The Breakfast Club Cats will rescue your feline heart

From the neighborhoods in Essex and beyond, Alysia Witherington and Kim Shewell capture local cat colonies to spay, neuter and fix a new home and heart with their feline love via Breakfast Club Cats rescue, which Nestor learned about at Pizza John’s on “A Cup Of Soup Or Bowl” week. You’ll never regret welcoming a kitty into your life! Here’s your chance…

Nestor Aparicio discusses the Breakfast Club Cats rescue organization with Alysia Witherington and Kim Shewell. The nonprofit, based in Essex, has been operating for nearly a decade, focusing on rescuing, rehabilitating, and finding homes for stray and abandoned cats. They emphasize the importance of spaying and neutering to control the cat population. Alysia and Kim share their experiences, including the challenges of trapping and caring for feral cats. They also highlight their upcoming fundraiser on February 22 at McAvoy’s Sports Bar. Nestor, a cat lover, shares his personal stories and encourages listeners to adopt cats from Breakfast Club Cats.

• [ ] Schedule and perform humane trapping visits when contacted, then transport trapped cats to the clinic for spay/neuter, vaccination, microchipping, and return to colony or hold for adoption as appropriate
• [ ] Transport cats to a clinic and ensure they receive spay/neuter, vaccinations, disease testing, and microchipping before returning them or placing them for adoption
• [ ] Provide daily colony support: feed colonies, provide fresh water, and maintain warm shelters and outdoor enclosures for community cats
• [ ] Operate and manage the adoption process: maintain intake of kittens and cats, screen adopters via application and references, arrange meet-and-greets (in-person or FaceTime), and complete adoptions with health-cleared animals
• [ ] Host and organize the ‘Cats with Bands / Rock for the Rescue’ fundraiser at McAvoy’s on February 22 from 1–5 PM, including booking performers and promoting the event
• [ ] Manage cat data and microchip registration tracking, create a photo and data catalog for each cat, and integrate listings with third-party adoption platforms (getbuddy.com, Adopt-a-Pet, Petfinder)
• [ ] Hold meetings (planned for the upcoming weekend) to coordinate integration of shelter cat data with external adoption platforms and finalize workflow for a universal adoption listing

Breakfast Club Cats Introduction and Personal Stories

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the segment, mentioning his love for cats and the Breakfast Club Cats organization.
• Nestor shares his personal experience with cats, including his wife’s love for rescuing strays.
• Alysia Witherington and Kim Shewell are introduced as the founders of Breakfast Club Cats, a nonprofit organization in Essex.
• Alysia explains the organization’s mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and find homes for cats in the local area.

Breakfast Club Cats’ Operations and Community Impact

• Alysia and Kim discuss the organization’s history, starting almost 10 years ago, and the growing need for their services.
• The conversation highlights the numerous stray and abandoned cats in the area, many of which are sick or need medical attention.
• Nestor shares a personal story about his son and daughter-in-law finding a mama cat and her babies under a shed, and how Breakfast Club Cats helped them.
• Kim explains the process of trapping cats humanely and transporting them for spaying, neutering, microchipping, and vaccination.

Challenges and Successes in Cat Rescue

• Nestor and Kim discuss the challenges of trapping cats, including the stress it causes both the cats and the rescuers.
• Kim shares her experience with a particular cat that took two years to become friendly and now lives happily indoors.
• Nestor recounts his own experience of adopting a cat from Baltimore Humane Society and the emotional journey of bonding with his new pet.
• The conversation touches on the importance of spaying and neutering to control the cat population and prevent overpopulation.

Breakfast Club Cats’ Adoption Process and Community Support

• Kim outlines the adoption process, including the need for potential adopters to fill out an application and undergo a reference check.
• Alysia and Kim emphasize the importance of finding safe and loving homes for the cats they rescue.
• The conversation highlights the various ways people can support Breakfast Club Cats, including donations, volunteering, and attending fundraising events.
• Nestor shares his personal connection to the organization and his commitment to promoting their work.

Personal Stories and Emotional Connections

• Nestor shares a heartwarming story about adopting his current cat, who was a stray and had to be fixed before being adopted.
• The conversation explores the emotional bond between humans and their pets, and the impact of having a companion animal.
• Kim and Alysia discuss their own personal connections to their cats and the joy they bring to their lives.
• The segment concludes with a call to action for listeners to adopt cats from Breakfast Club Cats and support their mission.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Breakfast Club Cats, cat rescue, spay and neuter, feral cats, adoption process, medical attention, community cats, microchipping, vaccination, fundraiser, cat colonies, cat adoption, cat care, cat lovers, Baltimore community.

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SPEAKERS

Kim Shewell, Speaker 1, Alysia Witherington, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W N, S T, A of 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. This is a cup of soup or bowl and pizza. We’re pizza John’s and cheese steaks if we want and french fries and gravy, anything else I want, ham and cheese. It’s all brought to my friends at GBMC. We promoted them a little earlier the Maryland lottery a candy cane cash. We’re giving these out even the people who don’t save dogs, but save cats. And I happen to have a cat, so I’m really looking forward to this. We’ve had some big winners around here, but the cats are the big winner Breakfast Club cats. And I think I got the folks at Pappas sent you nice folks over to me, they rescue cats in the area, and I tell you, I put people on my calendar here, and I bring them out and I feed them pizza, and they’re quiet and they’re a little reserved. But I have a feeling when I get Alicia Witherington, Witherington and Kim Shull together, we’re gonna talk about cats your first thing first. You guys didn’t know what you’re getting into your pizza John’s, but you have a fellow cat lover here, just so you know, my wife came to me with cats. We are on our second cat. We love her immensely. I gave her a kiss and a hug goodbye. Today, she’s chasing birds in the snow and doing all that stuff. And every once in a while we see a stray cat, and my wife kind of freaks out and like, we got to rescue this. We got to rescue that cat. And you’re not the first two cat crazy cat people that I’ve met because I’m married to one of them, but saving cats and loving cats and loving animals, I love that. What’s the Breakfast Club? What is? What is Breakfast Club cats?

Alysia Witherington  01:30

Well, we are a small, little organization, nonprofit organization here in Essex. We’re local.

Nestor Aparicio  01:38

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Not your first time at Pizza John’s, I saw that. It is not you knew where everything was. That’s perfect milkshakes. I’ve never had a milkshake here you you’ve turned me on to it. I I see it over there. Now I’m gonna go get some but, but you’re Essex people. Yes, I am. How long have we been doing this? Almost 10 years, right? Nine years, correct? Okay, yes. Lot of cats around here, stray,

Alysia Witherington  01:58

too many, too many that are abandoned, sick, live on the streets, need to be fixed. You know, they need medical attention. It never ends.

Nestor Aparicio  02:08

Well, what can people do? Tell me the story, what you do when my wife sees a stray cat, she calls you what my I wish I would have known about you. At six weeks ago, right before it got cold, my son and his wife had a mama and two babies living under the shed. So this is in Colgate East Point, where I grew up, right across from the mall. And I had some folks up in Harford County, Chesapeake, so I reached to them, and the cats went away like they you know, they moved to a new home, so my son went out, didn’t know what to do about trapping them. He said they seem like they’re okay and they’re living and then he went out the next day after we called Cat people that we knew, and we couldn’t find the cats anymore. And this is before the winter. I find them to be resilient little animals, and they really are. And when I see them out on the lamb, I often wonder they’re probably they think they’re happy, right? But they’re proliferating, and I think that’s the problem, right?

Alysia Witherington  03:04

Make it too many, too many. If people would just get them fixed. You know, just get your cats fixed. There are many programs. Barker’s been telling me to do that my whole life, right? Spay and neuter. Spay and neuter. Yeah. So the

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Nestor Aparicio  03:18

roots of the organization, I want to welcome Kim in your organization, your organization, or both of you. How did this work?

Kim Shewell  03:24

I started it okay, and then we’ve been friends for a really long time. Actually, the board members, two of us, three of us used to work together, okay? And Alicia asked two of us if we would join the board. So we’ve been working with her endlessly, and for about two years now, I guess I’ve recently retired, and so I’m taking on more of a data management aspect, as far as tracking the cats, making sure the microchips are registered.

Nestor Aparicio  03:53

I don’t know any about this, so here we go. You’ve already you’re you. So my son finds cats under a shed in Dundalk. He reaches to you guys at breakfast club cats. What happens at that point when you call him back and he’s like, they’re here. I see him. I got pictures under they’re here right now. What do we do?

Alysia Witherington  04:10

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We’ll schedule time for me to come out and hopefully trap them at that time, I have traps, humane traps.

Nestor Aparicio  04:17

How does that work? Trapping a cat I’d love. I mean, I’m I can imagine it’s very stressful. I mean, we put my little girl in her little bag. Every couple months, she got to go to the vet, you know, we stroke her the right way and talk to her nice and work some treats. But she gets in that bag, and it’s the worst, right? I mean, I don’t go with my wife to the vet anymore because I don’t like to hear her scream. And Jen would say, she stops right when we get down to the beltway, and then she calms down, and then she’s distressed. And then Jen sends me a picture of her with doctors, you know, Dr Jill, and Dr Jill, and she gives a little blood, did all that. And then she comes home and she mellows out. But it is. It’s stressful as hell. It can be just getting the cat into the cat carrier. Ross, you know, stresses me out so much. It like my wife knows it stresses me out, because I love the cat that much. So how do you trap them?

Alysia Witherington  05:09

Well, I use humane traps. They can’t get hurt, okay, okay. They cannot hurt, I mean, unless they’re unhappy. But they get in there, they’re unhappy. As soon as I cover them up, they tend to calm down, right? Okay, and then I’ll transport them to clinic, get them spayed or neutered, microchip, vaccinated, and bring them back if they are untouchable, you know, if they’re like community cats, I return them if they’re friendly.

Nestor Aparicio  05:35

How old does that have to be for them to be? It depends you get the temperament, basically. Could this cat be feral? Or could we adopt it out? Could it become a home cat? Or, you know, I live out in the woods. I mean, I don’t want a Woods cat, because we got five, we got all sorts things out there that would be predatorial Koco’s. I mean, all sorts of things, right? But I think any cat out in the wild can’t be safe. But, I mean, I remember my wife and I were down in Nags Head, North Carolina, right after the plague. So is that summer 2020, we had a little hotel on the sand. I mean, things were just opening up. You remember we all had mask and all that we went down there. There was a colony of 50. And they were beautiful. They were little, they were big. They were my they were living behind a dumpster in North Carolina, 20 feet from the ocean. You know, there’s restaurants. I don’t know where they foraged or what. They probably killed all the birds, because they’re kind of famous for that, right? The birds on the ground Hawaii. They hate the feral cats in Hawaii because they’ve killed all the birds off, right? Because they’re they don’t know what to do with them. I don’t know what. When I see the colony, like once in my life I’ve seen that many cats, and I thought, wow, I guess that’s just like mountain cats at that point. I think in Essex is not like that. I mean, they’re really, they’re gonna get killed, right?

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Kim Shewell  06:51

I mean, there are colonies in Essex, and that’s one of the things Alicia does, is she supports this colonies. So tell me about the

Nestor Aparicio  06:57

colonies. Well,

Alysia Witherington  06:59

they’re everywhere, everywhere in Essex, everywhere, period. But I go every day, feed them, give them fresh water. They have houses out there, warm shelters for the winter. If any of them are friends,

Nestor Aparicio  07:12

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there’s nothing you do but a feral cat like you. As much as I want to it looks like my cat. It’s never going to be even that way, right, right?

Alysia Witherington  07:20

And we built a cadio, a big outdoor enclosure for my street cats that I’ve been feeding for years.

Nestor Aparicio  07:27

Cats do you have? Here we go. Kim, how many she have? Tell me

Kim Shewell  07:31

truth, we’re actually still counting. That’s what I was talking with her about earlier.

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Nestor Aparicio  07:35

Was the hundreds, dozen, dozens. Okay, yeah, but the good news is, when? So you bring them back, and you have medical attention that will spay them, right, or new to them. In the boy case, once that happens, the colony slows down, and you take, you take the kittens, correct? Yes. Now the kittens can be adopted out. Yes, yes. When you get a hold of a kitten, that’s gold, right? Because we can save that cat.

Alysia Witherington  08:01

We can that most of the time, save them. Yes, I would say this, and this is

Nestor Aparicio  08:05

full disclosure, by the way, we have the breakfast cats folks that I want to make sure I get pronunciations right here. Alicia Witherington, Kim Shull, correct. I get it right, all right. Breakfast Club, the cats is what we’re promoting here in a cup of Super Bowl where pizza John’s in Essex talking about cats, I think, you know domestic cat and a little kitty and whatever, we lost our cat and any you Ravens fans, remember the Ravens played the Wembley the London game, lost 55 to know whatever it was. We were in London for that game. We took a couple 100 listeners over to the game, and my wife and I went to Paris for a day and a half on the Chunnel and literally, the morning before we left with 200 guests, 200 people to go to London. Our cat took sick. She was hiding, doing all the things that you don’t want to have happen. I don’t talk about too much. I’ll get upset, but we took her to the hospital that day, and we had that. We had to. I had hundreds of 1000s of dollars involved with fans. We were at Dulles Airport, flying out with all of our people, and that we got a call, and my and they were afraid she wasn’t going to make it. And my wife was like, I have to go on this trip. I’m like, you can go back and be with the cat. We left. We got to Paris. Our cat died on Zoom. We were trashed, trashed for two days in Paris. Trashed all week, and we came home, there’s no cat. All the cat stuffs in the house. The Ravens lost all that stuff that happened. This is 2017 so we came home and we were just so devastated. You can go, you can Google it. I wrote at length about my cat, and it came home, and the next week in the Ravens played in Oakland. I couldn’t even my birthday. I couldn’t even go. I’m like, we were really despondent. So we we started. I became a cat nut. I went to Cat cafes trying to adopt a cat, find a connection. Went out to Baltimore humane, hung out for a day with some cats. There was a mom and son. We were thinking about, like, three and one, thinking about and I got out. There, and the connection didn’t happen. And I looked and there was a little cat in a cage, little like, smaller than my phone I can show you, but it’s this big, and she had a hoodie on, like a little little cone, because she had just been fixed. She was, like, eight weeks old, and we are pretty convinced that somebody like you saved our girl because our girl was a total stray, total in a cage, eight weeks old, this big, right? Some, and we don’t know the whole story, but somebody brought her in that was like you to Baltimore humane when she was tiny, and she is eight and a half now, and I’m going to break your heart with how beautiful she is, because you’re going to want her to but she’s Calico. So that’s my cat story is that I think my cat came from the streets. I mean, I know she came from the streets because she didn’t have a mother. She was in a rescue center Baltimore humane out of Nicodemus road. So love to those folks out there too, because they, you know, they’ve given us two cats that we love. Our first was a six year old, relinquished, what’s the word surrendered that they said somebody in the house to become allergic, and they had a different she was the greatest pet ever, but we lost her, but we’re our second cat together as a marriage, and we we love her, but, but I think so you, you would be one of the people that would come up with this little girl or a little boy and say, this is we’re taking this one. This one’s not going back to the column. Yeah, right. Yes.

Alysia Witherington  11:29

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We have quite a few big hearted humans in with,

Nestor Aparicio  11:34

with, with the kittens. Fill me in on that? Well,

Alysia Witherington  11:38

get a medical attention if needed. Get them fixed, get them shots, get them microchipped, find them homes.

Kim Shewell  11:45

So Alicia. Alicia maintains a kitty cottage, okay, which is full of kittens.

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Nestor Aparicio  11:49

So you will, you’ll bring the kittens home. Yes, all right, so you then domesticate the kittens, and then you want people out here to call you right now to adopt the cat right this minute. They sure can. Let’s go. That’s what we’re doing. Let’s go. That’s what I want to hear me some happy stories here.

Alysia Witherington  12:03

Oh my gosh. We have so many, so many great stories. Let’s think cats and it’s best to adopt in pairs. Just saying, Okay, I’ve heard that too. Yeah, they always have a friend when they’re little, you know. Okay, growing up, um, gosh, a lot of sad. I don’t

Nestor Aparicio  12:21

need another cat because 50 but, like, I would call you for a cat. How many cats you have right now?

Alysia Witherington  12:28

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I have about 14 that need homes.

Nestor Aparicio  12:31

Well, I’m gonna make at least the top one. So somebody out there better call her. All right. So, all right, let’s go adopt some cats here. What do we got to do

Alysia Witherington  12:40

to adopt a cat? Breakfast Club, cats.org you can go to the website, find me on Facebook. However, just message me.

Nestor Aparicio  12:50

You are literally getting tomorrow morning you see a kitten. Boom. Your kit is gone, right? So these colonies teach me about the colonies a little bit. In Essex, the

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Alysia Witherington  12:58

colonies are mostly abandoned cats that were left behind in a move or born on the street that never became friendly, you know, without that interaction with humans. So we just try to stop them from reproducing. Is the main thing to start with, all right?

Nestor Aparicio  13:15

And then if a cat will come to you, does that make it a little bit more accessible to maybe even being an indoor outdoor cat. Or have you seen happy situations where cats that were pretty feral become domesticated? Yes, at a period of time even older cats or no,

Alysia Witherington  13:36

yes, I have one at home. I have one at home. It took me two years to make friends with her. Two years, I went and sat with her every day before work for about an hour. Got closer and closer, and finally, she’s hanging in the house. Now, Yep, she’s as friendly as can be.

Nestor Aparicio  13:52

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So we adopted kitty, which was our cat that we adopted in 2000 and I guess it was about 2010 2011 that we adopted kitty. She came home with us, and my wife was number one, and she wouldn’t get on the bed for six months, and then got on the bed. Then after she got on the bed, she got in the middle of the bed, then she got in the middle of the bed, then she became my cat and her cat. So there was definitely a period of time, but man, I haven’t told this story in a long time. I hope we can tell about that crying, because I haven’t cried all week. It’s Thursday. I cried 13 times the first time I did cup of Super Bowl. I’ve welled up for this week, but I haven’t cried yet, so I’m not gonna cry. So we went. My wife really wanted a cat, right? So it was a hardship in our relationship. It’s something that was missing for she want kids, and it just weren’t a cat. So I like traveling. We had been to Bora. Bora, we’ve been Australia, with New Zealand. We’ve been all over the world, and having a cat becomes especially last week when it was snowing bad and iced over. I kept thinking like this would be problematic if the kids up the street couldn’t feed our cat, because you couldn’t even get to our house right during the snow last week. So I guess 15 years. Ago, my wife wanted a cat, and I finally, you know, she was emotional about I said, we’re gonna get a cat. She’s like, you don’t mean it. I’d like, of course, we mean it. So we went out to Baltimore humane, we videoed the whole experience, and did all that shout out to Johnny Rollo, yeah. Well, I grew up with Johnny. I mean, Johnny. I played little league baseball, John and I did the Holy Trinity. I played little league with Johnny. I play football with Johnny and I carried the cross and the altar boys with Johnny up, Our Lady of fat. So Johnny and I went at it, you know, all three. So, you know, he had been adopting the cats and did it on television, and I hit him. We did a radio segment about it back then, because I wasn’t doing video, making you all nervous then. So we went out to Nicodemus road, and my wife wanted a cat, and I’ll be I didn’t want a cat. I wanted my wife to be happy, right? Like, literally, you never be. Knew that, right? And I didn’t hate cats, and I don’t have any fear of cats. I kind of wanted more to claw than clawed. If it came that way, our girl was declawed. I would never do that, but she had missing front claws. But she was domesticated. She came home, she was the greatest cat that ever was, but we were in a room not dissimilar to the size of this room. Is a big room, big empty room they took us into was like a greeting room, right? You know about this stuff. They took us into a greeting room at Baltimore humane, and this was the first cat we brought in. My wife was my wife was on match.com for cats. For years, she would look at cat. She had me watching Cesar Millan every Saturday morning, right? Like, literally, this is in 2000 789, 10. So we went out to Nicodemus road, and she had her eye on this cat named Bree. Kind of a porn star name, I thought, but b, r, e, e, Bree was the name they gave the cat. So we pulled Brie out, first cat, first cat that we went to see this cat. You know how that goes, right? People are took the cat in the back, put the cat down. My wife sat where Kim is sitting. I sat here. We were little chairs like this, and we sat down. The cat wandered around, and there were windows, and the cat went to one, window, two, window, three, window and came over. Looked at my wife looked at me, laid between my legs, rolled onto her back, chose you, and I went like this, no offense. Went like this. She looked up at me, and I’m like, we’re taking this cat. So we took that cat in 20 seconds. I don’t know. I mean, like, literally was 20 seconds. We went home with that cat, and I will cry over that cat right now. That’s a bunch of love cats. So the second cat, that cat died. The second cat was in this cage with a little cone on right little maybe you rescued the cat. I don’t know. Where do you do your cats? When you rescue, they don’t go anywhere. You’re the one that adopts. They stay with me, always with you. Make sure we get that clear. Tell people how they can call you’re fine. You’re right

Alysia Witherington  17:40

now. Breakfast Club cats.org,

Nestor Aparicio  17:43

with a C, not a K, yes, B, C, C, correct. Baltimore community college. So we’re a mess. Our cat’s dead. 13 days she died. 13 days. We came over for a weekend, my birthday week, October, 2017 second weekend. We were convinced. We were thinking we were going to take two cats. We went out. It just, we went into the same room. It just wasn’t, I wanted a perfect I’m married to this cat, right? So I’m going, you know, this cat’s a this cat’s ride or die for me, right? We saw this little girl, and I looked. It was far across the room, and my reading glasses already now I looked and her legs looked like our other cat, because she was Calico, and I saw her little legs, and I said, I want to go see that cat. That cat wasn’t here an hour ago. They’re like, we just put her on the floor if you want her, she’s a kitten. She’s gonna be gone. That’s the way it works. It’s sad, it’s awful, but that’s the way it works. And you’re gonna be mad at me because I took a kitten instead of three cats, and instead of three cats. And please don’t, because

Alysia Witherington  18:46

I got the right cat. No guilt, that’s

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Nestor Aparicio  18:49

so I went over, well, you when I tell you the story, you’re gonna know what’s up. So went over and this little cat, I mean, and I’ll show you the picture of the day we got her. She was this big, and she had a cone on her head. And they’re like, she got a cone on her head because she got fixed. I’m like, All right, this cat looks like the cat that I just had to die. We need to look at this cat. My cat was diluted Calico. This one’s just more straight. Girls picked her up, she sat in the palm of my hands, and I looked at her, and she came out from the cone, and she kissed me on the nose. That was it. She lit the first I held her like this. She looked at me. She licked me on the nose. I busted out. We’re taking this cat, my wife’s like a kitten. And I’m like, hold on, here’s what we’re gonna do. And this is such a this is selfish. I say, give me a pointer. I need a pointer for this cat. So I got a red dot, because my other cat loved red dots. And I got the red dot, and they took the cone off of her head, and she wobbled, and they were afraid that she had some sort of disease, like a neurological whatever. And. And it just turned out she was wobbly because of the cone to cone was heavy. Orange. She was cone was bigger. She was she was this big. The cone was this big, right? So she kisses me on the nose. She walked around, and I had to point her out. She followed the pointer. And I’m like, there’s nothing wrong with this cat. We’re taking this cat. No, can’t take her today. Come back. You know, we got to check you out. They even called My they called my references. Oh yeah, they should, yes, but they did. They call my references like, you don’t know who I am. So we came back on Monday and picked her up, took her home, nice, and we stopped to get all of the things we needed to get for her, because we were broken hearted, but we were happy. And she sat in my lap the whole way home, and she never moved. She sat right here, this big we have all pictures of all this, and we got her home, and the minute we got her home, she became my wife’s cat. So, you know I mean, they do what they do. You know what I mean, when she loves me,

Alysia Witherington  20:55

but she works that day,

Nestor Aparicio  20:59

I am totally

Kim Shewell  21:00

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number. Mommy’s girl, yes.

Nestor Aparicio  21:02

So tell me how you got involved. Kim, you must love cats too.

Kim Shewell  21:04

Um, yes, I have. I’ve actually got two right now. I’ve got a 17 year old that was a barn cat that I rescued from the beach. And I also have a another rescue that popped up across the street from my house about two and a half years ago, who is a 22 pound

Nestor Aparicio  21:19

small dog, main coon like tabby. He’s huge,

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Kim Shewell  21:24

and I currently have in my house another one that I caught last week. I live in Timonium, but people leave cats everywhere. I’ve got three that I feed all the time. The one I caught the other day is a kitten. Well, she’s small. She’s about one. They think she’ll be spay tomorrow. She gonna be okay at home, then she’s going to Alicia’s all right so I can it disrupts my household to have them for two

Nestor Aparicio  21:48

that would be why I wouldn’t come and take three years today. Yes, my girl is so happy. Yes, yeah, she’s just so happy, and we’re so happy with her. And you know, to be up 57 and I have a full disclosure, I don’t travel as much as I used to travel. There’s just part of it. I feel kind of guilty when I leave her and my wife and I, I have a companion pass on Southwest Airlines, and my wife and I wouldn’t dare run off to Hawaii for 12 days right now, because we just like baby, wouldn’t leave her for 12 days right now. I’ve been all over the world. I’m cool for a while, and my wife wants to go to Italy with her father and her sister. And I’m like, You go. I’ll stay home. My wife goes and spends time with her family in New Hampshire. People think it’s weird. They’re like, so your wife goes to New Hampshire for a couple weeks. I’m like, her sister’s there, everybody’s there, and I got the cat. I don’t want to go up there. It’s cold as hell up there. I don’t I’m good. I get the cat. So the cat is my, like, companion, especially my wife goes away, I become number one, and then I send pictures of my wife. I’m like, she’s on my lap. She slept on my chest. And then my wife comes home. Sen, she Wilson, I got a gig that I do. This is I’m admitting a lot here about my cats, by the way, Breakfast Club cats, Essex, Maryland. We’re here pizza John’s all courtesy of our friends at the Maryland lottery. By the way, you guys are getting lottery tickets here. So the closet candy cane cash, our friends at GBMC, as well as our newest sponsor, Farnan and Dermer right here. H back, their sponsor, and everything Luke’s doing for sports, and all of our stuff there too.

Alysia Witherington  23:18

So we are having a music fundraiser. It’s live. Tell me what it is. Let’s promote. Let’s go live music from one to five every year. I do it at mcavoy’s Sports Bar on putty Hill Avenue. We have been there. We have the best of the best playing music. I have

Nestor Aparicio  23:33

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one of the great nights of my young life there at mcavoy’s. Did you know this? No, well, I’ll tell the story because you’re taught by mcavoy’s. When is your date? Give me the whole

Alysia Witherington  23:42

thing, it’s February 22 soon. Yeah, February cats with bands rock and roll every year. Dennis shock it intention, and we have the edge. And Mike Brill heart is our host.

Nestor Aparicio  23:55

Brill heart, Dundalk, yes. What’s up? Dude? That’s my boy. So bro, heart’s involved

Alysia Witherington  24:00

in every year he hosts the events. If you get two

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Nestor Aparicio  24:04

guys from Dundalk to go to Parkville for an Essex event,

Alysia Witherington  24:08

come up, come up, bring your wife. I’ll make brill.

Nestor Aparicio  24:11

Heart sing the Dundalk high alma mater, because I know he knows it. I’ve only known broheart since like 82

Alysia Witherington  24:17

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hearts, my boy. He’s a wonderful man and supporter. He’s great,

Nestor Aparicio  24:21

all right. Well, bro, hard, you’re better guy than I thought you were. How about that? You know? So, so I do want to help you that I took the on Sanders to putty hill station, okay, yeah, we did the show there. So I brought time to the stage. There was a big fundraiser there over the weekend as well. You guys do some great stuff over there. Yeah, sure, yes, rock and roll over there. Johnny Allen got him shook his ass on Saturday or Sunday, three o’clock. Yeah, two days of like, it was a big thing this past week.

Alysia Witherington  24:51

It was insane. Yes, Sunday, all day 10, surreal.

Nestor Aparicio  24:56

There you go. Yeah, name it all the bands. Yes, I live. Live in the area, so I know all that. Right, so this is my dirty little trick that I’ve pulled with my kitty cat. About 15 years ago, before we even had cats, my wife would take me up to New Hampshire for Christmas every year, which sounds like I’m dreaming now, instead, it’s just cold. It’s what it was here last week. So it was always cold. There. I was cold from the minute I landed to the minute I left. And her sister bought one year as a surprise to me, it was weird, because they slept on this pull out cash. She brought me a heated mattress cover. They’re awesome. So, I mean, once I discovered that I’m like, as long as I don’t die in it in flames, because it, you know, freaked me out. As long as it’s safe, I can put that on. So we brought it home. I’m on my third one, and it’s in the bed. And this is my dirty little trick. I put that sucker on too. On a cold night, she sleeps right between my legs every and my wife’s like post menopausal, you know, I don’t you know where you are, but she’s always hot, so her bed’s never on, my bed’s always on, like two dots, and the cat likes me, and a cat won’t leave between me, and I get my arms under the cat, and it feels like she’s on fire. So that’s the only way I can get my cat to hang with me, is cheat. You know, I mean, right? Cats like to be warm and fuzzy and happy, right? They do? Yes. What’s your favorite cats? Give me some stories here about your cats. My favorite cats, the one you adopt tomorrow, probably, probably, how many of you, you’ve had hundreds of cats, right? Oh yeah, yes. How many of you adopted out?

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Speaker 1  26:36

I can’t. I could. She’s right. We’re trying to figure it out. A couple years of data right now, do

Nestor Aparicio  26:44

people bring them back to you

Alysia Witherington  26:45

sometime twice? You prefer that? I would. I would. It’s in the contract. It’s a requirement.

Nestor Aparicio  26:50

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Well, tell me about Okay, so I told you when I went out. I mean, you give me contracts requirements. It’s like when they checked out my references, when I got my cat the second time. I’m not offended, but we’ll be doing that too. All right, so tell me, I do it now. Yeah. So somebody calls, what happens? They come over and visit you and visit your 14 cats, right?

Alysia Witherington  27:07

They come and visit, they fill an adoption application. I go through their references, you know, before any cat leaves, unless I really know you. But, yeah, but um, check me out. Get to know. I just, I just want to make sure they’re going to a safe and loving home. You know, we put a lot of work into getting these cats healthy, and

Nestor Aparicio  27:28

now, are they in cages where they live with you, or in sequester? You know, I again, I would bring five of them home and feed them and love them and stay home with I think they’d freak my girl out and territorial and like I see the deer fighting over the corn my wife leaves for so, I mean, you know, I just from a getting a long standpoint and making sure they’re not harming each other. I’m sure you’ve had to break up cats, right? I mean, well,

Alysia Witherington  27:54

I don’t let them run in Gen pop, is what I call it, until they’re tested, you know, tested for any diseases and and then let them get to know each other through the crate. And once they’re good, I let them out and keep an eye on them for a while. And if they do, great.

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Nestor Aparicio  28:09

So if I come over to your place right now, they’re they’re hanging out. They’re loose. They’re loose all of like a cat cafe. Yes, you have a little like I’ve been in those I’ve been in those in Korea. I’ve been in those in Japan. They love kitty cats in Asia. I think you know that. Hello Kitty. So we, you know, my wife and I run around Seoul, Korea. It was five degrees cat cafe. Let’s go in there. We’ll get a coffee, right? So we were, like, literally hanging out with cats in Korea. And when I was in adoption mode, I was a little bit of a, you know, I love cats. I, you know, I love everything about her so, but I don’t know that I need a two or three or four, but now that I know about you, I can send people to you. So yes, how does this work? They call you. What happens?

Alysia Witherington  28:48

We schedule a time for them to come over. You have pictures of them on the website.

Nestor Aparicio  28:52

Okay, yeah, all that. All right, so people can pre meet them, yeah, that way. Okay, we

Alysia Witherington  28:56

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can figure that out too, if they wanted to do FaceTime or something, but it’s better to come and meet them and see who you connect with is, well, that’s what you have to do, sure. Yeah, so that’s what I recommend, and then we move forward from there. But they’re all fixed, everything, vaccinated, microchip, disease tested before any of them leave. They’re healthy. I hope

Nestor Aparicio  29:18

to not need to adopt the cat, because it would be a need to adopt a cat anytime soon, but I’ll call you, please. I will do tell everybody how to call you, how to

Alysia Witherington  29:25

find you Breakfast Club cats.org, or find us on Facebook.

Nestor Aparicio  29:32

That’s pretty much we have Bel Air, wherever anybody is, they come down.

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Alysia Witherington  29:36

Yes, yes. I’ve had people come from Bowie, from further out, yeah,

Kim Shewell  29:41

and we are in the process of currently, I’ve got cat data on everybody in their pictures. I’m working with get buddy.com and adopt a pet and pet finder. Soon, everything that Alicia has listed on the website, I have meetings this weekend, something like a universal cat adoption sort of place, as soon as we enter one cat Facebook. Go match.com for cats, absolutely. And every cat that we get when we initially get it, it is taken to the vet. It’s tested for all the normal feline diseases. It’s given its right rabies vaccine and the FE and I never get this right FERP, which is the influenza, and two other I’m sorry,

Nestor Aparicio  30:21

adoptable cats. I gotta just click on the right button here. Look at this. We got tat that one looks like my girl. Hold on, you got Koco’s Over there? What do you got going on? Caramel, one year old female, Clifton, two to three year old male, he looks cute. Dora looks a little bit like novel my girl. Frap, five month old, female kitten. Sister pancake, girly two year old, female Gracie four month Oh, look at that, which is great. Little tuxedo thing going on there. Griffin, one year old, male mozzarella pizza. John’s only mozzarella. One year, eight months old, female pancake. Four month old. Oh, look at pancake. Look at those eyes. Pretty girl is seven month old. Female pumpkin and spice duo, four month old kids. Look at those, brother and sister.

Kim Shewell  31:17

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Those are bonded, and people have to understand too. There’s going to be sets of cats sometimes that have to be adopted together. Well, don’t

Nestor Aparicio  31:24

make any exceptions. Well, make them, make them go out together. So they’re at Sasha’s here, sherbert’s here, Sophia is here. Willow. Look at Willow.

Alysia Witherington  31:33

Look at that face. She’s something else. Willow.

Nestor Aparicio  31:36

Which one’s your favorite? Be honest with me, I love them all. I love them all. And whichever one I would love you be happy to unLove it or give it away, right? It’s gonna crush you, right? Or no, is

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Alysia Witherington  31:47

it good? Sometimes it depends. Some depends on the cat. Yeah, I love them all, and I’m sad when they leave, but some of them grab your heart.

Nestor Aparicio  31:55

Which one’s the sweetest one that would kiss my nose?

Alysia Witherington  31:58

The sweetest one? Mozzarella. That’s

Nestor Aparicio  32:01

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it. So that’ll be the next one. Next one. We’re

Alysia Witherington  32:03

gonna mozzarella or pumpkin and spice. Yes, see you ask

Nestor Aparicio  32:07

and you find out here, absolutely. Alicia’s here, Kim’s here. There were Breakfast Club cats. I want to encourage everybody go out. We’re in Essex. They’re in Essex. They will come to you. And the next time that my son finds cats under a shed in Dundalk. Call me. You’re gonna be on the friggin bat phone. And it more for his, for his wife, for Aubrey, too. But they look they they have, they adopted a kitty cat. Don’t know exactly where they got her, but she had that six Paul thing going on. Yeah, she’s got that weird old thing going on. And she loves me when I’m over there. She gets all, you know, into uncle nest and like all that. So I guess I’m a grandfather, right? Yes, yeah.

Alysia Witherington  32:48

Don’t make me grandpa. Don’t do that to me.

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Nestor Aparicio  32:51

I’m not doing all that. All right. Help these folks out. Adopt their cats. They’re beautiful. It’s all brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery. GBMC sent to this out here. I have candy cane cash. We’re pizza John’s in Essex. Then leave anything out when Give me your rock and roll. Night again,

Alysia Witherington  33:03

rock and roll. Day is a rock for the rescue. It’s February 22 it’s from one to 5pm

Nestor Aparicio  33:11

I’m taking a picture for Pearl Hart. There you go. I said that to him. Let me get the crazy cat lady investors over here

Alysia Witherington  33:18

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at mcavoy’s. So

Nestor Aparicio  33:19

calls to action are, come out, give some money, come out, adopt the cat. And if you find a cat, where do you go? Somebody says, I got a cat calling in here for it. I’m making that up. Where there are a lot of people to do what you do, maybe not as well as you do it in this neighborhood. But where do Where should people call if they’re in Westminster, I’m gonna

Alysia Witherington  33:39

say, and if somebody does call me or contact me about it, I can try and get them in touch with the right people. You got a community, you got a network, yeah, but Essex Rosedale, Dundalk, okay, I’m happy you know to go.

Nestor Aparicio  33:52

I know people in Essex Rosedale and Dundalk, so even Parkville, Middle River, but I’m not gonna give that away. All right, we’ll step out. We’ll take a break. My thanks to you guys. Keep Thank you. Got cat hair all over you. Lord knows if this is sunshine, I don’t know which one Kim, did I get everything in you did all right. My thanks to Kim Shull. My thanks. Alicia with rington,

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Alysia Witherington  34:14

thank you everybody. I get that right. All right. Alicia Witherington, all right. Well, I want

Nestor Aparicio  34:18

to get the pronunciation right. Come see them. Come see some rock and roll next month and find them out at breakfast club cats. PCC, always makes you think of Baltimore community college. I went to DCC though Dundalk community nice, that’s they don’t call it that anymore. They call it CCPC, so your BCC, yes, together. Back for more from Essex for pizza, John, stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive. If.