelle Fern: Can you share with us some stories?

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Michelle Fern: How do nonprofits, how do they find out about you?

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Michelle Fern: Or do you find out about them?

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Michelle Fern: Or is it a little both?

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Sally Williams: We just try to push out the message as much as possible.

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Sally Williams: So I spend a lot of time in social media, and then we ask, okay, if you've received a grant from us, make sure that you're sharing with this, with your community.

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Sally Williams: I have a lot of friends.

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Sally Williams: We ask our business partners as well.

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Sally Williams: So we have a really good reach.

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Sally Williams: I founded an organization that was for burnout in the rescue community, and I promote it in there all the time.

00:14:24.640 --> 00:14:27.560
Sally Williams: And it's all it's for is people in cat rescue.

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Sally Williams: So we have lots of different ways of getting the word out.

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Sally Williams: There is not a lack of applications coming in, that's for sure.

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Sally Williams: So basically, we tried to keep the application as easy as possible.

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Sally Williams: We don't want these organizations to feel overwhelmed.

00:14:42.680 --> 00:14:44.940
Sally Williams: They have enough of that going on.

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Sally Williams: My favorite part of the application is we ask for something I call it our passion page.

00:14:49.640 --> 00:14:52.120
Sally Williams: We want them to share why they love what they do.

00:14:52.120 --> 00:14:56.780
Sally Williams: Then they get into nitty gritties about the financials and all that kind of stuff.

00:14:56.780 --> 00:14:59.020
Sally Williams: And then lastly, what they're asking for.

00:14:59.020 --> 00:15:02.340
Sally Williams: So they break down what they need the money for.

00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:07.400
Sally Williams: And then we dig in and we pick our grant winners.

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Sally Williams: Right now we're in a grant month.

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Sally Williams: As I said, we give quarterly.

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Sally Williams: And we've done things.

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Sally Williams: So our very first one, as I said, was here in New Jersey with Catsbury Park.

00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:22.520
Sally Williams: That was what they renovated after having to leave this big, beautiful space.

00:15:22.520 --> 00:15:25.700
Sally Williams: So the renovations are still ongoing actually.

00:15:25.700 --> 00:15:29.300
Sally Williams: Another one that I absolutely loved was Love Your Feral Felines.

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Sally Williams: We helped them launch a foster program.

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Sally Williams: And what we did was we paid for kitten kits for them, which allowed them to bring in 30 foster families and supply them with everything that they would need to become a foster.

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Sally Williams: And they called it All You Need Is Love because that's all they needed.

00:15:46.060 --> 00:15:48.040
Sally Williams: We gave them everything else.

00:15:48.040 --> 00:15:54.160
Sally Williams: An organization called FC3, we paid for, I hate to use the word shed because it's like so beautiful.

00:15:54.160 --> 00:15:58.860
Sally Williams: It's this big, beautiful shed, a concrete slab, an HVAC.

00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:05.220
Sally Williams: And they're a TNR organization that needed a place to bring the kitties after they have spay and neuter surgery.

00:16:05.220 --> 00:16:09.100
Sally Williams: So now they have this beautiful shed that's temperature controlled.

00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:16.400
Sally Williams: They go out, they do their TNR, they take their cats for the appointments, and now they have a safe place to rehab after.

00:16:16.400 --> 00:16:30.580
Sally Williams: We actually had a month where we had picked our organization and then there was a second organization that we really, really wanted to help, but we were very early on, and we weren't sure how we could pull off giving two grants in one month at that point.

00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:38.140
Sally Williams: But this organization needed a fire alert system, and it became something that I said to my board, I can't sleep at night.

00:16:38.140 --> 00:16:44.100
Sally Williams: I know there's an organization out there that has cats in their care, and they don't have a fire alert system.

00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:56.200
Sally Williams: So we just dug deep, reached out to donors, asked our business partners if they can contribute anything extra, and we were able to pay for a fire alert system, some all-new ceiling tiles and lighting for them.

00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:00.460
Sally Williams: And that to me was really exciting, because it showed our growth and our potential.

00:17:00.460 --> 00:17:08.380
Sally Williams: We have given organizations a lot of TNR out there, so traps, recovery cages, incubators.

00:17:08.380 --> 00:17:12.580
Sally Williams: The one right now, the organization, this one is huge for me.

00:17:12.580 --> 00:17:19.440
Sally Williams: The organization had a second building that was available to them, and they were able to repair the roof and paint it.

00:17:19.820 --> 00:17:24.820
Sally Williams: But what they needed was everything on the inside to start a clinic for them.

00:17:24.820 --> 00:17:30.600
Sally Williams: So we are raising money right now to give them a grant, which will pay for...

00:17:30.600 --> 00:17:32.160
Sally Williams: We actually got them free flooring.

00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:36.360
Sally Williams: I managed to find somebody who donated flooring, so we took that out of the grant.

00:17:36.360 --> 00:17:55.360
Sally Williams: We're paying for electrical, for plumbing, exam tables, shelving, vaccinations, test kits, an incubator, stethoscope, all the things that they need so they can start caring for their cats and it's gonna save them a lot of money because then you're not going off to the vet all the time.

00:17:55.360 --> 00:17:58.400
Sally Williams: They can do a lot of the things that they need in house.

00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:10.220
Sally Williams: So for us to help an organization launch a clinic that they're hoping eventually to turn also into a low-cost spay neuter, that to me is one of the most exciting.

00:18:10.220 --> 00:18:13.700
Sally Williams: We're also going to be building a catio for an organization.

00:18:13.700 --> 00:18:15.160
Sally Williams: That's how they're spending their grants.

00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:20.060
Sally Williams: So there's so many possibilities that are just amazing.

00:18:20.060 --> 00:18:31.960
Michelle Fern: Have you had any situations where one of the nonprofits, you know, really helped them on all legs rather than say they were on two, now they're on four, we're talking cats, right?

00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:36.260
Michelle Fern: So, you know, maybe they were partially there and with your assistance, they were really going.

00:18:36.260 --> 00:18:45.520
Michelle Fern: Have they been able to pay it forward to help maybe a smaller nonprofit or do more work for the feline community in their community?

00:18:45.520 --> 00:18:53.740
Sally Williams: I'm not sure a lot collaborate, but our grants specifically go to those organizations.

00:18:53.740 --> 00:19:00.780
Sally Williams: So they have impact in their community, but the funds that don't reach another organization, if that's what you're asking.

00:19:00.780 --> 00:19:03.500
Michelle Fern: I think it's just by nature of what they're doing.

00:19:03.500 --> 00:19:09.340
Michelle Fern: So say you're helping, you know, the organization that you said with, you know, the vet care and whatever.

00:19:09.340 --> 00:19:09.600
Sally Williams: Yes.

00:19:09.980 --> 00:19:24.680
Michelle Fern: Have they been able to do any, or do they do anything with maybe, it might not be smaller nonprofits, but smaller volunteers, like you said, you had, you were able to get 30 foster started with one organization.

00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:27.380
Michelle Fern: So it's kind of like, pay it forward.

00:19:27.380 --> 00:19:28.440
Michelle Fern: You know what I mean?

00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:29.600
Michelle Fern: It keeps going.

00:19:29.600 --> 00:19:30.380
Sally Williams: It does.

00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:33.520
Sally Williams: I mean, so you never know how you're going to reach somebody.

00:19:33.520 --> 00:19:36.980
Sally Williams: I mean, so to bring in 30 new volunteers, what does that do?

00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:37.680
Michelle Fern: That's huge.

00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:44.580
Michelle Fern: And how do you know that from the 30, somebody tells a friend, and then you end up with maybe another more.

00:19:44.580 --> 00:19:54.760
Sally Williams: And you also potentially end up with donors, new donors, because you don't know in that group of volunteers who now doesn't maybe become part of your board, become part of, you know, and those are not stories.

00:19:54.760 --> 00:20:01.320
Sally Williams: It's something I should reach out to these organizations and say, tell us about the other things that outside of the impact.

00:20:01.320 --> 00:20:07.220
Sally Williams: Like we know the money, we know that we you feel seen her invalidated, but I would love to know a story.

00:20:07.220 --> 00:20:12.980
Sally Williams: Yeah, where maybe somebody became a board member or something else exciting happened from that.

00:20:12.980 --> 00:20:14.240
Sally Williams: That's a great idea.

00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:22.260
Michelle Fern: I just thought it'd be interesting because you never know where something starts at a, I mean, hey, Pet Life Radio started with seven shows.

00:20:22.260 --> 00:20:39.620
Michelle Fern: Now there's over 75 and the reach that we have, I mean, yeah, internet and social media, the reach is humongous, but I've had people on this show all over the place, Greece, UK, France, Australia, that was the furthest, just all over the place.

00:20:39.620 --> 00:20:45.920
Michelle Fern: And there's so many common threads throughout when it comes to, you know, everything about cats.

00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:48.500
Sally Williams: This community is so supportive of one another.

00:20:48.500 --> 00:20:50.300
Sally Williams: It's, I find it amazing.

00:20:50.300 --> 00:21:01.640
Sally Williams: I mean, I have now friends all over the world and something, so something that we did, so our organization, first and foremost, we're funding grants for small, feline-centric nonprofits.

00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:07.960
Sally Williams: But because we only give quarterly, I wanted to be immersed in the community in the other months as well.

00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:14.840
Sally Williams: So every single month, we have a Mission Meow mentorship program that organizations can apply for.

00:21:14.840 --> 00:21:32.060
Sally Williams: So if you're in a shelter, whether you foster or you're a TNR organization, maybe you don't need financial, but you're looking to launch a new program or you're looking for fundraising advice or you are adding foster to what you do.

00:21:32.060 --> 00:21:34.140
Sally Williams: We have experts in the field.

00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:44.020
Sally Williams: So you applied for a Mission Meow mentorship and you have an opportunity to have a one hour Zoom with an expert in that area.

00:21:44.020 --> 00:21:51.040
Sally Williams: So not only do we give grants, but we're trying to educate people so that their organizations can continue to grow.

00:21:51.040 --> 00:21:52.420
Michelle Fern: That's fantastic.

00:21:52.420 --> 00:21:58.220
Michelle Fern: What do you see as your goal, like say in five years, that you would like to see happen?

00:21:58.220 --> 00:22:02.560
Sally Williams: Well, giving enormous grants and more.

00:22:02.560 --> 00:22:05.300
Sally Williams: So we started with giving one grant in a month.

00:22:05.300 --> 00:22:10.520
Sally Williams: Now we've gone to giving where we've had the ability to give three grants.

00:22:10.520 --> 00:22:12.580
Sally Williams: That's something that I think is really important.

00:22:12.580 --> 00:22:18.260
Sally Williams: There's, I mean, the hardest part of our job is to not pick more than one application.

00:22:18.260 --> 00:22:23.920
Sally Williams: So if we can in our quarters, initially we thought our goal was going to be, let's give a grant every single month.

00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:25.780
Sally Williams: It's not really sustainable.

00:22:25.780 --> 00:22:30.900
Sally Williams: We need some downtime to recuperate and start again and review the application.

00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:36.240
Sally Williams: So we just want to be giving more grants and adding more business partners is the way we do that.

00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:45.120
Sally Williams: So we need to get out there, meet more people, bring more business partners in, which are like these companies are like family to us.

00:22:45.120 --> 00:22:49.480
Sally Williams: I want to say that we call it partnership because it really is not transactional.

00:22:49.480 --> 00:23:11.840
Sally Williams: I have a personal relationship with people in all of these companies, big, small, so just tremendous growth because we really need to save these organizations because as I said, if these small organizations go away, I don't know if people understand that the small organizations across the US are the ones that have the contracts with the townships.

00:23:11.840 --> 00:23:16.060
Sally Williams: So they're the ones that are taking in the stray cats, the feral cats.

00:23:16.060 --> 00:23:22.020
Sally Williams: They're the ones that take in the most difficult to adopt cats and without them, we're in big trouble.

00:23:22.320 --> 00:23:31.620
Sally Williams: So, you know, something else that would be exciting is if somebody else reached out to me and said, I want to do what you're doing, but on the West Coast, how do I get started?

00:23:31.620 --> 00:23:32.420
Sally Williams: Let's do that.

00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:35.000
Sally Williams: Let's have different Mission Meows across the country.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.280
Sally Williams: There doesn't have to be just one.

00:23:37.280 --> 00:23:42.860
Sally Williams: I just think teamwork always, collaboration always above competition.

00:23:42.860 --> 00:23:45.040
Sally Williams: So let's spread this message.

00:23:45.040 --> 00:23:48.600
Michelle Fern: That almost goes into my next question.

00:23:48.600 --> 00:23:51.760
Michelle Fern: Just about, how can our listeners get more involved?

00:23:52.300 --> 00:24:01.300
Sally Williams: So, if you own a business, reach out to us, and I would like to say that any business size, and you don't have to be a cat specific business.

00:24:01.300 --> 00:24:02.840
Sally Williams: We have realtors.

00:24:02.840 --> 00:24:05.620
Sally Williams: We have people that are not in the cat specific world.

00:24:05.620 --> 00:24:08.320
Sally Williams: You just need to love cats or want to help them.

00:24:08.320 --> 00:24:12.500
Sally Williams: So, you can become a business partner and don't be scared.

00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:14.780
Sally Williams: You give what you're comfortable giving.

00:24:14.780 --> 00:24:16.300
Sally Williams: And it's quarterly.

00:24:16.300 --> 00:24:19.520
Sally Williams: We look for volunteers in all different areas.

00:24:19.520 --> 00:24:21.440
Sally Williams: Are you savvy in social media?

00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:23.200
Sally Williams: You can help us.

00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:24.420
Sally Williams: Are you a good writer?

00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:25.620
Sally Williams: You can help us.

00:24:25.620 --> 00:24:30.520
Sally Williams: There are so many different ways because, you know, I'm not really out in my local community.

00:24:30.520 --> 00:24:35.640
Sally Williams: We're out across the US., so there's so much potential for volunteering.

00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:41.440
Sally Williams: And if you don't have the time to do that, you like a post, share a post, comment on it, help us get the word out.

00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:44.100
Sally Williams: All of these things are important.

00:24:44.100 --> 00:24:46.740
Sally Williams: I just feel like anybody can do something.

00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:48.040
Michelle Fern: And where can people find you?

00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:53.180
Sally Williams: So we are missionmeow.org is our website.

00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:58.820
Sally Williams: And you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, your typical social media.

00:24:58.820 --> 00:25:01.540
Sally Williams: But all of our information is on our website.

00:25:01.540 --> 00:25:02.400
Sally Williams: That's our hub.

00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:03.840
Sally Williams: So reach us there.

00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:10.880
Michelle Fern: Sally, thank you so much for coming on Cattitude and sharing this incredible information about Mission Meow.

00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:13.340
Michelle Fern: I think there should be a Mission Meow in every state.

00:25:13.340 --> 00:25:16.340
Sally Williams: Oh, well, I wholeheartedly agree.

00:25:17.340 --> 00:25:20.900
Sally Williams: And thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about my organization.

00:25:20.900 --> 00:25:25.420
Sally Williams: All of us at Mission Meow are very grateful and so proud of the work that we're doing.

00:25:25.420 --> 00:25:26.520
Sally Williams: So thank you.

00:25:26.520 --> 00:25:27.840
Michelle Fern: Oh, you're so welcome.

00:25:27.840 --> 00:25:30.180
Michelle Fern: I hope everybody enjoyed this show.

00:25:30.180 --> 00:25:33.220
Michelle Fern: Please be sure to check out missionmeow.org.

00:25:33.220 --> 00:25:35.120
Michelle Fern: They do fabulous work.

00:25:35.120 --> 00:25:40.660
Michelle Fern: And there's always something you can contribute in your community to help the cats.

00:25:40.660 --> 00:25:43.420
Michelle Fern: So thank you, Sally, so much for coming on Cattitude.

00:25:43.820 --> 00:25:46.460
Michelle Fern: Thank you for everybody that listens to Cattitude.

00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:47.880
Michelle Fern: I greatly appreciate it.

00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:48.600
Michelle Fern: Thank you all.

00:25:48.600 --> 00:25:54.140
Michelle Fern: You do a great job with spreading the word about cats, what cats need.

00:25:54.140 --> 00:25:57.480
Michelle Fern: And I talk about TNR a lot, but there's a lot more than TNR.

00:25:57.480 --> 00:25:59.940
Michelle Fern: So thank you, listeners of Cattitude.

00:25:59.980 --> 00:26:04.740
Michelle Fern: Of course, thank you so much to my cat crew, Dennis, Charlotte, and Molly.

00:26:04.740 --> 00:26:08.960
Michelle Fern: They teach me about and constantly teach me about the world of cats.

00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:15.580
Michelle Fern: And of course, thank you to my producer, Mark Winter, who this show would not be the same without his magic.

00:26:15.580 --> 00:26:19.860
Michelle Fern: And hey, remember, lose the attitude, have Cattitude.

00:26:19.860 --> 00:26:25.880
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