When you’re a parent you never want to see your child suffering. From infancy when you hear a cry in the middle of the night, coming from the room where your child is sleeping, causing you to bolt from bed to care for someone who is utterly reliant on you for their very survival, to a toddler with a scraped knee that you kiss to make them feel better, to those first break-ups or awful moments of peer pressure that most teenagers have to deal with, that you try ever so gently to reassure them are not the end of the world, even though it seems so to them. Even when they become adults, the instinct to protect and shield them from suffering doesn’t end. Read more

My goodness. Another year has already gone by – summer is here, which means the 4th of July, which means Happy Birthday to my wonderful, loving, sweet, and precious rescue, Kizmet, who turns 9 today! It’s been a crazy year, but we made it. Me, in large part thanks to the camaraderie and calming nature of Kizmet’s presence, as he’s always nearby, I think to make sure I’m okay in his mind.

Everything is okay, buddy. Take the day off and enjoy your birthday. Happy Birthday, and Happy Birthday to America, too. And if you missed it, I shared an invaluable post a few days ago with some summer survival tips to keep our feline friends safe, happy, comfortable, and healthy during the commotion of the 4th of July, record high temperatures, and the influx of family and friends venturing back into our homes for social events and celebrations. I hope you’ll take the time to read and share it. Click here for the article.

I realize it’s been forever since I posted and I wanted to let you know all is well, just many personal and work-related commitments that have been keeping me busy and off the radar. Now that the world is starting to normalize a bit more, I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a wonderful summer before time escaped me and to share some tips to keep our cats safe, happy, and healthy during this time of year, as they can be adversely affected by the upcoming 4th of July, the searing summer temperatures, and the influx of gatherings that will be occurring in the months to come as we begin to invite more family and friends back into our homes. Read more

Me, back in 2014 when I began to draft Purr Prints of the Heart, a book to help those dealing with pet loss.

I’m not a professionally trained pet loss expert, but I am an expert at experiencing pet loss and the grieving process. Over the course of my life, I’ve had countless beloved pets – cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, and more. I’ve also lost many of them, so I know just how devastating the loss can be. I know the deep, dark pain that resides in the very core of your heart as a result, making it seem impossible you will ever be able to move on and be happy again, as well as the emotional demons that can invade your every thought as you replay the death over in your mind. I know the subject so well, I wrote a book on it: Purr Prints of the Heart – A Cat’s Tale of Life, Death and Beyond, including a guide for coping with pet loss for people who may need help with the grieving process (endorsed by Bonnie Poirier, pastor at Ministry of St. Francis of Assisi, along with Marty Tousley of Grief Healing.com, and Alice Villalobos, DVM / Quality of Life Scale), and I also created a national day to honor those pets we’ve lost – Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day, held August 28 of each year. Read more

November 8, 2019 was the date I heard a meow outside our garage door early in the morning, the day a little black kitten decided our home was the one he knew in his heart would be the perfect forever home for him. He, of course, was right. Despite trying to find his owner, we had a strong hunch he had been both abandoned and abused, so keeping him really was in his best interest and somehow, he seemed to have already known that when he came upon our house. Read more