Kizmet is the purrfect spokescat for Purrk! Playfuls – he LOVES his Deep Sea Bug Toy and knows Chester will love his too!

Well, here it is – it’s officially New Years Eve and we are thrilled to be able to end the year with some good news! Concatulations to Amy Orvin and her cat Chester – they are the winners of our Purrk! Playfuls silvervine cat toy giveaway (Deep Sea Bug) and we just know Chester will love, love, love his new toy!

Thank you again to Purrk! Playfuls for such an entertaining giveaway – our cats are definitely hooked on the feline silvervine and thank you to all of you – we are so grateful for your love and support and hope you have a safe and peaceful New Year’s Eve. We also hope you will take a minute to stop by the blog tomorrow – we will be sharing a special post along with some wonderful family photos of our Christmas festivities that we think you will really enjoy.

Until then, peace out…

Being that I am heavily involved in the Cat Writers’ Association (CWA) and in light of the fact our annual conference will be held at the end of this month, it is not unusual to get a lot of email blasts this time of year about one thing or another. So, when I saw a message in my inbox from CWA Vice President, Dusty Rainbolt on Tuesday, I barely glanced at the subject heading and just opened it, expecting to see something about the conference. Instead, I, along with the whole CWA membership, got the completely unexpected news that Lorie Huston, DVM,  and our CWA President was in the hospital, critically ill due to complications from liver failure. Read more

Today is Remember Me Thursday™ – an annual global candle-lighting event held on the fourth Thursday of September, created in 2013 by Michael Arms, the President of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in honor of people working in animal welfare who are forced to take the lives of pets they love. He felt lighting a candle worldwide for those orphans would be a way for people to let the world know how much they were loved and to “opt to adopt,” reducing the millions of orphan pets euthanized each year. Read more

Wow – thanks to my dear friend, the wildly creative and talented Angie Bailey of the award-winning blog, Catladyland,  and Texts from Mittens, I am about to go on tour! No, not the kind of tour like musicians who make gobs of money while wearing outlandish costumes (unless you count my penchant for wearing leopard ears) on stage and who make outrageous demands for things like green M&M’s only in their dressing room. This is the kind of tour where I make no money whatsoever, I eat whatever is put in front of me, whether I like it or not, and I wear old and baggy sweat pants (i.e., comfortable) with the hem coming undone. Yes, I have been invited to go on the Writing Process Blog Tour that has been making the rounds of late!

This is what I look like on tour – comfortable clothes and unkempt hair with my feline roadies at my side helping me every step of the way. Sigh…the life of a cat writer is very glamorous indeed… (Archive photo from 2010)

It’s pretty easy in premise – after a writer accepts the invitation to join the tour, they answer 4 set questions about, yes, you guessed it, their blog writing process, then when they are done, they invite two other people to join the tour who will write about their blog writing process at some point! So, go grab a cup of coffee and a cat for your lap. My tour is about to begin – and don’t worry – there is no admission charge and I won’t be trashing any hotel rooms after the tour either! Read more

The first picture Angie and I ever posed for together was in 2011 at the Cat Writers’ Conference in White Plains, NY. While much has changed for her since then, one thing that remains the same is her warm nature and beautiful smile.

I met author, blogger, and humorist, Angie Bailey of Catladyland in 2011 when I attended my first BlogPaws conference in Tysons Corner, VA. We were both nominated for a prestigious Dogtime Media Pettie Award – she for Funniest Blog and me for Best Designed Blog. She won and I didn’t, but our friendship began to blossom as we caught up with each other a couple times a year via the Cat Writers’ Association Conferences and subsequent BlogPaws conferences.

In getting to know one another, we have shared some very personal connections and I was actually one of the first people to find out that her dream of writing her first book, whiskerslist, was going to become a reality. She came and sat down next to me after meeting with a potential agent and whispered to me that they loved her concept and signed her on!

Her life has been a cat loving whirlwind ever since then and I thought it would be fun to interview her and share a bit of her life with you all. I hope you enjoy the interview, and as a special treat, Angie has been kind enough to offer one lucky reader an autographed copy of  whiskerslist as well as a signed postcard from Mittens, the newest feline entity in Angie’s life from Texts from Mittens. Just leave a comment to be eligible (sorry, U.S residents only). The contest will be open until Monday, April 7^th, midnight PST, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, April 9^{th. Read more}