Ep 669: 10 Years of Community Cats Podcast: A Conversation with Stacy, Kristen, and Mike

Ten years after launching, the Community Cats Podcast celebrates its anniversary with a candid reflection on how a passion for feral cats evolved into a nationwide movement. Host Stacey LeBaron, technical expert Kristen Petri, and Urban Cat League’s Mike Phillips reveal that their initial plan of releasing five episodes a week quickly became unsustainable—leading to a strategic pivot toward educational content, certification workshops, and a virtual university model. The real breakthrough came with the creation of the Community Cat Pyramid, a framework that reframed TNR (trap-neuter-return) not as a standalone effort but as part of a larger system rooted in addressing the root cause: unspayed owned cats. This insight led to a powerful shift in strategy—focusing on affordable spay-neuter access as the upstream solution. The team highlights how grassroots advocacy, like pressuring local politicians with voter data and tailored messaging, can unlock funding and policy change. They also emphasize the power of collaboration: instead of competing, groups are now pooling skills, sharing resources, and supporting each other’s strengths. A standout moment came when a classroom of students at a conference spontaneously took over the Q&A, proving that the movement has grown beyond leaders to a self-sustaining, peer-to-peer network of problem-solvers.