Christopher Gutierrez: We exist to provide a little bit of help
A conversation with the Catcade co-founder and emo legend
Welcome to Human Pursuits, the column that features need-to-know names and stories in media and other creative spaces. Today, an interview with Chris Gutierrez, co-founder of the Catcade, a non-profit cat rescue in Chicago, and 2000s emo legend.
Inevitably, profiles on my next guest mention a few things.
His roots in the Chicago punk scene. His relationship with bands like Fall Out Boy and Rise Against. His idiosyncratic approach to writing social media captions.
But I feel that only scratches the surface of the man, the myth, the legend that is Chris Gutierrez. A.K.A. “Hey Chris”. A.K.A. deadxstop.
Did you know, for instance, that he loves the Chicagoland restaurant chain Portillo’s, or that The Sex Pistols are his favourite band? Did you know this published author recently did a nine-hour D-day-themed walking tour?
I doubt it.
And so, clearly, we have much to discuss.
While he’s forever immortalized in the chorus of a classic F.O.B. chune, Chris’ niche brand of a celebrity now also extends to the world of cats and people who love them.
In 2017, he started the Catcade, a non-profit cat rescue, with his partner Shelly Casey. To date, they have facilitated more than 3,000 adoptions.
In recent years, Chris and the Catcade team have hosted a Prom to help raise funds to save more at-risk cats. It’s the sort of thing Leah and I would normally love to attend in person. Since we can’t, I figured an interview might be a nice way to show our support.
Our edited and condensed conversation touched on the Catcade’s DIY roots, applying punk ethics to the world of non-profits, Chris’ cat guy origin story, World War II walking tours, his feelings about being remembered as ‘Hey Chris’ in 2025, and more.
If you live anywhere near Chicago and want to attend the prom, tickets are available HERE. Otherwise, please consider donating HERE.
Finally, a big shout out to Friend of the Newsletter for connecting me and Chris. His hardcore-fanzine-slash-newsletter, Anti-Matter, is currently on hiatus but you should subscribe anyway to stay informed about his next project.
Ethan: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me. I know you’re extremely busy with the Prom.
Christopher Gutierrez: It’s madness. This is our busiest time of year. We have the Prom but we also have our yearly audit that we have to do, and that's a pain in my ass.
Ethan: Oh baby, you’ve come to the right place. This newsletter loves transparent accounting.
Christopher Gutierrez: When you run a nonprofit [the government] is like, “Hey - we’re gonna allow you to be tax exempt, but we’re also gonna look at everything under a microscope.” Suddenly you’re pulling 150 receipts and having to explain what you bought at Home Depot on September 3rd. And once you make enough money, you have to go through an independent auditor who will report back to them. Those people are not nice…
Ethan: Does the process get easier the more successful you are? Or harder?
Christopher Gutierrez: In some ways, it's easier because you’ve already done it before. You know how to set your expectations. “Okay, it’s audit month so don’t plan anything big.” But the bigger you grow, the more complicated things become. It’s like that in any business. If you open one Chipotle it comes with a certain amount of frustration. If you open 13 more Chipotles it adds so much more to your plate.
Ethan: How is the Catcade doing at the moment?
Christopher Gutierrez: We’re fortunate to be running a sustainable business. I use the word fortunate very rarely because we built our business with intent. But we’re incredibly lucky to have found a community that supports us, that believes in the work we do, and who donates to us. They’re the reason we were able to purchase our own building and outfit it with a surgical suite, and they’re the reason we’re able to employ a vet to come in to do surgeries on-site…
The reality is that the overwhelming majority of non-profit rescues are basically operating month to month… They do it out of their love and care and compassion for saving animals, you know? They think “Nobody in my neighbourhood or area is doing this, so I have to”. It gives you hope, but you also can’t believe how many people are out there doing it.
Ethan: Your business is sort of the ultimate DIY fantasy, hey? Doing things completely on your own terms.
Christopher Gutierrez: Yes! Thank you for noticing that. I say that to anyone who will listen.
At its core, what we do at the Catcade is a punk rock ideal. We took those DIY ideals and applied them in a different context. We did it in a way that was a middle finger to many of the norms that have been established in the rescue community.
When we started, a lot of people did not know what to make of us. We looked and sounded so different, and we got a lot of criticism for it… We had the executive director of another rescue tell us “You can look and sound the way that you do but you’re going to lose donors. You’re going to turn off a lot of older people. They aren’t going to like the way that you swear, or how you overshare, and talk about your feelings, and the cats you can’t save.”
The Catcade is our second home, it is where we spend nearly all of our waking hours. So why not do it in a way where we feel comfortable? What’s the business worth if you’re just selling yourself out? So we do overshare because it’s a journey. I want people to be invested in us. I want them to see our ups and downs, our wins and losses.
Ethan: All of that gives people something to connect with.
Christopher Gutierrez: We also want to show you what we do with your money. So often people will donate to some fundraiser on Facebook and you never see what happened. Did the person buy that couch? Did they pay their rent? Your money just evaporates, and it sort of makes you less likely to donate again.
We want to be the opposite of that. We pride ourselves on talking about how much vaccines cost, and how much surgery costs. Like, “See this broken-ass cat? See how it needs to have a leg amputated? We’ll be back in a week to show you that same cat without the leg.”
We exist to provide a little bit of help. We can’t save them all. We can’t save even the majority of them. But what we can do is make a small bit of difference…
Ethan: In my experience, every cat guy has an origin story. I’d love to hear yours.
Christopher Gutierrez: I’ve always been a cat guy. Ever since I was a little kid. My first memories are of cats. My mom loved them and so we had a lot of them growing up.
Ethan: Do you have any cat-related tattoos?
Christopher Gutierrez: Yeah I’ve got a portrait of my girl Layla on my hand. She’s the greatest thing that’s happened to me in a decade.
Ethan: What’s Layla's story? You’ve had so many cats, so I’d be interested to know what makes her unique.
Christopher Gutierrez: We found her at a PetCo. She had dried blood on her and I thought “What the hell?” It turned out she had been hit by a car. She was found on the northwest side of Chicago, she was lying with her intestines all on the street, and her tail was degloved – all the skin was ripped off – and her tailbone was exposed. Somebody picked her up off the street and brought her in and paid for surgery to put her back together again and somehow she pulled through, minus the tail. She’s got this little nub we call the Atari joystick…
But, yeah, she was in the PetCo. and I kept seeing her, and one week I walked there to get food for my other cats, and I said, “If she’s still there we’re gonna get her.” We ended up adopting her. She is the sassiest lady. She is not a fan of many other people or cats, but she loves the shit out of me.
Ethan: Dude, that’s amazing. I hear a story like that and it gives me hope. But I wonder how you maintain hope when, as you said, you can’t save every cat you encounter. Have you found strategies to make it easier?
Christopher Gutierrez: That’s a great question. A lot of people assume working with cats is amazing and I have to tell them it’s more heartbreaking than anything. About 85% of the cats that come to us are sick… But there are also severe cases of abuse. I could go on and break your fucking heart with stories, but I’m not gonna do that.
In those heartbreaking cases, though, I allow myself 15 seconds of anger. I give myself 15 seconds to get it all out, to say fuck you, I want to find you, people are fucking trash. But then I focus on moving forward… I remind myself, and our staff, that that is why we exist. We exist to provide a little bit of help. We can’t save them all. We can’t save even the majority of them. But what we can do is make a small bit of difference in the handful of cats that we can save.
To date, we’ve saved almost 3,300 cats from being euthanized. That’s 3,300 cats that have 3,300 homes. I can’t tell you the number of people who come in and say “Thank you for saving my cat”. And I get it. If I could meet the person who saved Layla I would donate to whatever cause they had. I would buy them food. I would buy them dinner. Just to say “Thank you for doing that.” Not only for Layla but for me, for my family, because she is my family.
Ethan: Not to shift gears too much but since you brought up food, I know you’re a big Portillo’s guy and I’m just wondering what the deal is.
Christopher Gutierrez: Laughs. I dunno. It’s a Chicago institution. I mean, now it’s nationwide. But it was like Chicagoland’s version of In-N-Out.
Ethan: I really want to limit my Fall Out Boy questions but did you ever get Portillo’s with them and if so do you remember their order?
Christopher Gutierrez: Ugh, I’m sure we did at some point but I honestly don’t remember.
Let me put it to you this way. You probably had a group of friends 25 years ago. And maybe you’re not so close with them anymore. But then suddenly somebody’s like, “Hey, do you remember that time when you guys did this thing,” and it’s like “No, because in the moment I didn’t think it was something I needed to remember.”
Ethan: That’s fair. Is it weird for you to, I dunno, go on Reddit and see these kids talking about some drama you had with Pete Wentz a whole lifetime ago? I feel like it must be exhausting.
Christopher Gutierrez: Not at all, and let me tell you why. Like, yes, I’m more than the dude that had friends and had a song named after him. But one day it snapped into perspective for me. I’m obsessed with the Sex Pistols and I realized, if you told me that you worked as a roadie for them on their Ill-fated 1978 U.S.A. tour, I would punish the living shit out of you about it. I would ask you every question that I could possibly think of. And it’s the exact same for these kids. They come into the Catcade, and they’ll ask me about drama from literally 25 or 30 years ago. They mythologize this thing that I was part of. To them, I am a roadie for the Sex Pistols. How hard is it for me to give them a little insight into something that they think is the coolest fucking thing in the world? It’s not fucking hard.
Ethan: Plus, your past experiences have helped inform some of what you’re experiencing in the present. People can be interested in multiple facets of your life.
Cute cat pics are awesome. But the people who hold my attention are the people who advocate and educate.
Christopher Gutierrez: We’re throwing a silent auction at the Prom, and we wanted to offer people an experience to bid on. Whenever friends come to Chicago, I’ll drive them to cool spots from the early 2000s, where people hung out, where we lived, where certain songs were written. I like showing off my city, and I have a little bit of insight that people find interesting. And so we’re doing a version of that for the fundraiser. The winning bidder gets a two-and-a-half-hour pop-punk tour with me. They can even bring two friends.
Ethan: I’m so glad you mentioned tours because I noticed you recently went on a D-day walking tour. I didn’t realize you were such a WWII guy.
Christopher Gutierrez: I’m a kid raised in the 80s. We had Rambo and Missing in Action, and Iron Eagle and Top Gun. We used to go out and play war in the woods. But then you watch some of the newer movies, like Saving Private Ryan, and read more books and watch more documentaries, and, I don't know… The immensity of World War 2 is something I can’t wrap my head around. It’s so dense. It’s so almost unfathomable to me that I need to try to understand the humanity behind it.
Ethan: To bring it back to cats quickly, for better or worse, you’re low-key a cat influencer, and I wonder who is influencing you when it comes to felines.
Christopher Gutierrez: I don’t really follow any specific cats. I follow people who advocate for cats. Hannah Shaw, a.k.a Kitten Lady, and her husband Andrew Marttila, who is a cat photographer. They just published a New York Times bestselling book called ‘Cats of the World’… The amount of good and education that they have put out into the world is immeasurable. She has put out some of the most informative YouTube videos I can think of when it comes to cat behaviour, and how to care for them. It’s inspiring.
There are a lot of local rescues here in Chicago that do amazing work, too. One Tail at a Time, Felines & Canines, both huge influences on the way we do sustainable and responsible rescue.
Ethan: If I hear you right, you’re a mission-driven individual and you like to follow people with similar values. You’re not necessarily looking for people posting cute photos of cats.
Christopher Gutierrez: Exactly. Cute cat pics are awesome. But the people who hold my attention are the people who advocate and educate. How are you using your spotlight?
Ethan: Totally. At first glance, someone might think the Cat Prom is silly but it’s trying to do serious good.
Christopher Gutierrez: Back when I was a hairstylist, I had a client who told me “Everybody, if we’re fortunate enough to live long, has the ability to live three completely different lives.” She sat in my chair, and she was almost 70 years old. In her 60s, her husband had divorced her. He was this super high-powered lawyer, and he left her with nothing. She didn’t know what to do with herself. Her whole life she had only been a mom and a wife. But she ended up becoming a very successful commercial real estate developer. It’s never too late to restart your life.
I’m fortunate enough to have gotten the chance and the opportunity to try different things in life, and I think I’m richer for the experience. I’ve gotten to see different perspectives and meet so many different people, in so many different countries. People who wouldn’t have talked to me if I was some guy walking down the street. But because we have commonalities, whether its music, or writing, or cats, we get to meet each other and learn and grow.
There’s that old cliché that variety is the spice of life. I don’t know if that’s true. But it’s definitely what brings out life’s colour.
Christopher Gutierrez is the co-founder of the Catcade. He lives in Chicago. Tickets to the Catcade Prome are available HERE. Otherwise, you can donate HERE.