Kelly Clarkson Gives Joyful Surprise to Woman Who Saved Over 1,000 Stray Cats in Just 5 Years

NEED TO KNOW

• Kelly Clarkson honored Jen Knight, who has rescued over 1,000 cats through her foster-based rescue.
• Knight founded Del Gato Rescue in 2020 after her own cat went missing for three weeks.
• She advocates for TNR — trap, neuter, return — to combat pet overpopulation.

On a recent episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, host Kelly Clarkson celebrated animal advocate Jen Knight, who has saved more than 1,000 cats through her foster-based initiative and has been recognized with a PAWSitively Good Award from NBC 4 Los Angeles.

Knight recounted the story that motivated her to launch Del Gato Rescue in 2020. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to foster a cat. However, on her first night with the new pet, the cat escaped through a bathroom window and was missing for three weeks.

“How do you not take them all home? That’d be my problem,” Clarkson remarked, expressing her admiration for the numerous cats Knight helps.

Knight described the frantic search for her lost cat, saying, “I was going door to door… On day 19, this bushy tail walks by the back window, and I was like, oh my gosh, she’s alive.” She later used a humane trap to recover her pet just two hours after setting it.

The Kelly Clarkson Show

Knight, moved by her experience, started conducting outreach in underserved neighborhoods. “We have underserved neighborhoods who are barely able to put food on the table for their families,” she noted. “They can’t afford vet care.” She expressed concern that unaltered cats are often abandoned or allowed to roam freely.

The Kelly Clarkson Show

Knight now advocates for the TNR method—trap, neuter, return—to manage and reduce pet overpopulation. “We go out, we trap the cat, we fix them, we vaccinate them, and we put them right back where they came from,” she explained.

She stressed the importance of returning cats to their original location, stating, “If you put a cat back to a random other location…that cat’s not going to know where the food, the water, the shelter is.” Knight further explained that while feral cats are returned to their environment, friendly cats are often fostered and not put back outside.

During the segment, Clarkson surprised Knight with a $5,000 donation from Whisker, along with an additional $5,000 worth of products for the rescue.

In a related animal-focused segment aired on January 15, Clarkson learned that she has a namesake under the sea. Former preschool teacher Andrea Clulow and her husband, Darrell Clulow, shared their mission to educate children about sharks through their book Finn & Friends and mentioned they named a shark “Kelly Sharkson.”