You Can Help Jackson Galaxy to Help Homeless Cats

Cat postcards in The Pet Postcard Project fall into categories, such as Cat Confessions, above.

Jackson Galaxy, host of Animal Planet’s My Cat From Hell, is campaigning for homeless cats this summer. Starting last month, and continuing through July, Galaxy has worked to promote the Pet Postcard Project to get cat food to homeless cats in cat shelters.

With Galaxy’s help, two cat shelters will each receive 5,000 cat food donations, and one “winning” cat shelter will be awarded a total of 10,000 cat food donations.

“Having worked in the shelter system for so many years, I know exactly how many meals that is,” Galaxy said. “Being from the trenches, I know how hard you work for that.”

The Pet Postcard Project connects pet food companies with animal rescues and shelters. Nikki Moustaki created the project in 2007 to get dog food into shelters; cats became part of the program in the summer of 2010. People send in postcards decorated with dogs and cats, and dog or cat food companies agree to pledge a certain amount of food per postcard — one “meal,” one pound of food or more.

The two cat shelters beneficiaries for June and July are the Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary and The Cat House on the Kings. The cat food donations are provided by Freekibble.com in partnership with Halo.

“The cat people have really stepped it up,” Moustaki said. “People are really responding to Jackson, and what he’s trying to do. This is the first-ever cat one. I do get some cat cards, but obviously some people give cat cards.”

The campaign includes a bit of healthy competition. Each cat shelter will receive 5,000 donations, but the shelter that receives the most postcards voting for it will receive an additional 5,000 cat food donations. With 15,000 cat food donations going to homeless cats, Galaxy says "everyone wins."

“Once you’ve been on the other side of it, you know what it’s like,” Galaxy said. “I worked in a shelter for nine years. Then I worked to design adoption areas for bigger shelters. Making life tolerable for shelter cats, it’s not easy. My whole philosophy works around providing a safe territory for cats. [In a shelter] your territory is sterilized from day to day. You can’t establish anything. Stress leads to sickness, to unadoptability and euthanasia.”

The Pet Postcard Project has helped pets in the past, and will benefit these cat charities now and possibly in the future. With the influx of cat-themed postcards coming to Moustaki, it's evident that the public reaction is strong.

“I didn’t know what would happen, actually, so it’s been really cool,” Moustaki said. “People will send in about 50 postcards at a time. And of course cats are really cute. The cards are really funny and I could look at this all day.”

For more information, and to participate in the Pet Postcard Project, click here.