I'm not sure if this opportunity would be available in other communities (even ones with these specific kinds of labs) or how to find out if so. So apologies in advance if I can't give other cat owners tips on how to replicate this. But in a pretty awesome turn of events, I finally got my cats to pull their own weight around the house and they'll be earning more income than me (I'm FIREd) from now on!
I saw the post on NextDoor - a local was soliciting cat poop "donations" for her business, which helps animals (including other cats) with GI issues get fecal transplants/repair their gut biome. For this, they need healthy poop. I offered and figured it would be a one-time thing and that it was truly a donation.
What I found out was that they apparently need it on an ongoing basis...like indefinitely. And they need it every day. So they are willing to pay for it and instead of putting the cat poop in the trash like we usually do, we put it in a cooler they provide for us and they pick it up outside our home daily on weekdays. That's literally all we have to do. And each cat gets paid...more than enough to cover their food, litter, treats and toys each month!
I thought this seemed a little too good to be true. How could they need that much poop? How do they not have volunteers coming out of their ears? Well, apparently, only 10% of cats qualify for their standards. We had to send in samples and it took them a couple weeks to get them completely tested for unwanted parasites and pathogens and wanted bacteria. Our cats both qualify (and all cats have to qualify if a multi-cat household, since it's hard to separate poop by its source if only one is good enough) but it makes a little more sense now why they are willing to pay.
So I got my (their?) first payment today! In addition to pulling their own weight, we'll be putting money in their "Feline 401(k)s" for old age. My last sweet best friend had lots of medical issues as she got older that were very costly. At the time I was making a ridiculous amount of money and decided I didn't want to know how much it was costing me overall. I should be more careful now. But also, I kinda don't expect this to last for a long time so no big plans for the money. I'll take it for however long it does last, though!