Lots of Kitties Will Win with the Petties 2012 Pet Blog Awards

Again, don’t make me send Giuseppe to make sure you’ve voted…

It’s time once again for the annual Dogtime Petties Pet Blog Awards. This isn’t just about me winning an award for The Creative Cat, though that would be splendid. This is more about helping me and the kids donate money to help other cats—and other animals—in need.

In this case, the winner in each category will receive a personalized Petties trophy and a $1,000 donation to the shelter or rescue of their choice, which in my case would be the Homeless Cat Management Team and the $1,000 amount doubled by a matching grant program, details below.

And as if that’s not good enough the shelter or rescue listed with the most nominations wins a $10,000 donation from Dog Time Media in the Pre-Petties $10k Donation Contest! Any shelters or rescues receiving donations from DogTime must be a non-profit 501c3.

How the Petties work…

You are not actually voting in this award contest, and you don’t just go and do it once. Remember that old joke about “Chicago voting”: “Vote early and vote often!” (My non-US friends may not know this joke, but just ask!) But unlike the usual one-person-one-vote method, you are nominating blogs and content for the categories listed below, and you can do this once each day. In fact, please do this once each day. Nominations close Friday, June 29, 2012 at Midnight PST.

One (1) non-profit 501c3 shelter or rescue will be selected by the Contest Administrator the week of July 9, 2012 and announced announced on July 16.

Voting for the nominated blogs will begin later this summer. The winners will be announced during an online ceremony in September.

Ballot categories
You can nominate one slate of candidates each day, and along with each blog nomination you enter you can also nominate one shelter or rescue to win the Pre-Petties $10k Donation Contest.

I have voted for myself in the Petties, and I’ve also voted for others. I hope you will vote for The Creative Cat in any appropriate category, such as Best Cat Blog and Best Designed Blog, and if you have a favorite blog post on The Creative Cat please nominate that as well. I’ve no doubt you have other favorite blogs too, as I do, so please don’t leave any spaces blank! Each nomination, each day, counts toward the shelter you’ve listed in the Pre-Petties $10k Donation Contest.

In order to nominate The Creative Cat, please enter https://thecreativecat.net in the “Nominee URL” box.

Enter the name of your chosen shelter in the “Shelter Nomination for $10K Pre-Petties Donation Contest” box.

Best Dog Blog : A blog that is dedicated to dogs and has insightful posts about their dog and offers readers a variety of information on dogs.

Best Cat Blog : A blog that is dedicated to cats and has insightful posts about their cat and offers readers a variety of information on cats.

Best Rescue/Cause Blog :

Best Overall Pet Blog : A blog that showcases all that is pets and offers readers a little bit of everything on our furry friends.

Best Blog Post : blog post that has had a powerful effect on its readers (Please put URL of blog post you are nominating, not just the blog URL itself)

Best Designed Blog : A blog that is well designed and is complemented by photography or other artwork that makes visiting this blog a pleasure to the eyes

Best Use of Social Media Blog : A blog that regularly uses social media to extend the reach of their blog through Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc.

Funniest Blog or Blogger : A blog or blogger that has made you laugh multiple times through their posts and you enjoy visiting their blog for a good daily chuckle.

Best Video Post : A video blog post that captures a memorable moment and portrays the spirit of the blogger (Please put URL Of blog video post you are nominating, not just the blog URL itself)

Best Pet Product Review Blog : A blog dedicated to products made specifically for pets and their people, including product reviews, recommendations, and purchase information.

Why nominate every day? Why nominate at all?

Don’t just nominate me, nominate all your favorites.

First of all, animals somewhere will benefit, plenty of them, and in the process none at all will be harmed.

Second, we bloggers work very hard at something we are all passionate about—entertaining and educating you, our readers, each in our own unique way. Most of us do this simply from love and receive no compensation whatsoever, but even if we do it’s not much. Without compensation to give us an idea of how we’re performing our jobs, feedback is our guide. One of the best ways to find out if we are doing it right is to be nominated for, and to receive, an award for what we do, and it’s also a payment on its own from you, our readers, a pat on the back, a virtual hug, telling us that we’ve done a good job.

Third, there’s Giuseppe, ready to visit if he finds you haven’t visited Dogtime and voted. Those eyes should be enough incentive.

Posts and such

The post on The Creative Cat that has the most hits is “A Final Wish”, about the long-time animal rescuer named Dorothy who was dying of a brain tumor and desperately wanted to find homes for her last five difficult-to-adopt pets. That was the first of several articles as Melanie, her friend and caretaker, helped Dorothy to the end and all the animals found good and loving homes. Many of you followed along with the series “A Little Bit About Kelly”, and if I ever had any doubt people were reading it was swept away in the e-mails and comments I got when I had to skip a week between parts 3 and 4, and the requests to publish this as a book (Kelly is particularly pleased with this).

Many of my sketches have been popular, but counting comments and likes on blog and Facebook, shares on Pinterest and e-mails, the two most popular were “Mimi in the Middle” and “Kelly in Warm Colors” (this also pleases Kelly).

For most popular photos, the ones of Cookie in the Kitchen—the pasta dish, the cooking pot, the salad bowl, the bag of rotini—all received a good bit of likes and commentary; it’s good to know they are coming up again as daily images from last year.

For humor, well, the boys in their conversations as they wrestle and observe the world have gotten a lot of laughs as did “The Housewarming Cat”, “Feline Faith and Understanding” and “Area Senior Cat Finds Muse in Photography”, and some readers tell me I amuse them every day. If so, that credit goes to my felines—I’m just the medium!

My beneficiary

The Homeless Cat Management Team (HCMT) has achieved their goal of opening a new clinic of their very own! It is located at 207 Allegheny St, Tarentum, PA 15084. All of their clinics will be held there instead of at the Animal Rescue League facility in East Liberty. This permanent clinic will allow HCMT to spay and neuter 7,000 cats every year which will save the lives of tens of thousands of cats in the Pittsburgh area because they will simply never be born.

HCMT is in a matching grant collaboration with Animal Care & Welfare: up to $50,000 in donations toward HCMT’s permanent clinic will be matched by AC&W. If I win in one of the categories above, the $1,000 award will go to HCMT, which will then be matched by $1,000 from Animal Care & Welfare, helping to pay off the clinic. So you double the award if The Creative Cat wins in one of the categories!

Homeless Cat offers TNR through both no-charge and Fast Track clinics where feral cats receive all the spay/neuter, flea treatment, vaccinations and a mandatory ear-tipping, the universally-recognized sign of a cat who has been “trapped-neutered-released”.

HCMT clinics are generally reserved for cats who are part of a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program and who will be returned to their colony, not taken into a home as a pet or entered into a shelter, rescue or other animal adoption program. This helps the organization and individuals spay and neuter as many homeless outdoor cats at the least cost possible for the person managing the cats, reducing future populations with each surgery.

However, they’ve recently begun to offer services to “rescue” cats on FastTrack clinic days, because it’s sometimes not possible to put a cat back outside because of health or circumstances. Also, the person who rescued the cat has often been feeding and caring for it for some time, a bond grows between them and instead of putting the cat back outside, the rescuer will take them in, an even better solution for the cat, and also the person.

HCMT is also participating in the City of Pittsburgh Free Spay/Neuter program for city residents. Simply write them in when you choose your “preference” of where to get surgery performed, on the application.

They will hold an Open House on July 22, 2012 from 12-3 pm and you are invited to stop by and check out the new facility! Click here to read about the Homeless Cat Management Team.

SO NOW GO AND NOMINATE!!

Click here to go to Dogtime’s Petties 2011.

You’ll also see the logo below at the end of all my posts—click it to go to the nomination panel.

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All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used in any way without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.