DezizWorld 2016 Pet Blogger Challenge

Well as you can see by da title weez takin’ da Pet Blogger Challenge hosted by Go Pet Friendly. We had a lot of reflectin’ to do afur this post, so dat’s why weez getting’ in on da last day. While readin’ fru da questions we thought this was a gweat tool fur all bloggers to ask themselves maybe even a kupple times a year. You know it’s easy to get off track sumtimes and wiff life getting’ in da way, it’s hard to refocus on your own. So we plan to keep these questions close by and refer to them often to see whether or not weez meetin’ our goals. Now, let’s get on wiff da challenge. 

Dezi and Lexi in an animated frame with candles and hearts saying thank you

1. How long have you been bloggin? And fur any new readers tell a little about your blog.

Our furst posty was February 18, 2014. Yep we’ll be celebratin’ our 2nd blogoversary soon. Meez blog was a happy accident. Sis Lexi and me are da latest of mommy’s Service Cats and boff of us are bottle raised rescues who have a story to tell. We learned real quick tho’ dat our daily services kuld get boring fur our readers as we purrform da same tasks everyday. So our blog is a lot of our everyday activities, mixed wiff reviews and everything dat goes along with havin’ cats in your life. There’s health, diet, fun, adventure and so much more covered in our blog posts. 

petbloggingchallengebadge

2. What is the one thing accomplished in 2015, either on your blog or because of it, that made you most proud.

This one be really hard cuz we think da blog has been one of da bestest things dat has happened to us. Because of da bloggy we got to go to BlogPaws in Nashville. And sissy was so sick at da time, it was da kick in da furry behind she needed to bounce back. Me thinks da one thing we are most purroud of is havin’ all of you as readers, visitors and furiends. Ifin not fur da blog we wuldn’t have you. And in 2015 we added more of you to our family. Fur dat we will ever be grateful. 

dw DnL Blogpaws ready

3. Which of your blog posts was your favorite and why? (include a link) 

Well we wrote several educational posts this past year and are very purroud of all of them. Me thinks da ones we did ‘bout Sterile Cystitis are probably da ones we be most purroud of. We shined a light on a very serious illness in cats dat often go unnoticed, undiagnosed, and often cause da most twubble fur cats and their owners. You can read those here. 

https://dezizworld.wordpress.com/2015/11/06/the-truth-about-cystitis/    https://dezizworld.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/dezis-new-favorite-food/    https://dezizworld.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/sterile-cystitis-de-stressing-and-supplements/ 

 

4.  What is the one thing you’ve done in the past year that has brought more traffic to your blog?  

Well the only thing we can see that brings people to our blog is commenting on others. We do have a lot of readers dat come from Facebook, but many don’t leave comments. We wish they wuld, cuz we so luv inneractin’ wiff our furiends. 

 

5.  Which of your blog posts got the most traffic this year? why do you think it was so popular?

Well our most pawpular post last year was sis Lexi and mommy tellin’ ‘bout her VET visit to find out what was wrong wiff her. This post revealed dat sis lexi had CKD/CRF and you can read it by clickin’ da link below. Now sum of ya’ have trubble readin’ da cat speak, but the post has mommy splainin’ in human speak what was done. As fur why it was our most pawpular posty? Well we like to fink it’s cuz so many luv us and care ‘bout what be happenin’ wiff us.

 http://dezizworld.com/2015/01/20/whoathats-a-needle/  

Lexi lating in the stroller at the Vets office

6.  What is one blog you read religiously – other than your own – and what makes it such a good read? 

Mee-Ow this is another hard question. We follow so many blogs and read a lot we don’t always comment on. And truth be told we try to read them all everyday whether we comment or not. Weez just not sure we kuld pick just one. We read sum fur fun and a daily laff like Easy’s blog. And sum fur adoptable kitties like Animal Shelter Volunteer Life and Brian’s Home; which we also read to keep up wiff all of them. And then…you see? We kuld go on and on, cuz every blog we follow is a gweat read or we wuldn’t be followin’ ‘em. We luv all our furiends regardless of where they are or what social media platfurm they use. We try to keep up wiff all of ya’. 

 

7.  What resources do you rely on to enhance your technical, writing, photography, social media or other skills that improve your blog? 

Well we use da innernet of course. Google, Yahoo, Bing and several other search engines have become our bestest furiends since getting a catputer. But mommy also has a lot of books on carin’ fur cats dat she refurs to offen. And mommy was a VET tech, animal twainer and rescue volunteer fur many years, so she also draws on past sperience. Mommy is a bottomless pit when it comes to learnin’ and she tries to learn sumfin’ new everyday. As fur da fotography pawrt, well she’s tryin’. MOL  

 

8.  What is the best piece of advice you can give to other bloggers? 

“Be True to Yourself!!! You can’t please everybody all the time.”

Dat’s purrobably da bestest advice we can give to anypawdy, blogger or not. As long as you’re bein’ true to who you are, you can’t really go wrong. And member, you can’t purrlease everypawdy all da time. We have used cat speak from da beginnin’, and have had an occasional complaint about it. So we have tried to make our writing and cat speak a bit easier to read, but we also have to stay true to who we started out as…cats in social media. And when we started duin’ reviews we determined to only share items we use or have tried ourselves. And no matter da outcome, we wuld always tell da truth. Your trust is very purrtant to us and we don’t want to lead you astray.  

 

9.  What is your vision for your blog in 2016? Do you have specific goals? 

Well of course we wanna grow bigger this year. And we hope to post more adoptable kitties. We hope to get into a posting pattern so dat our readers will know when to expect a post from us. We also hope to educate more this year. Two years in and we really haven’t yet found our rhythm. Mommy is movin’ us closer and closer to a raw diet and we hope to share more ‘bout da advantages and disadvantages to raw feedin’. And of course we hope to continue to bring you lots of fun and adventure. And we so wanna go to BlogPaws again this year. We branched out and created a Zazzle store (which you can see by clickin’ da link under da foto below or in our sidebar) in the hopes of makin’ enuff money to pay our way. Weez learned dat might not actually happen as we don’t make a lot of money from da sales, but we can hope. And we hope to get our furst book written and published this year.   

Dezi in her signature purple nebula
Meez Zazzle Store signature foto.

10.  You have the attention of the Pet Blogging Community – is there one blogging challenge you would like help with or one aspect of your blog that you’d like input on?

We wuld purrobably say we need help wiff time management and growth. And we need to figger out what makes peeps share posts; specially when we share adoptable kitties. Da more they get shared da more likely it is they get adopted.   

 

We think this challenge is a bit difficult and certainly makes one think. But retrospect is a good thing sometimes and like we sed, weez gunna be keepin’ these questions round fur a while to revisit offen. We hope we can learn from da past and move furward to a brighter and more fruitful year. Da one thing we are most happy ‘bout and purroud of is all of you. Thank you fur bein’ our furiends and visitin’ wiff us. Thanks fur your purrayers and kind words and fur just bein’ you.

 

Well meez been retrospective enuff fur one day so meez gotta go and play wiff sum nip toys and lighten up. It’s stormin’ out yet again, and playin’ takes meez mind off of it. MOL 

What are your goals fur this year?

 

Till da next time…………………………….Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses

Dezi and Lexi  

Blest Sunday Vet Update

Meowllo everypawdy. As you can see by da title, we know you wanna know how sis Lexi’s VET pointment went. As a lot of you know she started showin’ signs dat sumfin’ was wrong December of 2014. Mommy took her to da VET in early January of 2015, and she was diagnosed wiff Chronic Kidney Failure. At da time da VET told mommy sis Lexi needed to eat da RX diet and sold her a hunnerd dollar bottle of Azodyl and claimed he was purracticin’ holistic medicine cuz of da Azodyl. Azodyl isn’t a medicine, but rather a supplement. And then he sed “We’ll just make her comfortable for what little time she has left.” Mommy asked what he meant, and he replied, “ I’ve had a few patients that died within weeks and few lived for a few months. By the time we diagnose this 75% of the kidney function is gone and they just don’t live very long.” Well as many of ya’ know mommy hates those RX diets in general, so she refused da noms and came home to do research. She also wasn’t acceptin’ dat sissy was gunna die any time soon.

Lexi sitting pretty and posing for the camera

Mommy went ‘bout learnin’ everythin’ she kuld ‘bout this disease and it’s treatments. She felt validated when she discovered da research dat those RX diets are based on was itself based on what worked fur dogs and refurmulated fur cats and only purrfurmed by Hill’s. All da other RX diet furmulators base their diets off da “old” Hill’s research. Well as most peeps know cats and dogs are not da same, and just cuz sumfin’ works fur doggies dusn’t mean it will work fur kitties. Mommy found lots of studies dat purrmoted high quality protein and low phosphorous diets fur CKD cats. So mommy implemented what she found in research along wiff tons of purrayers. Our VET was and is not happy wiff mommy’s choices of treatment, but he’s learned it’s bestest to just not argue wiff her cuz she’s gunna do what she thinks is bestest fur us no matter what anypawdy sez. 

 

Unfurtunately CKD kitties are prone to UTI’s because their urine is so dilute from all da water they dwink. And da normal course of antibiotics given fur 2 weeks dusn’t work, they really need to take da medicine fur 3 – 4 weeks to truly get well. So now dat we be all caught up, sissy got a UTI round Christmas time. We kuldn’t reach our VET but we were able to get Lexi started on sum antibiotics none da less. We finally touched base wiff da VET who sed he needed to see her at da beginnin’ of da year. So mommy and Lexi headed fur da VET on Furiday. When he finally came in da room, sissy sed he looked shocked. So me thought she shuld tell ya’ ‘bout her own visit. Take it away sissy. 

Lexi takes a nap in the stroller at the Vets

Lexi:  Fankz Dezi. Yep he shur nuff looked shocked when he saw me. He asked mommy all da questions ‘bout how I waz duin’ and ifin I waz better. Then he started squishin’ me all over. He told mommy dat my kidneyz, liver and bladder waz awl da right size fur a healthy kitty. Nuffin’ waz swollen or shrunken. My furz waz kovered in white flakez cuz I habz a dandruff and dry skin purroblem and we don’t habz a humidifier anymore. It broke a kupple yearz ago and mommy juzt hazn’t had da green payperz to buy another one. She had hoped our fountains wood add sum humidity to da air, but alas, not so much. Anywayz az sissy told ya’ mommy beez treatin’ me her way stead of heedin’ da VETz recommendashunz. I lozt a lot of weight when thiz awl star-did, but I’z been holdin’ my own fur da lazt year. I’z not lozt any more weight, and da VET kuldn’t believe it. He didn’t spekt me to still be alive, much less lookin’ and feelin’ good.

Lexi lating in the stroller at the Vets office

When he asked mommy when she had stopped my antibiotikz, she sed she hadn’t. She told him dat everything she readz tellz her dat I shuld get them fur at leazt 3 weekz and maybe even 4. So he sed, “Well that’s fine. I think she probably had a bladder infection and I treat those for 3 weeks instead of 2.” You know he’z one of those dat can’t ever admit dat he duzn’t know everything and dat mommyz research iz valuable. Anywayz, he then star-did manhandlin’ my head and I skooted back towardz mommy. He grabbed my paw to pull me back towardz him and I’z gave him da hisssssssss of disapproval and he let go. MOL  He sed I shur had a lot of spunk fur my kundishun. And then he told mommy, “Well keep doing what you’re doing, she’s looking good. I don’t know how, but she’s looking good.” Mommy, Dezi and I attribute my duin’ so good to God and all da purrayerz and mommyz research and treatmentz. I shur waz a happy kitty when we finally left dat smelly place  and all da white coatz behind.

 

We went to Wally World to get Dezi and me sum treatz. Dat place waz buzzin’. I’z not member da lazt time I saw dat many peepz in one place. Mommy waz tryin’ to drag da buggy and da stroller down da ailez and a man kame up behind us and sed, “Lookz like you’ve got your hands full.” Mommy smiled and sed, “Just about.” He walked past us and then turned to look my way and himz jaw dropped. He sed, “That’s a cat!!! I thought you had a baby in there.” To which hiz wife responded, “that’s her baby.” Mommy smiled, I meowed and we all went on ‘bout our shoppin’. It stormed da whole way home, but I was glad to be back home with da lektrik fireplace and awl my stuff and Dezi. It waz kold out there. When we got inside I star-did runnin’ round and aktin’ like a kitten again. I so lubz to go placez wiff mommy. I juzt wish we didn’t habz to go to da place of evil.  

Dezi among shades of purple stormy skies and purple rose

Me was glad y’all came home too sissy. And me is sooooooo glad you got a good report from da VET. We are so blest dat you’re still wiff us and feelin’ good. And we are so blest to have so many pawsum furiends who help us and purray fur us. We do have a little bad news today, but everything will be okay. Mommy has carpal tunnel and every once in a while it really acts up. Tryin’ to maneuver da stroller and da cart made mommy twist hers wrist and so it’s hurtin’ really bad and she can barely use it. We will visit as soon as she can purr-opurrly type again. It took 2 days of peckin’ keys to write this posty, so she needs to rest it. We are feelin’ very blest today and everyday to be part of such a pawsum community. Fank you all fur bein’ our furiends. Meez gunna go join mommy and sissy and snuggle sum. It’s cold and rainy outside but weez all cozy and comfy in here. Hope you’ll join us next time when we take da Pet Blogger Challenge.  

 

Do you always agree with your VETs recommendations? Tell us one blessing you are gwateful fur this week.

 

Till da next time…………………………………………….Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses

Dezi and Lexi      

A Fun Filled Furiday: Meet Kiki

Welkum to a furesh and fun filled Furiday. As purromissed me is gunna be featurin’ a pawsum and adoptable kitty; and showin’ off sum blooper fotos. Trust me we have a lot of those. MOL  We hope to find a lot of ya’ jumpin’ on this blog hop band wagon this year. Dusn’t it sound like a lot of fun? C’mon, surely you or yous peeps take sum blooper fotos. Even purrfessionals have bloopers. Me kuld guarantee ya’ they wuld ifin they was fotograffin’ me. Mommy sez meez a camera hog who luvs to be fotograffed. But cuz me luvs it, me likes to stop duin’ whatever was so cute and caused da camera to come out in da furst place and pose or smooch da camera. Me tries to tell her dat you never know who might be seein’ dat foto. It kuld be mr. right, or sum big Hollywood purrducer. MOL  

Dezi stands on back legs and catches the wand toy
Today can’t be all bloopers. MOL

Anyways, we wuld like to introduce you to Kiki. She’s a purretty little black panfur girl at da Pauls Valley, Oklahoma Animal Shelter.

Hey there Kiki, how ya’ duin’?

Kiki:  Meow girls, thanks for sharing me.  

You know Kiki us older gals gotta stick togevver.   

Can ya’ tell everypawdy a little about yous selff Kiki? 

Kiki:  Well Dezi, I’m a senior panther girl. I was born April 22 of 2000. I spent my life livin’ outside in a backyard. Now that I’m older I really do wanna live inside with a peep or peeps of my own. I’ve got some long white whiskers and the man in the white coat sed I didn’t have any diseases and can’t be havin’ any babies. I’m small and have big golden eyes. The peeps here at the shelter sed I can only be adopted to an inside only home. I’m sure happy about that. You know it gets cold outside and there’s lots of dangerous things in the dark. The shelter peeps are nice but I sure would like to have a home of my own with my own human to love. I know I’m getting’ on up there in years now and I’m not the sleek well kempt looker I used to be, but I still have a lot of love to give. And I really would like to be loved by somepawdy too. Girls, do ya’ reckon there’s somepawdy out there who could love me?  

Kiki the black cat
Kiki can be adopted from the Pauls Valley OK Animal Shelter.

Oh Kiki we just know there’s sumpawdy out there fur ya’. They just be waitin’ to take you home and spoil you rotten. Kiki can be adopted fur a mere $50.00. And you can find out more bout her and how to go ‘bout welkummin’ her into yous home by contactin’ da shelter at: 405-238-1303. You know in da rescue world little Kiki already has 2 strikes agsinst her; She’s black and a senior. But bein’ da savvy cats we are, we know there are lots of pawsum peeps dat wuld luv to have a little panfur girl fur their very own. Me and sissy sure hope she finds her furever soon. We hope you all will share and purray wiff us fur Kiki’s furever.

 

Now on wiff da bloopers hosted by da Lazy Pitbull. And as always, weez joinin’ Rascal and Rocco fur da Pet Parade. Me has to go now and make sum more blooper fotos. Sis Lexi and mommy be goin’ to da VET today, so keep ‘em in yous purrayers and weez’ll visit as soon as we can. 

Me was on da move and big ole blur. MOL
Me was on da move and big ole blur. MOL
Sis Lexi foto bombed me
Sis Lexi foto bombed me

 

Dezi = Blue 

Lexi = Green 

Kiki = Orange

 

Till da next time………………………………………..Be Blest!!!

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses

Dezi and Lexi

Mystery Plumber Revealed

Meowllo Fursday, so glad you kuld make it. What a week weez had. Fankfully weez one day closer to da weekend. Smile Da mysterious plumber guy finally arrived Tuesday afternoon and came in wiff nuffin’ but dat S shaped screwdriver. Mommy knew immediately nuffin’ was gunna get dun and we was gunna be left wiff da stench fur yet another day. Ifin you wanna know how to over spend green papers on everything, take notes from our pawrtment management company. They won’t purrfurm purrventative maintenance cuz it costs money. But when sumfin’ finally breaks they gotta send sumpawdy out to make sure it’s broken and then send them out again to fix or replace it. You know they buy da cheapest appliances they can find and then gripe and complain when they don’t last furever.

dw-LexiBeautiful - 2HEoW-1hh - normal

 

Anyways, da plumber, who really was a plumber, hit da switch and nuffin’ happened. Then he got down on da floor and unscrewed da disposal and flipped da switch again. He then turned to mommy and sed, “Well that ain’t workin’ at all, is it? I’ll go tell da manager you need a new one.” Duh, mommy sed dat da furst day. Dat’s what she thought, but she didn’t say, stead she just smiled and sed, “Great, thank you.” So anyways, he went to tell da manager and came back and told mommy he wuld be back sumtime Wednesday. When he arrived on Wednesday do you know what he did? He flipped da switch. As ifin by sum miracle it was suddenly gunna work. MOL  Well it didn’t and so he finally took it out and put another one in. We fink it was a rebuild cuz it had a stench to it too. Or maybe our noses was just clogged up wiff stench. MOL  Well 2 service calls and repair and replace charges later, we finally have a workin’ garbage disposal again. Fank catness cuz mommy was goin’ a little nuts. Mommy sed it’s amazin’ how much you begin to rely on sumfin’ dat she never had till she moved here. And not to worry, mommy used sum of dat lemon smellin’ garbage disposal cleanin’ stuff to get da stench out. So weez back in business.

 

We still be havin’ da Open ID twubbles so weez started usin’ our google id to comment on those blogs what won’t allow us to leave our name and website infurmation on. Mommy hates google almost as much as facebook, but sumtimes you just gotta do fings you don’t like.

 

And speakin’ of duin’ things one dusn’t like, sis Lexi be goin’ to da VET Furiday afternoon, so we hope you will keep her in yous purrayers. She’s duin’ much better and is almost all fru wiff da antibiotics. But da VET man sed she had to come in fur a look see when we finally talked to him After da new year. It’s been stormin’ here purretty much non stop, so weez hopin’ it clears up; least fur a bit while mommy and sissy go to da VET. Every meownin’ we wake up hopin’ to see mr. Sun shine and yet every meownin’ all we see is mr. cloud and gray skies. Anyways, we got a kupple gift cards to da WallyWorld fur Christmas, so me magines mommy and sissy will stop by there and pick up sum treats afur comin’ home. Least me hopes so. It’d be a crime to go to da big little city and not stop by there. Right? MOL 

dw-Dezithequeen
What’d’ya’ think? Duz me look like a lioness?

 

And hey, we hope you stop by tomorrow. We have sumfin’ special planned. Not only are we gunna be postin’ another pawsum kitty in need of a furever home, weez joinin’ in a new bloghop ‘bout bloopers. It’s called Pet Blogger Bloopers Photos Roundup and is hosted by The Lazy Pitbull. On da second Furiday of every month bloggers are challenged to share at least one foto dat didn’t make da cut fur postin’. Now unfurtunately weez not have da badge to show ya’ today cuz mommy was so busy writin’ hers selff a reminder dat she furgot to save dat puppy. And as we do every weekend, we’ll also be joinin’ da Pet Parade bloghop. So, lots of hoppin’ tomorrow. Meez gotta go now and get sum more infurmation ‘bout da special kitty in need weez gunna be sharin’ tomorrow. So… 

 

Till da next time………………………………………….Be Blest!!!  

 

Oh me cats and kittens, me keeps furgettin’ to tell ya’ we now have a Zazzle store. Weez addin’ purroducts all da time, so check it out. We have a cute little key chain wiff Lexi you can see here, and me on a coffe mug you can see here. You can always click da link on our sidebar to see new items. We will be addin’ lots more in da weeks to come. And we actually make a little money when you click over usin’ our link to make a purchase, even ifin you don’t buy sumfin’ from us. Of course we make even more ifin you buy one of our purroducts. Fank you all fur shoppin’ our store. 🙂

 

Luv and Hugs and Kitty Kisses

Dezi and Lexi