Team Member - Joyce Kao

Meet Team Member, Joyce Kao, a Ph.D graduate student at USC. Her passions in life (other than science) are food, cats, and pole dancing.  Read her story below!

After going back and forth for a few weeks, I have decided I am going to run the Honda L.A. Marathon on March 18, 2012.  What tipped me over?  I found out that the animal rescue I volunteer for, Kitten Rescue (http://www.kittenrescue.org/) is an official charity next year.  Would I ever run a marathon of my own accord?  Probably not, but for kitties, oh yeah!  (You can guess the hierarchy in my household) Their little faces and fuzzy bodies just melt my heart and I am prone to do stupid things in the name of helping cats...like run a marathon.

This will be my first ever marathon.  I have never run long distances in my life.  I wouldn't even classify myself as 'athletic'.  My height comes out to a whopping 5' 2" on a good day so you can imagine how short my legs are and what assets I have to carry me across 26.2 miles come next March....but for the kitties and for your support of the kitties, I CAN DO IT!
In August 2008, I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to foster cats and the next week joined Kitten Rescue.  In the past few years, being with Kitten Rescue has not only increased my knowledge of what it takes to do animal rescue, but has also opened my eyes to the reality of the animal overpopulation problem especially in Los Angeles.  Yes, I saw a few cats here and there in my neighborhood, but what I didn't see were the twenty thousand cats being fed into city animal shelters and the half that were euthanized to make space for other incoming animals.  This estimate only reflects cats, multiply by two (for dogs) and you have a rough estimate of how many animals die every year in shelters.  This number is ONLY in Los Angeles alone.

Kitten Rescue tries to relieve the burden on city shelters one cat (and occasional dog) at a time.  They are an awesome organization run by people who genuinely care about animal welfare and they truly deserve every penny donated to them.  Since KR is a completely volunteer-run organization, every dollar you donate goes towards saving the lives of less fortunate cats and dogs.
To make a contribution to Joyce's fundraiser page go to www.crowdrise.com/joycekao
You can also track Joyce's marathon training progress here: http://runforthecats.blogspot.com/)