We’re looking forward to introducing you to Jenne Mundy. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Jenne, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Most people don’t realize that you can do behavior work with cats. Cats get such a bad rap, like they don’t care about their owners or they choose to act out of spite. “Cats are jerks” is something I see over and over, and it’s the worst kind of propaganda; it’s not true. You can work with cats, train them, teach them boundaries, ask them to live with dogs. Cats behave “badly” because there’s something wrong, either medically or emotionally, and they need our help.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Jenne Mundy, and my business is CatProfiler. I’m a cat behaviorist. I created a novel methodology that allows me to interview owners and quantify each cat and their circumstances so I can predict their behavior. My feline profiling model has tons of applications: understanding each cat’s psychological blueprint helps correct unwanted behavior, find good matches when it comes to adopting new pets (or new humans), and recovering them quickly when they get lost. If you know what your cat is thinking, you have a better chance of making them happy. Head off medical emergencies at the pass. Make home life less stressful. And cement your bond.
CatProfiler started as a huge mistake back in 1996 when my two cats fell out of the window of my new apartment.
One was a tabby named Tilda: a serene, tiny Buddah in a kitty zippersuit. Nothing phased her. The tortoiseshell was Katka. She was Tilda’s exact opposite. Katka suspected the worst of everyone. Where I saw friends, she saw monsters. She treated my family like serial killers wearing clown suits while they juggled chainsaws. Katka operated on pure terror all the time, terror that escalated when she was in an unfamiliar environment.
When they fell out of the window, Tilda walked right up to me. No muss, no fuss, and no rough stuff. But Katka might as well have vanished into another dimension. I stayed up every night, prowling the courtyard, the alleys, trying to figure out this huge riddle of where she’d go, why she wasn’t answering me. I considered portals, wormholes, time travel, and aliens. And slowly I realized that I knew where she’d go and how she’d behave because I knew this cat. She wasn’t behaving in a way that was outside the normal for her. She was just doing it outside. I finally got her back three months later.
This was in the early days of the internet. It was the era of dial-up modems, message boards, and chat rooms. I spent all my non-prowling time in these spaces, begging for and providing support for other people with lost cats. When I got Katka back, they started asking me to do the same for their cats. But how would that work when I’d never met those cats? So I developed the methodology, the way to quantify strange cats by interviewing their owners. People started offering me money to help find their cats. It wasn’t a proper business for a long time. It was more like a paid hobby. I didn’t dare to come out as a real pet detective for years, and when I did, most people laughed in my face. They still do.
I recently launched a line of cat behavior-themed vintage posters: horror and travel. Your cat’s revenge fantasies when you apply the flea medication. And the destinations they really want to go, like the top of the fridge, or the backyard. Selling merch helps me fund my volunteer work with lost cats!
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
My brother Ben — even though he had to yell at me a few times before I finally got it! He’s the one who told me that I should quit my old job and start CatProfiler. To him it was obvious: what I really wanted to be doing was talking to people about their cats all day long.
I had so many weird hangups, voices in my head telling me I couldn’t start my own business, that I should feel shame about stepping away from a more conventional, lucrative career path. He told me most people never figure out what lights them up, what makes them look forward to waking up in the morning. And to be able to get paid to do that thing? I was being an idiot.
The voices haven’t gone away completely: when I started making the merch, I had nothing but doubt. What if no one liked my stuff? Luckily my brother Ben is always around to yell, “Don’t be stupid!” And he’s right! I won’t like myself very much if I let fear dictate my choices.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I’ve helped people find 1500+ cats all over the world. There’s no better feeling in the world than when I get that call or that text and I can hear the cat meowing or the human crying and that family is reunited. It’s pure, all-encompassing, unadulterated joy, and it expands me until I feel like my heart will explode.
But there’s another side to this: I spent more than 20 years of listening to people at one of the lowest times in their lives. That’s a lot of years of being a safe space for other people’s despair, agony, grief, loss. It’s taken a toll. In 2018 I hit a solid wall and just thought “no more.” I had nothing left to give people. I found myself impatient, annoyed, or frustrated with people. I took a year off and looked for work elsewhere, which wasn’t easy because I hadn’t been in the real life job market for twenty years! After doing some part-time forgettable things, my own pet sitter hired me. She’s the one who got me to admit to myself: working with pet owners is what I’m best at. It’s like I was created to do this one thing.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I don’t take advantage of my clients. I don’t talk about what they’ve shared with me about their lives, their families, their pets, their choices. I don’t ambulance chase. It’s easy to get money from people who are desperate and grieving, which is why I often don’t charge people at all. There’s no code of conduct or ethical standards in what I do, so I stick to my standards and what I believe is right. I protect my clients to the best of my ability.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What will you regret not doing?
Social media. I already regret it. I remember someone telling me in 2008 that I had to put myself all over Facebook and Twitter. I just thought that all the self-promotion felt so unseemly and braggy and just icky. I told myself that I couldn’t, because I was protecting the clients, but honestly, I should have shared the methods, the ideas. I didn’t, and now in 2025 I’m still trying to convince people that what I do is real.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.catprofiler.com/
- Instagram: @catprofiler
- Facebook: @thecatprofiler
- Youtube: @catprofiler
- Other: https://catprofiler.etsy.com
