to meet with the director, be sure it is a discussion where you do more listening than talking. Your primary goal for this visit is to begin a positive relationship, and your secondary goal is to gain knowledge; both of these will be accomplished better if you do more listening than talking. There is a saying that God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason - that is probably a good ratio; plan on talking half as much as you listen. Once you have gathered some information, take the time to study that information and to plan and undertake some course of action. If you are devising a way to help community cats, use any ideas or thoughts shared by the director during your meeting in that plan. With your "draft" plan firmly in place, you are now ready for another visit with the director. Hopefully this time you may be able to suggest a lunch meeting. Lunch meetings are great because everybody gets a chance to talk and everyone has to take time to listen while they are chewing their food. Lunch meetings help to balance the conversation. If you do get a chance to go to lunch, you will want to discreetly pick up the check. Getting With the Programs Ten years ago, nearly 15,000 cats died in Jacksonville shelters, an average of 1,237 each month. Today, while we still have much work to do, that number has dropped to 184 per month. In the