Kevin Coolidge, Author and Independent Bookstore Owner
November 3, 2020
Sarah Archer, Writer, Curator, Design & Material Culture Historian
November 9, 2020
Today’s guest post comes to us from Krista Beucler, Marketing & Communications Intern at Community Cats Podcast.
Like most everything this year, Cat Camp pivoted to a virtual format. Due to COVID-19, Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp in New York City and San Diego had to be cancelled, but thanks to the PetCo Foundation and Litter Genie, Cat Camp @ Home was free to attend in September. Our blog writers have attended Cat Camp in person in the past, and we jumped at the chance to attend the event virtually this year.
The five-hour event featured informational panels with many of the giants of the animal welfare industry, plus arts and crafts, and a spotlight on a small business. The first panel was on wellness in cats and featured Jackson Galaxy, Dr. Mikel Delgado, and Dr. Wailani Sung. They discussed various wellness topics such as adjusting your expectations when trying to stimulate your older cats to play, dealing with separation anxiety, and how to take small steps to get your cats used to getting their nails trimmed or having their fur brushed.
We also got to hear from Will Zweigart of Flatbush Cats and Latonya “Sassee” Walker, star of the “Cat Rescuers” documentary, who shared stories of their rescues and discussed how TNR serves the community. Sassee emphasized how we all have to work together to help the whole community—humans and cats.
Jackson Galaxy and Hannah Shaw (“The Kitten Lady”) closed out the day with a Q & A conversation that ranged from how they met to whether they prefer L.A. traffic or dealing with ringworm, and how to meet people with kindness and find common ground to how they’ve grown over the years.
International Day of the Girl was on October 11, and Cat Camp’s Small Business Spotlight celebrated early, sharing with viewers the story of Ava Dorsey, a 13 year old who started her healthy pet treats business when she was just 8!
There were also camp-style arts and crafts and activities, including how to make a DIY cat scratcher with Kate Benjamin of Hauspanther, a watercolor paint-along with Megan Lynn Kott, author of Unfamiliar Familiars (if you’d like to paint your cat, you can download your template here); live photo editing with Andrew Marttila, author of How to Take Awesome Photos of Cats, (which reviewed in our recent Book Review post); and a great big game of bingo.
I definitely enjoyed all the sessions, which struck just the right balance between fun and informational. Though we were able to chat through the website with other attendees, the sense of community and the energy of being altogether in a convention center was sadly missing, however. I’ll definitely be grateful when we can spend Cat Camp together in person again.
Missed it? Don’t worry! You can still watch all the sessions on the Cat Camp website.
Originally from Colorado, Krista Beucler received a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing at the University of Mary Washington (UMW) in Virginia. She was the editor-in-chief for Issue 7.2 of the Rappahannock Review, the literary journal published by UMW. Krista’s creative work has been published in From Whispers to Roars literary magazine. She is spending COVID-19 at home with her cats.
