WATERMARK

When one wins an award for blog bling, one expects to get some bling for it, yes? So I made a Blog Bling Award Badge, for Writers Edge to use for future awardees:

Heh. Mine will appear on the sidebar shortly (probably before this one scrolls off the page.) Thanks, Georganna!

Yesterday marked one year of the Carnival of the Cats:

People have been catblogging for as long as there’s been blogging.
When was the first instance of catblogging? I don’t know… maybe
someone can research that or claim it for themselves.

But blogging is inherently a sharing experience. It’s a
virtual soapbox upon which we climb and shout to any and all who will
listen. Whether it’s politics, opinions about our industry, funny
observations that we don’t have a watercooler to share them by, or just
stories about our kids, cat owners just can’t seem to keep those sneaky
little felines out of our blogs.

But I stand by my principle of catblogging: "Without cats, there is
no catblogging. Without catblogging, blogging just isn’t worth the
effort."

I started cat blogging, and joined the Carnival, on April 9 last year,
three months after I began blogging — I had no idea I was in so close
to the beginning of the Carnival. My long-time readers will know that
it earned me a mention in the New York Times, almost more excitement than Spike and Boo could bear. Go give Laurence a Happy Anniversary greeting — he’s the one to thank for all these kitties.

I have been passed the stick — twice! — and I promise to get to it, soon.

YAY!  Tild ~ has cool She-Blogger stuff for sale!! I want the tote, the mug, and the T-shirt. Especially the tote!  Going off to count the jar change . . .

Last, but far from least, heart-felt gratitude to all of you who
help to keep my spirit healthy with your encouraging comments and
emails. Most of you know, I hope, that it is only my variable energy
that makes me inconsistent in replying; it is not for lack of
appreciation. Selva brought tears with her testimonial on Flickr (I’ve never had a testimonial before.) This young artist, whose work I much admire, said:

. . . If I had one chance to be transformed whole into verse, I would want it to be by her hand.

"transformed whole into verse" — isn’t that fabulous?

And others whose work I greatly respect have also left me gifts. It
is so easy to feel insignificant; to doubt my own efforts. These
reassurances mean the world to me.

Thank you.