2020 Cat Writers' Association Certificate of Excellence

I know a lot of people got a ton of writing done last year during the pandemic, but that wasn't the case for me. In fact, I had a terrible writing year, mostly due to family stresses that completely zapped my creativity. 

When the time came to choose my entries for the 2020 Cat Writers' Association Communications Contest, I found only one piece of writing to be worthy of consideration. 

Last summer our friends Dawn, Lola, and Lexy at Lola the Rescued Cat's blog asked us to submit Mudpie's story to their Rescue Stories series. We were so honored to be asked and couldn't wait to put paws to keyboard.

We entered Mudpie: She Mended Her Mom's Broken Heart in the Written Article: Feline-Human Bond category, a category I've never entered before but felt was the most fitting...

This category includes pieces that are written to examine and celebrate the joys and challenges of sharing our lives with cats, and pieces that will help cat owners better understand how cats relate to us and how we can share our lives with them in the most satisfying ways. Pieces should include an emotional tie between the human and the cat. Includes but is not limited to: personal-perspective pieces exploring the human-cat relationship, featuring individual cats and their people and how they enhance each other’s lives; profiles of individual cats and their owners and their lives together; memoirs of life with a particular cat or cat family; issues surrounding cat loss: preparing for loss; euthanasia decisions; grief; mourning; etc. If photos and graphics are used, they should enhance the piece and be specific to the topic at hand.

I'm so excited to announce that last week we found out we won a Certificate of Excellence for the article! While I may have only submitted one entry this year, I couldn't be happier that it's for Mudpie's story. My precious little girl deserves to have the spotlight on her for once, even though we found each other under such heartbreaking circumstances.

I can hardly believe that in 5 years I've now won 15 Certificates and 2 Muse Medallions. Never in my wildest dreams did I think such a thing was possible when I joined the CWA back in 2013. Cats are my greatest passion and being recognized for my writing about them is truly a dream come true.