{"id":14952,"date":"2015-07-08T00:10:48","date_gmt":"2015-07-08T04:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=14952"},"modified":"2015-07-07T19:12:19","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T23:12:19","slug":"hug-your-cat-day-a-mandatory-part-2-in-perpetuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/hug-your-cat-day-a-mandatory-part-2-in-perpetuity\/","title":{"rendered":"Hug Your Cat Day – A Mandatory Part 2 in Perpetuity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hug-Deb&Co\"<\/a>

This was the image I shared for Hug Your Cat Day – I love this picture because all of my cats are sharing the love with me!<\/p><\/div>\n

June 4th was Hug Your Cat Day, but somehow it just doesn\u2019t seem like enough. On Monday, my dear friend, Caren Gittleman of Cat Chat with Caren and Cody<\/a> did a review of Purr Prints of the Heart<\/a> that really stopped me in my tracks. You always run the risk of asking a friend to do a review \u2013 will they be honest with what they write, or will they feel obligated to say something positive so as not to risk hurting feelings? For those of you that know Caren, she is a straight shooter and that happens to be one of the reasons I adore her so much. She tells it like it is and she doesn\u2019t pull punches. When I read her review, she brought me to tears. I knew it was the real deal \u2013 it came from the heart and she really got the essence of the book.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t yet read the review, I hope you will (please click here<\/a> to read) \u2013 the wonderful thing about it, is that it allowed for the comfortable forum\u00a0that we all need when it comes to sharing the memories of those pets in our lives that we have had to say goodbye to. There were a lot of great comments and it really opened the door to honest conversation. But it also brought to the surface, once again, just how fleeting life is. We have these precious beings in our lives \u2013 our cats \u2013 and then they leave us. My point? That we need to love and hug our cats every single minute of every single day when the opportunity presents itself because the time we have with them is precious and borrowed in the scheme of our own lives.<\/p>\n

\"Deb-1\"<\/a>

Surrounded by some of my feline loves as I give Zee a big hug!<\/p><\/div>\n

This came to a jarring reality yesterday. One of my friends, Melissa Lapierre of Melissa\u2019s Mochas, Mysteries, and Meows<\/a>, someone who had also reviewed <\/a>Purr Prints of the Heart, shared this heartbreaking\u00a0message on Facebook:<\/p>\n

I don’t even know how I’m typing this because I’m still so numb and in shock that I can’t even think straight. Just after midnight Truffles passed away. She had a blood clot, a saddle thrombus, and nothing could be done. It just doesn’t seem possible…two years to the day that Tara died. I’ve often wondered which is worse…a long illness or sudden death. Now I know. I just feel like the entire world has stopped.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Valentine-greeting-card-with-little-cat-and-pink-hearts\"<\/a>

A tribute card I made for Melissa. Nothing can take away the pain, but I felt I had to do something to let her know I was thinking of her…<\/p><\/div>\n

My heart stopped at that very moment as well. The floodgate of memories of unexpectedly losing my precious Harley a little over a year ago, hit me deep in the gut. I cried all day for Melissa and Truffles. Even though I have written a book about the grieving process, it does not mean that I am magically exempt from pain and I was overcome with the emotion of what I knew the days (weeks, months) ahead would be like for Melissa as she tries to make sense of something that makes no sense at all.<\/p>\n

And that is why I say, one day to honor hugging your cat is not enough. Hug your cats, all of them, whether they like it or not, ALL THE TIME<\/strong>. I posted this random status update<\/a> on Facebook last weekend (after I gave my cat Mia a hug that she was not necessarily ready for) and it seems quite fitting at the moment. This was what I said:<\/p>\n

I literally cannot walk past any of my cats without giving them a hug, smooch, snuggle or cuddle… whether they want it or not… they are just so darn irresistible! Raise of paws from those that do the same…<\/em><\/p>\n

This update got 77 likes and over 40 comments. Certainly not record breaking like a Grumpy Cat post, but in my little world, that was a lot of interaction and it proves one thing \u2013 we all agree that every day, every minute, every opportunity is the right time to let our cats know we love them. Life truly is fleeting, and as my wise Mr. Jazz would say:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how it is with pets \u2013 we open our heart and home to them, but they are with us for borrowed time. Treasure each and every moment you are blessed to have with them as if it might be your last because life truly is fleeting.<\/em><\/p>\n

Have a lovely Wednesday all \u2013 now go and hug your cat(s) from me!!<\/p>\n

\"deb-and-peanut\"<\/a>

No matter what I’m doing, if one of the cats wants some loving or attention, I will stop what I am doing for just that. I don’t ever want to live in regret…<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 4th was Hug Your Cat Day, but somehow it just doesn\u2019t seem like enough. On Monday, my dear friend, Caren Gittleman of Cat Chat with Caren and Cody did a review of Purr Prints of the Heart that really stopped me in my tracks. You always run the risk of asking a friend to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1094,1100],"tags":[95,676,1003,671,1004,1005],"class_list":["post-14952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-healing","category-purr-prints-of-the-heart","category-wordless-wednesday","tag-cat-chat","tag-grieving","tag-human-cat-bond","tag-pet-loss","tag-purr-prints","tag-truffles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/deb-and-peanut.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14952"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14963,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14952\/revisions\/14963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}