{"id":3401,"date":"2011-09-10T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=3401"},"modified":"2016-01-17T15:41:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T20:41:25","slug":"my-favorite-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/my-favorite-things\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For those of us in the vast cat blogosphere, I would wager only a small handful of us have not heard of the Petties Awards, as the event has become prominently mainstream as of late. I know for me personally, it seemed my whole life for the past few months had been consumed with little to nothing else.\u00a0 Now that the dust has settled and I find myself with time to reflect, I realize that although it truly was an honor to be nominated for \u201cBest Designed Blog,\u201d I also realize the awards\u00a0are highly subjective and not without certain limitations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being a lover of writing and books, I have an enormous personal library of literary works \u2013 some are reference, some are worn and beloved classics, some are deliciously racy works of fiction, some are epic historical romances of days gone by,\u00a0and, of course, many of them are about cats! With each and every day that passes, I find for me, that I now have a certain few cat blogs that I frequent regularly that are becoming a cherished collection of works, just like my library.<\/p>\n

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My cat Rolz as he stretches regally next to my prized book collection<\/p><\/div>\n

A couple of the Pettie Award winning blogs were already worn out favorites of mine, such as\u00a0 The Conscious Cat<\/a> that won\u00a0for the category of\u00a0\u201cBest Pet Blog,\u201d and\u00a0\u00a0Catsparella<\/a> for “Best Social\u00a0Interaction Blog.”\u00a0\u00a0At BlogPaws, I was introduced to further winners with blogs that I was unfamiliar with, such as Catladyland<\/a>,\u00a0Covered in Cat Hair<\/a>, and Modern Cat\u00a0<\/a>, and I am looking forward to adding these blogs to my growing and now quite eclectic collection.\u00a0 And I would be remiss if I did not mention several Pettie nominees who did not win, but that I already absolutely love such as I Have Cat <\/a>and Mr. Puddy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this brings me back to why I was reflecting and why I say the Petties are subjective. There are literally thousands of blogs devoted to the subject of cats, each one of them important to the author who created it. Some are intended to teach us, some to entertain us, and some for no reason at all other than to share the love of a pet.\u00a0 Within those blogs, and outside of the Petties, I have a handful of blogs that I am very devoted to for my own personal reasons \u2013 none of them are similar \u2013 each is uniquely wonderful to the personalities of the authors themselves and I wanted to share my thoughts on them and why they are so important to me.<\/p>\n

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One of Bernadette's favorite portraits - "Peaches and Peonies." Peaches was 15 years old when her owner passed away. Bernadette adopted her and they become fast friends. Peaches too, has since passed on, but she remains a treasured memory to Bernadette.<\/p><\/div>\n

Bernadette Kazmarski of\u00a0\u00a0The Creative Cat\u00a0 <\/a>was introduced to me by Ingrid King of the Conscious Cat. Being a new author looking for ways to increase my circle of like-minded peers,\u00a0Ingrid felt Bernadette and I would have a certain kinship and\u00a0boy was\u00a0she was right. Bernadette is an extraordinary and gifted artist in every sense of the word and I was immediately captured by her deep, compassionate, and soulful ways. She is a writer, a photographer, a poet, and a painter – all\u00a0wrapped up in the context of her love for animals, especially cats.\u00a0\u00a0The first post I ever read of hers was\u00a0 titled “How Much They Care,” <\/a>in which she shared her opinion\u00a0that cats have an enormous capacity for emotion, love, intuitiveness, and concern, despite what the critics might say. She wrote with such profound honesty and heartfelt emotion that she brought me to tears and the post stayed in my thoughts for days. Not so much because she made me sad, but because she so eloquently and beautifully expressed the deep and profound love that I too feel for my cats.\u00a0I know how special they are, what a gift they are to my life, however short or long I am graced to have their companionship, and she expressed those thoughts to me in such a gripping\u00a0way that it reached the depths of my heart and soul.<\/p>\n

Bernadette feels the words she writes and each post she writes is a chapter in a book of a lifetime – she has the ability to be both haunting and melancholy, yet very humble, richly descriptive, \u00a0and honest – above all, she respects cats and it shows in every post she writes. She compliments her\u00a0posts with either\u00a0beautiful photographs that she has taken herself or paintings that she has created. Whether a photo or canvas, the lighting and composition is so superb that each\u00a0image alone causes you to take a moment to pause and reflect, as\u00a0you are\u00a0furher pulled\u00a0into the beauty of\u00a0 the story she is weaving. I could be wrong, but I feel that Bernadette is a deeply private person, despite that she shares so many personal moments of her life and\u00a0I feel privileged to be a part of her world. She and I are also part of a wonderful club – we both have seven cats, so I know she truly does understand just how individually unique and special\u00a0each of these creatures are.<\/p>\n

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The next blog that I enjoy enormously was also introduced to me by Ingrid, and once again, Ingrid was spot on with her assessment of bloggers I would connect with! I reached out to Layla Morgan Wilde of Cat Wisdom 101 <\/a>asking to be her friend on facebook. What followed was a chain of events that are now becoming seemingly more and more \u201cnormal\u201d for me. She responded by inviting me to a birthday party<\/a>\u2026 for her cat\u2026 her cat with one eye, the irascible Odin! Once the shock wore off \u2013 just where was my life leading me? A birthday party for a cat? I realized that it was exactly where I belonged and what I wanted to be doing. I responded by creating my first ever \u201cCaturday\u201d post <\/a>by doing a parody of my cat Mia driving to the mall in her convertible to buy a new hat to wear to Odin\u2019s birthday party! It was completely silly and a wonderful venture into the world of clip art and Photoshop as I used Mia as my kitty Barbie Doll for a day of dress up!\u00a0\u00a0Soon after that, I\u00a0became hooked on Layla\u2019s blog, in particular, her Saturday posts that are a guilty pleasure of mine! I find that I like to grab a cup of coffee as I share my day with Layla, her human husband, and her\u00a0four feline household stars – Merlin, Gris Gris, Domino, and Odin, as well as one foster – a miss Ling Ling, and, as of late,\u00a0a Bengal stray that has taken up room and board!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What I love most about Layla is that she has a wonderful sense of honest humor and a conversational\u00a0 way of bringing you into her world, primarily through the perspective of her cats who take turns writing.\u00a0Becasue she typically writes through the eyes of her cats, especially on her Caturday posts, she is spot on accurate in understanding the nuances of a cat and her storytelling is compelling, humorous, and thoroughly engaging. She peppers each post with vivid and stunning photographs of her gang that she has taken and I\u00a0literally feel as if I am walking down the garden with her and her cats, enjoying a beautiful summer morning before the day becomes too unbearably hot, the imagery is that visual and real.\u00a0 The other thing I love about Layla is her honesty about cats \u2013 she will often bring up topics and subject matter that are a bit controversial and provocative in nature, such as indoor vs. outdoor cats and killing birds. I personally don\u2019t read her blog to make judgment, I read it because I enjoy it and she gets me to thinking, which is a good thing!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Austin looking typically disinterested as Tigger looks on. Tigger is a stray that likes to hang out with Austin and Carolyn!<\/p><\/div>\n

I found the next blog, CATachresis,<\/a> quite by accident. One of those meme\u2019s were going around the blogosphere and I think I saw the name in another bloggers comments. Intrigued by the word CATachresis, I decided to check out\u00a0the blog and was immediately drawn to the sarcastic, droll, \u00a0and razor sharp wit of this UK based blog that was written by Carolyn Retallick and her primarily bored, but extremely perceptive\u00a0tuxedo cat, Austin, as\u00a0Austin answered\u00a0his own meme<\/a>. Infused with stellar vocabulary, metaphors, and fancy\u00a0linguistics, I was drawn to\u00a0her blog that was both intellectually stimulating, while being hysterically funny!\u00a0 I absolutely love to learn and I enjoy the challenge of finding answers to something I don\u2019t know. Carolyn has the incredible ability of creating posts that are both entertaining and educational. Most of the time I know what she is talking about, but once in a blue moon she will throw in a word that I have never heard of. Rather than ignore it or pretend I understand what it is, I will pick up my dictionary and look it up!! I love the old fashioned task of thumbing through a dictionary and Carolyn keeps my brain on its toes, so to speak! Carolyn will often state that her blog might be a bit aimless with no real purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. I love whatever subject matter pops up, each post a wonderful new foray into some devilishly funny direction that only the British can do with such bravado and aplomb! Not to mention, I have a huge crush on tuxedo cats, so Austin is the “cats meow” in my eyes!<\/p>\n

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Did I mention what a good sport Cody is??!!<\/p><\/div>\n

The last blog I would like to mention should come as no surprise to those of you that know me, and that is Cat Chat with Caren and Cody<\/a>, which is a perennial favorite of mine. What I love about this blog, is that it is a smorgasbord of everything and anything related to cats. From serious stories, to funny video clips to book and product reviews, to stories about her cat Cody, every day brings something different with Cat Chat and that is why I enjoy it so much. The diversity ranges from informative to entertaining , but I must admit my favorite posts are those that revolve around Caren\u2019s Cat, Cody. Cody is quite the smart boy, very versed in writing when he feels like posting and is also one of the sweetest, most tolerant,\u00a0and patient cats I have ever encountered. Being the subject matter of many a post and video, he has the patience of a saint, as I know NONE of my crew would tolerate even half of the\u00a0stuff he puts up with.<\/p>\n

Caren and I don\u2019t remember how or why we became acquainted, but we think it was through twitter introductions. When I first went to her site, the post I happened to see was written by Cody, reviewing Caren\u2019s performance <\/a>as a blogger and a photographer. It was laugh out loud funny and remains my favorite Cat Chat post and I was hooked ever since. Cody was quite brutal with her, telling her he could find better quality photos in his litterbox, but what I really like most about this blog is how Caren makes OTHER people feel. She is far more talented than she gives herself credit for and is always quick to make light of herself. But how she responds to each and every one of her many comments is astounding and her gregarious personality is contagious. She has the ability to make everyone feel as if she is personally giving them a hug or warm wishes through\u00a0 the computer. I know when I am having an extra stressful day, I like to pop by CatChat just to read the comments that Caren gets \u2013 everyone loves her and it is quite uplifting to just see a warm circle of cat friends chatting with one another.<\/p>\n

I know this was a long post, but when I reflect, that is what tends to happen. I think a lot of my current feelings have to do with me going to BlogPaws and meeting so many of my peers in person. I had been struggling for many years previously, trying to figure out what the purpose was to my life. I felt disjointed, like something was missing. But now I feel whole, like I have truly found my home.\u00a0 The cat community is amazing and the love and devotion we have to our cats and one another is truly a gift and that is why I feel the whole topic of blogs is subjective \u2013 each blog holds a different meaning for each and every one of us\u2026.
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