#969B: When Sherri Franklin first rescued old dogs from the San Francisco city shelter and brought them to her own home, nobody wanted senor dogs. Now, two decades later, she is stepping down as the leader of Muttville, arguably the nation's most vibrant and successful rescue nonprofit for senior dogs, leaving behind 600 regular volunteers, 80 foster homes, thousands of oldster dogs happily adopted from its own cage-free campus, vibrant with senior humans hanging out in Cuddle Club along with visitors from around the world. 

#969A: Greger Larson, Director of the Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network of the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, tells the amazing true history of how cats found their way into human society in Egypt, where travelers making a pilgrimage to the tombs needed to present a mummified cat as an offering — so local entrepreneurs bred them on an island in the Nile in order to mummify them and sell them to the pilgrims.

#968B: Sindhoor Pangal in Bangalore India — anthrozoologist and author of "DOG KNOWS: Learning How to Learn From Dogs" — laments about the current crisis for the "streeties" — also called Free Living Dogs — who are facing wholesale extermination in a misguided bureaucratic legal attempt to control rabies by destroying millions of dogs who people care for and care about across the vast country of India.

#968A: Dr. Elsey started his company on behalf of cats, who cannot speak for themselves. He innovated litters to solve Out-of-Litter-Box problems and then created a revolutionary food called CleanProtein to meet their health and nutritional needs — a lifetime of work on behalf of the kitties.

#967B: Rebecca Van Laer's memoir “Cat” is a slim little book that speaks volumes about the life the author spent as a child feeling closer to cats than to humans and explores how her relationships with her cats have been the through line in her life.  She also shares her opinion that referring to a kitty as your “baby” does a disservice both to cats and human children.  

#967A: Tracie shares her awe and admiration for Dwayne Betts, who, as a result of being incarcerated as a teenager, discovered the power of reading in prison. He came out to become a lawyer and a published poet, founding Freedom Reads in 2020. The nonprofit has put custom made wooden libraries into over 560 prisons nationwide, transforming the lives of many prisoners. His pandemic puppy Taylor, a little Jack Russell Terrier, became Dwayne’s bridge to connect with people in his community with dogs being their common ground. Tune in to hear what Tracie discovers when she boldly proclaims her belief that Dwayne should win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. NOTE: Donations to Freedom Reads help finance his ongoing libraries, and purchases of his book of poetry Doggerel allow his publisher WW Norton to send the paperback edition to the libraries.

#966B: Dr. Lisa Radosta, one of the rare board certified veterinary animal behaviorists, discusses the issue of early spay/neuter and how it affects both physical and emotional development — and what is lost when a dog does not have the opportunity to fully grow mentally and physically.

#966A: Katya Lidsky, author of “Be Your Dog’s Best Friend: the Benefits of Mutual Bonding and Relationship Building,” discusses what we can learn from our bond with dogs to improve our interactions with humans.

#965B: Sy Montgomery’s fourth book about octopuses (yes, not “octopi!”) “Secrets of the Octopus,” is filled with stunning National Geographic photographs and brimming with anecdotes and scientific discoveries about the multitude of abilities and superior intelligence of these otherworldly creatures, who are having their moment in the sun. 

#965A: Melanie Kaplan wrote “Lab Dog: a Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research” after adopting Hammy, a Beagle “retired” from being a research subject. She wanted to find out how tens of thousands of Beagles were bred for often pointless and cruel experiments — done at University veterinary colleges, funded by US government agencies — and how all humans can contribute to reducing (eliminating?!) the use of dogs in research facilities.