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If you read my last post, you know that Blitzen found his forever home yesterday. If you read my last post v-e-r-y carefully, you might have noticed something else, too.

I said I cried when the Adoption Agreement was signed, which was true. I didn't say whose signature was on the paper or if my tears were sad ones.

It's something to consider.

The other thing to consider is how sweet, friendly and loving this little cat has become. He always seems to have a sunny outlook on life. Everything is interesting and exciting to him, to be explored and enjoyed. Every time I look at him I smile. I could find a way to let Blitzen go, but life is too short. Why do I have to say goodbye? I have a lot of cats, what's one more? Will it ruin my life or ruin my other cats life? Probably not.

So the signature, one of two, is mine. The other, not seen above, is Sam's. I cried because I was happy and maybe a tiny bit scared to make this commitment.

My old boss said; “It is what it is.” I think that sums it up nicely. Sure, I could go nuts worrying about how this cat will impact our lives or do calculations that tell me it's going to by tough on our budget to have an EIGTH cat, but it is what it is. We'll find a way to manage.

I guess I got tired of having to say goodbye and longed to say something new.

“Welcome to the Family, Blitzen!”

...and it's with us.

Part One of Two.

Here we are in April, almost May, and little Blitzen is not so little any longer. His siblings and Mama are long since adopted and he's been here with us, finishing up treatment for ringworm and mingling with our resident cats.

Just over 4 months ago, litle Blitzen, below right and his sisters, Donner and Prancer with their Mama, Cupid—just part of the 9 cat rescue from a Georgia Kill Shelter, I called ”Santa's Team.”

Sam and I have discussed whether or not we should adopt Blitzen. Of course, he's been here way too long and we've grown attached. We've wondered if we're being selfish and if we can really afford another cat (probably not). Blitzen seems to be getting long fine with everyone and they're working out how they get along with him.

Regardless of our decision, one thing is for certain. Blitzen needed to have a Vet check to clear him to be adopted. I brought him over to visit, er, get a check up with Dr. Larry. Super Deb spent some time with us before Dr. Larry got back from his lunch. Super Deb looked Blitzen over. He purred and purred as she weighed him, then sat with him on her lap and clipped his claws. Super Deb did something I rarely see-she smiled; a big, I-let-my-guard-down-smile. It was a Cheshire Cat smile-there and gone in the blink of an eye, but I saw it. Even though Super Deb said I shouldn't keep Blitzen, I didn't think she really meant it.

I came to understand she was concerned about the other cats and how they were doing. She imagined an angry piss-festival, lots of loud screaming fights and poor Gracie's skin erupting in blisters from being stressed out. It hasn't been a picnic in the park here, but it's not as bad as all that. I assured SD that the cats were working it out-and they are, but that I did agree, adopting another cat was NOT in our plans.

Then Dr. Larry came in to the exam room. He took one look at Blitzen then made some God-awful whistle-chirp-something-sound. Super Deb and I looked at each other with a “WTF” look on our faces. The sound freaked Blitzen out so we scolded Dr. Larry, who was oblivious to what we were saying. He was too busy focusing on Blitzen, who calmed down and went back to purring and looking around the room.

”You should definitely keep him.”

“You're kidding, right?”

“This cat is...a-w-e-s-o-m-e! He is a b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l cat and what a sweeth-e-a-r-t!”

Then Dr. Larry asked Super Deb for her opinion and she said No. I would be nuts to keep this cat, but did admit that he was ”Okay, nice, but I really shouldn't adopt another cat.”

Blitz got cleared for takeoff. No more ringy-dingy-worm. No ear mites, fleas, URI, tapeworm, roundworm, blah blah blah. Now I just had to find him a great home.

I knew Blitzen would be adopted easily. What's not to like? He's completely confident in his fur. He is happy and loving and oh so adorable. If I adopt him, I really can't get my “dream cat.” I promised myself that next year I would begin looking for a BIG Tuxedo Maine Coon to rescue. That would put us at NINE cats if we keep Blitzen. Even for me, that's too many.

So, I need to do what's best for everyone. I lucked out and found the perfect home for Blitzen. The Adoption Agreement was signed today. I cried as the signatures hit the paper. How could I not? This adoption isn't something I'm going to be able to maintain my poker face over.

It's time for me to move forward. We have a few feral mama cats who have recently given birth. One had six kittens on Monday! It's been too long since I've had babies in the house and I miss fostering. It's Kitten Season, after all, and I need to get back to work.

As I get older, I realize that it would be selfish to adopt any more cats after I reach a certain age, yet I don't know at what point in my life I need to do that? What if I get a terminal illness in the next year, while I'm still young (-ish!)? I'd have eight cats to worry about.

One of my biggest fears is what everyone in rescue sees ALL the time-owners who die and leave no one to care for their pets. Those pets are often times geriatric, themselves, and are very difficult to place. What is their fate? You can guess the answer to that without my help.

After spending my life devoted to the welfare of cats, how ironic would it be that my own cats would suffer the same fate I fear most?

In 2003, a charitable trust was created to help solve this difficult problem. They're called Banfield Charitable Trust, a non-profit organization based on Oregon.

In addition to Pet Peace of Mind , they also make donations and Community Grants to local Non-Profits across the country. Their goal is to keep Pets & Families together, with a focus on increasing awareness to the vital role pets play in every family. They do this in a variety of ways, which you can read more about HERE.

What I'm most impressed by is their goal to work with Non-profit Hospice Caregivers to create programs where they can allow their patients to KEEP their pets with them, instead of being forced to give them up when they enter hospice. Or have to give them up because they are too frail to care for their pet. This not only gives a person dignity, but confirms that animals are a core part of our lives. Without them WE suffer and that is one thing that shouldn't happen when a person is facing their last days.

Photo from Banfield Charitable Trust

Right now, Pepsi is sponsoring the GOOD IDEA Campaign. The winner will get $250,000.00! Banfield is at the 12th position. You can help with a Mouse-CLICK and keep clicking, every day until April 30th. You can do good, without it costing you anything but a few minutes of your time.

Vote HERE

More Ways to Help

Ask your friends and business colleagues to vote as well. Use blogs, Facebook and Twitter to spread the word. It only takes three minutes to register. Once registered, you may vote every day. Voting for this project will take less than one minute per day.

Go HERE to see even MORE ways to help!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP! SPREAD THE WORD! Let's make Banfield Charitable Trust, Number ONE!

Google has come up with a nifty little video generator called Search Stories that allow you to create a quick video out of google searches. I made one in a few minutes. Let's see what you guys come up with! You can post the links to me via email and I will post them here (I have to give the vids a once-over and they need extra admin permissions for the videos to work).

Here's the one I created:

If you want to make a better world for pets, it takes more than just a wish. It takes putting your hand in your pocket and dragging out some hard earned cash. It takes the willingness to step up when asked and look out for opportunities where you can help-and be willing to do just that.

At BlogPaws, a group of great folks banded together to form “Be a Part of the Change.” They're asking all Pet Bloggers and Pet Lovers to stand together and focus their efforts on a specific non-profit pet rescue organization, to see how much money we can raise in a concentrated effort. Since there are so many groups who need help, a new rescue group will be chosen every so often, so we can spread our support across the country.

The first recipient of our efforts, fittingly enough, is in Columbus, Ohio, where BlogPaws was just held. Pets Without Parents was “founded in June of 2001, is a non-profit, no-kill, all-breed shelter for dogs and cats. Our mission is to place every pet that enters our shelter into a loving, permanent home; to motivate our local community to support our shelter, its no-kill mission, and spay-neuter efforts through donation, volunteer, and adoption opportunities...until every pet goes home.”

These noble folks are doing great things in their area. If you saw some of the boarded up neighborhoods (!), not just homes here and there, of Columbus, you would cry. These folks are facing very tough times indeed. What I'm going to ask you guys is to make me proud and donate $5 or more, if you can afford to do so. I know there are so many deserving groups that need support, but lets see what we can do when we focus our efforts on just one.

What difference can we make in the lives of some of these cats? Wouldn't it be FANTASTIC if we raised so much money, that this group didn't have to worry about how they were going to afford food or Vet bills for the next few years? Is that a dream? Heck NO. WE CAN DO THIS IF WE WORK TOGETHER!

These are just some of the almost 40 cats Pets without Partners has rescued who are looking for their forever home.

This is PC, an odd-eyed white kitty. Who wouldn't want to give this pretty baby a great home?

What about Goliath?

Or this stunning, Feline Leukemia Positive little baby, Bug?

Every homeless cat or dog deserves the best we can provide for them. We can be part of the change that makes life BETTER for these animals, and in return, gives us a better life, too.

Please consider donating at least $5 here or via this little widget.

Thank you, everyone! Now lets do something that makes our hearts sing!

AND PLEASE RE-TWEET & PASS ALONG THIS POST TO YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY!

OK, OK, OK!

I realize that giving you guys just a week to procure a photo of an earth shattering, humungous hair ball was asking a bit too much. After all, it's not like we can command or predict when our cats will blast off a fur missile.

With that in mind, I have decided to open up the deadline to ONE MONTH FROM TODAY to May 15, 2010 midnight EST.. If your cat hasn't horked a hair ball, then you have a hairless cat or are very lucky.

Go forth and remember to STOP before you clean up the spew. Grab a ruler to add to the photo and send it off to info@coveredincathair.com .

Winning photos will be posted here and maybe I will send you something fun for your efforts or maybe I won't...if you don't send me your address or if you annoy me.

Bob Dole (my cat, not the ex-candidate for Vice President) has been coughing for about a week. I admit I didn't give him enough hairball remedy, but thankfully he, somehow, managed to hork this bad boy up.

Okay, it's gross, but you have to admit it's impressive, too! In all the years of discovering hairballs, I've never seen one this big.

So now, my dear readers, I challenge you. Can your cat blast a bigger hair hunk? You've got a week. You can't "make" a fake hairball with your hands or in photoshop. You need to include a ruler next to said hairball so we can see how long it is. It's gotta be the real thing. Also, include a photo of the cat who did the “horking.”

To enter, you must email a photo of the hairball w/ruler and photo of the cat who “made” it to: info@coveredincathair.com by Friday, April 23, 2010.

Prizes? Hey, do I look like I'm sponsored by a major corporation? I might have a Furminator or a box of Catnip Tea I can toss your way. Is it great motivation for you to send in pix? Heck no. Is bragging rights worth something to you? I think, YES! The winning hairball will be posted right here on CiCH, along with a photo of the now somewhat less hairy cat (if the owner provides one).

So stop cleaning up those messy hairballs and get out your camera, first!

Note: open to anyone who has a camera, a cat and a cat who just puked up a hairball. Please DO NOT HARM or otherwise induce your cat to vomit. I mean, really, do I have to put that in writing?

Wow. What a day.

Why is it every time something important is about to happen in my life that I can count on getting my period? What's up with that? Not only did I get it, but I GOT IT. You know what I mean? I swear my body is out to get me, but like everything else, perhaps it's a blessing in disguise?

Sure. Whatever you say.

So. BlogPaws!-my first Conference Presentation was this morning at 11:00 AM. I had practiced out loud, in the shower (hey, not that kind of practicing!), in the car, in my head when I laid down to go to sleep. I knew what I needed to say, but was worried I'd rush or fumble or both...or worse, forget the entire thing!

I knew I should try to be relaxed and calm. There are lots of nice folks here-about 250 of them. My PowerPoint presentation was only 10 minutes long, then I was to spend the remaining time on a panel discussion. The topic: “Leveraging Social Media.”

I promise I'll re-post this soon with photos, but for now, I can only write up some notes. Try to visualize...

...me. With bad cramps, feeling woozy. Slept for about an hour because I was an idiot and ate a HUGE chocolate cupcake before I WENT TO BED last night. Between the sugar and the caffeine, there was no hope I would really sleep. I DO know better, plus I'm worried that my Wii is going to yell at me when I get back home for eating like a moron while I've been in Columbus. Even now there's a HUGE vanilla cream puff from Schmidt's Sausage Haus sitting on the desk in our hotel room at the Westin!

Okay so back to visualizing me, sleepy, shaky, in my first session which was about how to do a product review without getting sued by the company whose product you're reviewing or get into trouble with the FTC. Basically, don't lie and be clear that you are reviewing something you were paid to review, if that's the case and you're off the hook if you didn't get paid, just don't be a twit and make declarations that are anything outside of simply “my own observation or opinion.”

Okay, common sense. What was dreadful about this session was one of the speakers was not able to show her slides. The computer locked up, then after restarting, they realized NO ONE knew the password to log onto the Mac! This poor woman, just calmly went on ahead and did her thing. Me, I thinking, “oh shit. I hope that doesn't happen to me. I'm dead meat if my presentation doesn't work—the same one that I still don't know if it got loaded onto a Powerbook or if it runs!”

I looked at my watch. My pulse was throbbing in my throat. My hands were trembling. Time to head to my session. I got upstairs and ran into Helin, one of the other presenters. I love Helin. She's from PeoplePets, so that make her super cool to know, but really without it I'd like her just as much. She's so cute and bubbly! She told me the room was still being used. They ran late! They ran SO LATE, it was 11 AM, instead of 10:45 am when we were supposed to get the room, get prepped and get going.

Ha ha ha. Another squeeze on my blood pressure! Those folks would not get out of OUR room!

They finally left and we started to set up. Jennifer Laycock went first. She ran her preso off her laptop. She was great. As I listened to her, I started to worry that she was going to talk too much about what I planned to say. I sat there and thought; “No..no..don't talk about analytics! Okay, yes, talk about Twitter, but no oh...don't talk about..ack!” Then I got so absorbed about worrying what she was going to say that I spaced out and thought I will have nothing to say! I am blank.

Then it was my turn. My Preso wouldn't run.

Oh $#$@#!

So I talked about doing stand up comedy. I made some jokes. They realized PowerPoint wasn't LOADED onto the laptop I was supposed to use. They tried MY powerbook, but the adopter (ha ha ha! I'm leaving that typo-I meant ADAPTER) didn't work. We used Jennifer's PC, but it took so long to get it working, I had to introduce Helin and she did her presentation while things were getting sorted out. What a mess!

I got back up to talk. This is it. I was shaking so hard, I could barely press the arrow key to advance the slides I designed. I told them about my journey blogging about Tweetie (remember him?!) and The Tweetie Chronicles. Sockington and Jason Scott. Instead of stumbling, it was smoothly delivered. I didn't go too fast, but I kept a good pace. I made everyone laugh and as I got near the end I was surprised it went so quickly. After the presentation was over, there was only time for a few questions. I was very happy that a few folks came up to me and told me to make sure I didn't give up on doing stand up comedy! Does that mean the presentation sucked? Hmmm...just realized that!

I think it went very well, considering everything that happened. It was so worth all the work and practice and looking back on it I can say I enjoyed it very much and hope to get the chance to do it again.

The rest of the conference was just fine. I learned a few things. I met a LOT of people. I need to sort through the enormous pile of cards I got and start figuring out who to check in with, who to follow on Facebook and Twitter and who to be real life buddies with. It was so much fun to meet Caroline, aka RomeotheCat on Twitter. She and her team kicked butt putting this conference together. For a first time event, it was great. Well put together, good food, good space, good folks. There's much more to write, but I'm just dead tired and I have a vanilla cream puff waiting for me.

I don't care if I have to face the wrath of my Wii, too. So there. I'm hormonal. I have my needs.

What a day. A day of no fighting, but not a day without tears. Mind you, I did well and have been enjoying learning more about Columbus and it's surrounds until Blog Paws got under way early this evening.

We starting out innocently trying to find a cool “foodie” quality place for breakfast. Sam and I both abhor eating at a hotel, partially because of the prices (they got ya, so they charge for it) and the food is usually not very inspired.

I found two choices. We headed towards one. Golden Donut & Diner. Just sounds yummy, right? We were both starving and ready to stuff ourselves. Not having a map, we gave the GPS the address and headed out. No sooner than we left our little part of town, we hit not a house or a block, but a NEIGHBORHOOD of boarded up, run down, empty single family homes, duplexes, and row houses. It was shocking. It broke my heart. I had no idea such hard times had fallen on Columbus. We kept driving down street after street. We saw maybe one or two people out. It was like the town had given up and either moved away or died. I saw a “For Sale” sign on a home. It was a cute, Craftsman style bungalow. $10,000.00. YES, TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. Rough shape or not, all the other homes around it were empty and closed up. I felt terrible seeing this. This is not the America I live in. It's shameful. How did we let our fellow citizens down?

We found the diner, but I was too nervous to eat there. I should have done it and I feel badly. We found our second choice about a mile away. It's called, First Watch and the food was good. Really hit the spot.

As I watched the diners take their seats and eat their meals, I was tempted to ask them to tell me what happened to their town? But as Sam pointed out-this didn't happen over night. Whatever happened has been going on for a long time. Maybe I'm the last to know. I need to look into this situation further. I still intend on rescuing every cat I can, but these folks need some help, too.

Today I went home. 40 years ago I lived in Marysville, Ohio. I haven't been back there since I was 16. It's hard to look back on a place where you had a family that is now gone. To see it through the eyes of an adult. To wish you could go back and warn the little girl, who lived there, to love her parents more and to cherish each moment because they don't last forever.

I saw the Nestlè plant where my Father worked. I saw the garage where I stood with my Mother, across the street, waiting to pick my dad up during a bad thunderstorm. There was a big oak tree across the street. It got hit by lightning and the tree top exploded. The tree is long gone, but I remember it.

Near the old entrance to Nestlè where we waiting for my Father. To the right in the grass, was where the huge tree stood.

I saw my old house. 911 Sherwood Avenue. I got very choked up seeing it. I didn't expect that. The house is almost exactly the same. The color is a bit different. The tree out front is huge, but other than that, it's still a nice house in a nice, if a bit tired neighborhood. I remember riding my bike and running between the houses. I had no idea what would come to pass. Now I can't help but think, this will probably be the last time I ever go to Marysville. I will go on with my life knowing the house is still there, but the family that was my true treasure is long gone now and seeing it again was a grim reminder.

Home.

My God life is short.

Note: I had fully intended on writing about Blog Paws tonight since I've met so many nice people and want them to all love my blog should they stop by to visit it...but the events of the day wore too heavily on my heart and I just had to write about them. I hope you understand and check back tomorrow. I have my big 10 MINUTE presentation to give in the morning and a story to go with it (hopefully not one of being heckled or booed or forgetting what I was supposed to talk about!)