M E O W S
THE TIME FOR MANY PEOPLE, the “crazy cat
lady” moniker might evoke an unsavory depiction—terrycloth bathrobes, hair rollers, and a colony of felines roaming aimlessly around a person’s unkempt property. But award-winning film director, writer, and producer Garrett Clancy ’88 has set out to change that narrative, overhauling the antiquated portrayal and turning it into an appellation that represents salvation, humility, and, above all else, compassion. He has made strides in doing this through his critically acclaimed, featurelength documentary, Crazy Cat Lady (2022), which sheds light on the feral cat crisis in the city of Los Angeles. The documentary highlights a problem that many people don’t realize exists, Clancy said. An estimated one to three million feral cats roam the streets of Los Angeles, which is close to the city’s human population. But within that population exists a group of people—called “crazy cat ladies” in the film—who have made it their mission to resolve the feral cat crisis, one cat at a time. The film follows these men and women as they do their part to trap, spay or neuter and release (also known as TNR) or adopt as many cats as they can. “These are people who volunteer their time to trap feral cats, get them fixed, put them back in their colonies, and try to keep the numbers down,” said Clancy. “If you think of the term ‘crazy’ as just ‘passionate’ about cat rescue, then it’s a whole different tone. B Y VA N E S S A C H AT T E R L E Y
