Thankful Thursday: 2018 Cat Writers' Association Certificates of Excellence

Five years ago when I was accepted as a Professional Member of the Cat Writers' Association I wrote that it was a dream come true. I still have a file folder in my desk filled with articles I printed out from the CWA website dated 2006. Back then I studied the membership requirements and made a vow to myself that one day I would become a member of this exclusive group of cat writers. It took me another 5 years to start blogging, and even more time after that before I realized my true blogging passion was cats. What else could it possibly be?

Even after being honored with a membership, the idea of ever winning a coveted Muse Medallion was so far in the back of my mind it was practically non-existent. I still had much work to do on honing my craft. Still, you'll never know if you can achieve something unless you try, so with the knowledge that Truffles' tragic passing inspired some of the best writing I'd ever done, in 2016 I decided to dip my toe into the water and enter their annual writing competition. Entries in each category are reviewed and judged independently by three professional CWA members and their scores are averaged by the Contest Chair to determine the winner. Anyone earning an average of 90 or higher based on the scores submitted by the three judges receives a Certificate of Excellence, with the highest score winning the Muse Medallion. I entered the Blog/Any Other Topic category, and not only won a Certificate of Excellence, but also the Muse Medallion...on my very first try!!!

Last year I decided to veer away from the blog category and instead selected individual articles to submit in a variety of categories, just to see if I could measure up to so many other amazing cat writers. You can only imagine my shock when I won FIVE Certificates of Excellence!!! This year I took the same approach and submitted four articles (one from this blog and 3 from my freelance writing for the Canidae blog). I'm so excited to say that all FOUR won a Certificate!

These are the articles we won them for...

Column / Online Column The Purrfect 10

Written Article: Health & General Care 7 Ways to Make Your Cat’s Senior Years Golden

Written Article: Rescue & Advocacy 4 Reasons to Consider Adopting a Diabetic Cat

Written Article: Rescue & Advocacy Debunking 9 Common Myths about Feral Cats

Muse Medallions will be given out at the Cat Writers Conference in St Louis in May. I'm certainly not planning to win any because the competition is stiff, but just being a contender is an incredible honor!