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After working five years at the shelter and realizing that he was the only black man working there, he had made the choice to change the direction of his life and devote all of his time to helping little cats in need. His goal with doing that is: "to change stereotypes of men in cat rescue and bridge the communication gap between Black communities and predominately white animal welfare organizations." And we think that bringing in new people, of any shape or form, to help kitties in need is an absolutely wonderful thing.
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"I've seen rescue be something that's looked at as hard, tedious, sad," he explained. "If people can see me and I make this look like this is a rock-star type life, this is fun — you can do it." Eventually, his music career money ran out, and he sold everything he had, bought a van and continued paying for cat surgeries to support his nonprofit despite that.
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Next, he decorated his van with TrapKIng logos and kept doing the good work. "I started going into neighborhoods and kids would see me like the ice cream truck," he chuckled. "I would pull into apartment complexes and see young boys running up to the van trying to give me cats. 'Hey Trap, look — I got a cat. Do I get some money?'" And overtime, as he became more and more known, opportunities started coming up, money started coming in, and despite all the difficulties he had, including backlash from the black community, he got through it all and is now running his successful nonprofit.
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Read more about his struggles and the backlash he received in TODAY's original article. And for more happy stories of cat shelters persevering against all odds, read about this kitten nursery.
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