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!

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

I find the older I get, the more I contemplate and respect the fact that our physical time on this earth is not infinite. Our eldest cat, Mr. Jazz, has had some health issues of late and I have been treasuring my time and moments with him on a different level. I have become both nursemaid and companion to him and while he is not always been thrilled with my efforts to help him recover, he seems to understand that I truly am trying to make his life more comfortable. We have mutually accepted the fact that each day we have with one another is a gift and I find that comforting because it has caused me to slow down a bit and re-prioritize what is important in life.

You will find that I comment less on facebook and blogs now. I will get emails and politely let someone know that I will get back to them, but not necessarily at this very moment. I am still on my computer all day and night, but I will also walk away from it without guilt, which has not always been easy for me to do in the past. My cats are my Zen and their friendship is my first place prize. So, on this Wordless Wednesday, I ask that you all take a look at this image of Zee enjoying the simple act of spotting a bug on a leaf and look for a small pleasure moment that your cat is sharing with you today. I guarantee that it won’t be hard to do at all and that you will feel all the better for looking for it.

Last weekend I went outside with the intention of doing a little gardening and came back inside a relatively short time later to compose this essay that I posted on facebook that many of you have already seen:

Since it is now June 1st, this got me to thinking about gardening in a larger sense, because when I used to live up North (upstate New York), I loved this time of year because I knew many of my favorite summer flowers would be in bloom like black eyed susan’s, daisies, lilacs, peonies, irises, and roses .  Read more

Cats have an instinctual need and desire for tall vertical spaces, places to hide to feel secure, and the outdoors, but as pet guardians, how do we combine all of these unique elements into one practical entity to fulfill those feline needs with style, safety, functionality, and comfort? The answer came to me quite unexpectedly one day when I received a random email from a company called “Catreesort.”

The email was brief and simply said “I am a manufacturer of a new great cat tree called “Catreesort” designed to look like a real tree in your house, and yes, it’s washable!” I get a lot of emails about cat products for me to try out, but very few catch my attention as being something new and unique. This one, however, intrigued me – my cats love trees and I wanted to see what a cat tree resort actually looked like. Somehow I envisioned it as something I might see on an episode of Jackson Galaxy’s “My Cat From Hell” as a positive behavioral apparatus to keep a cat happy and stimulated and I wanted to see if my instinct was right. Read more