Hi, I'm Paul Vogelsang, host of the Not Old Better Show.
I think we've got a real treat for you today.
You're going to hear from her in just a second.
The her is Heather Green.
Heather Green is a freelance journalist.
She has written for years for Business Week, and she's just written a wonderful new book
to catch a cat, How Three Stray Kittens Rescued Me.
It is fantastic.
It is not what you think.
It is a book about life, redemption, love, and just a story like no other.
I had a chance to talk to Heather in our studio.
You're going to have a chance to see Heather.
I was joined by my wife, Gretchen Vogelsang, who's a well-known podcaster.
We had a great interview.
Please watch the special interview with Heather just following this, and then listen to the
audio interview with Heather.
Thanks.
Enjoy it.
My name is Heather Green, and I wrote a book called To Catch a Cat.
It's a memoir about how rescuing three kittens in the backyard of my boyfriend, then boyfriend,
now husband's yard in Union City, New Jersey, changed my life.
I think what the book is about is something that resonates with a lot of people.
You know, I love cats, I love animals, but this book was more about how this project
of rescuing a cat sort of just made me force me to change my perspective in life, and I
think we all get into these time periods or ruts or routines where we just need something
that'll shift us to think about things differently or to see them differently, and that's what
these kittens did for me and, you know, having to catch them and figure out how to tame them
and take care of them and find homes for them.
And so, you know, you'll look at the book and it's sort of a ruse, it's got this kitten
on the front of it, but it's really a broader story about finding connection, and I found
connection through these cats to this community that I didn't really know before, because
I had been living in Manhattan, and so to take care of the kittens I had to come and
stay with my boyfriend in Union City, and so I was forced to connect to the community
on the block, and then little by little I realized that we needed a lot of help, and
so I was forced to connect with this whole group of cat rescuers that little by little
I got to know and who I, you know, sort of joke that they're my bowling league, because,
you know, we spend a lot of time together, we talk about our jobs, we talk about our
families, we talk about, you know, all these kittens we've suddenly found, and it just
really rooted me to this place, and then this kitten rescue project also forced me to connect
to another person, which was my husband, and so really it came down to how an unexpected
finding, you know, these three kittens in the backyard, made me reconsider a lot of things
in life, and made me feel like I finally had a connection where before I really hadn't
felt like I did.
So the three kittens were number three, two spot, and zero, and they were all named, they
were all beautifully cute little white kittens with spots on them, and so they were named
for their spots, or in zero's case lack spots, and so they all had these funny little personalities.
Number three was really brave, two spot was very shivery and very sweet, and zero wanted
nothing to do with us, but little by little he got to know us.
My favorite cat, however, was Una, that was the mother, and I never expected that we would
bring her in, she was a feral cat, lived outside, but one day I just couldn't stand the cold
winters in the northeast anymore and not being able to find her, and so I brought her in
that trickter into the house, and so now she's my cat, and she means the world to me, I love
her so much, and I think that that's something that all of us can relate to is how you have
this other being in your life who needs you, who, you know, responds to you so much and
who is always there for you, and that's how Una is for me.
She jumps up, she's still sort of a feral cat, but at the end of the day when I get
into bed she'll immediately jump up and come and lie next to me and, you know, want to
be petted, and that is just the world to me.
