Hiking with your cat & fostering cats with Jack Hikes
We chat about how Jack became a hiking kitty & the training involved. We also dive into fostering cats, why it’s important and how we can do it too.
What we talk about
How Jack came into their lives
How to pick a cat who is likely to be a catexplorer
What Jack is like
Types of catexploring Jack does
How Jack was harness trained
How Jack started hiking
Using 2 leashes for Jack
The realities of catexploring – the not so great days
About Jack’s brother Oliver
Why fostering cats is important
How Morgan started fostering cats
The skills need to foster cats
Misconceptions of fostering cats
Tips for fostering cats
Number of cats in Morgan’s household
How Jack & Oliver interact with the fosters
How to prepare your cats for fosters
How to introduce your cats to your foster cats
Morgan’s advice for people who want to start fostering cats but haven’t started yet
Landlords and fostering cats
Advice for new catexplorers
Most entertaining comment while out and about with Jack
Product, service or program that has been a game-changer for Jack
Guest – Jack, Oliver & Morgan
Instagram - @jack_hikes_
Jack’s catspiration feature
See the feature here.
Instagram accounts mentioned
How to leave a review
To find out how to leave a review see here: https://catexplorer.co/podcast-entries/how-to-leave-a-review-for-the-catexplorer-podcast
Music
Music for this episode was composed and performed by Kory McIntyre.
Cover art
The photo used for the cover art for Season 3 of Catexplorer Podcast is of @renske_aken & was taken by Sylvia van Heek.
Transcript
Please note - this an automatic transcript, and as such may not be very accurate.
Morgan 0:00
Be patient and don't look at Instagram and see a picture of a cat on top of a mountain and think that that's exactly what you have to do or that that cat necessarily walked up there and is way better than your cat, like be realistic about your expectations. And just be happy with whatever your cat wants to do.
Hasara Lay 0:41
Hi, everyone, I'm Hasara and I'm Daniel. You know the drill before we jump into today's exciting chat. We would love it if you could take a screenshot of your phone, upload it to Instagram Stories tag us at cat explorer community and our awesome guest at jack underscore hikes underscore and let us know that you live Listening along. We can't wait to hear what you think of today's episode and all your main takeaways. I believe today's review is from Lucky red cat. We love this podcast we really love to explore with our cat lucky and we're happy to have this huge cat explore community for information exchange. Furthermore, we're so thankful for this podcast. Every episode, one person out of the community joins Hasara and Daniel and talks about their experiences while exploring with their cats and give advice about exploring. We've learned a lot from the podcast and we're so happy to have it Keep it up. Thanks so much for that lovely review lucky red cat. And if you'd love for your review to be read out during the cat explorer podcast, just leave a review on Apple iTunes or on Stitcher. I've included a link in the episode description that helps show you how to leave a review. So just click on the episode description and you'll see that there. Thank you so much.
Daniel Lay 1:54
What we love about getting to know so many of us hearing what you're passionate about. We first reached out to our guest today to learn more about Hi, I'm Katie jack. Not only did Morgan share about jack shared about how passionate she was about fostering cats, were so excited to learn more about jack about being a foster Katie parrot. Welcome to the podcast. Morgan.
Morgan 2:12
Thank you. Thanks so much for having me. We're really excited.
Hasara Lay 2:15
So we'd love to hear a little bit about jack, how did he come into your life?
Morgan 2:19
Um, so actually, we started fostering cats before we got jack, we weren't 100% sure that we are ready for the commitment of a long term cat. And so we thought that fostering cats would give us like an idea of what it would be like to live with a cat because I never owned one before. And so we got a foster cat and it was not jack. And within 24 hours, I was like, Oh my god, I have to have a cat. And that cat actually ended up getting adopted within a week so we couldn't adopt him. And the next week, I was like, I am going to adopt a cat as soon as possible. And I had kind of always known that I wanted a cat and That would hike with me or would go out on a leash. And so we looked for cats that were younger and had like adventurous and adventurous and energetic personalities. And so then we found jack and his daughters were cute. So we adopted him.
Hasara Lay 3:14
That's awesome. I love that. I love that. Um, you were looking particularly looking for a cat who was adventurous, was there anything in particular that helped you decide that he's he was adventurous.
Morgan 3:26
Um, so the shelter that we go to that we adopted jack from is the same one that we we foster through and so they live in homes with with people and so you really get to know their personality before you adopt them. And so the his foster mom had written that he loved looking out the window, that he was more energetic than any other cat. And so we were like, oh, maybe he really think would like to be outside and exploring with all that energy and it turned out to be right.
Hasara Lay 3:55
Yeah, that's so both of us. We often get asked how do we pick a cat that could be a great cat explorer and it's kind of really hard because you need to know their personality. You can't just go to go to the pound and be like, I want that cat because you don't know.
Morgan 4:08
Exactly I kind of like done research. I've been trying to figure it out. And I think that obviously you can take any cat outside at the level that they want to go. But really, we have really wanted one that would like go for a long walks with us. And so we definitely picked out a younger and more energetic one for that for that reason. Yeah, that makes sense.
Hasara Lay 4:28
So tell us a little bit about chat. What's he like?
Morgan 4:31
Um, so jack has definitely mellowed over the past two years that we've had him, but he loves being outside and he loves eating grass. And when he's at home, he spends most of his time in his hammock. In the past six months, we've been dealing with him having some like OCD and stress issues. So right now he's actually on Prozac, which unfortunately has made him a little less energetic and He doesn't like walking quite as much as he used to. But we're hoping that that's not a long term change in his personality that we'll be able to wean him off the Prozac in the next few months and go back to exploring as much as we were doing before.
Daniel Lay 5:13
Okay, so it sounds like it's somewhat similar to us in some states. Yeah. gets a bit stressed and OCD and stuff and but he's also got that bundle of energy. And it's a handful.
Morgan 5:28
Yeah, it's a lie. I didn't really know that cats could have like OCD before I had jack. And we love him for all his quirks. But we're happy, we're happy. He's doing well on the Prozac and he still likes to be outside and he just is a little bit more mellow than I think he would be off
Daniel Lay 5:45
of it. So we talked about hikes with jack and his Instagram handles related to that, but we also know he does other types of cat exploring. Can you tell us what sort of types of cat exploring that jack does?
Morgan 5:56
Yeah, I mean, I think the main one is that we go for hikes. We also have gone camping with him I think that's the big other one, which I guess goes along with hiking because we do that at the end of we do it at the end of hikes. I we've taken him to beaches, which he does not enjoy very much because of the water and the heat. Other than that, I think that hiking really is the main the main way and going for walks in our neighborhoods sometimes when we can't get to hiking trails is really the main things. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to do more water activities, but we just he hasn't. He hasn't grown to love water like I had hoped.
Hasara Lay 6:35
I think water is one of those ones that you never really know if you're going to enjoy it because, like, for example, limos and oxy they'll play in the sink and and they'll play in the bathtub. Mm hmm. But they and they they cross a creek but they probably wouldn't. Like when we go to the beach, they prefer to play in the sand rather than playing the waves. Yeah, that's the noise factor of it or whether it's the water side of it though.
Morgan 7:00
Yeah jack is very happy to cross a creek and get his paws wet but he hasn't I've tried putting him in water a little bit but I think you can't force the cat to like it I don't think
Hasara Lay 7:11
Yeah, exactly. So let's take a right back to the beginning How did you harness try and jack and get him started on walking on the lake?
Morgan 7:19
Yeah, so since I knew that I wanted jack to go out on walks and potentially hikes with us. I had bought the harness actually before we adopted him so I was very ready. So I kind of wanted it just to be what part of his life with us when he came into our lives like this was just what he did. And so like his first or second day, I put the harness on him and I started trying to clicker train him and so teaching him that he got a treat when he got a clicker when he had the harness on was a good way to distract him from it and to teach him to walk on it. And then I slowly put a once he was used to the harness, I put a leash on him and I clicker train like trained him to walk towards me on the leash and Definitely, he's definitely not the most clicker trained cat. But I think it definitely helped in the beginning teach him to know what we expected from him. And then once he got used to that in the apartment, we started going outside our little courtyard and then we are lucky enough to have a big would it park near our house. So we went to small little quiet parts of that park where no one else would scare him or there aren't cars or anything, and started taking him for small walks. And then after that, we kind of just jumped in and drove to a hiking trail and was like, All right, we're gonna do a big hike. And I hope that this goes well. And luckily enough it
Daniel Lay 8:34
did. Speaking of that hiking trail, can you talk us a bit more through that first experience? And you know, did you do anything special to sort of get him to used to it?
Morgan 8:43
Honestly, I think that we were we didn't really I think that we had done enough where we had built up a base of trust. Then he knew what to expect when the lease tugged on him so he didn't freak out and he trusted us when we are outside because it's like the short little things And then he just realized what it took us maybe like 20 minutes of him getting used to being outside and then he kind of got the hang of it of us following behind us. And he kind of just he just hiked. He was born to do it.
Hasara Lay 9:14
That's awesome. And it's, it's interesting. Like we think all we have to do all this training when we get on a hiking trail, but the more and more people I speak to about it, they get on a hiking trail, and you have that best 20 or so minutes where the cat is like, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do. And then they suddenly just get it and they're just hiking.
Morgan 9:31
Yeah, sometimes I feel like when I talk to people about how I train jack that might just be that I might not be like the best advice because in some ways you kind of just have to like throw yourself into it and do it and like some cats get get it and maybe some cats don't. But I can't take too much credit for what I did. I think that jack was jack wanted to do it himself. I couldn't have forced him to do it if you didn't want to.
Hasara Lay 9:55
Yeah, I completely understand that. We actually have that situation where we have a cat who loves Hi can and we have a cat who hates it? So knoxy loves hiking, you put her in a you get to a hiking trail and you can't wait like she can't wait till we pass the cars to get onto the hiking trail, because she just wants to jump out and run whereas lewis is like, No, I'm sitting in the backpack for the whole hike. And if there's anywhere that goes slightly uphill, I'm refusing to walk up.
Morgan 10:20
Interesting. Does he like walking on sidewalks more than that, then?
Hasara Lay 10:24
He does actually, especially around our house or if we're going for a walk, he likes sidewalks but hiking trails. No, not doing it at all. Because this day, jack definitely loves walking uphill. Sometimes he had he won't walk downhill but like if there are rocks that he can jump up and kind of climb he just like takes off and we have to sprint after him. There's something about jumping around that he really likes I think actually that's that's a question that I've been wondering for a while so I used to run a lot so I don't have the best knees because of the pressure of running on puppets and things and so knoxy loves sprinting on hiking trails and on those rocks and stuff like that have you had any situations where you felt like you were going to fall?
Morgan 11:10
So a little bit I think that um added advantage because when we don't take jack hiking we trail run so I think that I feel pretty comfortable like running after him. Sometimes he goes faster than I can but I generally feel pretty comfortable like jogging up some rocks after him if need be. But there's definitely been times where if he got up I don't think I wouldn't have been able to get him down so that's one obviously the leashes important?
Hasara Lay 11:40
Yeah, definitely. And I like I think I've had a moment when knoxy was running down like it was a slightly mighty trial. There was a lot of rocks and she was just sprinting and I was like, Yeah, I cannot run as fast as here.
Unknown Speaker 11:53
As like my D heads are getting old.
Unknown Speaker 11:57
only have two legs to her for
Hasara Lay 12:02
But yeah, it's something that I've been thinking about recently because like if I go hiking with just her and me my whole purpose curd
Morgan 12:10
yeah and I think that part of that reason is why I have like two leashes and I always have jack attached to the backpack that we keep him in with like a second leash because if he takes off and I lose my footing, I don't want to drop like I don't want to drop his leash and him be able to run off and us never find him again in the rocks. So I like having like that second backup definitely makes me feel more comfortable in those situations.
Hasara Lay 12:36
Okay, so is that like a normal lace that you just connected to your backpack?
Morgan 12:40
Yeah, so we have a retractable leash and then we have a normal leash that we had bought originally and then realize that retractable worked better and I just like carabiners it onto my backpack and then move it through the end of the retractable leash so he's always attached to me, to me, and then I hold the lease. Okay, so it's attached to the lakes. The leash on your backpack is attached to the leash that you hold. So it's kind of carry on to the backpack and then it's loops through the handle of the retractable leash and then I hold the retractable leash and it's there as a backup. Okay, that makes a lot of sense, because I was like, confused a little bit if those two leashes What if one's longer than the other, but that makes more sense. Yeah. Just as a backup, a safety measure, because I just I don't think Jack's personality, I think that if he ran away from us, I don't know whether he would come back. He's an independent cat.
Hasara Lay 13:32
And I think that's also like, they just so excited to be out there as well and say some things and yeah, I completely understand that one. Yeah. So while ago, we did a collaboration feature on jack on the cat explorer website, and one of the questions that I ask is, what's been the hardest thing about exploring a jack and I really liked your answer, because it's so true. So you said that I'm going to paraphrase a little bit, so I'll put a link to your expiration in the show notes if anyone wants to go ahead. Check it out. But what you said was something along the lines of that sometimes it can take a lot of time and it can be fairly dull. Like one day jack will hike like six miles, he'll be happy. And then the next week, he'll just refuse. And it can be frustrating. And you can feel like you've lost all the progress that you've made. But it's important to not get discouraged and try again another day. And I completely agree with you. Do you have any examples of times where you felt frustrated with Jack's cat exploring? Can you tell us a little bit about it? And did you have a great experience off to that as well?
Morgan 14:31
Yeah, definitely. So I think that sometimes when I have like we have a really good hike with jack I'm so proud of him and it makes me so excited that then I think, Oh, well we can like do more. So we went we've done like a six mile hike and jack did really wonderful. So we were like, oh, let's go hike this bigger mountain. It would be like nine miles and a few miles in jack just was like No, I'm not doing this anymore. And this was before we had bought a backpack and I'd kind of always thought I can do this without like a backpack, especially for him like, he's going to just be like this hiking cat that can do whatever I want. And just a few miles and he just like refuse to walk. And he also refused to be carried and I had just a normal backpack and he refused to sit in that. And so every few minutes, we had to just like shift him and try to like carry him he kind of wanted to be on my shoulder, but would get mad after a few minutes. So we had to just make it through the end of this nine mile hike, and we got to the top and he was kind of cranky, but he was okay. And then obviously he just like, was happily happy to run back to the end of the car after we put in all this work of carrying him to the top of the mountain. And at the end, I was like I think he can't do what I want him to do like this is a and it just made me really adjust my perspective of maybe like I don't have to push him to do the best like the best viewpoint or the biggest mountain it's really more about making him like happy and giving him experiences that hill and Joy and we've purchased a backpack. So now on hikes when we go with him, if he's tired, he is very happy just to sit in his like comfortable backpack. And it kind of really just shifted my perspective of feeling like I had to do the most with him at all times to being like, we just want to keep everyone happy. And even if he wants to just like sit there and chew grass for 20 minutes, like that's what we're going to do, and we're going to be outside and he's going to enjoy it. So yeah, I think that that was probably the worst, but it also taught us a lot and it really shifted my perspective.
Daniel Lay 16:30
It's so true because like, like us, they have moods, I suppose. And sometimes they're just not into it like because you can find that we've done hikes like we've gone away for travel and stuff and we've done a great heights and then the next day there will the date the two days later, you know, you think they can do another hike, but they sometimes just don't really feel like it and they just like you said ready to eat grass and flop and sin the sun all day. So yeah, that's what it is. And you've said it so well that it's all just about the happiness and that taking that perspective of just look After them and going at their pace as opposed to what our pace would be or what pace we have in our head.
Morgan 17:05
Yeah, exactly. And I think people always asked me whether jack enjoys hiking, especially people we meet on the trail. And I always say, Have you ever seen a cat do what it doesn't want to do? Like, if he didn't want to be doing this, he wouldn't do it. And when he isn't enjoying it, he makes it very clear. So I think most cats are probably like that. So you kind of have to go by their moods, and embrace it when they're in good moods. So
Daniel Lay 17:29
check that the only kitty you have now. So you recently adopted a kitty sibling project called Oliver key. Talk us a little bit about Oliver and your thought process with him as to how you envision developing him whether as an indoor kitty or as a cat Explorer.
Morgan 17:44
Yeah, absolutely. So I think we adopted Oliver in April. He was actually our foster cat that we decided to adopt because him and jack got along so well together and we also liked him so much. I think that Oliver would make a really great adventure cat. He loves to spend out onto our balcony and into our hallway. But we adopted him in April and it has been summer where we live and it's been a very hot summer and he is a very fluffy Black Cat. So I put I've been putting his harness on him a little bit and but we haven't gone outside until actually today was the first time he went outside and last night was his first long car ride and he did wonderful. He slept the whole car ride and today we took him outside and he definitely was a little bit nervous and so we're going to have to go slower with him because he's not he's not like a kitten like jack was he's almost two years old. So I think that it's going to be a slower process but I'm really excited to like to learn his personality a little more outside and hopefully get him to like it but if he doesn't like it then he can be our indoor cat and be waiting for us for cuddles when we get back with jack after hikes.
Hasara Lay 18:51
And it could be that he likes cat exploring in a different way jack so like with Lou Mars, he loves his he obviously doesn't like high school. He's happy to just sit in the backpack, but he loves it if we go to a park and he just sits there and eats grass, or if we go to a cafe and he gets a pack, whereas knoxy will just prefer to be quiet at a cafe rather than go up and say hi, sir. So I just learned to manage their personalities.
Morgan 19:14
Yeah, I think that's really true. Oliver is definitely more of like a social capital A cat. So I can definitely see him enjoying more social situations more than jack does when jack just like wants to go and get some energy out. I think that's true. And I'm excited to figure it out.
Daniel Lay 19:31
Do you know with all of like, whether he was an indoor cat previous to this before your adoption is it is
Morgan 19:37
I actually, I actually don't know anything about him previous to our adoption. The rescue that we got him from and where we got back from they rescue cats from high kill shelters and other states and bring them to the city where they're more likely to get adopted. So sometimes they know the backstory of the cats if they were surrendered, but I don't I don't know anything about him. I think That his birthday was just kind of guesstimate it. So I don't think he had a family beforehand. But he's definitely a very loving cat. And he seemed well taken care of when we got him. So I don't think he was, I don't think he was too much of a stray for for too long. Because I just find it interesting that it took to exploring reasonably well, you know, given that he's now two years old, so he's had somewhat of a life already. And he's now taking up exploring, just like it's it's a natural level almost. Yeah, no, I agree. Maybe he did have some outdoor time before us. Maybe he was an indoor outdoor cat or had lived on the streets for a little while, but I guess we may never know.
Daniel Lay 20:40
So you mentioned fostering kittens before. And that's one thing that we know that you're really passionate about. And it's always common for you to have a litter of kittens at your place. We want to get your perspective on fostering kittens. Can you tell us why you foster kittens and what makes it so important to do so?
Hasara Lay 20:57
Yeah,
Morgan 20:58
um, so I definitely Throughout my two years of fostering cats my reason for doing it has changed from initially being like, I kind of want to try trial run cat, to now, I don't know about any other countries, but in the US we have a huge population of unneutered cats and unpaid cats and high kill shelters and well, cats having to be euthanized in high kill shelters because there just aren't people to take care of them and there isn't space for them. And so I live in a city that is near several states that have really large like large cat populations and shelters that unfortunately have to euthanize a lot of cats every week, especially during the summer during kitten season. And so I think that it's someone who has space and who has time and who loves cats. I think that it's really important that I I get to take in these cats and take care of them while they're on their way to their forever home. I get to be like a special Peace in their life and help them find people who will love them just as much as I love my cats. And so yeah, so that's kind of why I do it. And I also think it's really I really love cats. And I think it's really fun to get to meet cats and like get to know their personalities and then not have to commit to them to for the next 20 years of my life, I get to take care of them for a few months and then say, Okay, now you go on.
Hasara Lay 22:25
But yeah, I completely understand that. So how did you stop clustering kittens? Like, is there a process that you go through? Yeah. How did you stop?
Morgan 22:34
Yeah, so so the rescue that I work with is all foster base. So there's not a there's no cats in a shelter. And so you apply and you have references and you and then you get to every week, there's emails and you get to pick out your cats. I think it probably works differently for all different rescues. And so through my rescue, you get to pick cats that are we have cats that are all ages, and then you You have that cat until it gets adopted. And then you get you take care of it like it's your own cat for that time. And but I don't you don't pay the medical expenses that's been the rescue handles that but you do everything else for the cat as if it was your own
Daniel Lay 23:15
own cat. So then what are the must have skills or fostering kittens?
Hasara Lay 23:19
So I,
Morgan 23:21
because of my job and my time constraints, I don't foster kittens that need to be bottle fed. Usually, I usually can take cats are a little bit older, but are still young enough to get along well with jack and now Oliver. So if you are going to be foster that has cats that need to be bottle fed, you would definitely need to talk to the rescue and learn how to do it. It's a skill that everyone could learn, because it's not rocket science to science, but you would have to do that. But other than that, I think you just have to have a will and you have to have love to give an animal and you have to have space to keep it safe, but you don't need that much space. We live in a very small apartment for the number of cats we have it. And, yeah, I think you just need to have a will to want to want to help these animals in order in order to start doing it. Any other any items that you need, besides the usual that you expect, like kitty litter tray and food balls? No, absolutely not. I mean, some of our cats do come with some medical issues, but nothing has ever been. We haven't needed anything that we haven't been provided provided for with the rescue.
Daniel Lay 24:33
Look, so it is fairly it's almost identical to having pretty much you say,
Morgan 24:37
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, they're just a cat who needs love for a few months.
Daniel Lay 24:42
So then, are there any misconceptions regarding fostering kittens?
Morgan 24:45
Um, I think that something that I hear a lot is people who just say that they could never do it and they always say, Oh, I could never do it. I can never give up a cat. Oh, I can never do it. Like I'm not home enough. Like oh, I could never do it like Just like don't have this space and obviously everyone knows themselves and you have to do what's right for yourself. And sometimes it is really hard to give up foster cats, but you just have to say that you're, you're just like a stopover and helping them find find their way. And I actually know that in like help new foster spine their cats and so what I always tell them is make it through your first one or two cats that you'll get attached to and after that it gets a lot easier because you, you just get used to the process of having to say goodbye, you. And then also people who say they don't have time, which is definitely a fair thing to say. But a lot of times these cats would either be euthanized or in a crate somewhere and so just even your bathroom with a bowl of food and like a comfy bed is a lot better than then be euthanized. So you don't have to you don't have to be the world's best cat parent to your foster cats. But if you provide them a safe space, sometimes that's the best you can do.
Hasara Lay 25:58
I really like that. That's some That that's quite hitting home to up to me. But I do have to ask it besides Daniels allergies because I think having two cats already like this morning he was struggling to breathe. But one thing that has held us up is that workload of having extra kittens and cats and something like already we struggle to balance our lives keeping glucose and oxy happy and I can't imagine adding kittens or particularly bottle feeding kittens to the mains these that does take some extra time. Like how do you manage your time when you have foster cats? And do you have any tips for anyone else in the cat explorer community who wants to start fostering cats?
Morgan 26:37
I mean, that's definitely something I struggle with. And I don't think that I think that is something to factor in. This summer. We had our first mom and baby cats and I will say they were a lot of maybe more work than I expected them to be after fostering mostly adult cat. But now at the end they've all been adopted as of today and It was totally worth it. But I do think that sometimes jack and Oliver don't get quite as much attention. When you're coming home and having to like bottle feed or have five cats to feed and litter boxes to change. It's not as motivating to take jack out for a walk at the end of that. So I think one thing about fostering is you don't always have to have cats like you can have a foster cat and then you can take some time off. So right now we have a mom and kittens that are getting adopted. And we're going to take at least a month or two off from fostering so that we can really pay attention to like jack and Oliver and make sure that they're happy. So I don't think there's any magic answer to doing that. But I think that you know yourself and like your own schedule, and you can kind of do foster as much or as little as you want. And once a cat gets adopted, you cannot you can take a break and focus on your own cats.
Daniel Lay 27:50
So how many cats would you have at any one time?
Morgan 27:53
Well, it keeps going up.
At our high point, we had six and it was a lot, it was too many for it because if we had more, we lived in a bigger house, it would be different. And I would have a lot more. I think that I think that we found probably the magic numbers like one foster cat at a time, maybe two for a short period of time. But if you only have one foster cat, we found you can kind of really integrate it into your house and it doesn't feel too overwhelming. It kind of just becomes part a part of your normal Cat, cat her that you take care of.
Daniel Lay 28:29
We talked about how you have a couple of cats and then one of one or two of them is Jacqueline Oliver. Can you tell us a little bit how jack looks after your Foster's because we've seen that on the social media stories that his quite a loving foster brother.
Morgan 28:46
Yeah. So I have to say obviously jack is really wonderful with our foster cats, but it's kind of taken some trial and error figuring out what cats he gets along with best. So we've kind of learned that We should really foster younger cats and particularly younger female cats and like kittens because jack really likes to if the cat if the kitten seeks out Jackie cuddles them and grooms them and really takes care of them and enjoys playing with them, but I don't think that the Instagram or like our Instagram Stories are completely representative of like our experience because we've definitely had situations where jack in the foster cat don't get along particularly older cats or two who are territorial who come into then Jackson like apartment and so I even though I really love senior cats and would like to foster them I don't we've kind of rolled that out. Because they just we haven't we haven't found that they get along with jack jack super well. So what do you do when that happens when they don't get along? So last year we had an older gentleman cat Curtis if people remember him who was just the sweetest cat but jack just didn't like and so we actually asked our guys You to find it him a new Foster and he ended up getting adopted before we could do that. And of course the second we asked for a new foster jack and him started getting along. And so then we ended up keeping him for a few weeks until he got adopted. And I think that that was just like a two male situation like they were fighting for dominance. And then in the spring, we had an older female cat that we were just temporarily fostering. And she actually like lashed out at jack a few times. But luckily we had only agreed to take her in on a short term basis while her other Foster was on vacation and it kind of coincided to when that person was coming back and so after that, I was like, Okay, that's it like this isn't healthy for jack to be in these situations. Like we're just going to do kittens and like younger female cats because that's who he gets along with best.
Daniel Lay 30:50
Did you have to do any training to get jack usually squash the cadence?
Morgan 30:54
No, I think that that's just kind of his personality and He but we do keep them separate a lot in the beginning and it kind of that his relationship with them always slowly, slowly builds over time and we keep we definitely do proper introductions where we slowly keep them apart and like bring them together and then it's usually if we have a cat for longer like over a few months, that's when the relationship builds and you get some really cute pictures of jack grooming the kittens and everything. But it's not right out of the bat that he usually he usually interacts with the cats you kind of have to take it very slow, engage, engage how comfortable he
Hasara Lay 31:33
is. That's really interesting because I have to admit most of Nexia quite jealous, they get quite jealous of no other cats other no and we learned this week babies as well. So So every time we think about fostering I that's that has been one of my concerns because I've seen quite a few cats on Instagram who have Foster's in their house and they're very loving but it's kind of nice to hear that it's not always smooth sailing and that you do have to go through that. process of introducing them. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that.
Morgan 32:03
Yeah, there's definitely a way to properly introduce cats of like keeping and there's a ton of resources online that are probably more like well versed in it than I am, but you know, keeping them in separate rooms, and there's some cats who just are never going to really care to interact with like foster kids, right. But I think that there's a way to interact it to bring them together where they're not, it's not going to be like negative, it's just going to be like kind of aloof towards the kittens. And Oliver, this was his first first like batch of kittens that we had with him. And it definitely took him a while to figure out what was going on. But in the past few weeks, he's gotten like more and more into the kittens, but you can definitely tell he wasn't happy and he was like a little. He was a little offer for quite a while when he was figuring out why there were all these other cats in his house. But we took it slow. We kept them out of his face as much as we could so that he felt comfortable while he was figuring it out. out.
Daniel Lay 33:00
You mentioned slowly introducing the cats to each other. Can you talk about any particular tactics that you would you'd use to sort of achieve that? Is it something like for example, what I've heard is that you, you get something of this that and you sort of give it to the other cat to sort of get them to use that sense. Is that something that you would do?
Hasara Lay 33:16
Yeah, so you kind of we since we
Morgan 33:19
we only have a one bedroom small apartment we don't have much space to keep the cat so we usually put our foster cats in our bathroom and then we gauge from there we've definitely had foster cats like when we brought Oliver into our house as a foster cat by the afternoon him and jack got along and we let him out, which led to us adopting him but sometimes it takes days to let them out of the bathroom and then sometimes we put will put jack away will let the foster cat out to get to get comfortable in our in our like apartment living room area without another cat there and then sometimes we'll put jack in the bathroom so he didn't smell where the foster cat was, and I I kind of know jack well enough that I trust him and I can read like his body language when he's getting uncomfortable and when to separate them but if they're they're just curious I let them be curious with each other and then if they start hissing then I separate and then I try again later. But they're definitely sometimes they need to hiss and swatted each other a little to establish some like dominance and so you let that happen a little bit and then you say, okay, separate and we'll try again later. And
Hasara Lay 34:27
like the first thing that just came to my mind is do you like do anything to prepare jack so I do Treme cools just in case he decides this so I bet the cat The reason I say that is because we've had situations where liberals in Nazi have been play fighting and liberals actually scratch Nazis. I
Morgan 34:43
say, Oh, wow. Yeah, so actually, I've never thought about doing that jack fortunately, is not a cat who uses his claws very often. But he does like to kind of SWAT and like hit the foster cats when they first come and I think it's kind of like a year in my house. Now. Like, this is my space. But if he's doing it in a super aggressive way I take like, I wouldn't let that happen. But I think that it's more just like a little like, I'm the top cat here. Okay, now, you know, you know my place, but maybe I'll start trimming his nails as a precaution
Daniel Lay 35:16
to think about, yeah. What advice would you give to people who are considering fostering kittens, but haven't taken that first step yet?
Morgan 35:25
Hmm. That's a good question. Um, I think that I would first like reach out to your local shelter and figure out what their needs are. And I think that just like, think about what you think you can take on and how your cats would interact. And then I would just say, do it. And you know, like, it's not, it's, at the end of the day, if it's not working, no, no shelter is going to force you to be in a situation that isn't healthy for your cats or the foster cat. But you don't know until you try and I went over If you had asked me two years ago if I was going to have fostered as many cats as I have and continue to have this many I would have told you you know, but it was just something that I just like really loved doing so you don't know until you try doing it. That's so true.
Hasara Lay 36:13
I I just had a thought so for example, we live in Australia and there's just been some game changing roles in the last year or so where apartment living has become a lot more cat friendly, a pet friendly in terms of laws, like you're allowed to have pets and stuff is that an issue in the states where you have to get permission from your landlord to foster cats as well.
Morgan 36:34
Um, so I actually it's very based on what building you live in and who your landlord is. And that's part of like so I so I that foster applications and I call everyone's landlord and check and some people have like rules of how many cats they can have and I and there's a lot of places in the US that you have to pay a fee for all of your pets and everything. I'm we're lucky not to live in one of those buildings and we kind of just get to have as many cats as we want. So it definitely is based on I don't think there's any laws protecting anyone or anything, unfortunately.
Hasara Lay 37:04
Yeah, just I just thought I'd mention that just, it might be something that people should check look into is that we don't want anyone getting in trouble or anything like that.
Daniel Lay 37:11
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's something that's a really good thing to consider. So Morgan, we're coming up towards the end of the podcast. And well, now it's point where we're going to jump into a fastball questions. But the first one being What's one piece of advice you'd give to new cat explorers?
Morgan 37:25
I think I would say definitely do it, but be patient and don't look at Instagram and see a picture of a cat on top of a mountain and think that that's exactly what you have to do or that that cat necessarily walked up there and is way better than your cat like be realistic about your expectations. And just be happy with whatever your cat wants to do.
Daniel Lay 37:48
Good point because someone could have carried the cat but nine miles because it wasn't bad day.
Unknown Speaker 38:01
Oh Do
Morgan 38:01
I have some cute pictures of jag on top of that horrible now and
Hasara Lay 38:09
so what's been the most entertaining comment someone has said to you while you've been at an event we check all of it now.
Morgan 38:15
Yeah, so Oliver no one has really seen him yet because it's just been in the backyard but one time we were hiking with jack and I think I had him on my shoulders and some guy started yelling. Oh my god, you caught a bobcat know?
Daniel Lay 38:33
Which can explorers inspire you?
Morgan 38:35
Oh my goodness. Well, of course you all have we mostly Nazi we love OG Adventure cat and adventure Rio. And Adventures of Pina I believe their handle is we love any cat that gets into some big scenery of some mountains and seems to really love doing
Hasara Lay 38:54
it. love doing it. That's the most important bit as well. So what product service support program has been a game changer for jack and Oliver and your host a kid easy.
Morgan 39:03
Yeah. So our backpack I think has been an absolute game changer. And we actually leave it in our living room because jack likes it so much. He sleeps in it in the car, and he likes it on hikes. And I think that that's pretty like revolutionized as well as our retractable leash that really made a big difference. And we switch to that. Well, good. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a blast. Where can we find you and jack and Oliver online? Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. We are just at Instagram and we're at jack hikes. And it's jack underscore hikes underscore on Instagram. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much.
Hasara Lay 39:39
And what we'll do is we'll put those links and any other links from today's episode in the show notes available at cat Explorer. com forward slash podcast.
Daniel Lay 39:46
Thank you so much for listening today. Have you checked out the cat explorer store lately? We use the store to fund the podcast and all the other free things we create for you. So we would really appreciate it if you could check it out. We have hoodies, mugs, hats, t shirts, stickers. Kept backpacks and so much more. You can see all of it@category.com forward slash shop. Thank you so much for being a part of the cat explorer community. That's it for today. We'll catch you next time. In the meantime, Joy give me a kitty the world.