My name is Justin, and I’m a cat dad. I have eight cats and manage a colony of 20+ community cats. I’m also a cat spotter. I take pictures of outdoor cats every place I see them, in my neighborhood, with my colony cats, and when I travel around the world. I’ve seen cats in eight countries and have a collection of 10,000+ cat photos.

Last year one of my indoor kitties escaped the day before Thanksgiving. I was distraught. I listed her on all the missing pet sites and went out looking for her often. While I was out, I saw a kitty that I recognized from a missing cat post on Nextdoor. I approached him, and he was friendly. I double-checked the post, and sure enough, it was a missing cat. I threw him in my cat backpack and returned him to his family, just in time for them to spend Thanksgiving together. If I hadn’t been looking for a missing pet, I likely would have taken a picture of him and moved on. 

It made me think.. how many cats have I seen throughout the years that were also missing? I was also able to get my kitty back home safely by trapping her with a box trap in my front yard. 

I’m making Whisker Tracker as a way to catalog cat sightings, help find missing pets, and create a community of cat lovers who can connect with each other through the cats they see.