Optimizing Your Pet's Nutrition for a Long, Happy Life - with Kat Donatello, Founder, Austin and Kat

In this episode, Amy talks about pet nutrition and supplements with Kat Donatello, Founder of Austin and Kat. They discuss the journey of Austin and Kat from Kat's kitchen in Maine to a nationwide company in Seattle. They also explore how pet parents can enhance their pet's nutrition affordably with items from their fridge, common pet health issues, the importance of early nutrition, CBD myths, and more.

Shoutouts in this episode:
Austin and Kat
SuperZoo
Global Pet Expo

Transcript

Optimizing Your Pet's Nutrition for a Long, Happy Life - with Kat Donatello, Founder, Austin and Kat

Amy Castro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, Amy Castro, and today we're going to be talking about nutrition and supplements to keep your pets happy and healthy. Although there are a lot of great pet foods available to us today, there's probably no food that's going to meet every single need that your specific pet.

Might have, and this is where supplements come in. Our special guest today is Kat Donatello. And Kat is the founder of Austin and Kat, with over 15 years as an athlete and business leader in the endurance sport industry, Kat set out in 2014 to create a holistic and all-natural product that would help her dogs with their health there, wellbeing, and the various ailments they had.

Amy Castro: What started out as a project in her home kitchen in Maine. Experimenting with different recipes and CBD B oils to create a wellness biscuit for her pets. It quickly blossomed into a national business that was not only helping her animals but her friends. And quickly, [00:01:00] those of us in the public, so Austin and Cat can be found in retail stores, in vet clinics, and some boarding and training facilities across the country.

These products have helped thousands of pets across the country live their very best lives. So, thank you so much, Kat, for being here with us today.

Kat Donatello: to be here and I'm excited to chat with.

Amy Castro: Okay, great. Um, uh, just in case you got cut off a little bit there, can you say that one more time?

Kat Donatello: excited to be here, Amy, and thanks for having me, um, here to chat with you.

Amy Castro: Okay. All right. Sounds great. So, I have to be honest, when I first heard about Austin and Cat, I thought it was a pet food company. What is it really?

Kat Donatello:  Well, first off, I'm obviously Kat and Austin are my dog. He is, um,

Amy Castro: Yes,

Kat Donatello: old black lab

Amy Castro: Okay.

Kat Donatello: part of that original experiment back in 2014. But Austin and Cat today is [00:02:00] a wellness, brand. We create wellness supplements for both dogs and cats, and they're things that you can incorporate into your pet's.

, already hopefully well-balanced diet, but a lot of, the things that we produce, and create at our own, uh, facility in Seattle. help, your bowl become even more beneficial, especially as our pets age. Our pets have various ailments, and are maybe nutritionally deficient in certain things.

Amy Castro: And that, that actually leads me to my next question. So, when you started the, the business was Austin, having. Some particular issues or were you kind of looking at it from a preventative standpoint?

Kat Donatello: Actually, Austin wasn't the impetus for the brand. Uh, I had a dog named Brady who was an older dog.

Amy Castro: Oh, okay.

Okay.

Kat Donatello: the symptoms that many of our older dogs do. They kind of lose focus. they're not as engaged with the family. A lot of them are dealing with pain and [00:03:00] inflammation, those older joints., and our dog, Brady was suffering with a lot of those types of ailments. thing. Became so important to me was as an athlete, and you mentioned that earlier, I was giving myself, a very holistic lifestyle. So, I was eating really healthy, eating organic, eating gluten free., and the things that I would talk to my veterinarian about, always ended up in, well, we can put him on this type of medication. And it just didn't make sense to me if I was treated. My own body in a very holistic way that why those same things couldn't be, given to our pets, you know, holistic, all natural, things that would improve their lives and not have the, unnecessary side effects that unfortunately, medications can, um, give dogs and cats.

Amy Castro: That's, that's a good point. I think people have [00:04:00] become much more aware about the. Especially long-term impacts of medication. even, if not for themselves, but certainly for their human children. But maybe don't think about it so much with the, when it comes to their, it comes to their pets that they could be facing those same types of issues.

Um, so, you were talking about the quality of your bowl. Why, you know, why. It sounds like a dumb question, but I want to hear it from your perspective. Why is nutrition so important for our pets? And, and the reason I asked that is I had a golden retriever named Chester when I was in my junior high school and going into college years and, I know for a fact that, I won't name the brand, but I, it was a, a, a low-level grocery store food brand that this dog got fed and he managed to live a pretty long life.

I mean, he lived to be 13, 14 years old. But, so, you know, one might say, or my mother might have said, if I'd gone back and said, hey, you need to feed a higher quality food, or you need to feed., [00:05:00] you know, add these additional supplements. Well, Chester lived to be 13, 14 and he ate garbage, kind of thing. Why is nutrition so important?

How, how would you argue against that, I guess?

Kat Donatello: of anything really. I mean, if you think about the kinds of meals that we ate as kids, we all had TV

Amy Castro: Hmm.

Kat Donatello: right? I mean, that was kind of one of the exciting things you'd get and peel back the tinfoil, like

Amy Castro: Oh yeah.

Kat Donatello: be that apple pie. But I think as we've evolved as people, and have realized the types of things that we can do to our own diets that can increase our lifespan. Athleticism, our ability to, you know, get up in the morning and feel great. Those same types of things can transcend over to our pets. And I'm the same as you. I mean, I had cats growing up and we went to the grocery store and my mother and father either bought a kibble or a canned food, but as things have, again.

Over time, the um, independent pet stores have popped up and those owners have become, the owners of those stores have become so in tune [00:06:00] to helping elevate our pets’ diets and their wellness that we're seeing dogs and cats live longer and healthier lives by just making simple, small changes. And one of those simple, small changes we can do is by adding supplements or by adding c b D rather than. Giving some, you know, uh, pharmaceutical that, like we talked about earlier, could have some, some un unwanted side effects. So, for me and Austin and Kat, my introduction into the pet space was, um, though, uh, using C B D. and seeing the benefits that came

Amy Castro: Okay.

Kat Donatello: for Brady at, at 12 years old that, I mean, literally one aided his life.

This was a dog who was hanging out in his crate, not wanting to go for walks, and I'm talking simple walks, even up to the mailbox just not being engaged. You could just see that decline in him making that small, simple change by starting to incorporate [00:07:00] C B D into. Regimen, you kind of saw him get that pep in his step back.

He was more alert, more in tune and wanting to be engaged in the family. at the same time, I had Austin who was, you know, a four- or five-month-old puppy at the time, off the walls. How do I harness that energy so it can actually directed positively? So, you know, through good training, through good behavior, and looking at, you know, let's see how long we. Give Austin a great life and it kind of just tumble weeded from there. You know, one thing led to another, led to another and started to, um, you know, give my, the biscuits that I was making to friends and they were starting to see the same, uh, results that I was seeing. And, and I realized that this is an opportunity for me to share what I've learned, and help a lot of families in the process.

And so, again, talking about that evolution of you. I'm going to date [00:08:00] us, but you know, seventies, eighties of going to the grocery store and buying that bag of 50-pound bag of kibble to now really curating our bowls. so, we're addressing the needs of all different pets. I've got four. all of them have different needs. but

Amy Castro: Hmm.

Kat Donatello: with the supplements that we have here and then by literally opening up the refrigerator door and saying, okay, I'm going to grab some blueberries, or I'm going to grab this and grab that to kind of compliment the bowl of the food that they're already getting, um, from one of the, you know, great brands that are out there.

Amy Castro: Right. Uh, and I, I want to jump back for a minute and talk a little bit more about, because. I still think that there are people out there who have not done their homework about C B D, and they think basically it's the equivalent of their dog smoking pot. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but, uh, I, you know, can you tell us a little bit more, I mean, I know I don't want to turn this into a big science lesson per se, but just a little bit more about [00:09:00] what C B D is and what the benefits might be

Kat Donatello: funny that

Amy Castro: for our pets.

Kat Donatello: are still equating it to smoking pot. I've been doing this since 2014, so it seems so natural and every day to me. But there is still that educational component because you know it. what we read on the internet is not always gospel. You know, we, so we do need to do our homework. Um, but C B D, uh, stands for cannabidiol and that is one of the components that is found in both the marijuana plant and the hemp plant. It's the non-psychoactive component, so lots of benefits and people use it from the marijuana plant to get those same types of. Um, feelings, the relaxation, maybe the pain relief, the anxiety reducing.

Um, but it also comes from the hemp plant and it's actually found in very high, um, high amounts in the hemp plant. So that's where we get our C b D. It's extracted from the hemp plant. it [00:10:00] also, um, contains that whole plant experience. So, you're getting all of the other good benefits from that plant itself besides just the cbd.

So, there's a multitude of cannabinoids that can really do wonderful things for the body. Like I said, helping reduce anxiety, helping with pain relief, just bringing that body, bringing the body back to that level of homeostasis where the body's balanced and can respond to different stressors or inflammations in the correct.

Amy Castro: and I would assume and, and. I have done a, a tiny bit of research on it. Not all c b D products are, are, are the same. And the reason I bring that up is I noticed here where we live, all of a sudden all of these places are popping up and saying that they've got these different CBD b d products for humans and for pets.

Um, can you just briefly address like how would somebody know [00:11:00] whether something is. a good C b D product or not a good CBD. I mean, I know yours are cuz I know you've won awards and been ranked really highly for the quality of your products. But, um, if they for some reason couldn't get ahold of something that belonged to you, how would they know a good product from a bad one?

Kat Donatello: really hard question, um, to answer because the regulation just hasn't come down from the FDA yet, so it really is a. Uh, a responsibility of someone who's going to either use CBD B for themselves or for their pet to really do their homework and to ask those hard questions. Um, where are you getting your C b D from?

You can get cbd b D from China. Would I want to get CBD B from China right now? Probably not. You want to make sure that the company that

Amy Castro: Mm-hmm.

Kat Donatello: purchasing that product from, um, does test results. Um, do they make those test results available to you? Are they easy to. May. Are they accessible to you? are they, are they easy to [00:12:00] understand?

And will the company talk to you about that? So those are some of the things that you'll want to be asking. Um, how do they, um, how do they get their cbd? Where do they get it from? So just being able to ask those, those questions. And I think one of the, um, one of the reasons why I'm really happy with where my company is at right now. We're in a number of pet stores all across the country, well over a thousand. And we're in those stores because we're with, um, distributors and those distributors that we participate with. Go through a rigorous process before they bring any brand into their portfolio. So, we have, they have to do their due diligence, so they do a lot of homework for the retailers and the end consumers when you're buying from a store.

Now, that doesn't mean that there won't be products that aren't reputable in stores or maybe aren't of the best quality in store. maybe they aren't being purchased from a distributor, maybe [00:13:00] they're being purchased direct from, um, a manufacturer. So, you've got to be able to ask those questions to your or to the company that maybe you're purchasing from online.

Amy Castro: Sure. Yeah. Even just down to the actual amount of CBD B, that's in the product and. That's, whether that's accurate or not, I think is, is one of the things that I had read about. So, so it's, in many ways, it's not horribly different from, um, you know, reading a product label for any food, whether it's for you or for your dog, and understanding what those ingredients are, where they come from, and just, you know, doing your homework before you put it in your mouth or theirs.

Kat Donatello: you should be able to that ingredient label. I mean, if it's got, you know, 10 syllables, might question what that ingredient is. Now, there'll be ingredients in some of my products because, um, some of the products that we create, just about C B D, but they're about [00:14:00] other beneficial botanicals and herbs that will combine, that will work synergistically or work together with the CBD B to create a real optimal product. And those ingredients might have fairy scientific names like Astatin, for example, which is a powerful antioxidant. those are ingredients like, okay, wait, I'm going to Google what is astatin. Don't be afraid to do those types of things. But you know when you see words that you're like, wait a second, that sounds like something that shouldn't or isn't necessary to be in my pet's bowl, then that's when the red flag probably is going to go up for you.

Amy Castro: Okay, great. That's great advice. So, what are some of your key products? And I don't necessarily mean. Bestselling, all of that may be, may be the same thing. which are some of the ones we might want to look at that might benefit our pets.

Kat Donatello: I think the number one thing people come to a CBD company for is anxiety relief for their pets. So, I would say anxiety relief,

Amy Castro: Okay.

Kat Donatello: be number one. And then hip and joint. know, the pain and inflammation would be number two. So, we talk about anxiety, we're talking about those dogs that are, and cats that are, um, affected by thunderstorms, fireworks.

I thought of you yesterday when you were going through, you know, the Houston, um, weather conditions, but thunderstorms, fireworks, car rides, going to the veterinarian, going to the groomer, um, holiday gathering. So, things that are going to like help your pet assimilate into situ. in a more calm. Less anxiety filled way.

And then second would be the hip and joint, um, uh, problems that many older dogs have. Larger dogs, and then, you know, the traditional labs, German shepherds, [00:16:00] golden retrievers that can notoriously have hip problems. So those would be our two main. Um,

Amy Castro : Right.

Kat Donatello: on the other hand, use cbd. Every single day. I use it as part of the wellness, um, journey that my pets are on now for having four of them.

And I've mentioned earlier that we all have different needs. I may use the hip and joint, um, version of my product with Austin. He's eight years old. He's my running partner. a lab. He has the propensity to have hip and joint issues. Then we've got Harper is my pandemic dog. So, she's a little bit on the anxious side.

When we go out for an afternoon. I know that she, if she's home alone, she's going to have some anxiety issues cuz mom's not here. So, you know, then I'll be using one of our formulas that will address her anxiety issues. We've also got a senior dog, so we'll address the senior issues. We've got a young puppy. I want to address immunity issues with her, so she's going into. [00:17:00] dog status journey. Really healthy with a strong immune system. You know, that's one of the things that Austin and Cat, I think separates itself from many of the other CBD B brands, is that we are not just about cbd b D, we're about taking other really amazing botanicals stuff that will compliment that CBD and really provide that, that excellent end result, whether it's like we're talking anxiety, immunity, senior hip, and joint, those types of.

Amy Castro: Awesome. And we've talked a lot about dogs, but I understand, you know, we do a lot of cats at our rescue. Yeah. So, what about the cats Kat?

Kat Donatello: interesting that you say that because when I started the company, You know, my name's Cat, so everyone just assumed it was a cat product. Nope, it wasn't a cat product. But right off the bat, made sure that, um, two of our products were, uh, accessible to cats by including wild Alaskan Salmon oil, so making it [00:18:00] really palatable for them. But over the years we've had.

and more people say to us, what is there a cat specific product? We don't want a product that says for dogs. And then in tiny words say, cats can use it too. about a year and a half ago, um, we developed a cat product, an oil specifically designed for cats. Um, that could addressed a lot of different needs, um, that cats have, because first off, cats are, can, can be very private and shy when they're not feeling well and they can just kind of go off and do their thing.

And a lot of cats suffer from hip and joint issues. Um, so we resigned a specific cat product that includes that antioxidant that I talked about earlier called, um, Asan. It also has some fish oils in it, which make it very palatable. Also great for skin and coat has that c b, D in it also, which helps with the anxiety, the hip and joint pain. Um, just any, you know, any of the things that we were talking about that CBD B could help with. [00:19:00] And then it also has cranberry extract in it, which cats are notorious for having UTI issues. So, this can be a very beneficial, um, ingredient for that. I launched that product. it would take off, and it's probably, I would say, in the top three or four of our products right now.

It is something that once a retailer has it on shelf, they can't keep it on shelf, it just goes so fast. And then this past year we, um, developed a line of, um, supplement meal toppers. So, powders that we add to the pet's already existing bowl. So, you've got the kibble or you've got the wet or um, maybe raw food, and you can just sprinkle the um, topper. On top of the meal. Um, and we did design one specifically for cats too. So, we do have two cat products. I think this year we'll probably come out with an even stronger cat product cuz we have had some requests for, you know, those cats that are dealing with a little bit more pain and inflammation, a little bit more anxiety and, and larger cats too. [00:20:00] We didn't forget 'em.

Amy Castro : Yeah, I think I could use, yeah, , I could use both of those cat products cuz I've got a, a, kitten that has no eyes that, um, Is my baby, and she's just over a year old and she's already had surgery to have bladder stones removed and has had a couple of UTIs so she could definitely use that. And then I've got another cat.

I've got this great video. I think it's on our TikTok, on the rescues, TikTok of. My daughter's cat sitting behind a baby gate and he's kind of looking at it and I've seen him before. He'll kind of stand up and I know he can get over it, but for whatever reason, he doesn't want to. And I think it's cuz his hips, you know, his hips are kind of starting to bother him.

And then the even older cat goes from behind him and leaps over him. And over the gate it's like, he looks at her like, wow, you just made me look bad. But uh, you know, he, we sometimes I think as, especially with cats, they seem to, like you said, they. Hide their, they hide themselves or sometimes they hide [00:21:00] their illnesses or their pain better.

And he's, he's, you know, he's gotten getting older and just having a, having a little more struggle. So a product that would allow him to continue to do the things that he wants to, or needs to do, would, uh, would be well worth, uh, getting for him for sure.

Kat Donatello: I think that's what something that came out of. one, you know, we could say a benefit came out of Covid is we were home so much, right? That we got to see our dogs and our cats on a much more regular basis. and we became more aware of. Wow, my dog is really sedentary or gosh, my, my cat doesn't do anything all day long.

And it made us more aware of, um, what was going on in their lives. And, you know, as we all know, the, the veterinarian industry is, is so busy it takes forever now to get appointments. Right. And I think that's because one of the

out of Covid is we became so in tune to our pets. it kind of brings me back. [00:22:00] How I got started, right? we can them in a position at the beginning of their lives by incorporating wellness routines, then we can help them live a longer, healthier, happier life. Right? So, you know, it's kind of like the, the person who starts eating healthy at age 60, you know, you think back, gosh, can you imagine if you'd started eating healthy when you were in your twenties? How much better you'd be feeling or looking or, you know, maybe your skin would be healthier. But all those things. So, if we can start earlier with our pets on incorporating just even small changes, we can really help them in the long

Amy Castro: Mm-hmm.

Kat Donatello: changes can be as simple as, okay, I feed a kibble. Maybe I can't afford to buy a really expensive kibble that I purchased from, uh, the independent pet store. Or I can't afford to do raw, or I don't want to do raw. But there are things that you can do at home that

Amy Castro : Mm-hmm.

Kat Donatello: Really great changes as simple as just [00:23:00] throwing a handful of blueberries, um, into the bowl. Um, one of the things that we do in our house, and, and I do feed raw for the most part, um, but when I'm chopping up vegetables, nobody likes the tail end of the broccoli.

Guess who does like the tail end of the broccoli? dogs love the tail end of the broccoli, you know, and through green

Amy Castro: Mm-hmm.

Kat Donatello: maybe I'm not going to boil up. Those are great little additions that you can add to your pet's meal and, and doing it, flipping it up all the time. It's kind of like you are not going to eat the same way every day.

And we can't expect our pets to be eating the same way every day if we want to give them a really a well-balanced, um,

Amy Castro : Yeah, that's a good, you know, yeah, that's a good point cuz that there was so much, um, advice back in the day to, you know, keep your, keep your pet on the exact same. Diet all of the time that, you know, there were animals that went their entire lives eating nothing but the same dry kibble. But if you think about it, a, you know, a wild [00:24:00] animal doesn't get the same meal every day.

You know, they might, uh, they might, you know, get a rabbit one day, a bird another day, a s a snake or a frog or whatever, you know, so it's, there's natural variety, um, when they're living and eating natural.

Kat Donatello: you know, it's

Amy Castro: Yeah.

Kat Donatello: see the changes that you can make in their in. In their lives, like their skin, their coat, you know, watching things like allergies, seasonal things that happen to them and like, oh, I can make this little change or add this little, ingredient. Or, you know, maybe I am going to do a, a topper like, for example, like a green lit muscle topper during like the really active season maybe of a hunting dog and hunting season.

Definitely be using something like a green lit muscle to support their hips and joints during hunting season. But, you know, making those changes, just little things can really add up to monumental changes in that pet's life.

Amy Castro: Definitely, definitely. And I, I, I don't, I wanna say before, [00:25:00] I don't, before I forget, when it comes to, uh, you know, tossing your dog, whatever you might be prepping for yourself, do make sure that. You're checking what those items are, that they are things that dogs can eat. Cuz obviously you wouldn't wanna be tossing them grapes or onions, things like that.

So, um, I always just holler to Alexa . I do, I do the same thing with my birds. Alexa, can birds eat tomatoes? No, you know, it just, just, uh, check it out first.

Kat Donatello: asking you what you want

Amy Castro: Sorry I didn't get; oh no. Mine is. All right, Alexa.

Kat Donatello: I know,

Amy Castro: should never say that word out loud.

Kat Donatello: like we can't say, um,

S Q U I R R E L. Because they'll

Amy Castro: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So definitely check out and make sure that your dog can eat those human foods before you give it to them. Okay. So, I, I have you to credit for, um, [00:26:00] The idea that you gave me about asking a fun question at the end of an interview or towards the end of an interview. And so, um, I was now, then I had to go out and Google, you know, what are some good questions to ask during your podcast interview?

So, my question for you, Kat, is what is something that you're looking forward to in the near future, either personally or professionally?

Kat Donatello: great question. Well,

Amy Castro: It.

Kat Donatello: Personal side, I am about to become an empty nester. So, between my husband and I, we have

Amy Castro: Ah,

Kat Donatello: daughters. So, the youngest is about to graduate from high school we are doing something incredibly. Uh, some people would say crazy, other people would say, wow. Um, but we are renovating a school bus. And our intention is to go on the road for to 24 months [00:27:00] all around the country all

Amy Castro: wow.

Kat Donatello: dogs and go and visit retailers. So that's, that is on the

Amy Castro: Ah.

Kat Donatello: um, hopefully we're on the road after by, by Super Zoo. Uh, so uh, August of this year and, uh, bringing the show on the. So that is, I guess you'd say that's both

Amy Castro: That'll,

Kat Donatello: and

Amy Castro: yeah. You're covering, covering both bases there. That's, that sounds like, that sounds like my kind of adventure. I'm, I'm, I'm, I like the, uh, The RV kind of lifestyle, although I don't know about the school bus, but uh, it depends on how you renovate it. I've seen some pretty neat renovations on those,

Kat Donatello: cool things to do, you

Amy Castro: so that's.

Kat Donatello: three dogs. into that kind of experience. So, Bailey, our eldest dog, as he's our eight-year-old, he will actually stay here in Seattle, um, with uh, the other side part of the family. But the three younger ones, Austin, Harper, [00:28:00] and Blanca will all go on the road with us.

So, there's that entire element to think about as, cuz we do travel a lot with our pets and we do take them on vacation and you. When we were talking about like the seventies and eighties and growing up and it was having a pet, our pan, you had brought, you had told me the other day, you said there were three different. put people in three different buckets. Uh, pet owners, pet guardians, and pet parents. I've used that now a lot, but I think for the most part in the seventies and eighties, people were pet owners. And as everything has

Amy Castro: Oh yeah.

Kat Donatello: changed, now think about like people choose the car they drive, where they're going to live, where they're going on. Because they have pets. So that's something that we had

Amy Castro: Mm-hmm.

Kat Donatello: as we're, you know, building out this bus and having a safe place for the three kids, kids, I call 'me kids, the three animals to, you know, be able to go to sleep at night, know that they're safe, you know, it's going to have, um, you know, [00:29:00] different kinds of heating and air control.

So, if we're out mount biking, they're in their mobile home, basically safe and sound. So, it's been a kind of, Step that we've had to take that if it was just the two of us, we wouldn't have to think about those things. But you know, they're a very important part of our family.

Amy Castro: Yeah, definitely. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's, uh, we're actually going to, we have plans to do episodes coming up, talking about, um, traveling with, you know, either traveling with pets and in various forms, whether it's, you know, plane, train, or automobile kind of thing, or what to do when you want to travel and you don't want to take your pets.

And what are your options, whether it's pets that are, uh, you know, boarding, boarding at the vet versus boarding at a, at a boarding facility, et cetera, et cetera. Be because people are. definitely wanting, especially now they're wanting to get back to traveling and, you know, whether it's with the pet or without the pet, they want to have good options so that their pet is, you know, gets [00:30:00] the optimal care and um, with, with minimal anxiety throughout that whole process.

So, uh, okay. So, to wrap things up, my last question for you would be if, um, if. Somebody out there is like, hey, I want to investigate Austin and CAT products, and I actually did this myself the other day. I went on the website and there wasn't a store that was particularly close to me that I could get the products.

Can I get the products online at all? Or how would that work?

Kat Donatello: first, if you do, shop in a local, independent pet store. Support your independent local pet store, please. they're the. You know, the

Amy Castro: Okay.

Kat Donatello: and just say to them, hey, you should carry Austen and Ka. They're amazing. so that was the first part.

Amy Castro: I just listened to this awesome podcast the other day, and there's this awesome product that you need to carry in your store. That's, I don't know why people don't think to do that. Most, most, uh, especially independent retailers are more than happy to try a product if they've got customers [00:31:00] looking for it.

I mean, they want to make the sale too, and so you're putting money in their pocket and getting the product that you need at the same.

Kat Donatello: when you shop locally, right? If you support

Amy Castro: Yep.

Kat Donatello: small business, and I'm considered a small business, right? I'm a woman run business. I have 12 employees. we do a little bit of everything. Thing on days where somebody might be out sick, I might have to be in the bakery, you know, though those things happen. Um, but, you know, yes, obviously support your local, independent pet store, but you can always shop online, Austin and cat.com. lots of, not, lots of um, There's lots of information on the site. There are blogs you can go in and say, oh, I'm, my kids are going back to school. What do I do? We've got a blog on that.

It's Halloween. What do I do? We've got a blog on

Amy Castro: Oh wow.

Kat Donatello: um, I write a lot and I enjoy doing that and hopefully some of the little tidbits I have, those little nuggets of knowledge I can pass on to somebody and they can help their pet live a happier, healthier life. [00:32:00] 

Amy Castro: That's great. That's all we want. That's why we're doing this show and doing these interviews. So, the thank, well, before I say thank you and let you go, is there anything else that I didn't ask you or didn't cover that you think we should have spoken about?

Kat Donatello: I just, um, I think. One of the most important things I think people can do is just educate themselves and don't be afraid to ask questions. Just ask, ask, ask. Because we're all learning, right? And I think that's one of the beauties, as I didn't, as you said at the beginning, I came from the sports industry.

I didn't have a background in pet. And it's been a learning experience for me. And then to surround myself with people like yourself and, and other people in the industry, cuz we all, it's a, it's a wonderful industry to be in. It was a very open. um, everyone's learning from one another and, you know, ask those questions.

If I don't know the answer, I will do my best to find the answer, and the same thing goes with my team. So, ask questions.

Amy Castro: Awesome. Well, Kat Donatello, [00:33:00] thank you so much for being my guest today. And, um, you know, as, as Kat mentioned, she's got lots of. Beyond her products. Lots of helpful information on her website, Austin and cat.com. So, make sure you check that out. And again, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate your time.

Kat Donatello: me, and I look forward to seeing you probably in a few weeks.

Amy Castro: Yeah, a couple weeks at the Global Pet Expo it'll be great. to listeners out there, thank you so much for listening. Keep on listening and please give your pets a hug for us.