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Cat Chat®

Tracie Hotchner

CAT CHAT ® was Tracie Hotchner's own weekly, live call-in show on the Martha Stewart channel of Sirius-XM for 7 years – until the channel was canceled. Since 2015 it has been a weekly podcast carrying on her mission to educate and inspire cat lovers to optimize their relationship with their kitty cats by giving them the best possible nutrition and environmental enrichment.

Tracie’s frequent co-host is Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of Feline Minds Cat Behavior Consulting and author of the new book Play With Your Cat! the Essential Guide to Interactive Play for a Happier, Healthier Feline.

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  • 30 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 18 min
  • English

Episodes 30

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  • Yesterday · 18 min

    Does Your Cat have Hidden Heart Disease?

    #326: Dr. Ashlie Saffire (DABVP) is a feline specialist in Dublin, Ohio, whose clients come from as far as California for routine care. She is particularly focused on cardiac disease issues, which often show up in routine wellness exams. She urges cat owners to have regular check ups, especially those purebred cats — Ragdolls, Maine Coon cats, Sphinx and Bengals — which are particularly susceptible to heart problems.

  • October 12 · 17 min

    Your Kitty Will Always Be With You

    #325: Cathryn Michon's newest book - "i'm still here - a cat's purpose forever," is a prose poem surrounded by enchanting watercolors — reminding us that our cats may have crossed the rainbow bridge but they never leave us. We simply need to be tuned in to their omnipresence.

  • October 5 · 27 min

    Cats Should Eat Like the Carnivores They Are

    #324: Cats are obligate carnivores — so why are so many of them eating like they aren’t? Tracie talks with feline nutrition expert Dr. Deb Zoran of Texas A&M University, whose groundbreaking paper “The Carnivore Connection” challenged conventional thinking about feeding cats more than 20 years ago. Dr. Zoran explains why cats are physiologically designed for a high-protein, moisture-rich diet; why dry food makes it harder to provide enough protein and hydration; and how inadequate moisture can contribute to urinary tract problems, constipation and even megacolon. They also discuss obesity, muscle loss, the importance of exercise and enrichment, and why feeding cats well isn’t quite as simple as declaring all canned food “good” and all dry food “bad.” The takeaway: the more closely we can feed cats the way nature designed these carnivores to eat, the better.

  • September 28 · 29 min

    Cat Rescue in Seoul — “the Impossible Possible”

    #323: Tracie talks with Julie Choi, founder of Yongsan Cats in Seoul, South Korea, where the city’s frequent redevelopment projects put thousands of community cats at risk. What began for Julie with two kittens spotted on a snowy day has grown into an international rescue community that has already saved more than 200 cats from demolition zones — relying largely on fosters, adopters, donors and volunteers from around the world. Julie explains why street cats are too often left out of urban redevelopment plans, how Yongsan Cats is trying to create a model that can protect animals before the bulldozers arrive, and why rescue is about more than saving cats: it creates human connection and community, too. As Julie puts it, cat rescue means continually making “the impossible possible” — one life at a time.

  • September 21 · 19 min

    NYC Cats After 9-11

    #322: Tracie talks with filmmaker Cathe Neukum about Feral, her deeply moving documentary chronicling the rescue of cats left trapped and abandoned in lower Manhattan after 9/11. Cathe explains how an earlier career making wildlife films—and an unexpected encounter with feral cats in her own Midtown neighborhood—led her to join forces with Urban Cat League’s Mike Phillips just before the 9-11 attacks. Armed with a small camera, she followed Mike into the devastated area, where they searched toxic, smoke-filled buildings for frightened cats and created a makeshift refuge where the rescued animals could recover. Tracie and Cathe reflect on how radical that trap-neuter-return and community cat rescue seemed at the time, how attitudes toward feral cats have changed, and why helping these vulnerable animals offered a small island of hope amid unimaginable devastation. Feral will be featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City.

  • September 14 · 16 min

    The 30-Year Devotion of the Cat Lady

    #321: Filmmaker Megan Liz Smith joins Tracie to talk about her moving short documentary Cat Lady, featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City. The film follows DeAnn, a devoted caretaker whose daily four-hour feeding route for community cats has become both a mission and a way of life. Megan and Tracie explore the complicated reality of TNR and colony caregiving: what happens when animals become completely dependent on you, how easily caregiving can consume your life, and whether being so deeply needed can also give that life meaning. They also talk about the friendship DeAnn has found through her work, offering a tender reminder that even the most dedicated caregivers need someone beside them.

  • September 7 · 17 min

    The Bridge Between Wild & Domestic

    #320: Filmmaker Asako Ushio joins Tracie to talk about her extraordinary documentary set on Japan’s remote Tashiro Island, where cats live in a fascinating space somewhere between wildness and domestication. Featured in the 9th Annual NY Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City, the film follows a photographer devoted to documenting the island’s cats while revealing a much bigger story: an aging human population, a cat colony largely left to nature, and an uncertain future for both. Asaka and Tracie explore how differently cultures approach animal welfare, why the islanders intervene so little in the cats’ lives, and what this unusual place can teach us about our instinct to “fix” nature.

  • August 31 · 18 min

    Cat Saviors in Greece

    #319: Documentary filmmaker Molly Dennis joins Tracie to talk about her film Cat People, which will be featured in the 9th Annual New York Cat Film Festival, premiering September 26th in New York City. The documentary shines a light on the remarkable network of veterinarians, trappers and everyday volunteers caring for Greece’s estimated three million stray cats. Molly describes following the people who devote their own time, money and energy to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), feeding colonies and providing medical care — often one cat at a time. They discuss the disconnect between the charming “street cats of Greece” tourists see and the much harsher reality those cats face, why controlling populations through TNR works, and the extraordinary commitment of the people who keep showing up for cats who depend on them.

  • August 24 · 15 min

    Cats & Kids

    #318: Stephen Quandt of https://catbehaviorhelp.com/ talks about the various ways that children can be involved in choosing a cat from a shelter and then enhancing the bond in living with them. Children on the autism spectrum may get particular benefits from the right cat entering their life, which Stephen explains.

  • August 17 · 12 min

    Midnight Feline Frolics

    #317: Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds consulting talks about all the ways that cats can find to wake you up in the middle of the night — and how to manage nocturnal cat activity.

  • August 10 · 19 min

    Protecting NYC's Un-Owned Cats Since 9-11

    #316: Mike Phillips tells the history of the Urban Cat League — rescuing cats after the World Trade Center bombing, making a refuge for them — and continuing to improve the lives of street cats to this day.

  • August 3 · 10 min

    A Cat Who Wants to take Showers With You?

    #315: A listener wrote Tracie to ask how it was possible that two different cats she's had want to get in the shower with her! Resident cat expert Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado discusses the likelihood of this unusual feline predilection and how to handle a water-loving cat.

  • July 27 · 28 min

    What to Know About Cats and Mammary (Breast) Cancer

    #314: The nonprofit EveryCat Health Foundation financed a study across 5 countries of mammary tumors in cats, with surprising results explained by Dr. Maggie Placer, the veterinarian who is the Science Program Manager for the Foundation.

  • July 20 · 15 min

    Legalizing the Thousands of NYC Bodega Cats

    #313: Dan Rimada is leading the push to legalize and protect bodega cats by creating a citywide archive of cats in NYC bodegas (estimates are 5,500 of them) which he and fellow volunteers have started documenting through field visits, photos, owner conversations, and release forms to get them legalized so the bodegas they protect against rodents don’t have to pay a fine.

  • July 13 · 18 min

    Vincent Gets Off Kitty Crack with CleanProtein

    #312: Andrey (who created Brook Fountain) reports that his adopted cat, Vincent, who was completely hooked on kitty krack, transitioned off unhealthy kibble by starting with Dr. Elsey's CleanProtein dry food, then going all the way to wet food with canned CleanProtein, putting a smile on Andrey’s lips. And reminding other cat people that enticing “food toppers” are deceptive because they are not a healthy balanced diet.

  • July 6 · 20 min

    HARD HAT CATS NYC: Hard at Work Keeping Rats at Bay

    #311: Sheila Massey talks about her Hard Hat Cats NYC, which puts unadoptable cats from the NYC shelter into breweries, restaurants and retail stores where they provide non toxic rodent control in return for safety: a litter box, food and shelter.

  • June 29 · 11 min

    Turn Your Sofa Into a Scratching Outpost

    #310: Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado of FelineMinds cat behavior consulting, explains that you cannot — nor should you — try to stop a cat from scratching, which is a natural and essential behavior. Instead, you need to offer a variety of sturdy, tall scratching posts in the areas where you spend time. Better yet, do like Mikel does and transform the back of your couch into a stylish array of scratchers!

  • June 22 · 20 min

    Premium Cat Food at Supermarket Prices

    #309: Allison Ward, the founder of Salty Cat, launched her company with the intention of creating a lower-priced cat food with premium ingredients. How did she do it? Simple! By lowering her profit margin, while also creating an egalitarian management structure in the small company.

  • June 15 · 13 min

    The “Elevator Butt” Style of Peeing

    #308: Cat behaviorist Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado explains another way to look at “vertical peeing” — cats who raise their butts like a rising elevator to pee behind themselves. But because they have all four feet in the litter box, it is not “marking.” She recommends some litter box accessories to manage the problem.

Showing 1–20 of 30 episodes