132: Finicky Cat Care with Beth Pasek
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Summary:
Beth Pasek is passionate about cats. So passionate that she runs her entire business taking care of them. Beth shares why being certified fear free is so important, why there are so few cat behavioral specialists, and how pet sitters can up our game in cat care. She also discusses the biggest misconception around cats and what we can do about it.
Topics on this episode:
Moving to cats only
What is an environmental program?
Importance of being fear free
Covid and cat care
Why write a book
Main take away? Learn cat behavior and body language and you’ll be able to better communicate and care for them.
About our guest:
Beth Pasek is the owner of Finicky Cat Sitting and Behavior, LLC in Ohio, USA.
In 2020, the organization celebrated 10 years in the pet care industry as a multiyear award-winning pet sitting and animal behavior company for both cats and dogs. She has worked with several rescues as a volunteer cat behavior consultant for special needs diabetic cats in transition and provided a foster home for kittens and critical care cats. She is a supporting member of both the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants-Cat Division and the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care. Her ongoing course work includes certification through Karen Pryor’s Train Your Cat and she is author of "Understanding Cat Behavior, A Comprehensive Guide to Compassionate Training and Communication" published by Rockbridge Press. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books A Million.
Links:
Starting from Scratch: Pam Johnson-Bennett
The Cat’s Mind: Dr. Bruce Fogel
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
cat, behavior, pet sitters, kitty, pet, clients, dog, vet, owner, home, book, visit, left, business, fear, people, big, care, sitters, week
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Beth Pasek
Collin 00:18
Hi, I'm Collin.
Meghan 00:19
And I'm Meghan.
00:20
And this is petsitter. confessional
Meghan 00:21
an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:25
brought to you by time to pet and pet sitters International. We are talking all about cats today with death pasic, the finicky cat sitter, after 10 years of business, she has a lot to share from the influence of her own cat tighly to why it's so important to her to be certified fear free when dealing with cats, and how we as pet sitters can up our game with our own cat care in our business. Let's get started.
Beth Pasek 00:55
Thank you so much for inviting me to pet sitter confessionals. And I will just say that I am the owner of finicky cat sitting in behavior. We're based out of Cleveland, Ohio. Originally, the company started as finicky feline and Fido. And we transitioned over to old cats only about a year and a half ago. I am the author of understanding cat behavior, which was just released on Amazon and is available through Barnes and Noble and books a million. I'm also a supporting member for her the International Association of animal behavior consultants, cat division, big, big long name there. And I'm also a supporting member of the International Association for animal hospice and palliative care, which is a very unusual extension of cat behavior is where we delve into the information regarding senior care and palliative care for senior cats and the behavior changes that can take place with them.
Collin 02:01
Cats are the world that you're that you're centered around here. Why did you decide to go all in on cat services a year and a half ago,
Beth Pasek 02:08
this will really take you that takes me way back for when I first started my company, which like I said originally started as finicky, feline, and Fido. As you can tell, I originally started as a cat company added the dogs because we needed the revenue. And we ran for almost eight years as a cat sitting and dog walking company. About a year and a half ago, I sat down with a business coach and we went through my numbers. And it was a realization that we were running almost at 90%, cats and cat sitting. Wow. And it was at that point that we decided that we were going to go all in for cats. And recognizing that the trend for the dog sitting and dog walking world was pretty much being overrun with a lot of the app kind of sitters. And here in the Cleveland market. We have several very large dog walking companies that pretty much run the west side niche. And it was very much at that point. We decided we really looked at what we were doing and said you know what? We can go in all cat and it'll be fine. And we did that. And much to our surprise the it was so well received by the general public and by the veterinary offices. And it just it just really blossomed and took off. Wow.
Collin 03:45
Well, so what kind of services do you currently offer focused around path,
Beth Pasek 03:49
a typical cat setting which that particular service, we offer as a no time limit, cat visit, which basically means instead of running in and doing a 10 or 15 minute visit at a reduced rate, we upped our rates, our minimum minimum amount of time will be with a cat is 30 minutes. And if the cat decides to fall asleep in our lap, needs some extra play time is a cat that likes to stroll around the outside garden and a kitty harness. We will do that and we don't rush the visit. So even our pet sitters have an opportunity to not feel rushed through their day that they know Okay, so no time limit visit. And if we have a super needy Kitty, we can usually fulfill all those needs within an hour hour 15 minutes and their timing will be just fine. We do still offer overnight canceling services, which I use. Overnight dog sitting is is a big deal. Yeah. And as cat owners actually come to realize Their senior cats enjoy having someone spend the night with them, they will climb up on the beds and sleep with our pet sitters. And it really is, the owners realize that their their cats are not missing them, and not missing out. And it really is a change in how you perceive the cat. If you ask a typical cat owner, does your cat sleep with you? 99% of the time, they will say, Yes. My kitty sleeps with me. And at that point, you know, if it's a senior senior cat, well, you know, make the offer. You know, we do offer overnight services maybe once every third night, you would like for us to do an overnight or so. So they are services they can mix and match. You know, it can be a drop in, you know, 30 minutes plus visit, or they can get the overnight and they can mix and match. And then of course, the unique thing that we do offer is on our website is cat walking. Yeah. Talking Yes, and if their cats are trained to, to kitty harness and leash, we have a Oh, it's a $10 up charge. But we will offer to take them out for a stroll around their typical guard outside garden or neighborhood or catio, or whatever their cat is used to is whatever part of their cats routine it
Collin 06:35
It sounds like such a departure from the way cat care is typically viewed in the pet sitting community. Why do you feel like cat care has been viewed as a sideline business or just an add on service for many.
Beth Pasek 06:50
I think for many, many pet sitters and many pet sitting companies, it's traditionally been approached as a sideline service. Because the cats will hide under the bed. Oh, we peek under the bed. Okay, you're fine, you're breathing, your your eyes are open, you're purring food, water litterbox and we're gone. And with the dogs do you do food, water and oh, we have to go outside and exercise and play and we have to go for a walk. Well, cats actually take a little bit longer to get to know their pet sitter. And if pet sitters can take the time to win the cat over and they know the behaviors that indicate that the cat is willing, but it's just a little standoffish, we can usually win them over. And then the cat will enjoy lap time or playing with a toy. Or just even just sitting next to a pet sitter. Well, the pet still watches plays on their phone. And in the past in the world, some pet business owners would freak out that the passenger is sitting there playing on their phone. But for cats, that's a call activity. That's something their owners do normally. And if the cat is curled up in your lap, and that's what you're doing and the cat is happy, we've done our job.
Collin 08:18
Wow, I really love hearing that that is so cool. And this sounds like you know, like, this takes just a little it sounds like it just takes a little bit more time. That's that's really where a lot of this route is like just give the cat a little bit more time. And that quality of care just goes through the roof.
Beth Pasek 08:37
It really, really does. And with pet sitting, you know, if you've got a weekend cat visit, and the cat is shy, you're probably not going to get to that point with a cat. But if it's a week long, if it's a week long vacation visit, and you have the same person going in every visit, that cat will bond with that pet sitter. And that is also one of the big differences with our company is we try very hard to have the same sitter with the same kitties over time, right. And it really makes a huge difference for both the owners perception of the care that their kitty is are getting and it makes a big difference in how the pet sitter feels and obviously how the cat feels.
Collin 09:32
It really helps build that bond build that relationship. As you mentioned, it's three it's a it's a three fold thing the owner feels like that they're getting a lot better quality of care. The cat has consistency in their life and will warm up over time to that and then the pet sitter feels like they're actually accomplishing something each time they go over there because it is not just those proof of life visits which you know, I've done many of those of find the eyeshine in the closet. Yeah, food water. Good. Okay. We got to go, taking more than that because you don't feel like you really cared for the cat at that point. But building you're building relationships across the board on there.
Beth Pasek 10:08
You really truly are I, one of my pet sitters Renata, when I broke my ankle a few weeks ago had to take over on a pet set for me for a client. And the first two days the kitty hid under the bed. I told her I says there's cans of tuna fish, their client said we can use the tuna fish. So high value treat right. And she was thrilled that that you're on third day. Stanley came wandering out to say hello, she was and when a cat decides you're not a threat to them, because that's how they perceive a stranger is a threat. When they decide you're no longer a threat. A lot of times she'll walk in the door and the cat is actually there greeting you at the door. And and Renata I'll never forget she was she was so excited that Stanley came out to see me.
Collin 11:12
It's a great feeling to be accepted by a Catholic especially so is so shy in the beginning. And I really, I really hear this this passion and this love that you have for cats. Where does that come from in your life.
Beth Pasek 11:27
I grew up in a household full of dogs, which is sounds kind of crazy. And ever since childhood, I have always enjoyed cats. And in order for me to get my cat fix as a child, I had to go down the street and visit the cat lady, three doors down. And she was a typical cat lady. She had 11 cats and indoor outdoor cats at the time. So I would go and spend hours on her porch, playing with the cats and all of that kind of stuff. I wasn't able to own a cat in my childhood because my brothers were highly allergic to them. So when I got married, I thought, oh Hooray, I moved out. I'm getting married, I can finally get a cat. Lo and behold, guess what? Oh no. My husband was highly allergic. So it actually took a whole divorce for me to end up being able to get my first cat and you know, at 30 some years old, I'm having my first cat. And that would that would have been my tylee if you want to know what happened with her bullets in the book. So it's something that's just been with me my entire life. Even when I was a teenager and working with horses down in loudonville and Mohican wilderness, there were barn cats. Um, nobody else could nobody else could be around the barn cats except me. Bar cats hid from everybody else in the bar. But if a cat was sick, or whatever I was the one that was able to go get them. And it's just, I think it has to be with has to do with being an introvert to a certain degree. We talk softer, we walk softer, we, our personalities are not so big. As well as you know, the dog, dog, people sometimes sometimes and then they're not done generalizing. But sometimes they're like, Hey, how are you? You don't you don't do that with kitties, right? Like is that I'm that person. It's like somebody walks up to me, it's like,
Collin 13:52
run away. Just these this continual theme of having connections with them, having opportunities to care for them. And then finally being able to put your passion with what you know, be in line with your passion and do what you feel like you need to be doing and have been doing that for a while now.
Beth Pasek 14:13
Yes, yeah, it is. It was a moment in time where it was I could actually follow not just owning a cat, but eventually really getting into the whole cat behavior end of things. And you know, that was it was a dream. It's a dream come true for me.
Collin 14:37
Have you heard about time to pet Chris and from raining cats and dogs as this to say,
14:42
becoming a time to pet client has been a game changer for us. We can give our pet services clients real time cloud based information they never imagined they be interested in. And most importantly to me personally, I can better manage my company and look forward to more Not nothing time to pet is responsive to my request for new features and modifications to existing ones.
Collin 15:07
If you are looking for new pet sitting software for your business, give time to pet a try. listeners of pet sitter confessional get 50% off their first three months when they sign up at time to pet.com slash confessional. I wanted to ask you a question about some of your services, you have what you call an environmental program for cats. What is that
Beth Pasek 15:34
our environmental program starts before we ever walk in the door. So when we talk with the client on the phone over about the meet and greet, a lot of times, they're expecting that that short kitty visit and we explain what we do is a little different. And then we when we go through the meet and greet, we also do what we call an environmental assessment. And that is where we start talking to the client and asking them where do they normally hide? What scares them? what upsets them? What does the cat like? What are their favorite toys? What are the favorite treats? are you what are the existing challenges? Does kitty pee on your bed every time you leave on vacation? You know so because that is actually yo We now recognize that that is not a revenge of the cat. Because you left it is actually purely stress related. And we can address those fear, anxiety and stressors. Then we dive in and we let the client know before the client walks out the door. If your cat is an anxious Kitty, if your cat is a fraidy cat, we encourage them to get a feel away plug in. That feel away helps reduce the stress level. We asked them Can we play Alexa and classical music? Can we play Google Home? Relax My cat on the big screen TV? can we can we do this? Yep, we get into the whole yo kit, we're going to set up hunting games for your cat when no one's around. We're going to set up foraging stations for your kitty Well, no one's around. So the cat has activities between the once a day visits. And we really get in Yeah, we delve into that. If we find that a cat is having a lot of anxiety with the owner being gone. We'll videos videotape that and actually show that to the owner and explain this is a fear based response. This is a separation anxiety response. And you know, there are things now that your that can recommend that can help reduce some of that stress level for when you are gone. So on my blog, you know, have you met Harlow is actually a video of Harlow trying to stop the cat sitter from leaving, and he's being an aggressive kitty about it. And recognizing no the cat's not being a brat. He is actually trying to tell the cat sitter don't leave. Yeah. And at that point, yo, okay, petsitter already been there an hour and a half. We say no time limit visit but at some point in time we have to go home. And we sent that video to the owner. And explain to her though this is Harlow he's having a bit of separation anxiety. And we recommend you take the video have Harlow checked out, show it to your VAT and see what your event wants to recommend. And in her case, her vet recommended something over the counter for the kitty to take that they we can start and stop. So he's not on medication all the time. But he is getting an over the counter medication that they start about three days before they leave and we continue the medication all the way through our visits. And it just helps take down his stress level a little bit. So for this particular client since she does travel a lot for work, and this is a male cat. We don't want that anxiety level way up there every time she leaves town because that's going to lead to illness. And so being in tune with the cats and their environment and what's going on in the during the visits. We're helping you We are now not just the cat sitter, we are now the cat advocate, and we are their partner, and they're overwhelmed the overall well being lifelong.
Collin 20:10
I love that word so much cat advocate, it's really taking this and shifting that mindset from, oh, the cats are independent, there'll be fine, you just throw some food over there be good. I'm sure some cats do just fine with that kind of care. And they don't all need this. But what you do with this environmental program is you back way up, and start from the top and do a whole assessment of this cats world and just do a holistic approach to this and go, Okay, what what is this? How can we approach this and give it the best level of care by asking all these in depth questions, and, you know, these videos and doing this, you know, just looking at the cat's behavior and recognizing that each one's unique and individual, it really takes it to a different a whole different level of care. I've said that a couple times here, but it but it really is. And I love hearing about that approach to this.
Beth Pasek 21:02
Thank you. Thank you. And like I said, it is just it is all it really is looking at everything that is happening for this kit for the kiddies.
Collin 21:13
You're also fear free certified, why was that important for you to have?
Beth Pasek 21:20
Now, I feel I thought it was really important for me that I was able to demonstrate an understanding of the fear, anxiety and stress levels that the cats are having. Whether it is especially obviously during a cat setting visit. But as are my clients figure out that, Oh, she really knows what she's talking about. A lot of times I get a look at an owner, and I'm sure it happens with the dog into the world, Hey, yo, this is what's going on. You know, why is my cat doing this. And we're able to to talk, talk them through some of the behavior reasons, and then get them redirected to their VAT. A good example, like I said, with his Harlow, where we're dealing with that fear, anxiety and stress level, and then we're, you know, we were able to say to the client, take this to the vet. And if the vet is resistant to the information they have that has the opportunity they can call me. And as a fear free, level three certified cat sitter, we're talking with the bat on their terms. Yeah, that and it's a whole different way of approach, again, approach, it's a whole different approach to what we do is being able to communicate between the client, the cat and the vet and bring it all part of we are now not the pets that are over there, that the vet office tends to recommend that we're almost part of the entire team that cares for this client.
Collin 23:08
Yeah, that gets back to it helps you be a better cat advocate and help you you know, it plugs you into that. Because early on, you mentioned that you had a wonderful response from the vets in your area. And I was curious about that. But it sounds like when you have this partnership, when you have this, this training these certifications, and you're able to take the videos and be in communication with clients about that. It plugs you right in to make you part of that care team, and helping give advice and all sorts of things.
Beth Pasek 23:39
It really does. And, you know, there are times where you know, the vessel will refer clients out to me. You know, okay, we've been you've been we've been treating so and so for a urinary is urinary infection, the kidney is still peeing outside the box. And they'll say, Hey, give, give Beth a call, give finnicky a call. Because now now they have somebody they can refer to that can go into the home, assess the whole environment, and help help fix things, which then also for our from our standpoint, gives us a foot in the door for future cat sitting. So the behavior end of the business plays into also being able having that foot in the door. And the referrals happen because of the way we do things.
Collin 24:33
Yeah, absolutely. I that totally makes sense. What are some things that you could recommend to pet sitters right now to up their game with cat care whether they have a lot of experience with Katherine or not?
Beth Pasek 24:47
One of the things I would I would recommend would be and I know you know, cat sitters, cat sitters and pet sitters. We're all in different financial levels right now because of COVID. Yeah, so some of us are pulling back on how much you want to spend on training or this or that or the other thing. So I would recommend, go if you're not overly cat aware or cat behavior aware, definitely head over to the fear free happy homes, website. And that the information, there's a lot of modules and things out there that are actually free and available. And it actually fear free happy home does both cats and dogs. So in it for a general overview of cat information, definitely fear free happy homes, if they're really wanting to delve into it, obviously volunteer to foster a cat that volunteer in a shelter, but actually foster a kitty in their own home and go through a foster training program with with it whatever shelter they decide to work with. And as always read up on cat behavior. And if they really are wanting to delve into it, I think the carrot carrot prayer Academy train my cat, which is a clicker training program that they can do is not horribly expensive. And they're able you can they go through actually how to put, but not only the clicker training, but actually how to put together the the training plans for the kids. And it's fairly inexpensive.
Collin 26:31
Well, I did want to ask you, because you do talk about cat training. What does that mean? What does that entail? Because I have an idea of what that means in coming from a dog's perspective. But but for cats, what what all does that what does that do?
Beth Pasek 26:46
Well, for cat training, I'm McCarran. I'm Karen Pryor, train my cat certified. So I've been through their program. Basically, it's clicker training for cats, is what it amounts to, like you have clicker training for dogs, you have clicker training for cats. And you can train them to do tricks or whatever, that when you're doing it from a behavior assessment standpoint, you can also use the clicker training to help train them out of behaviors you don't want them to do. So if you want them to not be jumping on count kitchen counters, you could actually train them to make a different choice with cats, when you go to apply negative reinforcement with them. That doesn't go so well as most of us learn. Think most, I think most most pet sitters recognize um, yeah, you don't do certain things with the kitty that is negative because you don't it doesn't go well. The cat is more likely, yeah, the cat is gonna be much faster to strike back at you than I think a dog would. Yeah. So yeah, so I think with cat training, you're really heavily focusing on positive reinforcement, and giving the cat better choices to get them to the behavior you want them to perform. And when you really dive into doing cat training and clicker training with your cat, you will find that the bond between your you and your cat just become so close. That you know your cat starts to actually you'll say something and instead of shaking the treat bag, to get them to do something, they'll actually turn around and look at you and be like, okay, yeah, that's what you want. And they will perform the behavior that you need.
Collin 28:56
Yeah, it's again, giving them agency giving, treating them as a fully functional being that that you can partner with that you can build a bond with, that you might not immediately expect if you haven't had a lot of exposure to them
Beth Pasek 29:10
correct. And even if you have a kitty, that is that you've had a lot of exposure to where there's a big friendly cat, then that's when you can really have a lot of fun with them. And you start to teach them to do the high fives and the spins and this stand up and dances and, and climb gate give them the new tartan you can teach them to target to the top of the cat tree or to the bottom the cat tree. And you know, maybe you'll have a Sadecki cat who jumps from the highest to the pillow, right.
Collin 29:48
I did want to pick your brain a little bit too. We know we're kind of talking about cat training and cat behavior and cat pate knowing and understanding cat behavior so central to the kind of care that you give. But in the broader scope in the pet sitting pet care world, there aren't a whole lot of cat behavioral specialists. Why do you think that is?
Beth Pasek 30:12
I think that is because it is a fairly new field. Okay? Cats haven't been domesticated as indoor cats until the early 1900s. So before that they lived in the barn, they lived out on the farm, maybe they slept in the house, but they really weren't, they did, we're not even really bred per se, they were still pretty much considered a feral cat. Um, even if you look into the middle of pictures of the Middle Ages, you'll see lady sitting in their big fancy dresses with a cat on their lap. If you look closely at that cat, it's actually a wild cat. It's not our domestic cat. So the actual domestication, where we actually brought them into our homes, as a companion animal, is still fairly new. And even when we started breeding them, we bred them for cut looks and fur coat color, and for all those reasons. And that's, that's true. You ask anybody from Tikka or the cat fancy Association? They will tell you they were originally bred for looks. Great accessories. Yeah, these are accessory pets. Unlike the dog world, where we may be bred the dogs for for a job. The cats were bred for looks. So eventually, when we talked about when you're talking about, you know, where the cat behavior specialist falls in? Well, all of a sudden, we took this wild cat bred them for looks, put them in a house, and they can't go outside anymore. Yeah, so but we never addressed the behaviors. And we are finally to the point in civilization where we're finally looking at the cat from a behavioral standpoint, and how we can make their lives better within the home. The only other thing I would maybe want to toss in here is when you're looking at cat behavior specialists, if you talk to people who are professional cat sitters, I found this when I went through my mentorship program for the I ABC. A lot of there were a lot of cat sitters in the mentorship program, which, again, dubs dovetails into the the cat people are us cat people are really still feeling left out in the pet sitting world for the training and the certifications that come from the pet sitting associations that you know, okay, if we want to be a certified pet sitter, we have to sit through all the dogs stuff is true. It's true. And it's really true as as as professional cat sitters who specialize in cats. And I think it's even just talking with me, you're finding out there's a whole different way of doing this. Yeah, that is really far better for for everyone. And, you know, so that is where I think you're going to start to see a lot of cat sitters actually becoming certified cat behavior people.
Collin 33:43
Yeah, because it is so key and so central to the care that they need. Because it's been overlooked for so long. There's a lot of misconceptions, a lot of preconceived notions that you've got to get out of your way and replace with this better knowledge reading their behavior, understanding reactions, and and triggers and those kind of things. So that you can give them the highest level of care that you so you know, we want to be able to do that. And sometimes we may feel like, I don't even know where to start with this. You know what you know, and so, so going through these trainings can help you so so much.
Beth Pasek 34:17
It really truly can and I know last week last week, and I had a look one of our local pet one of my local network pet sitting colleagues, he called me on the phone and he was very distressed. He says he sent him you know, he had sent in one of his pet sitters to two cats it cats hissing grappling cats, the pet sitter turned around he made one little mistake of turning around to leave and the cat bit her on the leg. And and you know, I explained to him as well ultimately what that cat has. We talked through a little bit what was going on, the cat normally lives with us. dog, the dog went with the people on the trip. So the cat felt abandoned separation anxiety to the max and I taught and as I explained to the dog colleague, he says, You have dogs separation anxiety where they destroyed the sofa. Cat separation anxiety can turn out to be this intense aggression and the where they actually feel like I have to protect my entire territory from the strange person. And you know, the castle pit make one of two choices. Lucky pet sitters cat goes and hides under the bed. This one was an unlucky one where he decided, no, you're not coming in my house. And anybody who's been in the business has been through that scenario.
Collin 35:50
Many people have had to fend themselves off with a broom, because you know, the cats coming after them or you know, or things like that. And you're just like, Man, this cat is a jerk this kind of so mean, I don't like this cat. But really, the cat misses their family, right? Like, it's, it's meaning so much more. And they're trying to communicate that they have one of two ways. As you mentioned, I'm going to hide or I'm it's on right and but if you don't know, what they're trying to tell you, you make these judgment calls about the cat. And that can impact how you care for them from that point forward, how you communicate with them, and all those kind of things.
Beth Pasek 36:28
Exactly. Exactly.
Collin 36:30
You touched on COVID a little bit. So I was curious how COVID has impacted your your cabling business.
Beth Pasek 36:39
Um, COVID obviously is a cat sitting business. We are vacation travel or business travel. So for us, COVID literally means no travel, no visits, no income. Breathe. That moment you breathe and breathe. And for us, it was a matter of really looking to where what can we pivot to? It was a matter of understanding, we needed to slightly change our focus. This is a pandemic. We have emergency money coming from the government. But that's alone. We have to pay that back at some point. And that is where we started looking at how can we pivot? How can we we say finicky castling, and behavior. So how do we make how do we build on the behavior and of the business to help us stay afloat, and really just pivoting. And we looked at diving into doing the online consulting, which if you work with any kind of a cat behavior consultant, you'll find that a lot of us will offer online consulting. And it benefits us because we can ask you to take your iPad or your iPhone or your phone. Walk me around your house. Hey, there's the cat, the cat, because you know what? From a meet and greet whether most cats do the meet and greet, they go Hi, yeah. Do you get in home consult consult consultation, that doesn't always work. Right. But with the online consulting, we were able to just pivot that and say, we're here we're available your home. Let's work on the cat scratching the sofa. Let's work on those litterboxes shoes. So we were we were able to pivot that and we had not as much money as we are castling in no way. But we were able to pivot pivot a little bit to take advantage of that, that opportunity that your home as the as the owner and you know what we can do these console's with with your iPad. And, and your walk away with your iPad. And I'll tell you turn turn a little more left turn a little more, right show me this show me that. Oh, look at that litter box. It's my kitten and you have a main code. That's probably why he's missing it so. So for us it was about about it really was about you know, pivoting for that first little bit in March and April. borough I live in. We're based out of Ohio. So Ohio started opening back up at about mid May. So for us we started bouncing back for May, June and July. So we've done pretty pretty well. It's still soft, but the business is holding. So and the other thing I did for the quarter COVID impact was when May when we start when Ohio started to open. And of course, nobody could travel anywhere outside the state of Ohio. We actually, once a week on Wednesdays, we started posting about local areas, and unique places within our own state. Just little, hey, you ready to get out of that apartment? Try the end at Cedar Woods down and down in Hocking hills, they have a look at that, how cool is that they have yours. Because you can have luxury yours. You can. And so you maintain the social distancing, you maintained everything you were supposed to. But it also gave our clients that opportunity to think instead of Okay, I can't go to Florida this year or Cancun? Oh, look at that, how unique is that we can we can go. So we used to duck do we tapped our travel industry within the state to maybe plant a few seeds of travel. So
Collin 41:14
now it's really cool to hear because you were able to take advantage of that situation of when people were home, you were able to see the cat in its true natural environment who were normally if you're coming in, there's that initial disturbance. And you're trying to assess them because they're trying to assess you, and there's this back and forth. And now all of a sudden, you're just a fly on the wall, able to observe them in their home and go, aha, I'm actually able to see these behaviors, and you know, unaltered or unfiltered through their fear or concern for you being there. And then taking that other step and going I know you can't travel out of state, but look at all these wonderful opportunities for you to travel in state. And you know, I that's really cool, because you were still able to kind of center yourself around a resource for them, and give them advice and give them you know, things to work with. And on and on that. I know, initially, some of the early days, it seems like years ago at this point, but it was just there was a lot of speculation about spread of the disease through cats, actually. And so I want to pick your brain and see what did you have any clients that were concerned about that? Or did you get questions about that, as news media? were releasing reports? And those?
Beth Pasek 42:26
Yeah, we certainly did get we did get clients contacting us didn't call her that. They call, they called us about catching it from the cat. And we actually had to Yeah, we took some time to to personally address their issues, especially with our elderly clients, that they cannot catch it from their cat. And if they're the if the humans are the ones that are going out, and the cat is getting sick, then you probably already have the virus. So you because you're bringing it into your home and giving it to your kitty. And that was something that that came out a little bit later that we are able to transfer that if we have COVID that cats are, are particularly susceptible to it. Now with cats, they're still the research is still out. But they think with the cats because cats are prone to coronaviruses anyway. So they have some natural defense mechanisms to it, it's not an immunity, they will still get sick, but from the kitties that have gotten sick, they've not been as severe as the human version. And if they're taken to the vet, then that can they usually recover fairly well.
Collin 43:56
So I'm sure that was a little difficult in those early days trying to communicate that and trying to parse through all that information that was coming out and the is it isn't it you know, we were we were all there but to be at such a very focused concern of clients of Can I get this from my cat can my cat get it from me? Like that's that that how scary that would be in to be there with your clients as they're as they're going through that?
Beth Pasek 44:19
Well as for a few of my clients as well as I reminded them I live with four cats. I don't want any of my cats to get it from me as a cat sitter. I don't want to bring it home to my own clowder of kids. You know, and that's where you know, you get into how we decided to approach the cat care for the visits going forward. From our from our standpoint, and you know, okay, when we go into see the cats we didn't need to mask up, because if we're carrying it, and we're doing these extended long visits with cats, and they're wanting to snuggle, and they're wanting this attention, we have to be careful that we're not going to pass it on to a client's cat. Okay, um, the other thing we did is we looked at all of the cleaning products that are out there. And we settled on a product product called rescue, which is used a lot in the fear free certified vet clinics. And it's pet friendly, and it's good and it's okay with the EPA for Corona for COVID. And it's all it is an accelerated hydrogen peroxide. And we have a big container of wipes that we walk in with. And we went with that, though, that we went with rescue because the is able to kill the Coronavirus in a minute within a minute's timeframe, as opposed to the bleach wipes, yo and leaving a surface with a cat. Yo, oh, bleach, why this guy stay wet for four minutes? Well, no, that's not gonna work. Because I'm wiping everything down walking out the door. I don't need the cat walking through the bleach. And so then we do, that's where, you know, we did a little research and we found this product called rescue. And like I said, it comes through a recommendation from the fear free, folks
Collin 46:32
really cool that you were able to find a product that's still aligned with your beliefs and how to handle a cat and to not stress them out anymore. And to still make everybody happy
Beth Pasek 46:44
and healthy, and stay healthy and healthy. And stay healthy.
Collin 46:50
In the in the dog world many of us are discussing about, you know, care for the dog after COVID their clients getting back to work. And you've already mentioned a little bit about cat separation anxiety. So how are you helping your clients prepare for when they do start going and leaving?
Beth Pasek 47:06
Well, I actually think you have my blog posted on petsitter. confessional about about this very subject. That really, if we put together the blog that went out in our newsletter, it really truly is a lot of the same things you've I've already said that we do for when our clients go on vacation, and it is setting up, you've been home all this time the house is full of people, it's been full of noise, let's make sure that we go ahead and ask Alexa, to play music. Let's go ahead and Okay, we're gonna have a sacrificial sweatshirt with your scent on it. That's good. You're gonna put on the sofa that the cat's gonna? Yeah. So it really is just telling our clients to do exactly the same thing that we do when they go on vacation into it for the first week or so after that. They should be fun.
Collin 48:05
Again, it's it's this the solution here is listening, watching observing the cat. And in really, really genuinely meeting their needs, and making sure that you aren't, you know, when you are going to be stressing them out you have these things that you can do. And it sounds kind of silly. Are you gonna put out a sweatshirt like what like that doesn't? What is that going to do. But it's these little things that you can do in your house. But it helps a lot, right? It helps so much. And there's just these little things that to do to go along.
Beth Pasek 48:36
Again, that is the difference. It's a difference in how to think about dogs versus cats. But I mean, even if you have a dog with separation anxiety, you will often find them they will go into the dirty laundry, and they will pull out the owner's underwear and take they don't shred it, they just take it back to their doggie bed. And well, it really is very similar with the cats except the cats can't pull it up with a dirty lunch.
Collin 49:14
But it's true. It's rec it's it's this mind shift of going, viewing the behavior not as them being mean or, or angry at you. And instead a call for help. Like they're trying to tell you something they're trying to tell you that they need something not that they're angry or hateful or spiteful, because that you left it, I miss you and that that just changes the entire conversation and changes the entire level of care that you give. When you start viewing it from that angle.
Beth Pasek 49:39
It really does. It really truly does change it when you view it from that angle. You start thinking about how you stop being afraid of the cat or you stop being angry with the cat and you start to decide how do I fix this. You go to that point of being able to fix it.
Collin 49:59
Now. You Have, as we mentioned at the beginning of the show recently written a book, why did you decide it was time to write that?
Beth Pasek 50:08
It was an opportunity that sort of fell into my lap. At the beginning of January,
50:17
out of the blue
Beth Pasek 50:20
Callisto media contacted me via email. And it was their author, recruiter. And I left that email sit in my box for a long time. I read it, I thought, scam, scam, email. And but there was just something inside of me. And I thought, you know, you started a book last June, you haven't done anything with it. Let's give what's what's the worst that can happen? Let me give this gal a call and see what this is about. So I got gave the recruiter a call. And she asked me for a 500 word essay on a chapter from the book, which I did. Two days later, the editor called and said, that we're sending over the contract, we're doing this, we're doing this, we're sending you the outline, we're sending you the information, if you decide you're not going to do anything with it, let us know. And I'll move on to somebody else. But it was basically a non disclosure. And, you know, they sent me over the entire outline for the book, I didn't even have to do the outline, they sent me the outline. It was basically we're going to pick your brain and you know, this is how we're going to do it. Yeah. And it was a work for hire. So it was write the book, and we're done. It was I Yo, I check them out, up down backwards and forwards. I'm like that you're not a vanity press. I have to pay for it. Because you know, and that they're still out there and vanity presses are still out there, where you know, you have to pay them to do the work, right. And in this case, they was they are, they're in a hybrid publisher, and their work really reaches out to undiscovered authors. And when I asked the recruiter and the editor, how did you find me? Because I wasn't looking to write a book. Um, they and this is where you know, Amy toman from petsitter, SEO, what, who helped me FCL, my Google and my website with Callisto. They said, We found you through your SEO and your online presence. And I was like, Okay. And so they sent me that they sent me the outline, they told me, okay, it's got to be 30,000 to 40,000 words. And you have six weeks to write it. And of course write about them. That was when COVID hit. And what happened, you know, like I said, my business went to zero. And I just was like, Okay, this is a pivot point. We're writing the book and your long term, taking the opportunity to respond to my clients who write all the reviews that say we are. Yo, if you read our reviews, a lot of times when we did the we boil down those reviews, it came down to knowledge, our knowledge of cats was what really our clients appreciate about us. And this book gave me the opportunity to really put all that knowledge in one place.
53:52
Yeah. Yeah. Help others speak. Meow is as you talk.
Beth Pasek 53:56
Yeah, literally help. This is how we speak me out in my world. And this, it was that opportunity. And I looked at it. I says, I can use it for helping my clients. I can use it for my own marketing purposes. I think I now have a really sophisticated training manual for my own employees.
Collin 54:19
There you go. Wow. Yeah, I didn't even think about it from that perspective of here. Read a book.
Beth Pasek 54:24
Yeah, here. And yeah, you're coming to work for us. Okay, Your Honor, Your Honor, one month probation on you got 10 chapters. And in those 10 chapters, when you get to chapter 10, where we're doing clicker training for with cats, so it's a real opportunity from my own PR inside business, and for outside the business and for my clients. Yeah, for it for anybody else who wants to read it.
Collin 54:55
And it is the it's called, called understanding cat behavior. A compassionate guide to training and communication. And it really is, distilling down these your years of research years years of experience and understanding into this 10 chapter guide almost into into learn to speak. Now, I know we joke about that, but it really does, you know, the end goal of it.
Beth Pasek 55:20
That really is the end goal of it is to learn to speak me out. And for pet owners to to understand the difference between this is a cat behavior that needs a medical issue. And this is a cat behavior that is just a cat behavior, and we can fix. And there is a big difference there. And then there's, you know, cats have a real good way of hiding their illnesses. And being able to decide to decipher is the cat in pain and being cranky and hissing and growling at me? Or is the cat just, you know, is a cat showing me some sort of redirected aggression? Right? And you know that there are illnesses, oh, my cat peeing outside the litter box because he hates me, Well, no. Fluffy, maybe has a urinary infection. Maybe he has stones? Maybe he's hyperthyroid. So yeah, we go through some of those scenarios inside inside the book, to help hopefully, help that owners and cat owners be better cat guardians.
Collin 56:28
Right, and and for pet sitters to just a little bit of insight into this world. And in on that I was, I was wondering, maybe what's one of the biggest misconceptions about cat behavior that you deal with or that you've had to respond to.
Beth Pasek 56:46
Um, one of the biggest things is, surprisingly, when we tell an owner, your cat is actually ill, you know that when we're when we're sitting with their cat. And from a cat behavior standpoint, the cat has a nasty greasy coat, maybe he's a little cranky. And explaining to the pet owner, that's not just normal aging. Your cat actually has some medical issues going on. You know, being able to look at the cat and tell from their the grimace scale that, okay, the whiskers are a little down and the ears are not up. But they're kind of cocked back half cocked back sideways. They're in that meatloaf position. They don't want to be bothered. No, your kitty isn't is not feeling well.
57:38
Yeah,
Beth Pasek 57:39
this is not a behavior issue. This is a kitty not feeling well, that's usually one of the biggest mysteries that happens. It's one of the biggest things in even in the veterinary field that, you know, they see owners time and again, um, bring a cat in, and they have that the cat has been losing weight over week, you know, several weeks. And they don't bring the cat in right away. And they're they don't recognize that there's a medical reason behind it. And in my book, I often refer to, I can't fix a behavior issue. If there's a medical costs, we have to deal with the medical issue first, and then we can fix the behavior. So that I think is one of the biggest things between pet owners and pet sitters in it. And one of the some of the biggest reasons pets get turned into shelters, as pet owners not recognizing that behavior is a medical condition. How many how many cats go into a shelter? Because the owner says he's peeing all over the house, I can't deal with it. And it's actually something that can very easily be dealt with. If you went to see the fat.
Collin 59:01
Sure. And how heartbreaking to think that there are people who believe that it's strictly behavioral, but it all that is is that's the that's what you see. That's that's the manifestation of this medical problem. And to have to come alongside them and go Actually, no, like, there's more to this. Like, I can't imagine having that kind of hard conversation with somebody.
Beth Pasek 59:23
It can be a real difficult situation. Um, it's, it's not all that unusual. And honestly, there are times when I really, you know, it really is a push, it's like, that pet owner knows going to the vet is going to cost them three $400 You know, it is a financial constraint for some people. But you know, at that point, it's like, but if you take you if we address it now, it won't cost you as much. Sure. Yeah, you know, and it is the you know, we can Observe the illness behaviors. And let's help those that make the right decision on what tests need to be done. Okay, the kid is peeing outside the block the box and there's blood in the urine. Okay, that's gonna be stones. So we're gonna know. So we know, we can help sort of mitigate some of that by understanding the behaviors that we're seeing.
Collin 1:00:25
Right, right. Again, this this outward expression of this internal problem that they're having. Right trying to find a link between those two.
Meghan 1:00:34
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Collin 1:01:22
And so kind of going hand in hand with this because the book is training and communications. Why do you think people have a hard time communicating with their cat?
Beth Pasek 1:01:31
They don't understand cat body language. There is. Yo, in the dog world we talk about dog bot donkey body language. Yeah. And and we talk about it a lot because nobody wants a stranger to be bitten by a dog. Yeah, you know, we talked about reactive dogs we talk about the fearful dogs. We talk about all of those things about dogs. Again, yo cat behavior being a fairly new field. Yeah, we're still trying to figure out okay, what what is the grimas scale for cats? You know, how do we tell a cat isn't pain? How do we you know so there we know some basics. Good example that I can think of is I met a new cat this past week. Owner went into the closet to show me the kitty who's hiding in the closet. And I mean, great. Cat big me. Big Man came down, greeted her tail up came over to me his tail was up. But as he was walking towards me, I could see his eyes totally dilated. His ears airplane doubt. And I just held my breath. I'm like, okay, we're not petting this cat right now. Yeah, but the owner was clueless did not recognize that her cat had gone from greeting her to a cat who was aroused?
Collin 1:03:11
Yeah. on edge. on edge. Yeah.
Beth Pasek 1:03:15
Um, by the end of the meet and greet. We're playing with him. He had decided we were fine. But I think that's when I that's where I think you're really taking the time that we did in the book to delve into the different ear positions the different I look at the different whisker positions. It means we got into the whiskers. We got into the tail, that yo what is the tail mean that that you know, what is the bottlebrush tail? What is the happy tail? What is the question mark? What is the Okay, I'm, I'm checking you out. You're all right. But don't touch me yet. Don't touch me. Um, but so I when we talk about it, it really for me it is the heart The hardest thing is getting people to understand. You've got to take the time to learn the body language. And once you get the body language down, learning to speak me out comes a lot easier.
Collin 1:04:19
I asked you a question a very early on about where your passion comes from. And this book is dedicated to a very special cat in your life. I'd love for you to tell us about your your your flying cat nipper. And and how and how they you know how your cat she set you down this path?
Beth Pasek 1:04:37
Oh, my flying cat neighbor. Her name is tightly. She was named after an oriental tea deck. do things with her I probably wouldn't. I definitely would never do again. But things being what they were it was 1996 I got her as an eight week old kitten brought her home. On Halloween. I think that's that the whole thing in motion. Actually, the first few months, she was fine. And I ended up having to move. And when we moved, she became this tiny Tiger Cat From Hell. Sorry, Jackson galaxy, but she really was a Cat From Hell. And I spent time talking to the vet who gave me bad advice, which at the time was the norm really was I spent six years walking around with a spray bottle, trying to keep her from attacking me. A dog owner would probably have gotten rid of the dog by then. But I had her we had gotten finally to a point where she understood that, you know, I knew when her eyes dilated and her ears went in a certain position, I was in trouble. And she knew if I picked up the spray bottle when she was in that, spell that kitty spell that okay, she's got the spray bottle, and I'm going to go take my aggression out on something else, entirely, actually had what was known as redirected aggression. So if she was sitting at the window, and she saw a dog outside or not, her tendency would be to turn around and attack me. If she saw another cat outside, she turned around and attacked me. If she saw deer outside, she turned around and attacked me. So and like I said, it was it was obviously fairly intense with her. Yeah. She eventually came down with diabetes. And at the vet office, she was better known as Mrs. T. After the 18, Mr. T. Oh, no. So when we go into the carrier, and you know that tech would walk up, oh, what a pretty kitty and go to put their fingers in, in her carrier. And Ty Lee would respond with the scariest cat I kill. I'm gonna kill you cat she could muster. Well, she ended up with duck ketoacidosis and had to stay at the vet clinic for three days. I can only imagine these poor vets trying to treat her. When I went to go pick her up, that brought her out with paperwork, said she's diabetic. She gets two units of insulin twice a day. Here's the insulin. Here's 10 syringes. Good luck. So I brought her home, put her Canada food in front of her face, which, who knew at the time this was very fear free. But actually put Canada food in front of her face. took a deep breath, gave her first insulin shot, not a not a hiss, not a girl. I don't even think she knew she got the shot, spent about a week or so on. feline diabetes calm, figured out how to home test her with a human blood glucose meter, which was an air prick on the side of the air. And I was able to do blood glucose curves for her at home. And when I told my vet, when we went back for our two week checkup, how well she was doing, here's the chart, take a look. And he was he was amazed. He was like, How in the world did you do this? And I've had food treats positive reinforcement. And she's going to be just fine. And she is the kitty. They put me through Can I don't know if I can say it on the podcast but she put me through about and she put me on this path of there's a better way that I can I can help her. And in going through that whole process of being you know, on feeling the diabetes column. I eventually did volunteer work with diabetes diabetic cats in need. I wrote their foster manual in their adoption manual of how when they re homed cats for the new adapting folks so they would know how to do all of the stuff that we do with diabetic cats which is the air pricks and the insulin shots and convince you know training them to be accepting of that. She was the one who started me down that path.
Collin 1:10:03
I love that because, you know, it was a it was behavior that was tolerable. Well, I'll be albeit somewhat scary, right?
1:10:14
Until she put me in the hospital once,
Collin 1:10:16
right? Oh, my gosh. So there you go, right. But But it took the real need for some serious level of care for her. to trigger this, I need to do something different. There needs to there's got to be a better way. And it took that and then, you know, when I see that, and you took that and went, Okay, well, if it was a better way for her, this must be the better way for everybody. Right? This is this needs to be the norm. So that you don't have to get to that point of desperation and frustration with the cat or wait until something's really serious to try and make that change.
Beth Pasek 1:10:50
Well, and that's, that is something to really yeah, there's that and you know, at the time with her, there were no cat behaviorists. It didn't exist. So 25 years ago, that didn't exist. So it really was a matter of, you know, reaching out to a different community. And and learning from them. How to Do yo, lb, it's just what was one specific situation with your diabetic cats. But out of that grew, a desire to learn more. Yeah, yeah. And be able to apply that across a board of cats.
Collin 1:11:35
And actually on that, if listeners are hearing what you're saying, and they they want to learn more, what are some of your favorite resources to get plugged into and learn more about cat training, communication, all of the things that you do
Beth Pasek 1:11:50
by resources are, of course, fear, free, happy home, and then any of any of the fear free, breaking the regular fear free courses, if you can afford them. Pam Johnson, today, starting from scratch that particular book, starting from scratch, one of my favorite books that is that helped me with Ty Lee was Dr. Bruce Fogle's, the cat's mind, one of the first early one of the first and one of the earliest on cat behavior. There's things in that book that these days we don't do. But in general, that book was the one that helped me learn, Oh, she has redirected aggression that way know how to fix it. Yeah. So it was Dr. Bruce Vogel's book, The cat's mind that really helped me. For someone who wants to really get into this, I would suggest them to go out and check out the International Association of animal behavior consultants. And they have both they have a dog division, a cat division, a horse division, a parent division. They, they would, I would definitely go check them out.
Collin 1:13:02
And I've got I'll plug your book for you. And as well
Beth Pasek 1:13:10
as the introvert in me, I won't even plug my own book because
Collin 1:13:14
I'll do it for you. Because that's a great resource that this has been a truly truly wonderful pleasure and enjoyed our conversation here talking about the importance of taking time with the cat and take taking the time to understand who they are and develop some specialized care for what they actually need. If people want to find out more follow along with all of your work, how can they do that?
Beth Pasek 1:13:38
They can find me on the web at HTTP HTTPS backslash backslash finicky.us not.com finnicky.us. They can find me on Facebook at finicky cat sitting in behavior. They can find me on Instagram at finicky cat setting. In the next month or so we are opening our group up behavior, meow modification, which will be a private group that people can can pop in and ask their cat behavior questions. If they're a pet sitter, who just want some advice or whatever, they can certainly email me at jeff@finnicky.us.
Collin 1:14:24
Wonderful. And I'll make sure to include those links on our website and in the show notes for this episode, so people can click right on that and get in contact. Again. Thank you so much. This has been a real joy and a real pleasure.
Beth Pasek 1:14:35
Colin, thank you so much. I'm so honored and excited to have been part of this tonight.
Collin 1:14:42
The one thing that kept coming up through that entire conversation was the extreme importance to learn cat behavior and body language so that you'll be better able to communicate and care for them so that you can be the translator between the owner and the vet. If those situations do come up. We want to Time to pet and pet sitters international for sponsoring this week's episode. Thank you so much for listening and we'll be back again soon.
