Cat-ching Up with Nicola Martin, CEO of International Cat Care
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To celebrate International Cat Day, coming up on 8th August, the University of Liverpool Veterinary Alumni Association caught-up with alumna Nicola Martin (BVSc 2002). Nicola became CEO of International Cat Care (iCatCare) in 2022, having spent most of her career at the veterinary charity PDSA, first as a vet in a busy hospital and later as Head of Pet Health and Welfare. She promoted responsible pet ownership through outreach programs and created the annual PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report. Passionate about improving animal welfare through education, collaboration, and innovative solutions, Nicola shares her journey from Liverpool vet student to CEO of iCatCare, as well as letting us know how fellow alumni can #CelebrateCats for International Cat Day.
Do you have any memories from your time as a vet student at Liverpool to share?
So many varied memories! From being quizzed about dung beetles in a parasitology viva on my birthday, to late-night emergency colics and blood sampling during the Foot and Mouth outbreak, to waiting anxiously for the lists of final results to go up on the pinboard. I cherish my memories of all the people and animals that contributed to that journey from Liverpool to the Wirral and beyond. I vividly remember wondering how I would ever know enough to feel competent, and over 20 years later I am still learning every day.
Tell us about your career since graduating from Liverpool.
The route I have taken since graduating was never planned, more one of opportunities that became available. After a couple of years in small animal private practice I moved to a busy charity hospital at PDSA and loved the teamwork, variety and impact that I could make on a daily basis. It will always be a very special part of my career as it fuelled my interest in the value charities contribute to wider society, as well as starting me off on my leadership journey. I was also passionate about the value of prevention and education in reducing some of the welfare issues regularly seen across the hospital network, and an opportunity to lead the development of the Pet Health and Welfare strategy at PDSA was my first insight into strategic planning and delivering a broader longer-term impact. The next step was taking on my first CEO role at Canine Partners, an assistance dog charity that supports people with a wide range of physical disabilities to provide greater independence. However, my passion has always been driving improvements in animal welfare, and the opportunity to work for International Cat Care and have an impact on cat welfare on a global scale through educational programmes and knowledge sharing was one I couldn’t turn down. Throughout my career, I have also enjoyed Trustee roles with the Animal Welfare Foundation, Assistance Dogs UK and more recently with a grant-making charity focused on improving dog welfare.
After working as a vet with the PDSA, you became the Head of Pet Health and Welfare, creating the ground-breaking annual PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report which many alumni will be familiar with. How did you transition to non-clinical work and what were your biggest challenges?
The Head of Pet Health and Welfare role started as a short-term secondment, so I always felt comforted knowing that if it didn’t work out, I could just slot back into the clinical role that I loved, knowing that I had tried something new, and it wasn’t for me. The biggest challenge of moving to non-clinical work was getting used to the change in pace and output. In a busy hospital setting I could see over 30 clients in a day and operate on a wide range of cases, all with an outcome at the end, and a plan in place for next steps. Learning to work on longer-term projects, where the output might not be apparent for months and the eventual outcome could take years was strange to begin with. As vets we like to assess, analyse, diagnose and make a plan; ambiguity and venturing into new territory where there isn’t a right or wrong answer can be challenging, frustrating and exciting at the same time. You learn to build teams with different skills around you and find ways to ensure you can recognise things you have achieved that day or week (I still love a to-do list to tick off at the end of the day!). Every day brings new learnings and challenges - understanding charity governance, the impact of brand and marketing, communicating with a wide variety of people from Trustees to the media and data teams to government officials, and realising how transferable all the skills I had were in a variety of contexts. I think my biggest take-aways from that time are just how important listening, understanding different perspectives and finding ways to collaborate are in enabling progress and positive change to happen. And also, that if you always stay true to your values you can find a way through whatever challenges you are faced with. I still have days where I miss the face-to-face interaction with clients and their pets and maybe one day I will pick up my stethoscope again.
What does a typical day or week look like as CEO of International Cat Care? What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your job?
I don’t think there is a typical day or week as a Charity CEO. The reason I love the role is the variety of people, challenges, and opportunities that I face on a daily basis. From reviewing short term tactical plans with the team, meeting with sponsors and funders to discuss long term innovative projects, working with our Trustee Board to review the finances and strategy, and taking part in working groups on key cat welfare issues, right through to being part of our annual International Feline Veterinary Congress and meeting veterinary professionals from across the world that are passionate about improving the lives of cats. The most rewarding part of my job is undoubtedly knowing that everything we do as a charity will help achieve our mission of enabling more people to act in a cat friendly way to improve cat welfare.
Could you share three resources that veterinary alumni working in practice can explore from International Cat Care to enhance their clinical knowledge or to aid communication with cat owners?
So firstly become a veterinary member of our charity. We have so many great CPD resources, opportunities for learning, discussion and just being part of a charity that helps owned and unowned cats globally. For less than the cost of your weekly coffee you can contribute to making a difference for all cats and become more cat friendly at the same time!
Secondly, consider becoming a Cat Friendly Clinic. Even beginning your journey to becoming more cat friendly will improve the experience for your feline patients and also for you and your team as well as helping iCatCare achieve our mission.
And thirdly, champion cats by considering them as the individuals that they are by investing time in getting to know them better as a species. We have just launched a new Feline Behavioural Health Practitioner Course which will help you understand cats from the inside out and our Interactions Guidelines will help all teams improve their feline interactions and handling to reduce the impact of fear and other protective (negative) emotions.
Thank you, Nicola, for helping us #CelebrateCats for International Cat Day. Nicola reminded us that this is a day to celebrate the species, the special relationship people have with cats and to help foster a sense of community and shared passion for championing their welfare. Explore ideas on how to join this year’s campaign and share your celebrations with ULVAA at ulvaa@liverpool.ac.uk.