JoAnn is mum to Ava, the cat & Patch, the dog. She is also a person of colour. We chat about introducing a cat and a dog, catexploring with them, the realities of catexploring as a person of colour, reacting to the comments you receive and redefining what normal means. See the show notes here: https://catexplorer.co/podcast-entries/catexploring-as-a-person-of-colour-with-a-cat-and-a-dog-joann-ava-patch To support Catexplorer & join the Catexplorer Purr Squad or become a Catexplorer Producer, see here: https://catexplorer.co/support To find out how to leave a review see here: https://catexplorer.co/podcast-entries/how-to-leave-a-review-for-the-catexplorer-podcast What we talk about •About Ava (cat) •Finding pet friendly rental properties •Managing cat allergies •Being a first time cat owner •About Patch (dog) •Introducing Patch & Ava •Ensuring that Patch & Ava get along •Training Patch •Catexploring with Patch and Ava •Importance of crate training •Being a person of colour while catexploring vs being a while person while catexploring •Reacting to the situations when people aren't nice about catexploring •Being calm and courteous in those situations •Managing gas lighting •Importance to learning about other's point of view •Experiences with learning about BIPOC •Breaking your normal •Feeling that catexploring wasn't normal initially and how to overcome that •Learning to not to care about what others think •Realising that people are curious and positive with catexploring •Realising that by catexploring, we're encouraging others to go catexploring •Advice for new catexplorers •Most entertaining comment while catexploring •Catexplorers that inspire JoAnn & Ava •Product & service that has been a gamechanger for JoAnn & Ava