What’s Going On!

July, 2010: Since returning from vacation, I have taken photos of two great dogs (Sandy and Rocky) and ‘Grampa’ kitty which belong to an autistic child and his family about an hour from here. I wish I could post all of the best shots here but there are so many!

I’ve started some serious yard work on the house, and I got a scholarship for the rest of my classes this year!  That is reason to celebrate!  I also attended a Beer Festival in Seattle and a Luxury Chocolate Salon - both were fundraisers for cat shelters, including Purrfect Pals, but didn’t advertise it very well; and the MEOW.org fundraiser and auction was a blast! I won tickets to a comedy show in August, also a fundraiser for animal shelters in the area. My friend won a lemur encounter! Here are some of the kittens at the Beer Festival. Their little brother needed some surgery, too. The Beer Festival was packed, and the MEOW auction was sold out ... there wasn’t even enough room to display all of the auction items this year!

May-June, 2010: My vacation to St. David’s, Wales; Bath, England; and to Spain was 29 days of sheer joy in exploration. I took over 3000 photos. I met 4 senior lady friends in London and we took the train to Wales. We hiked almost every day on the spectacular coastal path. Our beautiful 3-bd 3-bth cottage was right near the ruins of a Bishop’s Palace, two doors up from the Farmers Arms pub and two doors down from a church. We also went to Pembroke Castle, and our hikes took us to several neighboring villages, including Solva and Whitesands, as well as a beautiful hotel for lunch, and national heritage sites. I went to Bath on my own and took day tours of the Cotswalds, Stonehenge, Avesbury, and a trip to Glastonbury, Wells and the tiny town of Nunney with its French style castle. Of course, I had to swim in the Roman baths - but the old Edwardian baths were booked so I had to be content with the roof-top and spa pools in the new building. There was also a big music festival in the town with lots of free shows on Friday night. In between, I spent a couple days in London and visited the British Museum, the crown jewels at the Tower, did the double-decker bus tour, took a cruise on the Thames, walked through Trafalgar Square, had lunch in a crypt, saw a comedy in a local theater (A Bedroom Farce), shopped in Covent Gardens, went to a medieval feast in costume, and much more. I only pet one single cat (in Wales) throughout the entire trip. Below - the play in London, me on the train to Wales, the Welsh coast, and that friendly young white cat with two coloured eyes...

Below - the spectacular towering ruins of Glastonbury Abbey (what is left is at least 115ft tall or more) are not as impressive as the overwhelming feeling of connection to something that might be described as ‘god’ if one believed in it. Swans and their babies (swanlings?) on a creek in Castle Combe; and the source of the hot springs feeding the Roman Baths (color due to iron content). There is so much I could say, given the space!

After a night at my girlfriend’s mom’s apartment in Malaga, Spain, we drove inland to the center of the border with Portugal and spent a week at her 150 year-old stone holiday house. We saw fields of olive and cork trees, hundreds of storks nests in trees, on buildings, and on specially built nesting poles. Nests can weigh 200 lbs. We toured nearby towns of Valencia de Alcantara, Portalegre, Castele de Vide, Marvao (a mountaintop fortress which was suffering a horrible plague of earwigs -YUK!), and Portagem, which had a really lovely recreation area with a medieval bridge crossing the creek. We walked to an ancient dolman and a Roman Aqueduct near the house. We also saw many ragged, dusty looking street cats, but clearly they were content enough to sleep just about anywhere without worries of being disturbed.

Below, the mountain top fortress of Marvao with its clever gardens; flowering plants cultivated in the cobblestone streets to decorate doorways (the balconies were dripping with flowers, too);  and one of the very sleepy cats in the streets of Portugal.

Mosaic tiled patios and glossy decorative tiles on buildings were common; the Roman Aqueduct managed to get water over steep hillsides through landscape engineering; and a spectacular sunset (and fantastic breeze) from the back door of my friend’s house.

March-April, 2010: This spring has been really busy with three trips to Santa Barbara for meetings every month. I think I was only home for about 3 of the last 7 weeks. I was privileged to meet Malcom Gladwell and get signed editions of his new Outliers book - great reading, and started some improvements on the house (outside). I entered the Coalition Humane newsletter in the Cat Writers Association contest for 2010 and have high hopes, of course. I also applied for a scholarship for my doctoral program. At the same time, I’ve been planning for an extended vacation in May/June and dealing with incompetent workers, emergency rooms, and mis-information. I am really going to need that vacation. And, lest we forget the volcano which is leaving travelers stranded and toxic fallout on agricultural lands in Iceland. I also was happy to photograph a herd of feral cats (and one friendly squirrel) for my Happy Client Corner column. The youngest, Sunny, and Charlie the squirrel are shown below.

February 26, 2010: Just a quick update: The Cat Writers Association is now featuring all of its member products in an online bookstore! Check it out! I’ve also been asked to write a blurb for the new book, The Corporate Quest, due out this summer! The Quest presents a methodology for inspiring a renewed spirit of entrepreneurship for leaders of mature organizations. The author integrates concepts from Adizes methodology and Spiral Dynamics, while illustrating how the adventure unfolds through heroes from history, literature, film and legend. I am quite excited to be reading a book that is so much more entertaining than my textbooks! Of course, the author, Randall Benson, is a fellow cat lover, too!

In kitty news: I was unable to photograph Lea last summer because, though she gets along with multiple other cats, she hid constantly inside the sofa from the dominant males in the home she had been adopted into. That is why I never saw her when I went to photograph the other cats.

Lea is a rare calico doll-faced Persian. She quickly decided to explore her surroundings at foster care and was friendly with everyone she met - cats and caretakers alike. Once she realized there were other kitties in the next room, she ran to join them as soon as the door opened, but she still hides if dominant males are introduced. Lea has since found a young man and a forever home, but other sweethearts can be found at Yeti’s - visit YetiSmith.com

Welcome to 2010! Wow - it is very strange being here in 2010. Time sure is flying by! American InterContinental University just offered to publish information on me in their newsletter, so I thought I should publish the latest news myself.  In December, six more kittens and their mom were taken to MEOW Cat Rescue in Kirkland (near Seattle, WA). This was the most loving group of cats I have ever met and it was as hard to decide which to keep as to let them all go. All were adopted within a few weeks, including mom, and I hope they got the wonderful forever home their blessed little hearts and souls deserve. Two siblings from the momma’s first litter were also spay/neutered by CAPS (Cascade Animal Protection Society) through the Tacoma Coalition Humane. I do interviews and take photos for the Happy Client Corner in the Coalition quarterly newsletter. 

In other news, Catwalk products are visible in I Love Cats Magazine, I started my doctorate in Educational Leadership, and below is the back-cover photo from Celebrating the Key Peninsula, as mentioned in my blog from Fall 2009. I’m going back down to California again for my employer next month and one of my students is coming to visit from Iceland!

 October-November 2009 - It has been a busy fall season at Catwalk Communications! After a lovely trip back to Santa Barbara to manage the Spiral Dynamics seminar in September, I found out that 13 of my photos were to be published in Celebrating the Key Peninsula (below right).

My lovely lake-view sunset (left) was chosen for the full-size back cover photo for this coffee-table photography book. My cat Skittle is forever representing the felines in our families on the Key Peninsula, too. Also, a little rescue kitty named Misha was taken to MEOW Cat Rescue in Kirkland, Washington, and I’d like to thank Purrfect Pals and Harbor Hope for their offers to help. Last, I was accepted to Aspen University’s doctoral program in higher education leadership. I guess I know what I’ll be doing for the next five years.

Skittle  Misha

June-July 2009 Quite a lot has happened since my last post - but perhaps most important were two more articles printed in The Pet Press, distributed throughout the Los Angeles area, plus some locations in Ventura and Orange Counties!  The articles were called: Why Moving Might be Good for You and Your Pets; and Why is My Cat Coughing?. If you live in SoCal, you can pick up The Pet Press free - and there is so much useful and interesting information there, it can’t fit in this blog. Subscriptions are also available. To check out the latest celebrity cover story, click here.

Also in June-July, I went to Las Vegas for work, but it was fun to see the city a bit, see colleagues from overseas, and attend the educational seminars, too!  Changes will keep me busy for months!

As promised, The Handbook of Online Learning was released this month. Dr. Bruce LaRue and I co-authored a chapter titled Synthesizing Higher Education and Corporate Learning Strategies (SAGE). I will also be in charge of Editing and Design for Dr. LaRue’s 3rd edition of Leading Organizations from the Inside Out (due 2010).

In other news, a bird nested in the eves above my deck last week. There were two babies and it was interesting to watch them grow. They seemed to hatch and be ready to fly in just a little over a week! The mom is bringing water in the center photo.

May 16, 2009   Had to have a little fun, so I went to the new Star Trek movie at the IMAX in Seattle - cool! Visiting the Pacific Science Center was also fun. One exhibit showed the Sun full of Jupiter sized spheres, and the center Jupiter is full of Earth size spheres - to give you an idea of how small we are in the universe.

To further connect you with the importance of All Life on Earth in the context of this being our one and only home, do you see the blue arrow below?  It is pointing to the proverbial needle in the haystack that indicates the slight possibility of finding another planet like ours in our galaxy (The Milky Way), but will we find another habitable planet? Since warp speed isn’t happening any time soon and Voyager hasn’t encountered intelligent life in 40 years, it is important to pay attention to what IS happening here on Earth! Climate change, extinction of species, and overpopulation of humans - which means poverty and war. First of all - no more fossil fuels or bio-fuels, please! We need a clean source of power that doesn’t negatively impact the food chain, soil or atmosphere! Second, we need top educational standards at every level through college in order to find solutions!  I hope this is high on our President’s radar. Here is a cute video about our one and only home.

Below are just a few of the beautiful butterflies flittering around the exhibit there. Of course I had to wait until they paused to get a photo! Sheer serenity.

May 12, 2009   Here is a live MP3 of the radio interview from Animal Radio Network on May 2, 2009. During the broadcast, the interview starts at about 1:50 into the hour on the timeline. An article appeared in The Pet Press, titled: Got Pets? Tired of Paying Rent? Click here to read all about it and get 10 tips for saving money right now! Watch The Pet Press for future articles by moi!

May 1, 2009   Just discovered there is a new airline just for pets! Pet Airways! Click here for FAQ!

April 27, 2009   Left is the cover of the UK version of The Handbook of Online Learning in which Dr. Bruce LaRue and I co-authored a chapter titled Synthesizing Higher Education and Corporate Learning Strategies. The Handbook will be available July 2009 (SAGE). I also designed, edited, and contributed to management theory sections of Dr. LaRue’s previous book with Paul Childs and Kerry Larson, Leading Organizations from the Inside Out (2nd ed., 2006).

April 24, 2009   Part of a healthy lifestyle just has to include vacations! I took my first vacation in 9 years to San Jose for the weekend! We saw Jeff Dunham the ventriloquist (he’s ok), went to the Winchester House, a Diving Trade Show that happened to be next door to our hotel. I also visited the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose while the girls were sun bathing. On Sunday we went to Monterey! On the way, we rode in a 100 year-old steam engine at Roaring Camp near Santa Cruz in the redwoods, and visited the Brookdale Lodge which has an incredible restaurant built in the 1800’s with a rushing creek going right through it. Then I went to the Monterey Aquarium while the girls went shopping in Carmel... darn it. Couldn’t do it all! Cannery Row was fun! Good food! Talk about a jammin’ weekend! Too bad my camera ran out of juice!

April 15, 2009 Great news!  The recording for Animal Radio Network went so well, they want to air 5 minutes instead of 3 minutes!  Click here for a nationwide list of Affiliate stations. Also, on April 23rd I’ll be joining Deborah Wolfe of Animal Magnet on Pet Radio for a live show to introduce My Pet Freebies and my book! Click here for a schedule! Finding Your Own Home and The House-Hunting Kit for Cat Lovers were also featured in Pet Product News! I just received copies of the February and March editions, along with some reader requests for more information.

April 3, 2009  I just got back from California last night - what a great trip! Just can’t beat the Santa Barbara weather - even when I have to work all week! Here, it’s raining of course! It was great to see my parents, too. I just received copies of Kittens USA, which will available in PetCo stores everywhere by the end of this month. Finding Your Own Home is featured on page 99. We’re going to be interviewed on Animal Radio Network tomorrow for broadcast on May 2nd, and Finding Your Own Home is listed on their New & Notable page!

We’re on Pet Realty Network, in The Pet Press, Kittens USA and...

March 18, 2009:  Today is my birthday, yippie :p ...  I’m going to California tomorrow for work. Meanwhile, The Cat Lover’s Guide to Finding Your Own Home is now in I Love Cats magazine. An interview with me is in The Peninsula Gateway right now, too! In kitty-cat news:  Mollee has learned that if the door between the garage and the house is just barely closed, she can go in and out whenever she wants. Then she taught Skittle to come in by himself, too.  What a clever little fluff-nugget!

February 25, 2009:   Wow - lots of news! Friends in California mentioned that the Santa Barbara Zoo is looking for photos.  The Black Footed Cats below only weigh about 4 lbs., come from Africa, and are considered a vulnerable species. Last November I caught sight of (and got photos of) these tiny kitties right before sunset. For information visit this interesting cat site.

January 15: Every year I have promised to make a donation to a compassionate animal organization from some of the proceeds from the sale of each book or e-book. With last year’s sales, I have sponsored an incredibly sweet little black cat that I met in Atlanta: Greer has been at Rescue Cats for more than a year with her twin sister Grizabella. (see the story in November, below).

Right now you can vote for the shelter of your choice to win $10,000. in 2009.  My choice is www.PurrfectPals.org because it is - sadly - the only no-kill shelter that I have found in the area, and because they accept kitty-cat ‘estates’. Meaning, when I die, my living trust will pay for the compassionate care of my cats in their facility. Since I now have my own home, I can plan for the future of my pets. Purrfect Pals has found homes for over 23,000 cats since 1988. To vote for Purrfect Pals, click on the link above.  To vote for another no-kill shelter of your choice, go to:  http://www.care2.com/animalsheltercontest

January 1, 2009:   To start the New Year off right, The Pet Lover’s Guide to Finding Your Own Home is being featured on Pet Realty Network’s Community Pages. 

It is hard to believe we are almost a decade into the 21st century. 10 years ago we were looking at the turn of the millennium and I was living in a toxic roommate situation. Now I am in my own house and living in the Pacific Northwest instead of Southern California, my home of 25 years. This New Year’s Eve I saw the fireworks live at the Space Needle in Seattle for the first time. A spectacular front row balcony view, and these photos were just taken with my cell phone with no zoom!

December 2008: I  just found out that someone gave me a very special holiday present: a ‘foster’ kitty named Sweet William at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. I just got a photo. If you’d like to adopt a kitty sweet enough to get the name “Sweet William”, the golden child on the left needs a forever home. The photo on the right is NOT him!

November 2008: This month I attended the Cat Writers Association annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where I was the recipient of the Bio-Pro Research scholarship stipend of $500! After signing my books at the Cat Fancy International Cat Show, I had to wander over to the rescue cat section, naturally.  Who can resist temptation. Not surprisingly, I was forced to sponsor a 1.5 year-old little black cat named Grizabella. She has a sister named Greer and they’ve been at the shelter for a very long time, over a year - the lady tells me that people in Atlanta just don’t love black cats. (Taslin was shocked!) The “G” sisters were born on July 22, 2007. To sponsor a kitty for just $10 a month at this small no-kill shelter (which has found homes for over 4300 cats since 1999), go to www.RescueCats.org and click on the Make A Donation link, then scroll to the bottom of the page for the Sponsor button. Or, you can go directly here. I hope to sponsor Greer, too... help! This is Grizabella on the left, and her sister Greer on the right.

Other cat news from my travels: When I was in Santa Barbara, this lady wrote to the local Independent paper complaining about a cat obituary that appeared at the bottom of the human obituary list. She said these notices should be separate, but “at least” it was at the bottom.  I took exception to this catty attitude, and the response that I wrote to the Santa Barbara Independent is here.

October 2008: The Ultimate Dog Lover (2008, HCI) came out this month with my color photo of Louie on page 15 - the whole page!  Visit HCI Publishing for a free sample of the stories in this book. Louie is a pit bull that was fixed by the new low-cost spay/neuter clinic in Tacoma, called Coalition Humane.  I write the Happy Client Corner for CH every month, and Louie was one of the wonderful stories of a dog and his mom who were assisted by the clinic. Another story I wrote for CH is here.

Also this month, Harbor Flavors
(2008, Morris Press) was released.
It is a cookbook that contains hundreds
of recipes from people in my local area,
including four recipes of mine!