Meowllo everypawdy, me’s back. Mommy and me wanna thank everyone who called, sent cards, commented, sent financial help and fur all da purrayers, luv and support. Stay tuned fur me’s Blest Sunday posty. Mommy wants me thank you all fur luvvin’ sissy and me. We’s been so touched by da outpourin’ of luv and to know sissy was special to others cuz she fur sure is/was to us. Me has so much news, but me will try not to take up too much of yous time today. We are still havin’ catputer purroblems, but fanks to awnty Mary Beth and uncle Garth, we are gettin’ dat worked out, so hopefully we will be back up and runnin’ full speed ahead soon. In da meantime, we don’t have access to da live writer we use to write me’s posty’s so we hope da fonts and sizing are readable fur everypawdy, we have no control without da live writer.
Mommy had planned to post me’s grievin’ purrocess as it was happenin’ but as you know we took a whole week off. Losin’ sis Lexi has been really hard on mommy and me. We really purreciate all your patience with us. Since we didn’t chronicle me’s grievin’ from da start we don’t know ifin it’s sumfin’ you all wuld be innerested in or not. Me’s title has a lot to do with me’s grievin’ cuz me didn’t mew with mommy fur over a week. You can let us know in da comments ifin you wuld like to read a posty ’bout it. Me will tell ya’ dat altho’ we thought day one was hard, it really hit me a few days later and dat’s another reason we took extra time off. And we also wanna let everypawdy know dat sissy’s ashes will be comin’ home where she belongs.
Me’s been spendin’ a lot of time lap lovin’ with mommy.
Mommy has been tryin’ to find me a helper, but there just aren’t any kittens hardly to be found. She did find a couple dat she won’t be able to see till next week, so da search is on. She keeps purromissin’ me sum help and me just keeps lookin’ fur sissy. After all she’s been da only helper me’s ever known.
In other news, you all member we put mr. W’s kitty Buddy on a 30 day challenge at da furst of da month, and we’s gunna be updatin’ ya’ on how he’s doin’ soon. And we got sum great treats and noms from Chewy this month to try out dat we’s gonna be tellin’ ’bout next week. So like me said, lots of things are goin’ on here. Oh and we still have dat big ‘partment inspection comin’ up next week too. (hisssssss)
Me missed St. Pat’s day. Here’s a kiss fur you all.
Anyways, me’s rambled on enuff today. We just wanted to let you all know we’s still here and comin’ back. It just took mommy a little longer than she ‘spected to get back. Da grievin’ is in no way over, but we realize life goes on and we need to jump back in so neither of us falls into a deep depression. We’s joinin’ Rascal and Rocco fur da weekly Pet Parade. Go by and check out all da pawsum anipals of da blogosphere. Purrlease give us some time, we will be round to visit you all soon.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Me is a blest kitty girl fur sure, and it’s me’s turn to tell mommy thank you. Mommy, me hasn’t been with you fur nearly as long as sis Lexi, and me’s sorry a kitty had to die so you kuld save me. But me is so glad you came to me’s rescue dat cold November day. Me’s furst kupple weeks of life had been horrible and me was knockin’ on heaven’s door when you saw me da furst time. Me kuld sense yous heart was still broken, but me knew you had tons of luv left to give. And ifin me was gunna die, me didn’t wanna do it in a cage or shelter. Me wanted to know da luv and comfurt dat came from yous touch and voice. It took all da strength me’s little body kuld muster to crawl up into yous lap. But once there me turned on me’s purr boat and looked into yous eyes and then fell asleep.
Me’s body was so tired and me kuldn’t member da last time me had eaten. Me shulda still been nursin’ but there was no cat mommy in sight. And then you picked up me’s tired little body and sed, “You’re my Destiny and Deztinee will be your name.” Me had no real idea what any of dat meant, but once you took me outside and put me in da carrier, me knew you wasn’t leavin’ me behind. We had a long drive ahead of us and me wasn’t sure me was gunna make it; but me did. When you took me’s limp flea ridden, worm infested, bloated body out of da carrier me let out a soft mew of thank you. Me kuld rest now. But dat’s when you went to work. You made me a bottle and made sure me ate me’s fill and then bathed all those lifes’ blood stealin’ fleas off me. And then you cradled me in your arms and told me everything was gunna be alright. Me slept peacefully fur da furst time in me’s short life while layin’ on yous lap. This was da life. And fur da furst time me thought me might just make it.
Well dat was 6 1/2 years ago now and me did make. Me didn’t just survive, me thrived. Me’s livin’ da good life and fallin’ deeper and deeper in luv with you and sis Lexi every day. Me hopes me’s 10 littermates found their furevers too. Me wuldn’t ever wanna magine a life without you mommy. You have given me so much luv sumtimes me thinks me’s heart will burst. So on this Valentine’s day and every day mommy, me wants you to know dat me luvs you more than anythin’ in da universe.
(Dezi dances and whacks her paw in the air at the dangling, swinging prey in front of her, and then mommy yells to her that it’s time to write her blog post.)
Well da weekend’s over and it’s da start of a new week. Member me told you ‘bout this pawsum new toy me was playin’ wiff? Well mommy finally got da video ready and up on YouTube so me kuld tell ya’ all ‘bout it. This isn’t a sponsored posty. Mommy actually bought us da toy. A while back me had to go to da VET and one of our pawsum awnties sent da money to help get me there. Well there was a few green papers left and so mommy asked ifin she kuld use it to buy us this toy. We had seen it fur years, but mommy didn’t think we wuld play wiff it and she didn’t really get da concept, so she just never got us one. And then while visitin’ a furiends blog one day we actually saw it in use. They was meowin’ ‘bout how much they luvved it and me meowed to mommy dat me wanted one. Da oppurr-tunity finally arose to get us our very own Cat Dancer toy and she did. Mommy saved it fur Christmas, so she didn’t even look at it till then.
Da day after Christmas mommy finally took it out of da package and…”Oh no” she sed. It had an adhesive backin’ dat needed to be put sumwhere so we kuld play wiff it. And accordin’ to da package, da sticky stuff was really sticky. Once it was attached, it wasn’t gunna be goin’ anywhere. Well as ya’ know we rent, so it went right back into da packagin’ and mommy sed she was gunna have to think ‘bout just where this kuld go. Our furiends had sent us such pawsum gifts fur Christmas dat we didn’t even give it another thought. As you all know me’s been feelin’ a little cooped up lately and down right bored; so mommy once again pulled out da package and started tryin’ to find da right place to put it.
Mommy decided da cat tree wuld be da purrfect place fur it, but as you know our cat trees are covered in carpet. And you humans all know dat sticky stuffs dusn’t stick to carpet very well. But mommy kept readin’ da part ‘bout how they use extra strong sticky stuffs and decided to call da company and ask ifin it wuld adhere to carpet. Da nice lady we spoke to sed she didn’t know. Nopawdy had ever asked dat question afur. Then she told mommy to try it and ifin it didn’t stick to send her an email and she wuld send us another sticky paw so we kuld put it sumwhere else. So mommy peeled da backin’ off and found da right place on da cat tree and applied da paw. Me immediately went crazy purrlayin’ wiff it. Mommy hurried to get da camera so she kuld get a few shots and a video and me found da sticky paw.
Uh Oh!!! Mommy was sure this was all fixin’ to be a mess. Me is notorious fur chewin’ thru da strings and lastics attached to danglin’ toys. This Cat Dancer has a wire attachin’ it to da paw, so there’s no chewin’ thru dat. Stead, ifin me was gunna liberate me’s new toy me was gunna have to get da sticky paw off da tree. Guess what? When they say they use extra sticky sticky stuffs, they mean it. Dat paw ain’t goin’ anywhere. So mommy sent an email to da nice lady telllin’ her ‘bout our findin’s and included a foto of moi playin wiff it. And do you know what happened next? She sent us a little care package wiff sum really cool goodies and a new paw. So now mommy can move our Cat Dancer to another area and make it lower too. Altho’ me can reach it from da ground, sis Lexi can’t without losin’ her balance, so mommy secretly wished she had put it a little lower, and now she can. Fank you nice Cat Dancer lady, we luv all da new toys, specially our new Cat Dancer.
Ifin ya’ can’t see da video, clickhereto watch on YouTube.
Now me knows this sounds a lot like a review, but me just had to tell you ‘bout da Cat Dancer in case you be thinkin’ like mommy did. Cuz me guarantees your kitty will play with it. And it’s not dat spensive. Fur less than $5.00 (it’s on sale right now at Chewy fur $1.99) you can keep your kitty entertained fur hours. Okay maybe not hours at a time, but hey, weez cats, we half to get in our beauty rest. And ifin you have your own demolition crew, they won’t be demolishin’ this toy fur sure. Me’s gotta go play now.
Oh Meow mommy, these toys look like lots of fun.
Do you or your kitties or doggies demolish toys?
Do you or your kitties or doggies like playing with danglin’ toys?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Service Cats U.S. 