ABOUT
CAT URBIGKIT
Cat Urbigkit is a writer, photographer and rancher from
Big Piney, Wyoming. She grew up on tobacco farms in Indiana
and Kentucky, but her family moved to Sublette County,
Wyoming, when she was in middle school. She graduated from
Pinedale High School in 1983, and later married Jim Urbigkit.
They have a ranch raising sheep and Hereford cattle
in Sublette County in western Wyoming. She was a writer
and co-owner of the Sublette Examiner newspaper in Pinedale
for many years, later leaving to free-lance write. Her
articles have appeared in many newspapers, magazines and
on the web.
She spent more than a decade conducting
research on the history of Wyoming's wolves, with her non-fiction
book on that subject, "Yellowstone Wolves: A Chronicle
of the Animal, the People, the Politics," which
was released in 2008 by McDonald and Woodward Publishing
Company. "I
was very involved in the reintroduction issue, so the book
gives an insider's view," she said.
Urbigkit, and her husband Jim, were
party to several federal lawsuits dealing with Wyoming
wolves, including the lawsuit
challenging the wolf reintroduction program and another
that forced federal agencies to release wolf records to
the public as required by the Freedom of Information Act.
She’s an award-winning reporter
and photographer who has also published three non-fiction
photo-essay books
for children on agricultural topics, with two more currently
under contract, all with Boyds Mills Press. CAT'S BOOKS
PUBLISHED WORKS
_________________________________________________
Using dogs to help protect livestock from
predators
2010 Article in Sheep & Goat Research Journal
- by Cat & Jim Urbigkit
Expanding large
carnivore populations pose new challenges for livestock
owners to protect their herds from predators while abiding
to the laws that protect some of these predator species
which are under federal protection. Some sheep ranchers
have used specially-bred livestock protection dogs as a
non-lethal tool to help protect their herds from wolf predation.
Cat and Jim Urbigkit, ranchers in Big Piney, have co-authored
a paper on the use of livestock protection dogs (LPDs),
which was recently published in Sheep & Goat Research
Journal. “The number of LPDs killed by large predators
is increasing,” they wrote. “We conducted a
literature review to identify LPD breeds that may be more
suited for use around large carnivores, such as gray wolves.” Click
on this link for a Printable
PDF of this article. (8 pages, 1590K)
_________________________________________________
 2007 Governor's Capitol Art Exhibition
Two of Cat's photographs
were selected to appear in the 2007 Governor's Capitol
Art
Exhibition
at
the Wyoming
State
Museum in Cheyenne June 18, 2007 - August 31, 2007. The
opening reception is June 22, 2007, featuring an appearance
by Governor Freudenthal. The Governor's Capital Art Exhibition
is designed to promote and encourage Wyoming artist to
build a unique collection known as the Captial Art Collection.
From this collection, the five elected officials (Governor,
Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Treasurer and
Superintendent of Public Instruction) are able to choose
pieces to display in their offices, thus continually
promoting the work of Wyoming artists for the public
to enjoy. Cat's
photos of sheep husbandry is her effort to promote agriculture
in Wyoming.
 Spring 2007 Wyoming Library Roundup - Ag & Ranching
The Wyoming Library Roundup did a 3-page article about
Cat and her family's sheep ranch in western Wyoming.
The article, entitled, "Cats & Dogs: Life
on a ranch for young readers", talks about
Cat's three published children's books about ranch life,
her two upcoming children's
books, and her upcoming adult non-fiction book about
Yellowstone wolves.
Printable
PDF (Note:
this is a large, 31.7 MB file. This PDF will take a long
time to download for users with dial-up and slower internet
connections. PDF requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.)
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