June CATalysta: Sandy Robins

*A CATalysta is a person or an organization that celebrates and champions the cat.

Sandy Robins is a multi-media pet lifestyle specialist with a platform that ranges across print, digital, TV, radio and books. She has authored 4 books:

Fabulous Felines: Health and beauty Secrets for the Pampered Cat
For the Love of cats
The Original Cat Bible
And the latest – Making the Most of All Nine Lives: The Extraordinary Life of Buffy the Cat

This latest book is about an orange tabby named Buffy that is the ultimate copycat. Buffy prompted Sandy to realize how awesome tabbies are and, with the help of the Mayor’s Alliance for New York’s Animals, she established National Tabby Day, which is celebrated annually on April 30th and you can learn more about on our blog.

It is a day to celebrate and teach people about tabbies. In fact, many people still think tabbies are a breed of cat, and do not realize that it is actually a coat pattern.

The goal is for shelters around America and the world to celebrate National Tabby Day by holding adoption events. The publishers of Making the Most of All Nine Lives, Triumph Books, are offering shelters a special price to sell the book so that they can profit from their sales. Sandy and her team are also creating a special “adoptail” (cocktail) so that tabby lovers can celebrate their cats at home. She hopes National Tabby Day will be her legacy in the world.

Sandy has always been interested in animal welfare and comes from an experience of great animal compassion as her family was always rescuing strays. Spay and neutering was very limited in South Africa, where she grew up, and over pet population was a huge problem, especially in certain sectors of the population that didn’t, and still don’t, have respect for animals.

Sandy always wanted to be a veterinarian when growing up in South Africa, however, the only veterinary college at the time taught in her second language, Afrikaans, and that ruled her out as an eligible student. Instead, she studied Journalism, interior design and landscape gardening and worked in her holidays at different veterinary clinics. When she relocated to California in 2000, the humanization of the pet industry was in its infancy and Sandy saw a niche that incorporated all of her eclectic talents.

In her move to California with her family, they brought their three fur kids with them: Cali, Muffin, and Fudge. Unfortunately, anyone who has known the love of a dear pet has also known the loss of a dear pet, and Sandy is no exception. Cali passed away at age 19 in 2009 and Muffin passed away in 2006. Fudge passed away at the beginning of March this year at age 17.5, and she left a very bereft Ziggy, Sandy’s “American” adopted kitty who absolutely adored Fudge.  Now, Ziggy is gainfully employed testing Sandy’s product and loving his job. Sandy hopes to adopt again soon.

Sandy feels that over population is still a problem, and her ultimate goal is to make America a non-kill nation, be it a lofty one. She writes about this issue in the hope of continually educating people and hopes that she can contribute to achieving that goal for all.

 The other big problem she sees is the challenge in making people understand that pets are not disposable. Along with this goes the fact that people need to be educated that domestic pets cannot to left to fend for themselves when their humans leave for a holiday or any other occasion. Fortunately, there is ample research that pets are good for people. Sandy hopes this will help people change their views on animals and encourage them to give more animals a chance.

Sandy recognizes that the pet world often preaches to the converted, and urges us to look beyond this audience and convert the unconverted.