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Kingmond Young Courtesy of Daniel Quagliozzi
For most the phrase "cat expert" would conjure the image of a stooped, cardigan-wearing older woman, strangely scented and perpetually alone. Daniel Quagliozzi may wear the occasional ironic cardigan, but he is no dated, cat stereotype. In his third year as consultant and owner of
Go, Cat, Go! Quagliozzi makes house calls to cat guardians in the Bay Area whose feline cohabitants have "behavioral problems" (a phrase which in the cat business means every surface is coated in urine). One brave Exhikittenist agreed to invite the self-identified Cat Behavior Consultant into her home for a consultation.
The place: A cat-hair coated building in the Outer Richmond, home to a reticent 12-year-old tabby.
The people: The writer, a life-long cat person, and Feline Philosopher Quagliozzi: a 42-year- old ("I don't care, that's how old I am") New Jersey transplant with 12 years of experience at the
San Francisco SPCA, where he worked as an adoption counselor ("Cat social work") and as an adoption outreach worker. Performing intake on cats that came into the shelter and eventually acting as a behavior consultant as the SPCA Coordinator for Feline Care, Quagliozzi worked with what he estimates to be 4,000 cats a year. Go, Cat, Go! is his home-visit cat consult service.
