Oh, Behave
Our Cat Behavior Experts
Ketzia fell into animal welfare accidentally after a lost cat brought her to San Francisco Animal Care & Control. Ketzia began volunteering with the shelter cats and became fascinated by feline behavior, especially how to help ease the stress of cats in shelter environments. She was hired for a position at the front desk that began what would become a 13-year career at SFACC. Over the years, Ketzia worked in intake, adoptions, and client services before joining the Behavior & Training department, where she conducted canine behavior evaluations, managed the cat volunteer training program, and served as kitten foster coordinator.
Ketzia especially loves helping shy or behaviorally complex cats find their footing, and she is passionate about improving the emotional lives of shelter cats through enrichment, thoughtful handling, and helping adopters better understand feline communication and body language. When she’s not at Marin Humane, Ketzia can usually be found exploring the Norther California wilderness, cooking with the abundance of Bay Area local produce, and soaking up time at home with her husband, young daughter, two dogs, Winslow and Charlie, and four beloved rescue cats: Wolfie, Minnie, Theo, and Louisa.
Janian is a Feline Behavior Associate and works with the Cat Behavior Team to evaluate shelter cats. She also provides behavior consultations, designs shelter cat environmental enrichment, and works with Marin Friends of Ferals (MFF) to place working cats. Janian grew up with a wide variety of animals. Her love of cats grew when a family member, who was working at a spay/neuter clinic, took a kitten out of the abortion bucket, opened up the amniotic sac, and brought the tiny neonate home. Janian adopted and raised this kitten and that’s when her passion for cats took off! Since then, Janian has been building her knowledge base of cat behavior and training. She spent several years volunteering with non-profits to better the lives of rescue animals, doing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and taming feral kittens. She also advanced her medical skills at a veterinary clinic and in wildlife rehabilitation.
At Marin Humane, Janian draws from her work and volunteer experience to bridge the communication gap between humans and cats, who are often misunderstood. Whether it’s a phone consult or showing cats to a potential adopter, every interaction is an opportunity to improve the lives of animals and their people. Janian lives in a multi-animal household graced by 2 fabulous ferals who have chosen to live there for 10 and 15 years.
Beth Weil is the Feline Behavior Program Manager. She develops and teaches many of the classes and workshops Marin Humane offers for cat lovers. She draws on her background in Zoology and Biology from UC Davis in her role as shelter cat evaluator and private feline behavior consultant. Beth grew up with cats, dogs and horses but found her passion in cat rescue and behavior after her 20-year-old kitty passed away. She spent 10 years improving the lives of rescue cats before starting to volunteer at Marin Humane. In 2012, Beth retired from her role as an academic biology librarian at a university and joined the Marin Humane Behavior & Training team as the resident feline expert.
Beth specializes in improving people’s relationship with their cats. She firmly believes that training cats is a great way to improve the relationship between people and cats by helping them speak the same language. Her expertise runs the gamut but includes strategies and techniques for the most common feline problems including litter box issues, aggression and helping guardians understand a cat’s perspective when integrating a new dog into the house. She lives with a well-trained kitty, who reminds her to give him his pills and doesn’t wake her up in the morning.
