Kathleen O’Malley, Director of Community Cat Education
Hi! I’m Kathleen and I joined Bideawee in 2019 when the Feral Cat Initiative (FCI) became part of the organization. As FCI’s Director of Community Cat Education, I teach and advocate for Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), the humane and effective approach to reducing and managing the population of community cats. I have been an animal welfare professional since 2013, when I left a career in medical editing to “work for cats.”
I have been practicing and promoting TNR since 2010, when one little “gateway cat” lured me into feeding a large feral cat colony near my home in Jersey City. I quickly set to work TNRing the entire colony and finding indoor homes for the “friendlies.” I went on to volunteer in several large grant-funded TNR efforts. I still volunteer with a local cat adoption group and also find time for gardening, crochet, drawing, and playing violin. My husband and I are the proud parents of four wonderful cats: Thor, Hela, and “foster failures” Jude and Luke, whom I rescued as colony kittens.