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Arden Moore: Welcome to the “Oh Behave Show” on Pet Life Radio, I'm your host Arden Moore.

Some felines put the “F” in “Finicky ”, others put the “F” in “Fame”, only one does both.

You are in for a special treat listeners, and I am not talking about dish of tuna. Today on our show is Rose Ordile. She is a very talented animal trainer for the vary famous “Morris the Cat”, that big orange tabby, who has made a living, acting finicky, about being picky, about what he eats.

Welcome to the show Rose.

Rose Ordile: Hi there, and thank you for having us today.

Arden Moore: Well, with Rose we are going to talk about, all the famous “Morris the Cats”, through the years, we are going to test your feline  tribute talents and dish up tips on how you can teach your cat, some cool tricks, right after these commercial messages.

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Arden Moore: Welcome back, you've tuned in to the ”Oh Behave Show” on Pet Life Radio, I am your host Arden Moore.

As mentioned our special guest is animal trainer Rose Ordile. One of her famous pupils is “Morris the Cat”. Morris is probably by her side right now, and if we are lucky, he may turn up the volume on his purr machine for us. Otherwise, I think he is quite content to let Rose do all this talking.

Many of your know “Morris the Cat” as the “pitchman” or “pitch cat”, for 9 lives food, but he does more than enjoy fine dinning from a china bowl. So the past couple of years, he's been hard at work, spearheading the “9 Lives Morris Million Cat Rescue campaign.

It launched in September 2006, with the ambitious goal of finding safe, loving homes for one million homeless cats. I happy to report that this ambitious goal, he's just met, the millionth cat adopted, is a cute silver and white tabby named “Tucker”, who is now going Hollywood, I guess, right Rose?

Rose Ordile: That's right.

Arden Moore: Tell us a little bit about where Tucker landed? My gosh if I was tucker, I'd be like, “Ya baby bring it on.”

Rose Ordile: Juliana, the news anchor on e-channel, adopted the millionth cat, and that was this past month June, what a better month, because June is 'Adopt a Cat Month', and Morris has also has teamed up dropped with the American Humane Association, as a sponsor for 'June a Cat's month'.

So not only this year, was he a sponsor, he was last year too, in 2007 . And Morris also visited the town of Hinsdale, Illinois, where the very first Morris was rescued in 1968.

Arden Moore: Right.

Rose Ordile: They gave him the keys to city, it was ever so exciting. We made a big donation, he visited the shelter there, it was great, they had a big parade, and..

Arden Moore: Don't you think he'd rather have the keys to the pantry where the '9 lives' is stored, rather than the keys to the city.  

Rose Ordile: Actually in my pantry, where I do store the '9 lives', I have to have a childproof lock on the cabinet, because he knows how to paw open the cabinet, and used to knock out the cans and '9 lives', while I was sleeping. I would hear the sort of noise.

Arden Moore: Smart cat.

Rose Ordile: Yes he is, he is very smart cat. But we are so excited, because this has been just an incredible journey, I'm so proud to be a part of. I mean, Morris is the best cat, all the Morris's from past to present have been rescued by the shelter rescued save my 9 lines. So, someone to champion the cause, for how one cats' is never living greater and Morris was so proud to step up.

Arden Moore: Well I'm sure he is. I mean, this two little history trivia, if we can, I know it was forty years ago, I can't believe it's 1968, was forty years ago. I'm not going to date myself here folks. But the very first Morris that you mentioned, was like, what? Twenty minutes away from meeting the great feline folks in the sky, when someone came and adopted him. Actually saved his life, correct?

Rose Ordile: That's right, Bob Martwick, he was the very first trainer for Morris number one and Morris number two. And he adopted the very first Morris, twenty minutes, like you said it was twenty minutes away from that, and he saw, they saw something special about him and then he became Spoke cat for '9 lives', and it has been his trade in a forty year campaign that Morris has been representing the brand for  '9 lives'.

And like I said the best part about him is they have all been shelter rescued. It's not like pure breed cat that's been handed on down . So we have done nationwide searches, when it's time, I mean there have been many Morris's, a few Morris's over the past, but only one Morris serves at a time to be official spokes cat for '9 lives'.

Arden Moore: It makes sense, you can't have your cat's name as Morris not Methuselah.  So you know, they think the first Morris lived to be about 19 years old?

Rose Ordile: Yes, yes he did.

Arden Moore: That's pretty good.

Rose Ordile: And right now we have Morris number five. So that's really good, over forty years.

Arden Moore: Wow! So how did you get involved in this Morris connection?

Rose Ordile: Well I have been raising and training and growing domestic animals for more than twenty-five years, and I have a lot of cat experience behind me through animal training and animal behavior and they did a search and '9 live' felt that, you know, based on my positive interaction, with the animals said, I was perfect for the position as “Morris the 9live cat” handler and spokesperson.

Arden Moore: Well that's not a bad gig. But you also do a lot of other works behind the scenes and many television and movies. I was kind of checking out your bio and I guess you've been able to hang out with some famous people yourself. Can you kind of touch upon some of the people you've rubbed devil's with, in the world of Hollywood?

Rose Ordile: Well, what I am and animal trainer for the film industry for years. I do train animals for film, television. We do educational programs, music videos, print ads. I am also an animal color specialist, and what that is, is when there is a large project, we'll use maybe two to five to play the part of one, because it's too many behaviors for one animal to do.    

Arden Moore: Right.

Rose Ordile: And what I will do is then cut, color and create them all to look alike. So when you are watching that featured film, you will never know when we are changing animals in-and-out. There's Morris, he is the one and only.

Arden Moore: So he must have vested all kinds, and he's rubbed elbows with lots of stars. When we started this campaign, we started the campaign in 2006 and Randy Jackson kicked off the campaign in New York in grand central station, and Randy was so much into this, he adopted a cat himself.

Morris adopted the very first one, that's his little mouse. Little mouse not little anymore, little mouse is grown up now and hopefully I think, coming with some big shoes to fill and kind of made up with Morris. And then Randy Jackson adopted the second, we hit a five hundred thousand mark in September, last September 2007 and Audrina Patridge from the Hills, she adopted the five hundred thousand.

Arden Moore: Nice.

Rose Ordile: So we started on the East Coast, we ended on the West Coast, but we went back and forth, he had tour bus that was 36 feet long, it was designed like a mobile adoption center, and when the tour bus would come into town it would team up with the local shelter there, and they would bring cats that were available for adoption to the bus.

You could view the cat from either outside the bus, or you could go right on to the tour bus and take a look at the cats. If there was a special cat that you wanted, there was in a little meet and greet room, where you could sit down with the shelter representative and talk about this cat that you are about to take home.

So that was really great.

Arden Moore: Hey, did you ever make any stops in San Diego county, On your tour, if you remember your geography?

Rose Ordile: We were in the Los Angeles area, I don't think we were all the way down as far as in the town of San Diego, but we were in the city, right next to it.

Arden Moore: or

Rose Ordile: Not right around.  We would say it was San Diego Area. And that was Spring time last year that we were there.

Arden Moore: Okay

Rose Ordile: We've been to Florida, we were in [xx], we were in Chicago, we were in Indiana, we everywhere all over and it was just really great to team with the shelters, to hear all the shelter stories. It's especially round this time of year. It's very cat and kitten's season, so they do get overloaded, and unfortunately three out of four cats that go into the shelter don't make it out.

That's live is in rescue campaign was so important, we wanted to help get the cats, fine loving homes, we wanted to help teach about responsible pet ownership. '9live' is committed to make a live better.

By as like I said by teaming up with the 'American Humane Association' 
for the cat about the “Cat Month” also for every 9life cat product purchased, a portion of that goes to the 'American Humane Association' with their efforts to rescue the sheltered cats.

So, we are committed and our efforts are “keep going to make live better”, we also teamed up with Catster.com.

Arden Moore: Catster.com

Rose Ordile: Yes, where you can search for adoptable cats, you can connect with other cat lovers. You can also learn more about our Morris learning cat rescue campaign.

Arden Moore: Well that's great. So now you done the million, now what?

Rose Ordile: The efforts still continue. If you go to 9lives.com you can view our recent adoptions as kind of going over the million, we are still going forward of making lives better. We're committed to that.

Arden Moore: So you know, you touched upon who was the lucky person to get Tucker the millionth cat, but just kind of famous husband to [xx]sent her into the Donald if you will. The husband is the first apprentice Bill Rancic. Right, was he first apprentice?

Rose Ordile: Yeah, I think he was.

Arden Moore: Yeah, he was the first apprentice, so Juliana and Bill Rancic are the proud parents, pet parents of the million dollar, million cat wise, probably worth a million now. With the '9lives Morris  
Million Cat Rescue Campaign'. So that is not a bad place to land, would you say?

Rose Ordile: That's a great place to land but I think when any cat gets a home it's good for the whole family. I mean cats for children, it teaches them responsibility, it enhances a self-esteem, for a teenage child it also help them understand like non-verbal communication. For us as adults, owning a cat, I mean for me, I know it lowers my chef level. They also, it lowers also our cholesterol level.

For seniors it builds that gap of loneliness and depression, and cats, cats are so small they can fit into any lap and they pad it. And a lot of the shelter's offered too have like, a senior for senior program. Where the partner of the senior camp with the senior citizen and I think that's really a nice program.

Arden Moore: I totally agree. What's Morris like when he is away from the spotlight, he's out of the limousine and he is not in a tour bus, when he is just hanging with you at your home. What's his personality like?

Rose Ordile: Well I used to think hung out with me at my home, but I think it's the other way around now.[Laugh] He is definitely king of the household, but he is just like any other kiddy, he's freed on my paper, he's freed from my, when I take my first clothes out in the laundry.

Arden Moore: Oh Yeah, Well you know that's so nice, he thinks that's kind of the spot, I mean that, S P A W because he thinks you just gave us a warm peek treatment. [laugh]

Do you have other quitters in your home that I guess the mortgage now belongs to Morris, but so other quitters that he hangs on?

Rose Ordile: Yeah, I do have other cats and dogs. But he is king of the house, I have a big yellow lab, that is they want to share the bed and if Morris is on the bed first, so Cleo has to come up, he whines and then he jumps up on to the bed and they sleep together. They all fight for the little sunspot. But yes, they all get along, everybody gets along in the household.

You know, once in a while, of course they are cats, when they put out their new toys, the new catnip toys, you know, one wants what the other one has, so then not that much difference than children.

Arden Moore: No, no I don't think so.

We are listening to Rose Ordile, she has many talents and one of them is training 'Morris the Cat', and as we are speaking 'Morris the Cat' is more than the pitch cat, if you will for a '9live' suite. He's really committed to helping other cats in need and has gone all over this country, for the last couple of years with this '9lives Morris  Million Cat Rescue' happily.

The millionth cat has been rescued , but his work is not stopped, he's doing a lot, because as Rose has mentioned. Three out of every four cats that are in shelters aren't able to find homes. That’s the sad, sad statistics.

I think even more haunt in Rose is, I think is, every nine seconds in this country a cat or a dog has to be euthanized at a shelter, because there is simply not a home for that pet, and there is no room at the shelter.

So I am very happy to see that you and Morris are doing your part to slow that clock down.

Rose Ordile: Yeah, well and also with the help of all the shelters and getting the word out there. I mean it's all the public too that’s involved in this. When they go to the website and they can see  where we are at and where we are going to be, they can also, when they go to Catster.com, they can view cats that are being available for adoption. I mean that all helps, that all helps work towards our goal. So it's a whole team effort here, and there's some wonderful, beautiful cats at the shelters.

They’re just waiting for a home and the shelter representative work with people of training them up with the good cat. You know, to have their life stylish.

Arden Moore: That's great we are going to take a commercial break and get back to speaking with Rose Ordile about how we can find a good match for you, and a little bit more about Morris trivia, right after this break.                  
            
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Arden Moore: Welcome to the “Oh Behave Show” on Pet Life Radio, I'm your host Arden Moore. Our guest today is Rose Ordile, she is                  the trainer for 'Morris the Cat' the famous '9lives' mascot's spokesperson, grand 'Pu bar’,’ King of the Hill' whatever his title is, he is more than a cat that likes a full bowl. This cat is really, really helping other cats all over the country land very loving permanent homes.

But you know, if can Rose, I think people, we had the veterinary nun who cares for Lassie, so we need to get the equal time for the cat listeners out there, so I was hoping we could talk a little bit about some fun trivia, about the Morris's through the years.

I was trying to noodle around and I was really surprised, I guess the voice of Morris, is it still by John Erwin of 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'?

Rose Ordile: Well the last commercial, Morris actually didn't, it wasn't that same voice.

Arden Moore: Okay, But he has had that voice, so he's got this kind of manly voice.

Rose Ordile: He's got that voice for a long time, yes.

Arden Moore: Okay, I mean I could just see in my resume, resume filling out your income tax's, occupation, voice of 'Morris the Cat'. I mean come on, I wondered if you get audited for that.[laugh]

But he's got that nice voice, it's sort of you know, kind of deep with a little cinch of sarcasm or, I don't know, how would you describe his voice?

Rose Ordile: Just how you are carried homeward day, like when you see the lights of disposition, and low finicky personality, it was perfect.

Arden Moore: There, there I think that's right, and the Morris's through the years, I mean starting, the first came aboard in 1968 but  the first one got to be hanging out with Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon in a movie called 'Shamus'.

Rose Ordile: That is correct.

Arden Moore: Okay, so what was that movie, I can't remember that Burt Reynolds flick. But was Morris's role in that?

Rose Ordile: There was a scene where he came up and he was on  the tubs with Dyann. He had a couple of small scenes in it, but that was back in 1968, yes.

Arden Moore: Okay, and then what other now, he’s also authored three books, I'd like to see a cat behind the keyboard, but they are called the 'Morris approach', 'Morris Method' and the 'Morris Prescription'. His books probably sell more than mine do, but that is alright. What are these books about?

Rose Ordile: They are all about cat behavior. They are about Morris's and Morris's live and responsible ownership, about pet ownership. And he also ran for presidency in 1988 and 1992, on the “Finicky party” platform.

Arden Moore: [laugh] Hey, and what is he doing lately, I think there might be some undecided out there that might go for a Morris, I mean is he debating.

Rose Ordile: Yeah, I know that. Well he has been busy on his 'Morris  Million Cat Rescuing campaign' that's what he is president of.

Arden Moore: Okay, well that's good, but if he does change his mind, let us know because we want to let the listeners know there is another candidate out there, you know.

He just might have type of personal groomer or something, but I bet he            won't have a, stock of 9lives cat food in the White House, and your dog could get to join them too. Would he let the dog sleep on the oval office rug or something?

Rose Ordile: It's so good. [laugh]

Arden Moore: All right, well the other thing is now there's been several Morris's, I will say because, of life span issue over the last forty years. How is this Morris a little bit different than the first you trained, and I guess you have one waiting in the wings as well?

Rose Ordile: I have, this is Morris number five, and what we do is when it's time to find a new Morris, to be star cat for '9lives', we do a nationwide search through hundreds and thousands shelters. And what we try to find is one who is similar to the look, one who has a good personality. Because not all cats, I mean all cats, we want to cats to get adopted, but not saying all cats will be Hollywood animals stars. Not all cats want to be Hollywood animal stars. But there will be a star in somebody's homes and be good for the family.

Arden Moore: Absolutely.

Rose Ordile: One that likes to travel, because obvious thing most cats are they are territorial, so they like their one spot, so you find a cat that adaptable to the change in environment and very social. And he has, he has a relax disposition, but he also has search and a key personality, and he is also very outgoing.

So he does like the attention, and he does like meeting and greeting everybody and snooze them up.

Arden Moore: Not bad, Well he's been called the 'Clerk gabble of cats' and the 'feline Burt Reynolds' and I guess he landed 'Animal star of the year' by US magazine and in the 80's and he's kept ton of other awards in his little background, but I am pretty impressed by Cat that really needs somebody else to talk from his, speaks little but does a lot, doesn't he?

Rose Ordile: That's correct.

Arden Moore: Is he chatty at all, at home, or sit pretty quite?

Rose Ordile: No, now he is chatty, sometimes he is a little bit chatty.

Arden Moore: Okay,

Rose Ordile: We are going to go, I am having over to a [xx].

Arden Moore: Okay, good what's he doing right now?

Rose Ordile: See if we are sleeping [laughing]

Arden Moore: Oh yes, this is nap number ten.

Rose Ordile: It's sun time, it's sun time, yeah let's see if we can some little vocals out of him.

Arden Moore: Hey, Morris I have some 9lives for you.

Morris voice: '9lives' Well, I don't want to be a poor sport.

Rose Ordile: That he always will go for

Arden Moore: Does he like the word 'treat?

Rose Ordile: He will do anything for his '9lives'

Arden Moore: I am sure he likes all the flavors, but is there one he goes especially ga-ga over?

Rose Ordile: He has both the dry flavor, I mix, I do both, I give dry and wet.

Morris voice: Dry? G ames over.

Rose Ordile: And he like for the wet, he likes Super Supper, it seems to be his favorite.

Arden Moore: Oh okay, has he got waken up yet or he's still sleeping.

Rose Ordile: Yeah, yeah you want to say hello?

Arden Moore: Hey, Morris you are on “Oh behave” on Pet Life Radio. He's like big whoop, where's the '9lives'.

Morris Voice: I hate games
 
Arden Moore: Has he a big purr?

Rose Ordile: Berry, he is revving  on the phone. Can you hear him purring?

Arden Moore: Yeah, lets hear it.

Morris:            meowing

Arden Moore: Oh, I hear 'em.

Morris:            meowing

Arden Moore: Thanks Morris that was very special.

Morris Voice: You are the only game in town.

Arden Moore: I mean really, what's your next gig with Morris, Where are you guys heading to next?

Rose Ordile: Arden, you have to go to the website 9Lives.com to what we are and up to to date. But just yesterday we were hanging out on the set of “The Price Is Right” with Drew Carey.

Arden Moore:  oh,  you are kidding!

Rose Ordile: Oh yeah, yeah.

Arden Moore: You weren't selling Morris, were you?

Rose Ordile: No.

Arden Moore: Was that to help adoptions.

Rose Ordile: You know at the end of the Price Is Right, he always encourages people to spay and neuter their pets.
 
Arden Moore: correct

Rose Ordile: Yeah, So we also celebrated our 'Millionth cat rescue' on that too,  the 'million cat rescue campaign'. We celebrated also on the set of “The Price Is Right” with Drew Carey.  So that was really exciting and that just happened. We'd had a very busy month. Oh he was very nice.

Arden Moore: Yeah, does he have any pets of his own?

Rose Ordile: You know I didn't get a table to talk to him so much and.

Arden Moore: How was Morris with him. Did Drew, ask for his autograph, paw-to-graph ?      

Rose Ordile: Yes it goes in hand and paw.

Arden Moore: Oh, Okay.

Rose Ordile: Morris has a director's chair that he sits in and he also has, sometimes because he's Hollywood, he wears a sunglasses, so he was Hollywood model today and if you put out your hand, he will greet you with his paw.

Arden Moore: Oh that's nice, that's nice. You know there are some things that we can't train our cats, I don't know if you can share a few tips on how to get the training session perfect, if you will, so that the cat is motivated to want to learn something new. So do you have any, a few easy tips you can share with our listeners?

Rose Ordile: Yeah, what I do when I start training a cat, I first at least watch them to see what they are. Are they more visual, are they more audio, but I also train them with a clicker, which some people may be familiar with, is a clicker and you can get it at your local pet store.

And what I will do, the clicker sound is almost similar to pop-n-open a can of food, makes a similar sound. So when I pop open up a can of '9lives' I'll start clicking the clicker and usually you will have your cat's attention when they are ready to eat.

Arden Moore: That's a great idea.

Rose Ordile: And as I lay the bowl down, I'll start clicking the clicker. So they associate the sound of the clicker with food and then usually that bowl is connected to your hands, so then you become the 'goody lady'.

The clicker is also good, teaching a cat with a clicker is thing, you can teach your cat to come. Like when you call their name, you click the clicker, you pop open the can of food and here they go. So then they are right by your side, which to me is important for, if your pet happens to slip out the door, you just clicking your clicker, they will come running back in, because he thinks he is going to get food, so you are teaching them, that's a good way to start teaching them to come to you.

Arden Moore: Great idea.

Rose Ordile: The next step and easy one to do is to teach them to sit. Kind of, if you have the bowl of food and they are standing and they are looking up at you, you place it a little bit over their head, a little bit behind, so when you kind of go a little bit behind their head, it will cause their little rump to sit down. And as soon as they sit click the clicker and reward them with their food and praise them.

And I do my training time around mealtime, because then I have their attention a little bit more. And I would keep the sessions food short , I keep them fun, and I make it like a game. I end the game before it becomes boring. Because if the game becomes boring, its like, its a cat, I don't want to play that.        

Arden Moore: Well, I think, they will be just grooming themselves or just acting totally disinterested, I think that's when a cat like enough.

Rose Ordile: Or they walk away.

Arden Moore: Yeah, yeah that's always wonderful.

Rose Ordile: That's one more thing that I cannot stress enough and people see Morris like they'll go into his little private bag, when we travel, you know I have a little carrier and they just see him walk right in, and the most comments I get from people is, “Oh my gosh, my cat at home will never do that”. He see that little carrier come out and he goes running.

And the reason for that is because most people use that carrier with a negative ending. Use it to take them to the vat, maybe to take them to the groomer, sometimes all that can be scary. It means you are taking them out of their environment and some cats don't like to travel.

So in order to make the carrier positive, I actually start with bigger crate, one of these airlines carriers and I put a regular litter box in it, so then it also makes it look like it's a covered, its enough like buying letter box, but it's in a large carrier. So they have to go into the carrier, to use the litter box. And then they come out, Then I also start feeding them after a catch in this little food cups to the gate of the carrier.

So then, that carrier becomes something positive. It's become where they go, to use a litter box, it becomes where they go to get a drink of water, where they go to eat. It all becomes positive, where you are making the carrier then a portable bedroom, as opposed to something scary.

Then no matter where you take them, they might be a little bit nervous about where they are going, but they are in their comfort zone of their own portable bedroom.

And for me living in California here, feeding my cats in carriers, is what I do, to make it all positive. But it's sure I had to evacuate because of all fires. So I open up all my carriers, all my kiddies, my dogs, they will go in their crates and it's a safe and easy way to get my cats out of the house safely and may not have to worry where they went.

Arden Moore: Very good point. Hopefully your house was okay.

Rose Ordile: Oh my house was fine and actually it just burnt everywhere around me. It was like, I was like in the middle of the center circle.

Arden Moore: My gosh! But that's a very smart tip Rose, you know we need to be smart, and I think hopefully everyone was listening so that we can make sure that the carrier can be a cool cat condo, and be a good place that they can be assured into, especially in situations like that.

Rose Ordile: And this ain't a situation in every state seems to have. We have earthquakes and bush fires, but every state has something going on.

Arden Moore: I think the meteorologist all over the country are finally earning their pay, they can't just say it is warm and sunny or cool and breezy because, you never know what mother nature's going to unleash on us, anywhere, in any zip code, any area code.

We're listening to Rose Ordile, she is the animal trainer, she trains a lot of famous pets for television and movies and is specially the very famous “Morris the Cat” trainer, that friendly, big, orange tabby who is doing more than being a pitch cat for '9lives'.

He is a pitch cat with a purpose, the cat is going all over the country to help homeless cats and kittens find loving, safe and permanent homes since September of 2006. Rose and Morris and the rest of the Gang have worked together and found homes for one million cats and they are not stopping there.

You can go to what the 9lives.com and catster.com to find out more information, not only on Morris but also about where you can hook up with good match and a good cat or kitten in your area. And by minusing some other things. Rose that you want to add?

Rose Ordile: I think we have covered it all, I can't stress how important this is and everybody's helping efforts out there.

Arden Moore: Well that's great. Yeah, I think you are doing wonderful work and I'm glad that we have someone like you in the world of pets because you are training them with a positive reinforcement and obviously Morris is living proof, that a cat can hang out with people in different places and be calm and secure and healthy.

Rose Ordile: Thank you

Arden Moore: You are welcome. You are listening to the “Oh Behave Show” on Pet Life Radio. I am your host Arden Moore.

Please let us know if you have an idea for a show and post your comments, you can email me at arden@PetLifeRadio.com. Go ahead and click on the petliveradio.com website and take our listener survey it's really easy, it's very fast. We like to stand in touch with you, so that's it for today.

Again I thank Rose Ordile and Morris the cat and my show producer, for making the show possible. So until next time, this is your flee free host Arden Moore delivering just two words for all you 2, 3 and four leggers out there… “Oh Behave”.

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