Camp Maddie: Kitten Edition

Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM PT

Prepare for Kitten Season with expert guidance!

Camp Maddie is back and this time it’s all about the kittens! This half-day session on Tuesday, March 4, 2025 from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM PT is designed to equip participants with essential skills and knowledge to tackle the challenges of the upcoming kitten season, which is expected to be particularly demanding. Most kittens in the US are born to free-roaming community cats. With shelters already stretched thin, this event will provide critical insights from industry experts to help organizations scale up their responses to meet the needs of more vulnerable kittens in their communities. Learn from national professionals Dr. Julie Levy, Marnie Russ, Monica Tarant, and Tabitha Kucera.

Topics will include:

- The role of community cat programs in saving kittens 

- Developing kitten foster programs that are effective, safe, and fun

- Medical protocols tailored for kitten care in shelters and rescues

- Behavior and socialization protocols for raising confident, friendly kittens 

Join us for this invaluable opportunity to learn from the best in the field and ensure you are prepared to make a difference in the lives of more kittens this season!

This event includes an opportunity for more time with the presenters at a follow-up live question and answer session on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM PT. This will provide time for your team to catch up on any sessions they may have missed from the first day, to browse the extensive collection of supporting documents, protocols, and forms, and to bring forward any remaining questions and obstacles encountered in enhancing your kitten programs.

Agenda - March 4, 2025

9am PT

Community cat programs are the cornerstone of feline lifesaving, but what happens when we come across kittens? How do they integrate into the broader community cat framework, ensuring fast yet responsible action for orphaned, socialized, or unsocialized kittens? This session will explore the critical decisions around returning or admitting kittens, and the unique challenges they pose, offering key insights for running a successful, kitten-inclusive community cat program to assure the right outcome for every cat.

10am PT

Kittens are exceptionally vulnerable in the first months of life. Many kittens born outdoors are underweight, sick, or injured by the time they are discovered or may develop disease after they enter a sheltered environment. This session will dive into the Shelter Medicine protocols developed for preventive health care, surgery, and response to disease that often differ from those used in private veterinary practice. Topics will include vaccination, spay/neuter, and infectious diseases including upper respiratory infection, FeLV, panleukopenia, and FIP.

11am PT

Kitten College: Small Program, Huge Impact - this 45-minute presentation discusses the programmatic development of the Kitten College Programs in shelters across the country. Shelter and rescue staff as well as administrators are best suited to attend this presentation. Structure, foster recruitment, ongoing support and resource saving tips are covered.

12pm PT

This lecture offers a thorough exploration of kitten socialization, addressing common misconceptions and providing actionable strategies for fostering lifelong learning behaviors. Attendees will gain insights into effective socialization techniques through practical examples applicable in diverse environments such as foster homes, shelters, and veterinary settings. By arming participants with both practical strategies and an understanding of kitten development, this lecture aims to empower individuals to create optimal socialization experiences for kittens, ultimately contributing to their long-term health and well-being.

Meet Our Guest Speakers

Learn more about our Camp Maddie: Kitten guest speakers!

Monica Tarant, Chief Innovation Officer at Give Them Ten

Monica Tarant is the Chief Innovation Officer at Give Them Ten and is helping organizations create the most humane city in the country for cats.

A decade before anyone had heard of such a thing, she cut her teeth founding a trap-neuter-return organization in rural Illinois and pioneered one of the nation's first, and largest, working cat programs. In 2012, she joined Austin Pets Alive! where she led her team to an 88 percent growth in cat adoptions and helped Austin achieve a citywide 98 percent live release rate for cats. Monica then spent years as an instructor for the Maddie’s Fund Lifesaving Academy teaching shelters best practices and innovative lifesaving programs, advancing research in feline retroviruses, and progressing public policy as a City of Austin Animal Advisory Commissioner.
Monica is a frequent speaker and advisor on innovative ways to save every cat, including cats with feline leukemia, community cats, and shelter cats in need of medical care.

Speaker for sessions titled, "Navigating the Kitten Quandary in Community Cat Programs"

Visit Monica Tarant's Profile on Maddie's Pet Forum

Dr. Julie Levy, Fran Marino Endowed Distinguished Professor of Shelter Medicine Education at University of Florida

Dr. Julie Levy is the Fran Marino Endowed Distinguished Professor of Shelter Medicine Education at the University of Florida, where she focuses on the health and welfare of animals in shelters, feline infectious diseases, and humane alternatives for cat population control. She founded Operation Catnip, a community cat trap-neuter-return program that has spayed, neutered, and vaccinated more than 80,000 cats in Gainesville since 1998. A decade later, she joined Dr. Cynda Crawford to launch Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine. This educational and discovery initiative has a global impact on the care of homeless animals and served as the academic home for development of the Fear Free Shelters program. She later teamed up with Dr. Kate Hurley to start the Million Cat Challenge, a shelter-based campaign that saved more than 5 million cats in shelters across North America and then Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge to create transformative “communities of practice” that deliver access to care through humane community-centric programming—inside and outside of the shelter—to achieve the right outcome for every pet.

Speaker for session titled, "Medical Protocols Tailored for Kitten Care in Shelters and Rescues"

Visit Dr. Julie Levy's Profile on Maddie's Pet Forum

Marnie Russ, Founder at National Kitten College

Marnie developed the Kitten College at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington in Arlington, VA. The first kitten nursery of its kind, Arlington went from saving 92 kittens a year in 2016 to almost 1600 kittens in 2023 all while maintaining a 98% live release rate.

Marnie has been fostering neonatal kittens for over two decades, specializing in criticalcare neonates and high-risk nursing/expectant queens.

Marnie is a recognized expert on caring for at-risk kittens. She is co-founder of the National Kitten Coalition and speaks nationally on many subjects including At-Risk Neonatal Kittens, Taking the Fear Out of Bottle Feeding and Shelter/Rescue Program Development. Her advice and expertise is sought from shelters and rescues across the country.

In 2023, Marnie assisted UC Davis and the University of Wisconsin to update their neonatal kitten guidelines for mass distribution.

Marnie is a seasoned animal advocate who has partnered with all major animal welfare organizations, foundations and shelter medicine programs.

Marnie’s practices have been implemented all over the world to help maximize resources while saving neonatal kittens.

In June of 2024, National Kitten College became a 501(C)3 with Marnie at the helm.

Marnie sits on multiple Boards for spay/neuter organizations throughout the county including Fox Hollow Animal Project in Montana and Caring Hands Animal Support and Education – International Advocacy. She annually travels to third world countries assisting in international spay/neuter projects to help impact the lives of street animals in underserved areas.

Speaker for session titled, "Kitten College: Small Program, Huge Impact"

Visit Marnie Russ's Profile on Maddie's Pet Forum

Tabitha Kucera, Owner at Chirrups and Chatter Cat and Dog Behavior Consulting and Training

Tabitha Kucera is an Elite Fear Free and Low-Stress Handling Certified Registered Veterinary Technician, Veterinary Technician Specialist (Behavior), Certified Cat Behavior Consultant, and Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner.

She is the owner of Chirrups and Chatter Cat and Dog Behavior Consulting and Training and serves as the animal behavior technician at The Gentle Vet in Ohio. Tabitha lectures nationally and internationally, helping audiences build stronger connections with animals through a deeper understanding of behavior.

Tabitha has held leadership roles with the Society of Veterinary Behavior Technicians, the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, and the Pet Professional Guild's Cat Committee. She also served as a behavior consultant and mentor for the Cat Pawsitive Pro program for six years.

In addition, Tabitha works closely with animal welfare and veterinary organizations, including veterinary hospitals and animal shelters, to develop and implement training and behavior programs. She is a Fear Free certified speaker and coach, a Fear Free Practice Certification Consultant, and the host of the podcast Tails from a Vet Tech.

Speaker for session titled, "Pawsitive Beginnings: Socializing Kittens for a Lifetime of Success"

Visit Tabitha Kucera's Profile on Maddie's Pet Forum

Camp Maddie: Kitten Edition