October is National Black Cat Awareness Month* and last Saturday (aka Caturday) to promote the cause, I shared a photo on several Facebook pages dedicated to black cats of my black cat rescue, Shadow, with the brief caption, “Celebrate! The Beautiful Black Cat.” The picture was simple – a closeup of him with an uncluttered, softened background, with my equally simple call to action in the text of the post: “October is Black Cat Awareness Month, so let’s celebrate this Caturday by sharing the awesomeness of black cats with pictures of your beauties today! This lovely model is our rescue, Shadow, who showed up at our doorstep about a year ago.” Read more

For Mia and me, our happiest moments are those that are also the quietest.

I love all my cats, each for their wonderfully distinct personalities, but I share a special affinity for my sweet Mia, a cat who most vividly mirrors me, were I a cat and she a human. We both have our moments of strength and boldness, but for the most part, we are introverts at heart, rather unbothered by our frequent desire for peace and solitude. Read more

Then and now. Our Jazmine has matured into such a beautiful adult cat.

Seven years. Our precious, beautiful, and loving ginger baby, Jazmine, is seven years old today. When Dan and I first came upon her at Global Pet Expo in March of 2014 at the Imperial Cat booth as a rescue kitten up for adoption, there was an initial internal struggle of “do we,” or “don’t we,” despite her melting our hearts instantly upon looking at her sweet face. It wasn’t so much because we didn’t want to, it was more a matter of me specifically. We had recently lost our beloved Ragdoll, Jazz, in 2013 and I didn’t know if I was mentally ready for another cat in my life or acclimating it to our seven other residing cats in an already fragile cat dynamic, no matter how ridiculously adorable this kitten was. Read more

In this current COVID era in which time doesn’t seem to evolve, but drifts endlessly from one day to the next with nary a distinction between what day of the week it is, let alone what month it is, the same does not hold true with my beloved senior cat, Zee. With him, I’m painstakingly conscious of every fast-paced tick of the clock that passes within this slow-motion world. Read more

Joy. By definition, it’s the emotion of happiness we experience, caused by something exceptionally wonderful or pleasurable to us. Losing a beloved pet is not joyous. The pain associated with the loss and the grief to follow can range from anger to denial, to depression, to a deep, overwhelming feeling of despair and sadness. Time may soften the pain, but it truly never leaves the heart. Despite that, there is joy. It’s just a matter of perspective and how you find it, and with today being Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day, that’s what I’ll be focusing on. Read more