Hi everyone! Whew, while I am no longer president of the Cat Writers’ Association (CWA), I’m still heavily involved in the organization, specifically, helping to coordinate our 27th conference and awards ceremony that was held October 22 – 23, 2021 and it was a lot of work to pull it off! The conference was virtual this year – a first for us – and while it presented some technological challenges, overall, it was a great event with some superb speakers. Registration was required to attend the sessions, so I can’t share specifics on the sessions, but what I can share is our communications contest awards ceremony which was open to everyone (details to follow)!

As I’m sure most of you notice by now, I don’t have the time to blog like I used to, so I really don’t have many pieces I can enter in the contest. That said, I’m honored to have received three prestigious MUSE medallions. One for a post I wrote last year, “Ten Great Reasons to Celebrate Jazmine for Her 7th Birthday,” one for an article I wrote for Catster magazine – Cool Cats: From Motherless Kittens to Ambassadors, (published in the May/June 2020 issue; about the decreasing Florida Panther population) and my Zee & Zoey’s Cat Chronicles Facebook page for Rescue/Advocacy.

With limited time at my disposal – between my day job and trying to write my next latest and greatest non-fiction novel, Facebook is my primary source of communication, so I was really thrilled to receive recognition for the page. If you don’t currently follow the page, I hope you will after this.

And for those of you that would enjoy watching the CWA awards ceremony in full, check out the video below for your viewing pleasure! Thank you all for your support over the years as well. You all are so dear to me and I appreciate you sticking by me and my feline gang!

P.S. One of my proudest moments as CWA president was starting the tradition of holding a fundraiser for a cat rescue in conjunction with our conference. I’m pleased to say that tradition continues and there is still time to donate if you want to participate in this year’s fundraiser. Donations are welcome by anyone and we have some great door prizes, too. This year, our rescue partner is Help With Cats, a nonprofit organization that coordinates resources to help community cats in the Greater Phoenix Area with their primary focus on targeted and sustained trap-neuter-return.

Help With Cats was chosen by the incredibly talented Kate Benjamin of Hauspanther, our keynote speaker this year, to receive our support for cats who are in need but often forgotten. You can learn more about Help With Cats, the fundraiser, and the prizes, by checking our fundraiser page here.

30, 40, 50, 60…Typically these are milestone birthdays, not 61. But for me this year, when I turned 61 last month on September 26, it was a milestone, because it’s a day I’ll never forget. Maybe it’s because last year when I turned 60, it was rather anti-climactic. It’s not that I wanted pomp and circumstance and a big celebration, but Covid thwarted everything anyhow, making the day a quiet hurrah as I celebrated at home with Dan and the cats. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but the day didn’t have the impact I thought 60 would bring. Read more

Happy 8th Birthday to Jazmine!

Happy 8th birthday to our lovely, funny, sweet, spoiled, sometimes naughty, and completely cherished, Jazmine! We love you so much and thank you for brightening our days with your gigantic heart and personality!

Happy. Grateful. Blessed. These are the feelings I have when thinking of our Zee who is celebrating his 16th birthday today. Last year gave us a scare. Zee had been losing significant weight, he was lethargic, and he was drinking water excessively. A trip to the vet gave the initial prognosis of diabetes, with us going through the traumatic experience of drawing blood from a vein in his ear each morning (maybe twice a day, depending on the results) to test his glucose level in order to determine his proper insulin injection amount. Read more

Hail to the Queen of Ginger – our beautiful diva, Jazmine. I think she wears her title and crown well.

Well, it only took 365 days to get here, but what’s probably the most important day of the year is finally here. What? Oh, sorry, I stand corrected. Jazmine has informed me it is the most important day of the year – Ginger Cat Appreciation Day – and she’s also informed me every day should be Ginger Cat Appreciation Day.

Honestly, I can’t say that I disagree. Just look at the face…what’s not to love every day of the year? I’m so in love as a matter of fact that my next book project is about ginger cats. So, let’s see some ginger cat love today. How many of you have, or had a ginger cat? What were their names? Did they have any funny habits or do you have a favorite memory? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Jazmine also says to remind you she has her own Orange Crush Ginger Cat Love page on Facebook and Instagram. You can check her out here on Facebook and here on Instagram.