Dog lovers and BBC journalists celebrate International Cat Day, too

If you watched the series DogTown when it first aired on the National Geographic Channel, you might have glimpsed Michelle Logan in an episode or two. Michelle joined Best Friends back in 2006 and worked as a caregiver and manager in Dogtown for many years.

Today, she’s the director of our national shelter embed programming around the country, which now includes all of Best Friends’ community cat programs. To say that Michelle is an essential team member in our work to achieve our 2025 goal would be an understatement. But also noteworthy is the fact that this former Dogtown gal has become the ultimate community cat champion.

Yesterday, she officially welcomed a handsome young orange cat named Henry to her four-legged family. Although technically, Henry has been around for months. This little dude showed up in her yard during the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and made himself right at home. Coincidentally, he arrived the same week that Michelle started overseeing all of our cat lifesaving programs. Apparently, he thought she needed a mascot.

Michelle spent months doing due diligence, searching for previous families or homes where Henry might belong. She also moved mountains to find a local veterinarian who was equipped to safely examine and neuter him during stay-at-home orders, which was not easy to do. This was all fine with Henry, of course, because it gave him more time to win Michelle over and convince her he should stay. Now, he gets to share a decked-out garage-turned-catio with Michelle’s two other cats (former community cats who needed a new place to call home).

Here’s how she feels about her dapper new feline friend: “He does his own thing but also jumps right up on my lap when I’m hanging out on the patio, and he is always happy to get some love and attention. I still consider myself a dog person, but Henry is a total ‘dog-cat.’”

This Saturday is International Cat Day, the perfect excuse to celebrate Henry and all the other fabulous felines that make our world the beautiful place that it is. Oh, and let’s not forget that it’s also an excuse (as if we needed one) to get our kitten video fix — since it is, after all, kitten season, too.

“The Voice” of Best Friends kitten season this year is former BBC journalist Richard Fleming, who is currently with Denver-based Altitude TV and the play-by-play voice of the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. And this ridiculously perfect kitten conference-call moment with him is brought to us by Fresh Step, Best Friends’ official litter partner. It features Tuna and Fuji, two former foster kittens from Best Friends in Los Angeles who have since been adopted. I gotta say, I think Henry would be proud of the orange cat potential that Tuna is showing in the video.

Happy International Cat Day, everybody!

Oh, sorry … my cat Maggie would like to add that every day is International Cat Day. Point taken, Maggie.