I returned safe and sound from BarkWorld without any weather issues other than some turbulence and hope that all my blogging friends who are in the path of Sandy will be okay. Storms like this put life quickly into perspective and remind us just how precious our families and friendships are, as well as our modern conveniences that we often take for granted.

For example, it was incredible to me how we can stay so connected to the world now without giving it a second thought. Everyone either had a laptop computer, or an iPad, or a phone that could instantly upload a picture of  any given moment of the day onto Facebook or Twitter for the whole world to see! Wow! But, even more incredible was a recurring theme that I can’t help but think I am a tad responsible for…. Ears. Especially cat ears. Not only was BarkWorld crawling with our four-legged doggie friends who happen to have ears of every size and shape, but there were A LOT of humans wearing ears!! See for yourself….

This poor soul, Ken Kunz from PetCareRx, was like a deer in headlights with us cat ladies! I told him by the end of the conference he would be wearing cat ears and sure enough, he was...

Unlike Ken Kunz, this gentleman was born to wear ears and was having the time of his life posing with Christine Michaels of Riverfront Cats and I!!

Sigh... this sweet girl who is young enough to be my daughter is Olivia Melikhov, Social Media Manager for the ASPCA.

Cat Ear Power!! Me, Christine Michaels, and Debbie Glovatsky of Glogirly!

I would like to say that the majority of humans wearing cat ears were because of Halloween… but, those of you that know me, know that is not the case!! Seems I bring out the inner feline in people!! But, BarkWorld was not just a fashion show for ears. There were several great seminars that I attended, such as a wonderful presentation by Petco.

Petco has been helping pets for years with in-store adoptions with great success and is now trying out a pilot service in 17 locations across the country called “Train to Adopt.” The first step is to get the pet adopted, the next step is to ensure it remains in the home, happy and healthy, and is not brought back to a shelter at a later date for behavior issues. By doing some basic training techniques, in this case, with dogs, these dogs are taught how to be less excitable by human interaction upon initial contact (thereby immediately being perceived as more adoptable) and to be more calm as they would be in a home setting.  I certainly applaud this approach and it is a similar technique to socializing cats in shelters so that they present themselves in a more adoptable light.

Other seminars I was able to attend included Kate Benjamin of Moderncat who discussed how to find your niche in the pet product market like she does with cat accessories and Stacy Mantle of Pets Weekly did a great job enlightening us on how to blog effectively with time saving tools and marketing tips. There were also cooking demonstrations to make healthy foods for your pets and I was even able to get through my brief speaking ordeal without fainting which I am quite grateful for!!

The majority of the conference was dog oriented, but I must say that there was a very strong cat contingency and I can see the conference growing each year to include more and more cat sponsors and seminars. Katie of Glogirly was there in fine flat pet form to represent cats in her role as Cat Ruler of the World and for those of you who might not be aware, she is also a candidate in the “Friskies Best New Internet Cat Video of 2012” contest and I really hope you will click here to watch her “Accused” video which is just brilliant and vote for her. Zoey even makes a cameo appearance and I can’t but help think she stole the show (well, actually, not really… but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her I thought the dog stole the show). If that doesn’t convince you that cats stole the show, then perhaps my favorite picture of the conference will… I think it sums everything up quite nicely!

No words necessary... Ingrid King of the Conscious Cat, me, and Christine Michaels.