Little miss Mia all coy and sweet for her Easter picture!

Oh, my catness! It’s already Easter! I’ve been so busy pulling together the last-minute details for the Cat Writers’ Association 25th anniversary conference and awards banquet that I’ve barely come up for air. It will be held on May 16 – 18 at the Drury Plaza Hotel at the Arch, St. Louis and the clock is ticking to get everything done! And not to pressure anyone, but if you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time – we have an amazing lineup of speakers, an incredible book signing and fundraising event for the Humane Society of Missouri, prizes, gifts, celebrity cats, entertainment, and our annual awards banquet which promises to be a spectacular night! You don’t have to be a member of the CWA to attend – please click here for full details.

Keep Easter safe for your cats by avoiding dangerous temptations such as curling ribbon, cellophane grass, chocolate, and Easter lilies.

Anyhow, whatever you’re doing -whether it’s a peaceful day with family and friends or a catch-up day like mine, I hope it’s a day filled with blessings. And don’t forget how curious our feline friends can be  – Easter is a wonderful time but there can be many things dangerous to cats. Curling ribbons and cellophane grasses if ingested could become entangled in their intestines, causing them to twist and close off requiring dangerous surgery. Chocolate is highly toxic to cats and so are those beautiful Easter lilies we are all familiar with. And if a cat eats a small toy or decoration, they could possibly choke on it, so really the best thing to do is keep these types of temptations away from your cat. To be safe, keep both the phone number of your veterinarian and the pet poison helpline programmed on your phone in case of emergencies (poison helpline is 855-764-7661).

Happy Easter – love, and purrs from Deb and the Zee/Zoey gang!

Love from Rolz, angel Jazz, Peanut, angel Harley, Zee, Zoey, Kizmet, Jazmine, and Mia.

It’s a Blog Hop!

It all began with sweet Kit.

Many years ago, long before she was even a kernel of leopard-spotted existence in my life or this world for that matter, Zoey had already stolen my heart. It began with Kit, a stray cat I found in my driveway one cold and damp evening when I lived in Upstate New York. Of course, I took her in and she went on to live a happy and full life with me. When she passed at eighteen years of age, it was not a surprise as I had been mentally preparing for months, if not years, for the inevitable day she would no longer be with me. Read more

Queen Zoey – the ultimate cat goddess…

Let’s see. I’ve stepped in vomit. Broken up an overly dramatic hissing-fit between two equally assertive alpha-cats. Cleaned up urine as a result of said hissing-fit in which spraying was the retaliatory method of choice. I’ve also stepped on 14 plush toys left out, making their way as a trail from the bedroom to the kitchen as some sort of homage to the food dishes on the floor, glaringly empty of food. All before 5:00 a.m., the appointed hour my seven cats give me the not-so-subtle wake up call that I’ve had more than enough sleeping in like some sort of lazy vagabond and it’s time for breakfast, thank you very much. I can assure you, the routine is not for the weak of heart. That said, these are my cats and I love them unconditionally. I also respect them. I understand what might seem as a nuisance to some, are behaviors that come with the territory of cat guardianship, and I’m okay with that.  Read more

There’s not much more fun than photo editing my beautiful ginger cat, Jazmine, for an Irish pose!

So it’s St. Patrick’s Day…or in my world, St. Catrick’s Day. As with many holidays that have become Americanized, it’s strayed a bit from its original roots and evolved more into a general day for anyone, whether you’re Irish or not, to join team green and have some fun. I’m not much into the big parties, parades, drinking, kissing the Blarney Stone, or searching for shamrocks, but I do have a bit of Irish blood in me and I do enjoy dressing in green, being one of my favorite colors. I also love photo editing stuff around my cats to celebrate the day. Read more

Me, a book, and my cats. My everyday happy place…

Each year at the beginning of March, school children kick off National Reading Month by celebrating the birthday of the wonderful Dr. Seuss, who was born on March 2, 1904. Teachers develop contests, family literacy events, and more, and with the help from Read Across America, they hope to motivate kids to read every day of the year. For me, it’s a subject dear to my heart in so many ways. I was painfully shy through nearly most of my school going years, and I was also persistently bullied which triggered me to withdraw into a shell even more. Books were my comfort, my solace, my safe island, and my friends. Without them, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the day. Read more