S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. On this episode , we talk with San Diego's own kitten lady , who , along with her husband , is out with a new book called cats of the world , which features essays and photos that explore the bond between felines and humans around the globe. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. San Diego's own Hanna Shaw is known to millions online as Kitten Lady with her husband , Andrew Martin. She runs a nonprofit feline rescue called orphan Kitty club. Well , now they're out with a brand new book called cats of the world , which features essays and photos that explore the bond between felines and humans around the globe. Shaw and Martina sat down with KPBS Arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans to discuss the book. Hannah.
S2: Hannah. This book captures the lives of cats and the humans who care for them around the world. What made you want to tackle this huge project ? Not just the writing and the photographing of a book , but traveling quite literally all over the world ? Yeah , well , we.
S3: Love traveling , and we used to kind of travel to supposedly get away from doing the animal welfare work that we do. But of course , when we would get to our destination , we would kind of find ourselves asking , I wonder what cat welfare is like here , and wanting to connect with other advocates. So we kind of naturally found ourselves drawn to these stories and to these connections. Uh , we ended up in places like a cat beach sanctuary in Penang , Malaysia , and , um , you know , rescuing a kitten on the streets of Peru and encountering other rescuers in that area. And we just made all these connections naturally. I think the reason that we wanted to do the book was really to highlight that there is this kind of network of compassion around the world for cats. And as much as I think sometimes people can feel very divided by culture and by where we live , there are things that really unify us , and compassion is definitely one of them. There's not a place on earth that we tried to go that we couldn't find someone who is doing something kind for cats , and it really like transcends language and culture. And even , you know , we were looking at the intersection between things like politics and religion and even the climate that these animals live in. All of that impacts kind of the ways that cats live. But regardless of this kind of kaleidoscope of differences that cats might face , all of them have somebody who's caring for them. So we just wanted to kind of spotlight those stories and really center the advocates. Um , it's a it's a really beautiful project. I hope that it will get people excited about , uh , kind of what we have in common. Mhm.
S2: And Andrew , can you talk about what factors played into how you decided which cities and countries to visit ? Sure.
S4: I think initially we had the the first few countries that we visited were just ones that we organically wanted to visit as , as tourists and like Hannah said , inevitably found our way to all these , uh , cat centric locations. Uh , and as we got further into the project and realized the potential for what this could be , we started to reach out to people online and said , hey , we're thinking about going to Europe or South America or Africa. Do you happen to know any cat ? Cat rescues cat related things in these areas and built an itinerary loosely from the information we gathered from people online. So people submitted many , many countries all around the world. And the way that we began to travel was kind of linking those up.
S3: I think we did have this nice itinerary that we would create , but we would also try to leave room for things to happen naturally while we were there. Because some of these stories you can pre-plan , like , you know , the location of an animal rescue or a cat who lives at a specific cathedral , but only once you're actually in that community can somebody say like , oh , there's this little old lady down the street , you've got to go sit in her kitchen with her cat. And so there were a lot of those kinds of relationships that were built in the moment , too. So it was really fun because it was kind of a mix of , of planned and just natural things that happened as we went.
S2: So this is a visually stunning book. You could look at just the pictures and still spend hours with the book , but I want to focus on the writing for a minute. Hannah. The stories in this book are somewhere between travel journal history lessons and also storytelling. Can you talk about what was in your mind as you sat down to write ? Yeah.
S3: Thank you. Well , you're right that there's a lot of intersections here , and I think that's because there's so much that informs the way that cats live. So we can't tell these stories without talking about the architecture of the buildings that they're in or , um , you know , if there's been like a political event or an economic crisis or a weather event or something that's impacted these cats , I felt like it was important to do justice to the community that these cats were in , and also really to put front and center the people that are helping them. So there's a lot of interview. There's a lot of , um , you know , while we were in these places , Andrew would be taking photos and I would be just having conversations with people and trying to get in their words , what the issues were that these cats face and what the creative solutions are that they are , you know , taking on with these cats. Yeah. I wanted to kind of , you know , make it fun and have some levity and have like the cute story of , you know , the cats that live in the markets and the , you know , the beauty of the relationships there , but also like a yes , serious book that I learned so much because when you travel , you're looking at everything like I learned about , I don't know , we went to Rome and there's cats that live , like in the , um , ruins of ancient Rome. And there's so much that I learned through that. So there's like , definitely some crossover there. Well , as you're reading , you'll also learn a bit of history , a bit of politics , a little bit of everything.
S2: Honestly , you mentioned that , you know , a powerful thread in this book is the way that you champion the people that show kindness to cats. what's one story that stands out to you.
S3: There are so many stories I could tell. One community that I'm really inspired by is Mumbai in India. Um , I just find it so profound how much they accomplished there with relatively low access to supplies. Um , as somebody who's doing animal welfare work in the States , I have abundant access to resources like humane traps and veterinary resources and things like that. And seeing the way that that community comes together in Mumbai to help the cats in their community , even with no humane traps , they're going out and they're like catching cats by hand and bringing them in for sterilization so that there's fewer kittens being born on the street. And then even though there's not maybe like abundant adoptions happening there , there's a beautiful kind of trend of people in the community caring for the cats that are there. Um , I really , really loved that community , but I. I could tell so many stories. I don't know , Andrew.
S4: And one of the unique aspects of that was that if the vendor if a vendor moves into a stall , it's not like they inherit a cat. Uh , the cat already exists in the stall and they inherit someone coming into their stall , right. Uh , so they inherit a vendor. And I think there's a lot of good work going on in there. And it was just one of the more unique scenarios where I was able to take photos , and it was so vibrant , so beautiful. The interaction between the cats and the vendors was remarkable. Um , it definitely stands out to me.
S2:
S4: She doesn't need my help at all. She is well loved and well fed. Her name is Serafina. She has a photo in the book. She was at a shelter. She is very chunky. She's very sweet. Um. I got some amazing photos of her that I. I posted online , and people lost their minds. They thought , this cat is not real. This is , you know , AI generated or a plush toy , something like that. Uh , and she's tricolor , which is , you know , I , I have a weakness for. So. Yeah , she was the one. Nana.
S2: Nana.
S3: Oh , my gosh. Uh , I always think about Hodge. Hodge is a cat who lives in Southern Cathedral in London , which was just. He's such an And amazing. Like he's just a tuxedo cat that has no idea , I think , how amazing he has it because he lives in this huge like golden cathedral where he sits on the like on the pulpit while they're giving sermons and he's knocking stuff over and he just I find him so epic. I really , really love his story. And I love the photos that Andrew captured. But I was really , um , touched by the conversations I was able to have with the dean of that cathedral about kind of what it represents to them to give a home to a homeless cat , and how that's brought a lot more people into their congregation. And I don't know , he's just an awesome cat.
S2: Andrew , let's talk about the photos. All of the pictures in this book were taken by you , and your identity as a content creator is the cat photographer , so this is kind of your jam. What is your favorite thing about photographing cats.
S4: I think I like cats unpredictability the most. I think there are a lot of different , important attributes that revolve around cats and the the discerning nature of cats. I think earning their trust and being able to capture a shot that really showcases their personality is a difficult thing to accomplish , and especially if they're not your own cat , if they're a cat on the street or up the side of a mountain. Being able to build that rapport in a short enough period of time to be able to get a photo before they may run off or or distrust you , I think presents a really unique challenge to photographers and to me. And every single cat is different in that way. So each photo shoot I approach with a lot of patience and love and understanding and try to meet the cat where they are. So if they're not interested , I never push a photo shoot. I never make them uncomfortable. I don't like if they didn't appreciate our interaction.
S2: So for the Mexico chapter , you profiled some cats and caregivers in Tijuana.
S3: So in Tijuana , there is this lovely cat cafe called Bastet. And , um , the woman who runs this cafe is amazing. And it's not just like a place to stop in for an espresso and pet a cat. She's doing serious community work , and what I love about her organization is , yes , it's a cat cafe , but she works with independent rescuers who are in the community. Find a kitten. Find a cat. Don't have , like , a safe place to take them and they can come there and then she actually does send some cats across the border here. Um , in the US. So there's a lot of transports that happen internationally. And I think that that's a really interesting piece of doing a global project like this is seeing how communities that are under resourced and communities that have an abundance of resources can kind of work together. We see that a lot , certainly from , you know , northern Baja into California and from California north all the way up the , uh , to the northwestern coast of the US. You know , you see that there's there's a greater need , typically for cat rescue , the further south that you go and the closer to warm areas that you go.
S2: You run a rescue organization here in San Diego called Orphan Kitten Club , which has a significant following. Um , it's beloved all around the country.
S3: So unfortunately , kittens who are under eight weeks old are the most euthanized feline population in US shelters. And we're really on a mission to change that through grants. I'm very proud. We've recently given our $3 million in grants to animal shelters across the country , and that's only possible through our club members. And so , uh , I think , like , I've always been really interested in big systemic change and understanding systemic issues. So I definitely feel like I have my finger on the pulse of what's going on in American shelters. I think beyond that was where my curiosity was , is like , what's going on outside of the US ? And I'm really excited for the future of ways that we might be able to engage Orphan Kitten Club more internationally. There's a lot of challenges because in some parts of the world , there's no infrastructure to even create a nonprofit organization or an organization that can receive donations. And so that's a big challenge. I have worked a lot with some of these organizations. We've even brought back cats from some of the places that we visited. For instance , in Puerto Rico , there's a partner organization there that we work with. We help fund save a Gato in Puerto Rico. And when Andrew and I traveled there for the book , we ended up returning with four kittens , which was really fun. Um , again , like that kind of transport thing. They depend so much on off island adoptions. And so if we can help in that way , that's great. But I'm really eager to be more involved internationally. I think that the sky is the limit. As long as we have support from our community. We're trying to tackle some pretty big issues with Orphan Kitten.
S2: Club and Andrew , when you were working on the book. I'm curious if you both were thinking in terms of the impact or the change that the book might bring.
S4: They might not have the same kind of resources. They might do things a little bit differently. But there are people all around the world that are trying to help cats , and we set out when we started this project to showcase individuals and and highlight these groups that are doing the good work despite all of the adversity against them. And that's what we hope people take away from the book.
S2: I mean , as you are building readership , are you hearing from these organizations that you covered , that you talked to in your travels about what it was like for them and what , you know , being publicized feels like for them now.
S4: Around the world , we're getting people who are so stoked that we're showcasing them to you , to a really broad , global audience. Many countries view the United States as the gold standard for animal welfare , even just entertainment and the ability to showcase what others are doing globally here just means a lot to them. We've been trying to get books sent to all these groups all around the world so that they can show , they can see how much we appreciate their good work and how beloved they are.
S1: That was authors and cat welfare advocates Hannah Shaw and Andrew Martin , speaking with KPBS arts reporter Julia Dixon. Evans. Shaw and Martina will discuss the book and sign copies at 7 p.m. tonight at the San Diego Central Library downtown.
