She was awoken out of a restful sleep, as she was every morning, to the pleasant buzz of her alarm gently telling her it was time to jump of bed, rejuvenated and refreshed, with the prospect of a brand new day filled with endless possibilities ahead. Today, however, a low rumble of thunder greeted her as her feet hit the floor and as she ambled to the bathroom, the bedroom shook slightly from the wrath of the impending storm. That’s how a writer would describe last Wednesday morning, creating a mood and sense of foreboding to the reader that something ominous was on the horizon to otherwise happy and normal circumstances. Were this scene to be translated to the big screen, audience members would be screaming, “Watch out person!” “Get back in bed, something bad is going to happen!” Read more

There are only so many ways you can use the word “cat,” so just how does one go about picking a fresh, clever, and unique name for their cat blog amid the sea of competition?

It’s interesting, but when you boldly decide to write and self-publish your own book with no prior experience under the disillusioned assumption you will become an overnight sensation, that premise leaves a lot of room for reality, which is a vastly different scenario. I say this because now that I am a bona fide blogger with several years of blogging under my belt, I realize I didn’t really think things through in the naming of my blog department because I just assumed my renowned author celebrity status would be more than enough to drive traffic to my site. Brilliant plan, Deb… Read more

I sent the kitties on a wild goose chase to uncover a hidden message and they are looking high and low to find the clue! Check it out and see for yourself!

Peanut says, “Is it around this corner?”

“How about under here?” says Rolz.

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking,” says Harley.

“Whoa!” says Kizmet. “Is that it?”

“Ho Hum,” says Zee. “I’ll get to it when I can.”

“Guys!” ” I think it’s over here,” says Jazz.

Sniff… sniff… “I think it might be here,” says Zoey.

Good girl, Mia!! Just keep looking up and you should be able to see the clue!

Yup, little Mia has found the clue and you guessed it, hard to believe, but it’s Petties Nominations time again and once again we are asking for some support if you feel we would qualify for any of the categories.

As usual, the kitties and I have to admit that we’re not big fans of having to ask you over and over to support us, but since we could possibly win $1000 for our Pawsitivley Humane non-profit that Christine Michaels and I are managing, we really felt we had to try to give it a shot. We are officially a 501c3 organization and our goal is to educate people on proper pet responsibility so that less animals end up on the streets and in shelters and we also are looking for ways to encourage adoptions for black cats, senior cats, and cats with disabilities that are harder to adopt. We will be officially launching the non-profit in the next few weeks with all the details, but until then, we at least wanted you to know we are on the map!

But, regardless of whether or not you want to nominate our blog for any of the categories, we still recommend you participate because you have the ability to nominate your favorite 501c3 shelter or rescue to win $10,000 which is an incredible amount of money that would go a long way to helping a lot of animals. Seriously, how often to you get an incredible chance like that to help a worthy cause – all it takes is a few minutes on your computer! You can also nominate someone for the Unsung Hero Award, which is an award to recognize the thousands of volunteers doing incredible work on behalf of homeless animals. DogTime Media is asking the public to nominate those who have gone above and beyond for shelters and rescue organizations in their area and the winning recipient with the most inspiring story will win a $10,000 donation to the shelter or rescue organization of his or her choice.

The nomination process is actually quite easy! Just visit the Petties site once a day (click here) between now and June 28th and nominate your favorite blogs as well as whatever shelter you would like to win the $10,000 grant.

The choice is yours, but we are thinking perhaps you might consider us for “Best Cat Blog,” “Best Designed Blog,” or “Best Blog Post” (you can nominate us for more than one category if you want). All you have to do is log in with your facebook account or your email address and plug in our url which is www.zeezoey.com/blog. And if you are considering us for any of our blog posts, these two were a couple of my favorites this year and very popular:

https://zeezoey.com/blog/dear-editors-my-response-to-the-cats-killing-birds-study/

(My editorial response to the cats killing birds controversy)

https://zeezoey.com/blog/zee-zoeys-spayneuter-series-part-one-the-facts-of-life-the-101s-of-kittens-and-conception/

(The piece I did on kittens and conception for Spay/Neuter month)

You can nominate your favorite blogs once a day, every day, through June 28th and after the nomination process closes, voting for the nominated blogs will begin on July 5th and close July 31st. Thank you for your possible consideration and good luck to all! Oh, and in case you missed last Saturday’s post announcing that June 8th was “National Deborah Barnes is Trying to get on the Ellen DeGeneres Show Awareness Day,” she has not called me yet, so there is still time to contact her to let her know I am waiting…

There are 365 days in the year and it seems like almost all of them have been claimed for some sort of awareness day for one reason or another. The year is almost half over and we have already had National Spay/Neuter Month, World Spay Day, National Hairball Awareness Day, Be Kind to Animals Week, National Kids and Pet Day, National Pet Month, Adopt a Cat Month,  Hug a Cat Day, and Pet Appreciation Week to name just a few. As a cat blogger, this can really start to get out of hand, especially when some awareness events fall on the same day and don’t get me started with the ones that have nothing to do with cats such as Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, Winnie the Pooh Day, and National Asparagus Month.  How does one prioritize all of this awareness? I typically leave it to other more talented people to champion and just hand pick a few special days to highlight throughout the year such as World Spay Day, which is my all-time favorite, not to mention, I prefer to love, hug, and appreciate my pets and animals all year long and don’t really need a specific reminder to do so. Read more

While I was technically only gone a few days attending the 2013 BlogPaws Conference, when I returned home on Sunday it took me a while to adjust back from being treated like a pampered queen to the jarring reality of dealing with the frustrations of driving to and from work in congested rush hour traffic to a completely non-feline related day job, massive pounds of laundry, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, and the unglamorous role of litter scooping servant to my eight cats who seemed overjoyed to bestow me with an endless supply of “gifts.”

After the devastating and overwhelming events in Oklahoma and nearby areas that have been affected by the brutal aftermath of the tornadoes, my annoyances seemed so petty and insignificant, causing me to question if I should even bother posting about BlogPaws at all. In the scheme of things it seems so frivolous and unnecessary, but then I realized nothing could be further from the truth because in actuality, it is the very people who make up the microcosm of BlogPaws that are the very people who are the harbingers to helping others, whether it be two legged, four legged, fur, feathers, or anything in-between. The people who are part of the BlogPaws family are your bloggers, your rescue volunteers, your shelter workers, your veterinarians, your blog readers, your social media giants, your pet related retailers and food manufacturers, and so much more. We inspire our communities to make the world a better place and the people of Oklahoma will need our love, support, prayers, voices, strength, fund raising efforts, ideas, mental and physical power, and tenacity to help them get through this.  Read more