BlogPaws Conference

LUCKIEST KITTIES EVER!

Kitties Blue

Mom and Kate, sporting their cat ears.

Cat Style Lounge 

We kitties barely finished cleaning up the house before our humans got home from the BlogPaws Conference on Sunday evening. We were happy to have them home but sorry to see our five-day nip and treat party come to an end. Well, that was the case right up until the moment the swag bags started piling up and the most magnificent cat tower we’d ever seen came through the front door.

One of the best things about the BlogPaws Conference, according to our mom, is the Cat Style Lounge. It is packed with all the newest products available for kitties. And it is all provided by one of mom’s very favorite people, Kate Benjamin, of Hauspanther. At the conclusion of the Conference Kate gives away every item in the Lounge.

Mom and Dad have brought home some cool “goodies” previously, but this year they hit the jackpot. Check us out enjoying the Sauder Natural Sphere Cat Tower featuring a banana leaf sphere perched on top of a three-legged base standing 44″ tall.

 

Kitties inspect new tower.

Cooper Murphy was the first to check out the sphere as Mau looked on from the lower platform.

Cooper Murphy shows the other kitties how to get in and out of tower.

Mau is second of the kitties to investigate the tower sphere.

Astrid finds the sphere quite comfy.

 

 

 

The sphere has both a front and a top opening and a washable cushion on the inside, making it the purrfect spot for napping. One leg is wrapped with sisal for scratching and the raised bottom platform is carpeted for lounging. If you think this looks like something you’d enjoy, you can find it at Amazon.

Kate told Mom that we’d probably need another platform to use as a step up into the sphere. But the three of us who have been checking it out have leapt right up from the floor. Easy Peasy!

We are anxious to see what else Mom and Dad brought home, but we know nothing can beat this. “Thank you, Kate, for this most amazing prize. You are the cat’s meow!”

Mom will be sharing a variety of photos from the BlogPaws Conference tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

 

CATURDAY ART FEATURING GUEST, SOPHIE

Caturday Art

I suspect I’ll pay dearly for this post when I get home. I most likely will be getting the cold shoulder and silent treatment all around. Did I hear you ask, “Why?” I’ll let you see for yourselves.

 

Sophie Hall as Caturday Art

 

Can you tell what the problem is? This cat may look a bit like Lily Olivia, but it isn’t. This is the sweet, birthday girl from yesterday, Sophie, from Kitty Cat Chronicles. She is here with Mom Emily and Dad Bobby as well as two of her brothers, Kylo Ren and Caster. Most of you know by now that my Astrid married Emily and Bobby’s Sampson at BlogPaws last year.

Sophie is so beautiful and charming, loves everyone and has no idea she has CH (Cerebellar Hypoplasia). I have delighted in watching Dad Bobby as well as Dad Tom walking her around on her leash. She exudes exuberance and unabashed joy. I cannot help but smile when I see her.

I created today’s art selection using PicMonkey. This is not my original version, which I unfortunately lost in a computer hiccup. When I tried to recreate it, I couldn’t remember in which order I’d used the various effects and filters. Consequently, this does not look as good as the original art piece.

Here’s the photo of Sophie I used as the base for today’s Caturday Art. She was sitting on Mom Emily’s lap.

 

Caturday Art - before

 

This is my entry into Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty’s Caturday Art blog hop. To submit some art of your own and/or see the beautiful art created by your fellow bloggers, please click on her badge.

I’d like to say, “thank you” to Athena and her mum, Marie, for having this hop each week. I always look forward to “playing” with all the various on-line, photo-editing apps.

Sunday Selfies

Here’s your usual reminder to get those selfies snapped for tomorrow’s  blog hop. Since Dad Tom and I still will be at the BlogPaws Conference, a good chance exists that I will not be featuring one of the Kitties Blue. I doubt this will get me into any trouble with them.

Please keep in mind that you do not need to post on Sunday to participate. The hop always remains open through Thursday.

If you’d like to know what’s been happening at the conference, check-out Twitter for items posted with #BlogPaws.

FRIENDLY FILL-INS FROM BLOGPAWS CONFERENCE

Friendly Friday Fill-Ins: Week #54

1. I have googled anything and everything for which I’ve needed an explanation or answer. It sure beats having to go to the library to check an encyclopedia, like I had to when I was a kid.

2. I have purchased many things on Ebay, including a replacement wedding ring for Tom after he lost his original.

3. I think the BlogPaws Conference rocks! Here are a few photos from today.

 

BlogPaws 2017

Emily (Kitty Cat Chronicles) felted a mini Fiona for me. She’s purrfect!

 

Samson - BlogPaws 2017

I met Samson at BlogPaws 2016 when he was just a kitten. To see my photo with him from last year, click here. It is the photo in the bottom left of the bottom collage.

 

Sophie's birthday party at BlogPaws 2017

Sophie Hall, in Emily’s arms on lower right, celebrated her upcoming 5th birthday with a party in her honor.

 

Sophie at BlogPaws 2017.

Sophie playing at her party.

 

4. Mauricio thinks his wife Allie (Friends Furever) is the gentlest, kindest and most gorgeous cat in the universe.

Friendly Fill-Ins is hosted each Friday by Ellen (15 And Meowing) and Annie (McGuffy’s Reader). It is a blog hop. To join click on their badge. It will take you to Annie’s blog where you can enter your link.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with Caturday Art and more from the BlogPaws Conference. You can follow the conference on Twitter at #blogpaws.

SEEING DOUBLE

Caturday Art


As we do every Caturday, we are joining Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty for her Caturday Art Blog Hop. This is one of my favorite days and hops. I have zero artistic ability and couldn’t draw a recognizable stick figure even if my life was on the line. But thanks to so many different photo editing apps available, I am able to create something arty. If you are not participating in the Caturday Art blog hop, you should give it a try. It is fun!

I created today’s art using only PicMonkey. If you follow our blog regularly, you know that I have a tendency to pile on using several different apps to create one piece of art. The subject of today’s creation is our sweet Fiona.

 

Seeing Double: One cat with mirror image in an arty rendering from PicMonkey

 

I don’t remember everything I did to the original photo, but I can tell you that the first step was to create a mirror image. What could possibly be better than one Fiona? Two, of course! From there I created a pencil sketch, added some bokeh stars and did a couple of other things I don’t remember prior to adding the cut-out border.

This is the original photo of Fiona. She was sitting amongst several bags that held swag from the BlogPaws Conference.

 

Seeing Double: Fiona snuggled into swag bags from BlogPaws.

 

Cat4-001Here’s your heads-up to get your selfies taken for tomorrow’s blog hop. I have a plan regarding which of the Kitties Blue I want to feature. The biggest hint I am going to give you is that it is one of the girls. Whether or not she agrees to participate remains to be seen. Until then…

 

CALISTA JO IS IN TRAINING

Sunday Selfies: Week #101

 

Calista Jo's Sunday Selfie and report on her harness training.

 

Mom asked me to be your host this week so I could share what has been happening with me. First I must apologize for the less than professional quality of my selfies.

So here’s the scoop. Mom wants to take me to BlogPaws 2017 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. As she and Dad will be able to drive, Mom thought it would be fun for one of us to pawticipate in the conference. After weighing the pros and cons of each of us attending, she and Dad selected me for my even temperament and laid-back nature. So I am now in training.

Step one of my training is to get comfy wearing a harness. I have been doing that for a couple of hours each day for the last four days. When I can do that for a few hours at a time, Mom will add a leash and start walking me around the house and yard if I don’t balk. MOUSES! I don’t know if I’ll like that.

Anyhoo, if I get accustomed to that and with visiting places where other humans and pets are present, Mom will get me a stroller. Providing everything works out, I will see y’all next May in South Carolina. Mom and I will keep you posted on my progress.

 

Cat4-001

 

Hope you’ll join us on the hop today. You can link up your post below. And you can add the hop to your blog with the code below. Should you decide to do this, please be so kind as to display our badge and/or link to The Cat on My Head. Also, please try to visit and say, “howdy,” to some of the other hoppers. You never know who you might meet!

To Catch a Cat Winners

I am excited to have the opportunity to announce the winners of our latest giveaway for three copies of To Catch a Cat by Heather Green. They are:

  • Linda Szymoniak
  • Flynn
  • Linda Arthur Tejera

Congratulations. Y’all are going to enjoy reading this heartwarming story about the rescue of the kittens, Zero, Number One and Two Spot. For those who didn’t win, To Catch a Cat is available from Barnes & Noble ($9.16) and Amazon.com ($12).

Purrs and paw-pats, Calista Jo



THE LONGEST THIRTEEN PLUS TWO DAYS EVER

BlogPaws Booty Bonanza

Remember that BlogPaws Conference loot we were waiting for UPS to deliver? Well, it finally arrived last Friday evening. Then it sat for two days before Mom even opened it, turning 13 days into 15. Was it worth the wait? Yep! You bet! We have a little slideshow to show y’all a good portion of the booty. (To read the captions, do not have your cursor over or near slideshow.)

 

[slideshow_deploy id=’21477′]

 

Even though there are eight of us kitties, Mom says we cannot possibly keep all these goodies. She packed some toys and treats up today for cat sitter/housekeeper Chris’s kitty, Tinsley. She also gave him the zebra-striped cardboard cat cube we won from the Cat Style Lounge in 2015. She says we are running out of room with the addition of the pink kitty cube won this year. This was meant to be C.J.’s birthday gift, but she hasn’t even had the opportunity to try it yet. Mau and Astrid have found it to their liking.

Next Mom will let Mauricio and Lisbeth select some things to send to their significant others, Allie and Charles. After that she’ll put together a prize package to give away on our fourth blogoversary (Thursday, July 21). She’s also going to put some things aside for our local no-kill shelter, Angels of Assisi.

The only things we know we get to keep are the pink cube and the Original Hide and Sneak (craft paper cat tunnel) won from The Cat Style Lounge. Mom says that she also will be keeping all cleaning and odor relief products. And she’ll be letting us try the various foodables to see if there is anything the picky girls, Giulietta and Fiona, like.

Future posts will report on and review the products Mom received directly from Conference sponsors.

We are happy that our humans are generous with other kitties, but we certainly have our paws crossed that we will get to keep at least a couple of the toys. After being abandoned for five days, it seems only fair. Don’t you think? We’ll keep you posted.

GotMiceLogoDonation to Barn Cat Buddies

Thanks to everyone who commented on our post about the the steel mill kitties, Mom has donated $60 to our friends at Barn Cat Buddies to help rescue these poor cats. If you missed our post, “Please Help Our Barn Cat Buddies Friends,” you can read it here.  If you can afford even a few green papers, you can make a donation directly to Barn Cat Buddies by visiting their site. We’d like to thank our dear friend Marjorie from Dash Kitten for doing just that. If anyone else has done so as well, please accept our heartfelt thanks.

To Catch a Cat Giveaway

To Catch a cat book jacket.If you missed yesterday’s post, Mom reviewed this heartwarming book of kitten rescue by Heather Green. She has three copies to give away and is willing to mail worldwide. To have the opportunity to win, leave a comment on yesterday’s post. There’s a link at the bottom of this post. Winners will be selected using random.org.

If you visited yesterday prior to 10:30 a.m., you missed some really darling photos of the kittens. The publisher sent them to us after our post was published. Mom added them after several readers had visited and commented.

That’s it for us today. See y’all tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday.

Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

WHERE’S THE LOOT?

As we’ve been catching up with our bloggy friends, we have seen oodles of loot from BlogPaws being unpacked. If you recall, when I had my birthday on the 20th, I was promised my choice of any of the BP swag. Lily’s the queen of luggage, so I sent her to inspect Mom’s suitcase. She found absolutely nothing. Check out the expression on her face. That is not a happy kitty.

 

Lily investigates Mom's suitcase for BlogPaws loot.

 

What we didn’t know was that Mom had already removed the few toys she brought home. She’d hidden them in a drawer until I could check them out first. Guess I am appreciative of that.

 

Calista Jo investigates the BP loot.

 

Can you believe this is all she brought me? I can’t imagine she expects me to select one thing. All this should be mine.

 

Calista Jo waps the wand toy.

 

Mom and I played with the wand toy. She was trying to take photos while we were playing so this is blurry. Sorry. The minute she set it down, Fiona picked up the red fuzzy end and took my wand downstairs. I am certain she’s hidden it by now, and I’ll never see it again.

Then Lily Olivia came along and grabbed the kicker.

 

Lily Olivia works out on the ModKicker.

 

The ModKicker was actually made in Phoenix, the site of the BlogPaws Conference. It’s a Hauspanther product (available at shop.hauspanther.com for $6) and has catnip. They must grow some potent nip in Arizona ’cause after a few minutes, Lily crashed hard. When I tried to retrieve it, Lily woke up long enough to kick me in the butt. Totally rude!

 

 The catnip in that kicker must be really potent.

 

I guess that’s all there is…at least until next Tuesday when the real loot arrives. Mom says I will be getting a super cool gift that she swears I will love. She claims it is purrfect for a princess. We’ll see!

Okay, don’t get me wrong: I am totally thankful for these cool things, but there are eight of us and only four toys. So…I’ve just got to say one more time to annoy Mom, “Where’s the loot?” MOL…

Purrs and paw-pats, Calista Jo

BLOGPAWS 2016 CONFERENCE PHOTO COLLAGES

I am sharing some additional photos from the BlogPaws conference prior to returning to our regular programing. I will have at least one additional BlogPaws post when the boxes of swag, sent home via UPS, arrive. I brought a few toys home as birthday gifts for Calista Jo, but have not unpacked those as yet. Both the kitties’ dad and I won items from the Hauspanther Cat Style Lounge, which were sent home by UPS as well. One of those will be C.J.’s extra special birthday gift.

 

BlogPaws Conference 2016

 

The collage above features two rescues, cat Poe and kitten Gypsy from All About Animal Rescue of Arizona. That’s me in the upper right with the stylish and sophisticated Kate Benjamin, our host in her Hasupanther Cat Style Lounge. That’s the spot to see and learn about lots of popular and new cat enrichment products. Lower left is me again with one of the gorgeous kitties in attendance. I apologize that I have forgotten his name. In the bottom right are some of the bloggers and book authors, sporting our cat ears, at the CWA (Cat Writers Association) table. I’m in the back row to the left of the the lady with the yellow hair (The Island Cats‘ mom, Sue).

 

BlogPaws Conference 2016

 

In the upper left of this second collage are the two sphinx kitties, Lexi Liu (back) and Moshe Moshi, from Naked and Hungry. Upper right features Mom Ava, Christy Paws and me at the Evanger’s Pet Food booth. In the left center is the lovely and always best dressed Coco, the Couture Cat. Below that you’ll find me again giving kitten Samson a lap for a nap. Middle right I am getting woofie kisses (don’t rat me out to the Kitties Blue) and finally me with All About Animals Rescue, Ben.

When left to his own devices, Dad Tom went off on his own and took a bunch of woofie photos. Here is the most adorable Sinead (Welcome to the menagerie), our very well-behaved dinner companion for the Nose-to-Nose Awards Banquet.

 

Sinead at BlogPaws Conference 2016

 

In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing news and reviews about new products and affiliations for Kitties Blue. But tomorrow, Lily Olivia will return for Wordless Wednesday.

Hope you enjoyed way too many photos of me getting chummy with other cats and woofies at this year’s BlogPaws Conference.

The 2017 BlogPaws Conference will be held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from May 18 to 20. Tickets are available now with Early Bird pricing in effect until July 1. Tom and I already have our tickets. Don’t forget to get yours!