National Answer Your Cats Questions Day

 It's NATIONAL ANSWER YOUR CATS' QUESTIONS DAY! After a half day search we found the purr-rect holiday! And we have a question for OUR human. "WHY DON'T YOU PAY MORE ATTENTION TO US?" (We fixed that by crawling inside her laptop!) What would YOU kitties ask your human if you could?

There are a lot of other questions we COULD ask...

Here are Peaches' questions:

Why does Paprika bother me all the time?

Why don't you pay more attention to me when I'm "in the mood?"

Why don't you leave me alone when I ask you to?

Why did you buy that un-tasty discount cat food last week?

Why can't I have Paprika's dinner too?

Paprika's questions:

Why do you make such a fuss when I go take a little stroll amidst your fragile shell collection/ Can't you see I'm being careful?

Why do you pay so much attention to Peaches?

Why do you get so mad when I take a bite out of your silk plant?

Why can't I have butler service every day instead of just part of the time?

National Popcorn Day brings Mayhem in the Peaches-Paprika Household

 

POPCORN PAPRIKA! What a mess! We were just minding our own business w
hen we were ATTACKED BY POPCORN! Well it was kinda fun really, & we got a lot of exercise dodging all the kernels. Peaches had the most fun cause she got to turn upside down. Then she told me it is NATIONAL POPCORN DAY!

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Popcorn started becoming popular in the mid 1800's and by 1900 horse-drawn popcorn wagons proliferated. And who has not enjoyed a huge tub of buttered popcorn at the movies sometime in their lives!You can read all about National Popcorn Day here!

2021 Bloggers Journey - Our Answers

 A heartfelt thanks to Colby once again of the Puppy in Training blog for picking up the ball and getting the 2021 Pet Bloggers Journey rolling. I am looking forward to reading a bout  everyone's challenges, accomplishments & activities this year and share my own. Colby posed 10 blogger questions to answer and these are my answers. Hope some of you will enter & post yours too!

1.  WHEN DID YOU FIRST BEGIN YOUR BLOG AND FOR THOSE STOPPING BY FOR THE FIRST TIME, HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING & WHAT IS YOUR MAIN TOPIC?

This is our sixth year.  Our blog is humorous & entertaining featuring the adventures of Peaches & Paprika, my two quirky tiger-calico sisters, originally rescue kitties who survived three shelters & a  narrow escape with death row. There are three main parts of our blog: holidays, slideshows and cat adventures.

a) Holidays for Cats:  We focus on celebrating "fun" untraditional holidays - such

as National Brownie Day, International Beer Day, Day of the Cowboy hoedown, National Ice Cream Day, Rose Day, Best Furriends Day, Hairball day, Pick a Flower Day...well you get the idea.   Our readers are entertained by learning about little known holidays while enjoying Peaches & Paprika's cavorting about in crazy costumes, backdrops and poses.

b Slideshows:  We also host slideshow celebrations for special events in which any bloggers (as well as our lively Facebook readers) participate-- such as Independence Day, Catmas, St. Catrick's Day and more.  Our slideshows are fun for all and build community amongst bloggers and readers.

c. Peaches & Paprika adventures:  Of course we also feature the day to day "adventures" of Peaches & Paprika, stars of our blog, who have  experiences common to many pet owners.  As an example, in 2020 they were subjected to RELOCATION to a new home , every cat's worst nightmare...and on top of that, a noisy RENOVATION...well you get the picture.  We narrate these down to earth events with realistic photo cartoons and slideshows, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant  to entertain our readers but also to share our experiences.

2.  NAME ONE THING ABOUT YOUR BLOG OR ONE BLOGGING GOAL YOU ACCOMPLISHED DURING 2020 THAT MADE YOU PROUD:

A. I GOT AN AWARD FOR MY BLOG & OTHER CWA AWARDS

Our blog won the CWA Certificate of Excellence award and we were also honored to have 5 additional Certifications of Excellence awards - two for photography and  photographic art, two for videos and also a Social Media award for our Facebook page.

MUSE AWARDS

Two Videos also won coveted CWA MUSEs awards: Bloggers' Catriotic Slideshow on July 4, as well as Bloggers 3rd Annual Rainbow Memorial Show in May: a slideshow honoring pets who crossed the bridge.  I believe both events meant a lot - in different ways - to those involved.

B. I PUBLISHED 3 BOOKS TO AMAZON

    

I'd written them last year.  But didn't know what to do after that. Book 1 entitled Our First Year in Connecticut was about Peaches & Paprika's journey and Book 2 was about Peaches' & Paprika's celebration of 100 holidays in photo cartoons. Book 2 got really long, so I divided it into 4 seasonal books & named the series Celebrations.  The Autumn & Winter Celebrations books (about 60 pages each)
have been published and the spring & summer books are scheduled for later this year.  I also have an "all in one" book entitled Peaches & Paprika: Celebrating All Year Long.

3.  WHICH OF YOUR 2020 POSTS WAS MOST POPULAR WITH YOUR AUDIENCE?  WHY DO YOU THINK IT DOES OS WELL?

A) "Paprika's Outrageous Behavior With Dinner Guests"had a great response.  It was just funny.

B) "Relocation from a Cat's Point of View" - I think this has a universal appeal!

4.  WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST BLOGGING CHALLENGE YOU FACED IN 2020 AND HOW DID YOU TACKLE IT?  Though I wrote the books I didn't know what to do after that to format them & get them on Amazon. I managed to navigate all that technical stuff & got the books up there though paying a publishing company. Not easy for picture books. I did my own  covers to save $, next time around might get professional help.  It was fun, though. And the "Celebrating All Year Long" book in December ended up  getting the Kindle #1 New Release ribbon in two large categories for a few weeks and getting 32 positive reviews as of today. 

6.  TELL US ONE THING YOU LEARNED IN 2020 THAT CAN HELP US ALL BECOME BETTER BLOGGERS.

If you really want to do it, there is a way.

7. IN THE PERFECT WORLD, WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AND YOUR BLOG 1 YEAR FROM NOW?

Using my blog as a base for a pet portrait business and continuing to write books.

8.  IF YOU HAD $1,000 TO SPEND ON YOUR BLOG, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND IT?

I'd pay someone to change over my blogger blog to Wordpress because I'm really chafing under all the blogger restrictions re formatting, etc.

9  WHAT IS ONE SKILL YOU'D LIKE TO LEARN OR IMPROVE IN 2021

I'd like to learn TOPAZ, a photo editing software program that's somewhat complicated so I can go further with my photo editing skills.

10.  IF YOU COULD ASK THE PET BLOGGING COMMUNITY FOR HELP WITH ONE CHALLENGE YOU'RE HAVING WITH YOUR BLOG, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

It's more a challenge with my social media account, my Facebook page specifically.  I now have 12500+ followers, with daily active engagement of 100-400 on my posts.  I keep my readers engaged with fresh content, well-photographed photo cartoons of my cats, holiday celebrations they've never heard of. More importantly, I involve them and their cats in monthly or special themed slideshows in which their cats participate (that's my specialty).  Some have been with me 2-3 years.  There must be a way to generate a revenue stream with all these engaged readers but I  have really not figured out how to make that happen.  Thought they'd be big purchasers of my book but only a few bought it. It was suggested to me to start a pet portrait business where I do the same kind of editing I've done for free: enhancing their cats...portraits, special occasions, etc.  Any feedback or other suggestions appreciated.  if there are 12k followers there must be a way to generate income.  

Thanks in advance and if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading about my journey.

We are joining Puppy's in Training 2021 blog journey as well as The Cat On  My Head Sunday Hop today.

Happy Mew Year Slideshow from Peaches, Paprika and Furriends

 WATCH THE SHOW! (Below)

Our 2nd Annual HAPPY FUR-BALL MEW YEAR SHOW (Slideshow) has been posted for all to enjoy.  

The show features thirty FEARLESS FUR-BALLS who were NOT afraid to change their colors - including two mystery bloggers you will recognize!

Click HERE or on the graphic above to view!

Meanwhile, here is our Mew Year graphic, wishing you the most IMPROVED of all years in the decade!

Love, Carol, Peaches & Paprika

PS: We are joining Cat Blogosphere, Athena and Marie and The Cat on My Head this weekend.