The Cat Blog on TheCatSite.com

I’m going to try and feature a TCS cat here, as often as I can, sometimes along some other post topic. One forum member, Laureen227, was quick enough to reply to my plea for pictures two days ago, and her gorgeous Cable gets to be our very first Cat in the Spotlight:

Laureen shared the following in Cable’s Cat Page on TheCatSite.com-

Cable is the smallest of my adults – & the queen of the household! She rules it with an iron paw, too. Swats Chip at least once a day, just to remind him who the boss REALLY is! She’s a gorgeous silver tabby.

Cable was found, at about 8 weeks of age, in the road in front of the school where I teach. Being known as the resident ‘cat lady’, the students’ teacher brought her to me. She only weighed about a pound & was covered with fleas. She’s since grown into a beautiful, healthy princess!

We’ll feature Chip and the rest of the gang here too someday! And your cat could be in the spotlight as well – so just send me her or his picture along with a short bio (the cat’s – not the owner’s ) to blog [at] thecatsite.com. Another way to show us your cat, and a place where I’ll be picking out more pictures from is the Fur Pictures forum on TheCatSite.com. Check it out for some cool cat pictures and post your own. Not yet a member of the forums? Tsk tsk… it’s never too late – register here!

Did you have a minute to check the latest article on TheCatSite.com? It’s right here: Luxury Cat Beds and it deals with those upscale cat beds, the ones which, frankly, I enjoyed writing about but would never spend the money on I mean check out the pictures in that article…

For one thing, in our household, such plush beds as the double donut beds (my personal favorites) would be too tempting for my kids! They’d have to be positioned high up above the floor, out of sight, or they’ll get confiscated and turned into comfortable kiddie couches.

More importantly, I’m not sure I want to spend over $100 for a single cat bed. I would much rather put the money towards spaying four more feral females somewhere (we do that here, trap and neuter feral cats). Besides, I think I know what’s the definition of a luxury cat bed for at least one of my cats, Mishmish, the Queen and Empress of this household. A view shared with many other cats, obviously, Mishmish thinks the best cat bed ever is that big comfy bed in our bedroom. Good thing it’s large too, so she can let her favorite humans share it with her!

Some more about cat pictures today. In fact, here’s a little peek into our plans for the cat photo contest. Still at an embryonic phase, these would require a good programmer and some time, but the general idea is to move the photo contest from Meowhoo.com to TheCatSite.com and build them into part of the forums. We’re going to have 2-3 photo contests running every month, all automatically generated, with archives easily available. And yes, there will be prizes as well!

Still to come, as I said, but exciting all the same! For now though, I would love to feature some TCS members cats on this blog from time to time. So, if you have a stunning picture of your stunning cat, by all means, send it to me at blog@thecatsite.com and please mention the words “blog picture” in the subject line to make sure it doesn’t get caught in any spam filters.

Please include the following -

Your forum username (not yet a member? register here! )

Your cat name and a bit about the cat so I can share it on here on the blog.

If you have one, a link to your cat’s cat page on TCS.

Add a few lines and tell us something about your cat too, and don’t forget to include the picture! It needs to be fairly large and of good quality. Can be funny or just pretty – up to you!

If you’re reading this, then I think you’ll probably agree that cats are amazingly beautiful. Simple enough of an assumption, and there’s probably no need to post a poll about it in here Their striking looks make cats a wonderful subject of photography, or at least a subject well worthy of some attempts! Catching that perfect look in a picture can be quite a challenge, actually, but we never stop trying, do we?

And we love sharing those pictures too! This much is obvious by the huge popularity of the “Fur Pictures” forum on TCS where members share pictures of their fur babies and join in praise of some wonderful images shared by other members.

One of the more pleasant tasks in running the cat sites is managing the “Focus on Felines” cat photo contest on Meowhoo.com, where we present visitors with ten new pictures every month. As it happens, my husband is in charge of selecting the pictures that enter the contest. Both of us enjoy this particular chore, as he calls me over every now and again to show me another spectacular cat photo.

Here’s the thing though: on this particular cat photo contest, the emphasis is not so much on the beauty of the cat (after all, they are ALL gorgeous), but rather on the quality of the photography. And herein lies the real challenge! We all have stunning models, but alas, we’re not all expert photographers!

Having gone through a few dozens of submitted photos today, to find the ten gems that will participate in May’s contest, I thought it might be a good time to mention a couple of resources, that aspiring cat photographers might find useful -

How to Take Good Pictures of Cats – some tips about cat photography, published here on TCS a few weeks ago.

Pet Photography – some professional tips by our forum moderator Kelly (aka Clixpix) from her excellent photography blog.

The pictures in this post, btw, are from past rounds of our cat photo contest on Meowhoo – aren’t they gorgeous? We’re actually considering a revision of the contest, and possibly moving it under the TCS umbrella, with some great new features added… but that’s still in the future, for now, let’s just enjoy the pictures!

Welcome to the TCS blog, aka “The Cat Blog”! You may want to bookmark this web address here -

http://www.thecatsite.com/blog now, so you can return often and check for news. I intend to blog daily, or at least once every two days, so hopefully, you’ll find something nice to read everyday.

So, who am I and what is this blog all about? Well, check out the “about” page for the full story. For now, to keep going with this post – I am Anne and I’m the owner and editor of TheCatSite.com and Meowhoo.com – two sites dealing with our favorite topic ever – cats! On TheCatSite.com (aka TCS for short), we have a very active online community where cat lovers join together to talk about cats. Check out our forums and if you’re not a member yet – click here to join. It’s free and it’s fun!

Why a Blog on TheCatSite.com?

Well, I love blogging. I have several other blogs and I’ve been toying with the idea of blogging about cats for a while now. I have a lot to talk about when it comes to cats, and I have news and updates related to my websites that I’d like to share here as well. I’d love to share pretty cat pictures that I get from surfers on both sites too, and a blog would be a wonderful new avenue for that. So, here goes, let’s get this blog rolling! Do please leave comments – I love feedback and always welcome it.