Sitting at the dining room table with a little help from my feline family as my life as a writer begins...

I love this picture because it symbolizes so much of who I am and where I came from. No matter the circumstances or surroundings, the one thing in my life that remains constant is the love I feel for my cats and vice versa. This picture was taken several years ago – long before I had an office, a blog following, or an ISBN number. I did not even know there was an association for people who wrote about cats, let alone that I would become a member and receive two Certificate of Excellence Awards by my peers – one for my online writing series on mainstreaming feral cats and the other for my series on the cats in the aftermath of the Tsunami disasters in Japan.

Yet, here I am, just days back from BarkWorld in Atlanta, packing to go to the Cat Writers’ Association in Los Angeles… This will be the second conference for me and it will be special for many reasons – I will get to catch up with some of my great writing friends, Jackson Galaxy will be attending and I will finally get to meet him, and this year will be the 20th Anniversary for the Association, so that makes it even more special.

I still have a lot more packing to do, so just wanted to wish you all a wonderful weekend and special prayers and thoughts to all those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

You can’t see my desk and computer from the picture, but I have now graduated from the dining room to an office. The surroundings may be different, but the cats remain constant with me in the background. My favorite part of this picture – Mama Zoey bathing her now 3 year old daughter, Mia.

To see photo at full spookiness, please click to enlarge.

We say “Happy Meow-O-Ween” with a bit of reservation and respect, as we know many of our friends and family are feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy and might not feel like celebrating. We wish all of you well and hope that you will be safe and get through the ordeal as best as possible. Read more

I returned safe and sound from BarkWorld without any weather issues other than some turbulence and hope that all my blogging friends who are in the path of Sandy will be okay. Storms like this put life quickly into perspective and remind us just how precious our families and friendships are, as well as our modern conveniences that we often take for granted.

For example, it was incredible to me how we can stay so connected to the world now without giving it a second thought. Everyone either had a laptop computer, or an iPad, or a phone that could instantly upload a picture of  any given moment of the day onto Facebook or Twitter for the whole world to see! Wow! But, even more incredible was a recurring theme that I can’t help but think I am a tad responsible for…. Ears. Especially cat ears. Not only was BarkWorld crawling with our four-legged doggie friends who happen to have ears of every size and shape, but there were A LOT of humans wearing ears!! See for yourself…. Read more

I say “Meow, Meow,” because despite that I will be gone the next few days attending the BARKWORLD Conference in Atlanta, there will be plenty of us cat people representing the felines in fine form as we learn about new products, blogging, and other great marketing and informative tools to make the world better for pets and animals!! Read more

Some books are read with on edge anticipation, such as a murder mystery, some are read at stolen moments before you go to bed, such as a romance novel, and some are meant to be read to cleanse the soul and rejuvenate the human spirit. That would be the case of Purrs of Wisdom – Conscious Living, Feline Style by award winning author, Ingrid King.

A collection of heartfelt and earnest essays based on her popular “Conscious Cat Sunday” column on The Conscious Cat blog, each essay will strike a unique and personal chord with readers as King offers her “purrs of wisdom” to us harried and over-achieving humans in the form of lessons learned from her feline teachers – both past and present, who have perfected the art of living life without undue stress, anxiety, and guilt. Read more