Back in the fall of 2015, I was laid off. I’d been laid off before, so I was experienced with the “it’s not you, you’re great, but we’re just going in a different direction,” scenario. Regardless of how they sugarcoat the blow, it’s demoralizing, and it hurts, especially considering I was living from paycheck to paycheck, so any negative change in income was bad news. Like grief, one tends to process the pain in various stages, and for me, one of the ways that helped get me through the days as I struggled to look for new employment was taking early morning walks around the neighborhood to clear my head and start each day with a positive outlook. Read more

My seven cats on any given morning of the week, circling like hungry sharks as they wait for breakfast.

Rain or shine, weekday, weekend, holiday or not, my get-out-of-bed morning routine is set-your-clock-to-the-minute established to be 5:30 a.m. My cats insist on it. Friday, November 8th was no exception. It starts with an unnecessary preamble of meows and paw pats to my face to get me out of bed, just in case, despite years of dedicated servitude, I might forget and sleep in until 5:35 a.m. I begin the routine by making the rounds scooping the numerous litter boxes, promptly followed by the feeding process – freshwater and filling seven bowls with assorted individual meal requirements for my seven cats. Seven cats in case you didn’t catch that. Read more

It’s the story of any multi-cat household and it’s usually not intentional. It starts with that cute cat that was given to you as a gift, because, well, it needs a home and who else better than you to give it one? And then that rescue you had to help with, resulting in you taking the cat home because goodness knows what would have happened to him had you not stepped in. And of course, that foster stint that was supposed to be temporary but was a resounding failure, represented by the cat contentedly taking residence on your bed, along with that cat that showed up out of nowhere on your doorstep that you were going to feed “just that one time,” that you have now been feeding for over two years…and just like that, you’re officially a multi-cat household. Read more

Sleep in? Not on my watch, you won’t!

I’m a very early riser. Some due to the fact I have a day job, requiring I get up to make it to work by 8:30 a.m., and some due to seven restless cats with persistent paws to my face and demanding meows to my ear who insist a minute past 5:30 a.m. is bordering on abuse, because how dare I not have fed them breakfast yet? A lot of it is also simple mathematics – I have too much to do nowadays and getting up early gives me an extra hour or so to get personal things done (i.e., things involving my cat writing world) before I head to work. Read more

My love of leopard and cats knows no bounds…

Considering I wear cat ears at nearly any occasion that will allow it, even being reprimanded by a fellow cat lover at one event where I could have worn cats ears and didn’t (she indignantly claimed she didn’t recognize me), and considering I’m officially known as the leopard lady (hence every leopard item on earth being forwarded to me to see via email and social media) it’s clearly not a secret I’m a bonafide cat lover. Read more