Exciting Changes Ahead: A New Chapter for Our Pet Podcast

Amy Castro (00:02.318)
Today is a big day on Starlight Pet Talk and we have big news for you. We're going to be announcing a new name for the show. We're going to tell you about new format changes and everything that we're doing and why. So that this can be the very best show for all of you out there listening who love your pets and want to give them the very best care and live your very best lives together. So stay tuned.

Amy Castro (00:24.302)
Hi everybody, welcome to the Starlight Pet Talk podcast. You were expecting to see Amy Castro, weren't you? Well, today it's me, Bev Brooks, her bestie from up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. We have a special episode today because we are talking about change. Big change. Big change, which not all of us are very good at doing. So Amy is going to explain to us today what changes to be expecting that she's been teasing us for a number of episodes that changes are coming.

So today we're gonna spill the beans and talk about the big changes that are coming our way. Amy, would you care to share what the big changes are going to be? Well, yes, and I have been teasing it because I know humans don't like change, just like cats don't like change. And so I figured I would warm you all up if you've been paying attention. I mean, some of it's been fairly obvious, right? I've had some little teasers that changes are coming and then I gave you a date.

to be prepared, which is the date that you're probably listening to this, assuming you're listening on the air date. And then you might've seen some color changes in some of the graphics and in our, yeah, like the show covers and things like that. So hopefully the hints have been dropping so this won't be a big old slap in your head. Freaking Change is very difficult for sure, yeah. It is, but change is a good thing. Well, it can be a bad thing, it can be a good thing.

I'm guessing that you're aiming for good. I'm aiming for good. Yeah. Because I don't like change much more than anybody else. And I generally only do it if I feel pretty solid, because I'm not a huge risk taker. If I feel pretty solid that the change is the right thing, and I'm getting that vibe from the universe that change is the right thing, then I'm going to go for it. Knowing you, who researches stuff to the minutia, I'm guessing this is going to go very well. I hope so.

I hope so. As long as the change doesn't scare off all the people that I've already got listening at this point. That's my, that's my only thing, but I don't think it will cause I don't, I mean, it'll still be me. It'll still be great content. It'll still be down to earth stuff. We're just, making a few little tweaks to maybe draw more people in. All right. Who knows. So what's the first change you want to talk about? So, well, let's talk about the why I want to make a change at all. Instead of just leaving things status quo.

Amy Castro (02:48.728)
But everyone wants to know what's the big, big, change? The big have to wait. You have to wait. I'm waiting for the reveal. Trying to All right, all right. Why are we doing this? Why are we torturing ourselves with change? OK, so we're doing this. So, and Bev and I were talking about this in the green room before we got started. That's what all the big podcasters say. I'm actually in the guest room, but it's not green. But anyway, so.

When I decided to start the podcast, I hemmed and hawed and hemmed and hawed and went through all kinds of lists of names and things like that as to what are we going to call this podcast. And one of my goals was to tie it to Starlight Outreach and Rescue because the original intent of the show, it was to be an education arm or an education branch, whatever you want to call it, of Starlight Outreach and Rescue because I spent a lot of time

on the phone with people, sending emails back and forth, educating them about caring for their pets. A lot of times it's people who are considering surrendering their pets to our rescue. And rather than me just saying, nope, we're full or yes, we'll take your pet off your hands. I always want to know why, why, what's going on? Why are you considering giving up your pet? And then I want to provide solutions or provide resources for you. And I can do that. You know, my original thought when I thought, I should do try doing a podcast is that I can do that through

however many phone calls I take during the week and emails I send out, or I can do that exponentially by addressing those common issues that pet parents, pet owners face every single day beyond the people that call me, the people that you don't even hear from. And so that's where the podcast was born. And it just seemed like a natural offshoot to call it Starlight Pet Talk, to keep that connection to the podcast.

So that was where the original name came from. Well, that makes complete sense. But over the course of time, you have discovered that maybe not so much. Why don't we talk about that? Why the name of the podcast really wasn't the best fit? Yeah, so anytime somebody asked me about the podcast or I told them I had a podcast, I would say, yes, I have a pet podcast. It's called Starlight Pet Talk and it's called That Because. So just for anybody who's ever considering starting anything that would require coming up with a name,

Amy Castro (05:07.67)
If you have to immediately explain the name of your business or your whatever it is, I called my car this because, but mostly it's in business, that's generally not a good thing because that means the name can't stand on its own. It's not going to be immediately evident to people what it's about or it could be causing confusion. And in the business world, a confused buyer doesn't buy. So a confused podcast listener may not listen. And so,

The name Starlight Pet Talk required explanation and I discovered after the fact that it did cause confusion about what people thought the show was about. Having said that, it was still very successful. What percentage are you top podcasts? Definitely in the top 25%. I'm trying to inch toward 10. That's amazing. That's crazy. That just blows me away. It's amazing how you can pull off.

sorry. No, I mean, like, you're not a Hollywood star or something. You're my friend. Like, my God, she's in the top 25%. Like, that's crazy. Crazy to me. having said that, are a superstar. But having said that, even with the issue with the name, still you had this, this big success of it. So why would you want to mess with that? Well, for a couple of reasons, you know, part of it, like I said, was the confusion. I mean, I did get a lot of people that would come back and say, is it about

Pets in the afterlife, like we're speaking to the stars where our pets are, or is it about pet astrology or pet communication? Because people just didn't really get the starlight if they weren't coming from the rescue as a way to, yeah, I follow this rescue. look, they've got a podcast too, I'm gonna follow that. Those people didn't need explanation, but the rest of the universe, I probably got really lucky that people stumbled on it, bothered to click on that tiny little piece of artwork.

And then look at what it was about and realize, okay, that makes sense. So that's, that's part of it. just to provide some clarity. And then the other thing is I want to distance the podcast from the rescue because I feel like there are things that I can do and say when I'm just being Amy Castro with Amy Castro's pet podcast that I wouldn't necessarily be able to say as

Amy Castro (07:29.474)
the president of Starlight Outreach and Rescue in their official podcast. You'd be kind of be like anybody that's listening. It's a big difference between having your own podcast. And if you are running your company podcast, you can't do and say the same things. You can't express a lot of your personal opinions about things. You maybe can't be as direct as you might want to be. And I'm a pretty, pretty direct person. And I just think it'll just give me, it'll give me more flexibility and we'll still talk about rescue stuff. And we always have, but.

I want to be able to expand out a little bit further and maybe dig a little bit deeper with guests. So that's another big reason for the change. So the mission is still going to be staying the same, you would say. Like it's still going to be talking about, I hope it stays the same as far as like pet education and advocacy. Every time I listen to your podcast, I thought I knew it all and I learned something new because of the guests that you have on. So is that going to change a whole lot? Are you going to have the same type of

and the same kind of learning structure? Yeah, I mean, think the goal for all of the episodes will still be providing useful information to pet parents. There you go. That'll be the big thing. I think what it will be is it'll be less structured, more conversational. I feel like I kind of took this somewhat, well, and it really literally was a formula that I have. I mean, if you go back and you listen to the episodes, it's very much a teaser, the music.

the intro of the guest and then five questions, they answer the five questions, I say, thank you very much and off we go. And that's fine. But I have found that some of the more conversational episodes, for example, the episode that I did recently on rescue reboot, where I talked to a fellow rescuer and she's also, her name is Diah Floyd. If you didn't listen to that episode, go back and listen to it. it was...

Yes, we had a, I'm not going to make this a free for all so that it sounds like some crazy disorganized conversation, but it was much more of a conversation. It flowed much better. know I enjoyed listening to it more than I have some of the other episodes because it did get down and get honest in some things that might not have come out in a high level. know, here are the five steps to do X, Y, Z. So I'm hoping to get a little bit more of that and to have people walk away with more.

Amy Castro (09:49.003)
more realistic expectations and more realistic content for what real life with pets is. I think over the past two years of doing the podcast, we have hit a lot of important issues, but I think there's also a lot of issues, like even just the ones that I deal with around my house. I've got a cat that likes to pee on my kitchen counters. Who doesn't? Yeah, well, that's the thing.

You'd think if you look out there in the world of pets, everybody's pet is picture perfect. They don't puke, they don't piss, they don't have diarrhea and they don't pee on the counters. And this is why I don't bring things to potlucks. No, I'm just kidding. But, but yeah, I mean, it's like, maybe we need to talk about the fact that my cat is peeing on the counters and what am I doing wrong to make that happen? You know, because, and what have I done to investigate the solution rather than just kind of pretending those kinds of things? I mean, we have done something we did one on litter box issues, but you know, even then

I think really getting down into some of the nitty gritty things that people don't want to talk about. And then I also want to get listeners more involved too. Like you tell me what you want to know about. I've somewhat, I wouldn't say I've exhausted my list of topics, but when I started Starlight Pet Talk, I started with a list of 100 topics based on all of the things that had come up doing rescue and people wanting to surrender their pets and my personal issues with pets. And that's how I kind of.

rounded out the first two years of the show, because we're coming up on the hundredth episode. So the first episode of the new year will probably be episode 100. I think that's about how the numbers fall out. So that's a lot. That's a lot of content. And yes, we could go back and we could repeat the same common denominators, but I'm hoping that listeners will dig deep and say, this is something that I really need to learn more about. I could, because I guarantee if you're struggling with something with your pet, then there's at least

a dozen other, if not a hundred or a thousand other people around the world, because we have listeners around the world that are probably struggling with that issue too. And maybe it's not being tackled somewhere else and we're going to tackle it we're going to be honest about it. And we're going to find experts who know how to resolve those issues. Do you think some of the previous guests that you've had will come back and get nitty gritty? Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. There's a few that I can think of. mean, I was going over the list of my

Amy Castro (12:06.592)
you know, top favorite ones. And there's people that I'd love to hear either more from, you know, going down a different branch of whatever they were talking about or the same topic, but just, you know, like you said, getting down and dirty and they would probably enjoy it too. Yeah, I think so. You know, just being, you know, it's, I think sometimes people get intimidated. I mean, I was intimidated when I first started doing this. know guests can be intimidated and you're not knowing what to expect. it,

you know, it's like, what questions are you gonna ask me? there's, so I've always provided the questions in advance because I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable. But at the same time, when I provide the questions in advance, then it just gives you more time to structure and to maybe not be as spontaneous. And so, and you know, the other thing I was just thinking, it just kind of popped in my head, another good reason for doing it this way is that,

I have a bad habit, so as a professional speaker, if somebody says, can you come and talk to my group about conflict resolution? And we've got a three hour window. I try to pack as much into those three hours as I possibly can. it's a mistake, I think, in a lot of instances. It's like sometimes you might be better off just taking one thing and drilling down deep into it and letting people experience it, letting them practice it, whatever it might be.

than to try to give somebody like 15 tips for this, maybe three tips is good enough for somebody to get started and really explain those tips and why they work and how you implement them and just be able to give more detail on things. So I'm hoping that'll come out of these conversations is that we go into it with a smaller agenda, but get bigger content out of it. As you were saying that, I was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be cool if you had a speaking engagement like that or this podcast to ask questions of the listeners and

go that way instead of like, have one hour to do this podcast on litter box. Well, let's ask the listeners, what about the litter box? Have them be more engaged. Is that part of what you hope to accomplish in the new avenue that you're pursuing? Yeah, definitely. think audience engagement is kind of a key to a good podcast, but getting it is a little bit tricky. It's like,

Amy Castro (14:13.63)
It's not a two-way communication. It's not like the audience is on air live with me while I'm recording it. And yes, I'm active on social media and we get interaction, but when I look at downloads and listening, and then you look at the social media interaction, it doesn't mesh up anywhere near the numbers. And so it's like, do people not know where my Facebook page is? Or do they not know where, you know, I tend to hang out just so everybody knows, even if you're not a Facebook person.

Facebook is my primary comfort zone. We do post stuff on formerly Twitter now called X and we do post stuff on Instagram, but I'm gonna be posting more things with the expectation that I'm gonna be getting some input from you. So I want those questions. I want those concerns and that, you what do you wanna see on the show? It's your show. Whatever it is that's coming out of my mouth on that show, I already know. So I don't need to do it just to hear my mouth run.

I want to serve a need and fill a gap that you might have. So you need to tell me what it is. It sounds like the confidence that you got from the beginning of Starlight has given you a lot of momentum into getting into this new podcast. In other words, you're willing to take those risks and get down and dirty with these other not so structured conversations. Have a guest come on and just have a chat about it. And I think that comes with being a salty dog that you are.

No, that's, that is a really good point because you know, you, you're in the beginning, you're so afraid. because all you want to do is get somebody to listen. Like the worst thing that you think could possibly happen is I put a podcast episode out and only two people listen to it. And was like, and what people don't, what you're not thinking about is the fact is it takes a long time to build up listenership and for people to discover your podcast amongst the 9 million others of the same. Like I never, I never realized.

when I started this podcast, it was probably good that I didn't. How many pet podcasts there were out there? There's several hundred in varying degrees. I some of them are really, really low key and small, and some of them are big, nationally syndicated, like a radio show level that has big backing by big media companies and everything in between. But I think that's the beauty of podcasting is that anybody can do it, but not everybody can do it well. And that's what I had to figure out.

Amy Castro (16:35.274)
How do I do it well? And then how do I now make it more mine, my own, make it more like me, that kind of thing. right. Is this unusual to do? Starlight Pet Talk is like, we're talking fifth gear. You're cruising along really well. And now at mid flight, you want to change things. Do other podcasters do the same thing? Is this something that happens? Yeah. I mean, I think, yes, it is something that happens. I think it's something that you don't do lightly for sure.

You know, just something as simple as changing the name. Now you've got to change the website address. Now you've got to redirect the old website. Now you've got to redo all of your artwork. Do you go back and re-record all your other episodes? I mean, you would never do that, but it's like, you know, every previous episode is going to refer to Starlight Pet Talk. How do you, how do you deal with that? Is that okay? Do you just let it fly? And so there's a lot of, a lot of pieces, especially when you've gone in almost a hundred episodes on a show. At the same time,

just like we all know, right? Like change can be bad, but change can also be a good thing and explode all kinds of other opportunities. And I'm hoping that this particular change, and for me personally, it's a good time to make the change for a lot of reasons. And also being that it's the end of the year, so we're basically coming up on our, and this is a big mistake I made. I made the whole first year a season. Other people don't do that. Other people make little seasons, just like the way TV shows are these days, right? You watch a season.

Right? Season of something is eight or 10 episodes. And it's like, it's not the entire year. And then another season starts and there's a gap in between. And that's where people have time to regroup and set a theme for a season or whatever it is that they want to do. And I've never done that. I've just kind of kept plowing along. And then I take a little break over the holidays and then I would start up again. And it's like, that's a lot. that something you're going to revisit? Do think you might try that? I think I still want to be putting something out every week because I think there's something to be said with

consistency, consistency for me sticking with it and consistency from a listener standpoint that there's always something new and I don't have to wait, because we're like instant gratification, right? But I think I might change up some of the episodes. Like one of my big goals with the new show is to do a lot less editing, which means I need to get a lot better at talking. Because we spent...

Amy Castro (18:58.668)
You know, I've got my girl Cassidy Matlock is my podcast editor and she does a great job. Sometimes she's pulling her hair out. And then even after she's already put in the time and effort to edit it before the episode airs, I listened to the whole thing. And then I start nitpicking myself or I want to, I don't want the guests to look bad. So I take out something that they say, or I take out a couple of their ums and it, takes up hours to do that. And I think, you know, yeah, it comes across as polished, but then people get this.

delusional thought that that's really how the conversation went and it wasn't it was a hot mess that I just fixed up afterwards so you know that's a really good point we were talking before this about the episode where we drove Bonnie from Texas up to New York State the dog and and that was it was fun it was really fun for me too because I get nervous you mean you're a pretty intimidating person my god even though you're my bestie but you know you're gonna be on you're gonna be on the computer you're gonna be talking people are gonna

listen to you and you have a little bit of a platform. So you want it to go, you want it to go well. But that was fun. That episode was a lot more fun than something a little more structured. So I get that. get that. Well, it had had a, except for the fact so people, people don't know people. I'm going to, I'm going to rat us out. So people don't realize that my original attempt with that episode was we were just going to air it. That how the conversation went, because it was pretty much.

you know, anything that's organized is gonna be organized in some form or fashion, right? You're either gonna have five topics you're gonna talk about, or you're gonna do like a trip. Logically, you're probably gonna do that chronologically, right? The first day, the second day, the third day, whatever. We couldn't even keep our damn days straight. We had ourselves in a state ahead, and then backtracking to another state. like, wait a minute, we weren't in Tennessee. We were here first. So I had to go back and move those chunks around. But you know what, in hindsight, who cares? Who cares if it was left unpolished, you know?

Well, but people would have thought we would drove all over the place and backtracked. All kind of confusion. Listeners, you're not that stupid. I get it. You understand. I totally get it. Anyway, we're going to leave it alone a little bit more. Well, that's good. That's good. So having said that, what is going to be the change that everyone has been waiting for all this time? you mean the name? Can we talk about the survey? Can we talk about the survey? I know you're still bitter. Don't be a bitter old hag.

Amy Castro (21:24.172)
Just get over it. Yeah. So in thinking about changing the name, I put out a survey. I asked listeners to give input. I asked friends on my social media to give input. I asked professional podcasters to give input. And I even had a company that I hired to help with other aspects of the podcast, but they got involved in the whole rebranding thing.

started with this long list of possible names and it was shocking people how many names were already taken by something or somebody else. Like there is no original thought in this world, I think. Just when you think you've got a name, nobody could have possibly thought about, you find that there's a book called that exact title, you know, and you can't infringe on somebody's copyright. Anyway, so after all the whittling, whittling down, it came down to two titles, one that was pretty darn straightforward. And that was, what was it again?

was it straight forward? was called straight up pet talk. Straight up pet talk. So that was, that was definitely one of the top two contenders. And then the second one, which was my, what I thought was a very spontaneous thing I came up with, which was muddy paws and hair balls. And see, you know, you like that one better. It is cute. I won't deny you that it is cute. It's just, I get tongue tied.

Well, you don't have to say it. You just have to listen to it. Good point. Unless you're hosting the show later on, because folks, that is the name of the new show. It's gonna be called Muddy Paws and Hairballs. Muddy Paws and Hairballs. Yes. I think it's adorable. Yeah. It's a little risky, but I think anybody that has pets, when you hear that title, you're gonna know exactly, like it's not about high fashion dog wear, right?

It's not about a specific breed of dog. It's not about communicating with your pet. It's about muddy paws and hair balls, the stuff that we deal with every single day that's the real life with real pets. So what is it really like and what are some real solutions for the problems that we face and the things that we don't want to talk about at the dinner parties. When you were trying to figure out names for the new name for the podcast, did you come across stuff that completely made sense to you or some that were just

Amy Castro (23:51.474)
not a good fit for the content versus the name. Like, you know what I mean?

You talking about like in looking at what other people's podcasts were called? Or are you talking about just generating? Either, either. Yeah. Well, you know, when I, when I first started Starlight Pet Talk, obviously I went out and did a Google search on what are the top pet podcasts. And it's very interesting if you do that exact Google search, you know, what are the top pet podcasts? There are many pet podcasts that are very, very straightforward. mean, it's like, I would love to be the person who, and I don't even know if there really truly is one that these exact words, but like,

the dog training podcast, you know? That's pretty straightforward. Great to be the first guy or gal. You think it's boring? Yeah. Okay. So, but there is, you know, and that's the thing, you take that risk. It's not sexy, but at the same time, a person who is going along, looking at these, you know, either a list of podcasts or these tiny little smaller than a postage stamp pieces of cover art, they know without thinking what that podcast is gonna be about.

Now you take another podcast like this podcast has fleas. I love it. love it. It's like, know, it's going to be about pets, but you don't necessarily know. Like, it about really, are you going to take it? Do you take it literally or do you take it as real life with pets and you got to dig down a little bit. So it's a little bit riskier, but that's one of the top pet podcasts. There's other ones that are clever and obvious tank talk. I thought that was a great podcast about, about fish. And so the.

accepted wisdom is to make it as clear as possible what your podcast is about. But I couldn't do that. And to be honest, Straight Up Pet Talk, there already is a podcast called Straight Up Dog Talk. And yeah, one could argue it's not the exact same words, but why get so close to somebody else's podcast name, especially if it's an established ongoing podcast? If it was one, somebody abandoned, because the funny thing about podcasts is when you look at some of the ones, like even if you look at what other

Amy Castro (25:54.412)
top pet podcast and you click on one, it could be that podcast is still going or it just started, but it also could be something that they haven't recorded in an episode since 2018. Because it's kind of like, and this is getting very old school. So if you're young, you're not gonna care about this analogy, but for those who don't really kind of understand how the whole podcast thing works, it's kind of like you wrote a book, it's on a bookshelf in a library. And if you stop writing books, those books are still there.

So unless you for some reason decided to delete and take down your entire podcast, which would be silly, why would you do that? It's gonna live out there forever. And so trying to find something that doesn't step on somebody's toes or sound too close to this or is too broad and vague or too specific and boring, it was kind of tricky. I feel I've gotten a lot of good feedback on the muddy paws, especially from people who know about podcasting, which gives me a little more courage to go forward and use it.

And I think the cover art, which we'll put up on the video for those who are watching YouTube, or everyone else is gonna see it anyway, right after this, you know, once this episode airs. But it's pretty cute. it, and that may evolve as well, but the color scheme, the reds, the yellows, I mean, that will, that will kind of stay the same. It's bold, it pops out to you. So hopefully it'll be attention grabbing and get some new people on board to listen to the show. When are we physically going to see some of the differences, you know, after this podcast or?

Yeah, pretty much once this podcast airs, which it's going to be airing at 1 a.m. Central time on December 17th. So probably almost by the time somebody has even listened to it, all of the graphics and things will either have already been changed or I will be doing it that day and just switching everything over. It's possible I'll wait. I don't know. I'm still thinking about that a little bit because we still have one more true Starlight Pet Talk episode to do.

But I don't know, what do you think? What do you think is the best way to do it? Should I just roll it all out with this episode and then go forward or hang on to it a little bit until after the live year-end wrap that we do and then launch it afterwards? think you have to have everything at the ready. I think once the podcast gets, once this gets released, then I would just like blast it out there. Fire it out. Okay. I agree. Yeah. I think this is a idea. everyone's going to get a chance to say,

Amy Castro (28:19.628)
All right, so what is it now? And I do want to continue listening, but it's no longer Starlight, okay. So what is it now? think, I just hope everyone comes with you. I really do. This is great. Well, and I think from the listener's standpoint, other than the fact that it's gonna look and feel a little different, you shouldn't have to do anything to make it happen. Because the feed, the RSS feed,

that sends the podcast out to wherever you listen to it, whether you're listening to it on my webs. Don't get me to lie in with RSS, hold on. you gotta Google it, you don't even know? What is it? No, I don't. I don't remember what it stands for. I know what it is and I know what it does. RSS stand for, let's see what chat GPT says. Really simple syndication. No.

Yeah. Yeah, it basically is the, it's the code that goes out to Apple and goes out to Spotify and goes out elsewhere that basically carries over the audio files, the episode titles and everything. So I'm going to change it on my end. The feed will stay the same. You shouldn't have to change anything on your end. It'll just suddenly all be all right. Muddy paws and hair balls instead of starlight pet talk. And all the old episodes will remain.

The only thing that will be done to those is I'm gonna record a little, and I'm thinking about how to do this too, because the idea that I had for doing this is probably not gonna work. Because my cheap and easy way is to record a little audio that says, hey, you're gonna hear us refer to Starlight Pet Talk, but that was our old name, our new name is this blah, blah. I have this little thing. But if I do that through Buzzsprout, which is my platform where the podcast lives, then.

you kind of do it and it does it to everything, including anything new, which then it wouldn't make sense at all. So I probably will have to go back and record that audio and put it on the beginning of every single episode and re-upload the hundred episodes. So that may take a little while, but we'll get it done. When you asked me, when you were talking about this with me about changing the name and I'm like, Lord girl, you are just creating more work for yourself. But after listening to your reasoning, I'm like,

Amy Castro (30:38.688)
This is the right thing to do. I think it's going to be a good thing. Yeah. think the thing that hit home for me was when you said you have to explain your brand. I'm like, that's, yeah, it makes so much sense if you went from the website to the podcast, that makes complete sense. But if you're scrolling, it makes no sense at all. So this is a really good change and you're doing all the work. You and Cassidy and Kelsey are doing all the work. mean, it's just- No, not even Kelsey. It's just me and Cass. Really? Kelsey, what up?

I haven't dragged Kelsey. I haven't dragged poor Kelsey into it. She's got, she's got her own, she's got her own paid job. She stopped working for me when I stopped paying her. Wow. Yeah. Very fickle. She doesn't like to work for free. Smart girl. Yeah, she is. She is smart. So in wrapping up, if you had to describe this podcast in one sentence, what would it be?

Amy Castro (31:37.632)
Real talk for real pet people. Yeah, the stick to it people. The people get up at five in the morning and ride their 10 speed bicycle down to the barn to feed the horse. Yeah, those people. Or people like crazy people like you who your damn cat wakes you up every morning. Right. And if anyone's watching locking him in the basement. If anyone's watching this on YouTube, you can see behind me over my shoulder. This black thing is one of those giant hamster wheels that you can put the cat on it and.

burn some energy. yeah, he gets his own, he gets two heating pads, he gets a giant hamster wheel, he gets to go outside with a harness and leash. Yeah, he's a superstar. She lets him go out and murder wildlife, so. Shhhh!

Amy Castro (32:23.724)
He's real hunting. He's a real hunter cat. He is. He chases deer and turkeys too. This cat's crazy. We did a whole episode on that crazy cat. you're totally screwing up your microphone doing that. He did it, not me. Hi, Emi. He looks evil. is evil. He's a hunter, because he's a hunter. He's a hunter killer. So anyway. All right.

Is that all we got? I think that's all we got. Well, Bev, thank you for being the guest host and taking the lead on this conversation today. I had some help. She had a little help, but no, I appreciate it. And I'm really excited about it. I'm excited to make the change. I'm excited to make that split so that I can keep my two little worlds separate there. And just so people know, too. So you've got this episode that's airing on the 17th. Bev and I are going to do a

It'll be live on social media. I know, it'll be fine. You'll be okay. Or maybe we won't do it. Maybe we'll chicken out and not do it. We can record it. But either We want to do it live.

Yeah, we'll see. but anyway, there will probably be one more year end wrap up episode to basically, Bev and I will talk about our favorite episodes of the 2024 year. And then we will do some, we'll probably, then what we'll do is to kind of get us all through the holidays is replay with a little bit of editorial at the beginning. Those, a couple of those favorite episodes and that'll get us into the new year and

then we'll be ready to launch Muddy Paws and Hairballs. I've already got the first episode recorded. my goodness. Of Muddy Paws and Hairballs. Do you want to know what it's going to be about? I would love to know what the topic is going to be. So I have a feline behavior expert coming on. You hear that, Cousy? Yeah. And her name is Leanna Bias. And she is a professionally trained, working in the field, feline behavior expert. And we're going to talk about...

Amy Castro (34:31.712)
the nightmare that is traveling with cats. I'm not kidding. For real? For real. For traveling, okay. my. Well, we focused a lot on moving with cats. Okay. Like how does one make a move with cats and not make them crazy? Cause that's one of the number one reasons I get called from people who are trying to surrender their cats is because they're moving. And on one hand,

A lot of times people get really judgy about that and they're like, that's not an excuse. Where are you moving that you can't take your cats? Well, I'm thinking about moving and I'm thinking about moving with my cats and thinking about how stressed out they get when they go in the car. And even if it's across town or if it's across the country, it's a challenge. know, cats, like we said, cats don't like change. So we did a whole episode on moving slash traveling with cats and how we can ease that anxiety for them and for us.

and make it safe, safe, safe in the process. I have to say when you first started doing the rescue and we're talking about, think this was after my previous cat had died and you wanted to, it was Pickles. You wanted to give me Pickles, the cat. Pickles McPickleson. That's how long ago it was. And we're talking about transporting and like, had no idea, literally no idea that you could put a cat on a plane and things that you can do to help it along the way. No clue. So it's been.

an experience for me too, but I think this is gonna be really interesting for people that are in that predicament. They wanna do right by the cat. And I would imagine you're gonna do one about dogs too. mean. Well, we have done one about traveling with dogs. We did an episode with somebody who basically lived in an RV with her dog for like two years. Yes, I remember that one. That was one of my favorite ones, yeah. Yeah, but we could certainly revisit it. We could certainly revisit it. But I think there are...

more challenges with cats just because you can't put your cat on a leash and take it outside the RV or outside the car to go potty. I would say there's different challenges with a cat. It's the stress and the change and with a dog, it's the risk of it getting away from you in a strange area. I think there's equally horrible things that can happen along the way. So these are, sure, gonna be really good tips that we can all use. Rock on, I think that's gonna be great. Yeah, so it's gonna be a good one. So that'll be our first.

Amy Castro (36:49.864)
official episode to kick off the new year. So I'm super excited about it. I hope everybody that's listening will be excited with me and stick with us as we make this transition. you know, the whole goal is to make this whole show better for everybody, better, you know, better for everybody listening, more helpful, get you more involved and make it our show, not just my show. That's my goal. That's what I want. So again, thank you, Bev.

for being here and being my guest host today. And thank you to everybody for listening to another episode of.

Starlight Pet Talk slash muddy paws and hairballs. We will see you soon. We're really excited about the changes coming to the show and we hope you'll love what's ahead. Stay tuned for the launch date of season three. Be sure to subscribe to our email list on our website so that you don't miss any updates or sneak peeks. And thanks again for being part of this journey. We look forward to continuing to share stories, insights, and laughs with you.

And until next time, keep your paws clean, your hearts full, and your homes happy. We'll see you soon on Muddy Paws and Hairballs.