Passion To Create A Happier World For Cats And The Humans Who Love Them Sparked Idea For First Children's Book By Author And Roosevelt Island Resident Stephen Quandt - Follow The Adventures Of Happy Comes Home

Roosevelt Island resident Stephen Quandt works as a nationally recognized, certified feline training and behavior specialist, based in New York City with his company Stephen Quandt Feline Behavior Associates. 

Mr Quandt is now a recently published children's book author of Happy Comes Home.

According to Mr Quandt:

I started working with cats and clients in 2002, and in time began working for the ASPCA. I now work at one of the largest open admission shelters in the country, the Animal Care Centers of NYC. My passion is to create a happier world for cats and the humans who love them, and this passion sparked an idea for my first children’s book; Happy Comes Home. My husband Thom illustrated the book and we wrote it as a way of connecting with people, children and their families who either want to get a cat, or maybe have a cat who has some behavior challenges, or just love a great feel-good story about a cat!

Photo Credit Linda Becker

The premise is we have a family: mom, dad and their child Avery who all want a cat (Avery very much wants a cat!) and they go to a shelter and find a sweet looking cat whom they name ‘Happy’. They adopt Happy and bring this wonderful cat home imagining all the great things Happy would do, like stretch out on the sofa purring, sleep at the foot of Avery’s bed, and eat yummy food while the family ate their dinner. But when they got Happy home, it was a “cat-tastrophy!” Happy scratched up the sofa, stole the family’s dinner and woke the parents up in the wee hours of the night. The parents wanted to return Happy but Happy was Avery's best friend, so something had to be done.

The family did some online research and found a certified ‘Catsultant’ named Mr. Top Cat who coincidentally resembles a feline version of myself. Mr. Top Cat appears at the door to help set things right. And what follows are a series of easy to take in teachable moments that help guide the family and Happy so that everyone can be the happiest versions of themselves. Mind you, Happy has always been a super happy cat, just a cat without manners!

Thus begins the adventures of a cat, a child, and a family trying to find the happiness so many of us seek with our feline friends. Would Happy be allowed to stay? Would Happy settle down? The answers lie in the bond between Happy and Avery, and the common sense behavior tools that Mr. Top Cat brings to the family using his deep understanding of the nature of cats.

You can purchase Happy Comes Home at Amazon.

Learn more about Mr Quandt at his website.

Also, Mr Quandt shares his experiences Helping The Dogs Of Chernobyl at this prior post.

The Dogs Of Chernobyl, A Close Up And Personal Story Told By Roosevelt Island Resident And Animal Welfare Professional Stephen Quandt Describing Spay, Neuter And Research Campaign Of Dogs Descended From Pets Abandoned After Nuclear Plant 1986 Disaster

Stephen Quandt is a Roosevelt Island resident and animal welfare professional. Mr Quandt has worked with the ASPCA Field Investigation and Response Team, Animal Cares Center of New York and currently in private practice doing feline behavior consulting.

Mr Quandt

Photo Of Sthephen Quandt By Rita Gassanova Inside Chernobyl Dog Clinic

shares his experience working with the Clean Futures Fund Dogs Of Chernobyl Project.

According to Mr Quandt, in 2019,

I went to Chernobyl to participate in a spay/neuter campaign for the dogs that were descended from the pets left behind after the nuclear plant disaster of 1986. With many personally shot photos  I tell my story of meeting the inhabitants of the mostly abandoned town of Chernobyl City, the totally abandoned city of Pripyat and the dogs (and some cats!) that we encountered. It is a story of resilience, hope, life and even heroism....

It's quite a story - read it below.

Here's more on the Dogs of Chernobyl from the Clear Futures Fund.

Roosevelt Island Resident Stephen Quandt Presents "My Story of the 2019 Spay/Neuter Campaign for the Dogs of Chernobyl Project and the Clean Futures Fund" Webinar Sunday March 14

Roosevelt Island resident Stephen Quandt reports:

The Dogs of Chernobyl 38 Years After the Nuclear Reactor Accident, My Story 

Date and Time 

Sun, March 14, 2021 

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT 

$5 

My Story of the 2019 Spay/Neuter Campaign for the Dogs of Chernobyl Project and the Clean Futures Fund 

 About this Event 

38 years after the nuclear accident I went to Chernobyl to participate in a spay/neuter campaign for the dogs that were descended from the pets left behind after the nuclear plant disaster of 1986. With many personally shot photos and videos I tell my story of meeting the inhabitants of the mostly abandoned town of Chernobyl City, the totally abandoned city of Pripyat and the dogs (and some cats!) that we encountered. It is a story of resilience, hope, life and even heroism. Q&A to follow.

 Click here to register for Stephen Quandt's webinar:

 The Dogs of Chernobyl 38 Years After the Nuclear Reactor Accident, My Story

More info on the Clean Futures Fund Dogs Of Chernobyl Clear project at their website.

Roosevelt Island Resident Stephen Quandt Is A First Responder For ASPCA's Anti Cruelty Group Field Investigations & Response Team - He Describes Acts Of Kindness And Shared Humanity In Small Wisconsin Town, Homemade Cupcakes Too

Roosevelt Island resident Stephen Quandt has a difficult job and sees much pain and cruelty. But he also sees and recognizes acts of kindness. Mr Quandt reports:

How is Roosevelt Island like northern Wisconsin? Perhaps it sounds like an odd comparison unless like me you have spent time in both places.

I work as a professional first responder for the ASPCA's Field Investigations and Response Team, a division of their Anti-Cruelty Group. The FIR Team responds nationwide to large-scale criminal cruelty cases like blood sports (dogfighting and cockfighting), hoarding cases and puppy mills often involving many hundreds of animals, sometimes thousands. We also respond to disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and fires.

I work in the Medical Dept. which involves doing everything from assisting on forensic exams (the collection of medical evidence on living animals) providing administrative support and giving treatments and medications to sick or injured animals. What I learned late in life and is so hard to explain is the profound experience of relieving suffering in others. For reasons I don't understand this deeply moving experience is not taught or given to our youth but is mysteriously saved for professional programs like medicine, ministry, counseling and the like.

During my first case in Wisconsin three years ago, I was on a crime scene for the first of several cockfighting cases there. We were on “a farm” of sorts for days collecting evidence, triaging and treating chickens. At one point I was in the woods under a pop-up tent in a thunderstorm helping to examine chickens. Our first chicken escaped through a hole in his coop and ran across the road never to be seen again. It was challenging work. One day perhaps to lighten our mood Sergeant Brent of the county Sheriff’s dept. brought us all cupcakes. Homemade cupcakes. Homemade by him he made a point of telling us, and not by a mix, and not by his wife. The cupcakes were all arranged on a tray, and on the icing was spelled THANKS ASPCA!

Photo by Stephen Quandt

This was my first time in Wisconsin and I was thinking “Where am I?”

Very recently I was back in Wisconsin for another cockfighting and dogfighting case involving 1700 chickens and twenty or so dogs. This would be my third trip to Wisconsin in as many years. When I got to the hotel in the small town I was staying in, I asked the hotel manager on duty if I could Uber or Lyft to the nearest grocery store for supplies. He chuckled and said that he was sorry but there was no Uber or Lyft in this town. There wasn't even a taxi company. I was completely mystified. But then he really rocked my world by saying, "If you like, you can borrow my car while I go swimming in the hotel pool after work." I stammered, "Ahhhh how long will you be swimming?" and he replied, "For about an hour." So, while my mind did somersaults I accepted his offer and again thought to myself, “Where am I?"

What I saw in Wisconsin was one farm rolling into another. Corn and soybeans being grown to within one or two feet of the edge of the properties, farmers demanding every possible ounce of produce from the soil. Our nation is fed by states like this. At first I didn't understand why the grocery stores didn't seem to have a lot of produce. Then someone explained to me that everyone grows food. That helped explain the signs by the road that said, "Free tomatoes, take as many as you want." Kindness helped explain it too. And on this trip I happily saw (now) Lieutenant Brent again.

Stephen Quandt (left) and Lieutenant Brent Standaert (right) of the St. Croix County, Wisconsin Sheriff’s department.

His school district's PTA would bring us treats!

What we share on Roosevelt Island with Wisconsin isn’t in the nightly news. It’s in our shared humanity. It’s in our ever-present opportunity to be kind.

After three trips to Wisconsin I was still asking myself the question, "Where am I?" when I finally figured out the answer.

I was in America.

Learn more about the ASPCA's Field Investigations & Response Team at their web site and from this video.



Mr Quandt has previously reported on similarities in Island life between Roosevelt Island and Little Cranberry Maine.

Chelsea Couple Find A New Home On Roosevelt Island - Enjoying Small Town Life In Little Apple NYC And Little Cranberry Island Maine Too

Stephen Quandt recently moved to Roosevelt Island. I asked him for his impressions of his new home here on Roosevelt Island.

He kindly agreed and reports:

Moving On Island

Soon after closing on our new apartment on Roosevelt Island this July (my husband Thom and I lived in Chelsea for twenty-four years) we ran away to the Maine coast for a week of stress relief and escape.

When we arrived on Little Cranberry Island, our twentieth summer there, we were greeted by many old friends the same way over and over, "Welcome Home”, they said.  Welcome home. And it was like coming home, to our magical place.  Little Cranberry has a year round population of around sixty people, and in the summer the population swells to about four hundred. It’s roughly the size of Roosevelt, maybe a little wider, and not as long.

There is one restaurant. One small grocery store about the size Roosevelt’s Subway shop, a post office, a library not much bigger than a postage stamp, a couple of art galleries and gift shops, a pottery shop and a couple of churches. That's it.

Tuesday is movie night (free) downstairs at the Neighborhood House (upstairs they show kids movies, and in the morning there is yoga.)  And if you're walking through "town" you often get delayed because you will invariably see a friend and will want to stop and talk. If you see someone in a hurry they're probably trying to "make the boat" which means they're trying to get to the Tram, oops I mean the ferry before it leaves. People who wear helmets while bicycling are definitely day-trippers.

Speaking of day-trippers, when they get off the boat and amble down the dock they'll walk into the dock shops not unlike going into the Historical Society kiosk. They buy little island maps (one dollar, supports the historical society) and tee shirts and stuffed lobster toys and homemade fudge. They ask for directions and we happily give them.  We bask in belonging but we are glad they visit.

Sometimes when I'm on the boat returning to the island I can feel the difference between us and them, the residents and the day-trippers. I know I'm coming home, and they're just visiting. They don't yet know the joy of belonging.  They don't know what it's like when the last boat leaves for the day and it's just "us". Unless of course someone misses the last boat and then one of us will put them up for the night.

I'll never forget one perfect July afternoon “on island” (don’t ask me why, but residents always drop the “the” before “island”, maybe it’s a part of belonging). That glorious day the clouds were rushing by, the just warm sun on our faces, what many of us call “sailing weather.” The annual Maypole dance was being performed in the town field by the ocean with live music and a nice crowd watching (it's too chilly in May so we always wait until July to perform it). And there was this Norwegian family, parents and two young kids, just off the boat and who had wondered into the field. Maybe they heard the music wafting towards the dock? Try to picture them. All four standing in a line staring at the dance. All four, mouths agape. All four watching the kids and grown ups weaving the maypole streamers to the notes of flutes and violins. Perhaps wondering…."Where are we?"

Thom and I have always wanted something like this year round. Our own Little Cranberry but close to the city.  And we’ve realized we've found it here on Roosevelt. Realized it when we told a Roosevelt Island friend of ours that we had just closed on our new apartment “on island” -- realized it when he sweetly and innocently said just two magical words to us. He said, "Welcome home.”
© Copyright 2017 Stephen Quandt

Another similarity between both places. At one time, Roosevelt Island was known as the "Little Apple".  Let's take a visit to Little Cranberry Island Maine and see what life is like.

Meet some of the people. Affordable housing is an issue on Little Cranberry Island too.



The local fresh lobster business is trying hard to make it a success.



The view from above


Maypole: Little Cranberry Island, Maine from The Knowles Company on Vimeo.

and Little Cranberry Island's version



of Jimmy Buffet.

Welcome home on Roosevelt Island Stephen and Thom.

UPDATE 8:10 PM - The NY Post reports today on another Island community, Newfoundland, Canada - also known as The Rock.

Home. The best island you’ll ever visit requires mittens | New York Post. https://t.co/GcQTjirxYx

— Alan Doyle (@alanthomasdoyle) August 11, 2017

Roosevelt Island has also been known as The Rock.