My goodness… I can’t believe I haven’t posted something since Easter! What this tells me is a reality that I’ve been having a hard time coming to grips with, but the glaring truth nonetheless: I’m not Super-Woman and I’m literally incapable of managing an extremely demanding full-time day job, my more than full-time position of president of the Cat Writers’ Association, which includes coordinating a 25th anniversary conference and awards banquet, my home and personal life, and a blogging/writing career in the 24 hours a day I’m given. Something must give, and for the time being it’s my personal writing.

Oh, and did I mention there is also a stray cat who has quite happily taken up residence in our backyard. I say stray, but he’s probably not a stray, but rather someone’s cat in our neighborhood who has decided he prefers to spend most of his day napping in the resort-like accommodations of our tropical backyard paradise. I can’t say I blame him, but my own cats are less enamored of his smoky gray coat and emerald green eyes than I am, letting me know with some indoor territorial spraying. Yay! Who doesn’t love that? And it’s also National Pet Month, something I normally enjoy writing about, but something I don’t have the time for this year.

Smoky, yes, we’ve named him Smoky, is quite content in our backyard!

But, no matter how hectic and stressful it all is, I still make time for my kitties and if I don’t, they make sure I do! My cats are both resilient and accommodating – it’s rather simple for them – if I’m going to spend all my waking hours at home in my office, glued to my computer, then they will find a way to keep me company. Such as napping on my computer keyboard or on my lap, or on one of the several dozens of boxes stacked in my office.

No matter how glued I am to the computer, Kizmet is by my side every step of the way.

Anyhow, I’m off to St. Louis today to hang out with a wonderful bunch of cat-loving people who will help keep me centered. It’s going to be a whirlwind of activity – it’s our 25th anniversary and I’ve done my best to make it an event to remember! We have 17 sessions, 24 speakers, a mega book signing/fundraising event for the Humane Society of Missouri (HSMO), and our awards banquet just to name a few of the great things going on.

We’ll be posting lots of pictures on Facebook Twitter, and Instagram (just look for the hashtag #cwa25) and we’ll also be doing Facebook live throughout the conference, including our awards banquet – visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CatWriters where we’ll be sharing details in the next day or so.

This young girl is reading to one of the HSMO cats as part of the Ready Readers Tale to Tail program.

I also wanted to let you know that even if you can’t attend our conference, you can still be part of it. We have put together a donation link for our fundraising event and not only will your donations help take care of the HSMO animals, but they are also used for fantastic educational programs, such as the Shelter Buddies Reading Program, Ready Readers Tale to Tail Program, Teacher Resources – Compassion in the Classroom, and School, Scouts, and Group field trips. And if you can’t donate, sharing this post would be much appreciated as well – the wider the audience, the more funds we can raise! And who knows, maybe among the youth of these programs, we have a future CWA member in our midst! Please click here to donate.

Thanks, everyone – I miss you all and hope to be blogging again soon one of these days!