It’s a cat rap. Contrary to popular belief, cats don’t have nine lives.

For abandoned felines, protecting their one life is a daily struggle — from contagious diseases and parasite infestations to exposure, poisoning, and predator attacks. Even for those lucky enough to reach adoption shelters, nearly one million cats and kittens are euthanised each year in the United States.

So how do you get people to care about a public health crisis in the animal kingdom? You write a rap song, of course.

I wrote “Cat Rap” for Best Friends Animal Society as part of a short film and social campaign reminding people that cats, just like us, only live once. It wasn’t my first attempt at writing a rap song, but it was the first one to be published — and it was for a cause worth rapping about.

The idea brought together two of social media’s favourite things — cats and hip-hop — to drive people, beat by beat, toward adopting from Best Friends shelters nationwide. The more people heard Cat Rap, the more they understood that the story about cats having nine lives was, frankly, a load of crap.

Because C-O-L-O: Cats Only Live Once.

The social video went viral almost immediately, earning 10,000 organic views on the first day. In less than two weeks, it reached more than 50,000 views and 70,000 impressions.

The video was retweeted, shared, and liked across Best Friends’ national and regional pages, and was picked up and reposted by one of the nation’s top cat behaviourists, Jackson Galaxy.

Creative Director/Writer

Awards: Winner Creative Floor Awards, Silver Telly Awards, Bronze PM 360 Pharma Choice Awards, Shortlisted at the Shorty Social, Shorty Awards and Global Awards