SEO title: About Ari Holmes | Fear-Free Cat Behaviorist | Herded By Cats
Slug: /about
Meta description: Meet Ari Holmes (they/them) — a fear-free cat behaviorist and TNR advocate in metro Atlanta on a mission to help cats and their people understand each other.
Hi, I’m Ari — your cat’s translator.
My Story
I fell for cats the way most people fall for a person: completely, and a little against my better judgment. It started with Gator. He was my formative cat, and the one who taught me to actually listen. Gator belonged to my then-partner but it didn’t take long before I was his person and he was my cat. The human relationship didn’t last but Gator and I did. He’s only with me in memory now, but everything I do now traces back to what Gator taught me. (picture of Gator here)
Somewhere between fostering, volunteering, and staying up too late reading feline behavior research, I realized the “bad” cats nobody could figure out weren’t bad at all. They were misunderstood. Every yowl, scratch, and litter box protest was a cat trying to tell us something in a language we never learned.
So I learned it. Now I help other people learn it too — without the fear, force, or shame that used to pass for cat training.
[talk about how you got into TNR – a little bit about the colony/colonies you support, name some of the cats you’ve placed.
My Philosophy: fear-free, always
Cats don’t act out to be “dominant” or spiteful, despite what the internet will tell you. That’s a myth. They act out because something in their world isn’t working: a resource, a routine, a stressor, or a medical issue hiding in plain sight. My job is to find it and fix it in a way that feels safe for your cat and doable for you. No punishment. No flooding. No squirt bottles. Just science, patience, and respect for who your cat already is.
What I believe
- Every cat makes sense once you speak their language.
- Community cats deserve care, not culling. TNR works, and kindness scales.
- Help should be judgment-free and inclusive: every household, every budget, every human welcome.
- The humans matter too. A plan only works if it fits your real life.
Credentials
- TNR-trained; active with local community colonies
- [X] years helping cats and their people across metro Atlanta
The personal bit
When I’m not decoding cats, you’ll find me trap-setting at dawn, over-photographing my own babies, and defending the honor of much-maligned black cats everywhere. Based in Alpharetta, obsessed with the whole metro-Atlanta cat community.
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