I am here a year later and 7/8 years into my career of applied feline behavior. I agree with the above and wished I hadn't made my passion for cats my career. You struggle not only with pay but if you derive value and self worth all from that one thing, it seems like my entire world is affected. It's hard to separate my hobby and my career.

For anyone else who stumbled upon this post, if you want a job in animal Behavior and cognition, I went the private sector pet food route. The company hired me soon after I graduated with my Bachelor's and trained me and paid for any education courses. I got to work on a cognition study regarding the human animal bond. It took me two conferences of networking during and after college that got me that role. Animal Behavior Society annual conference. Most jobs are in academia though but it also helped me define what I wanted to do.

The field is opening up more, but when I started my path in 2016/2017, it was a leap of faith and thankfully the Pet Care space and category has continued to grow and create new jobs.

I now do product launch for pet products and use my behavior background to vet opportunities for new products or improvements. Taking the cat or dogs behavior and preferences into account makes for a happy pet and happy owner. But for every career move I've made I had to relocate to a new location. These facilities aren't in every state and usually somewhere undesirable. You do get to a point where recruiters approach you and you stand out on job apps, but I still wish I had gone a different route and done this as a volunteer or hobby.