By Furby the Feral
Furby's new website photo
Good morning everyone. Today's article is going to be a bit long-winded. I plan to talk about something I haven't spent much time discussing in the past. ME!
Since beginning my writing career two years ago for pictures-of-cats.org, I've branched off in several different directions. That's a kind way of saying I have a multiple personality disorder. In a good way, of course.
One thing that hasn't changed is the reason I write. Since I lost my man to cancer in 2009, writing is the only way I've been able to cope with the grief. The way I look at it, I've saved thousands in therapy by writing. On the days I don't write, I find the loss of him sheer agony. Writing is a comfort. I'd recommend it to anyone dealing with a great loss.
Today it gives me great pleasure to unveil my new website at http://www.elisas4animals.com/. I'm excited about this for many reasons. First of all, it showcases all of my stories written about cats for pictures-of-cats.org. Michael has literally taught me how to write and I hope this new site will help spread the word about my stories and his website.
Before creating Furby's House, a reader had to go on a massive hunt to find all of my articles. All of my cat stories are basically on PoC. I've also snuck in a few that say "pet" instead of "cat." The reason for this is to help the ratings at PoC because a lot of dog lovers will also visit the site. I've found that a great majority of the readers here have both.
My dog stories all go on www.hubpages.com since the "experiment" Michael and I tried back in 2010 almost got me lynche! Readers, if you think I'm tough on the cat abusers, go and read a few of my stories on dog abuse. I've angered police departments in several states and quite a few jurisdictions because a lot of the time the police are involved in the abuse. I've even angered those in the county where I live because I raised a fuss over two men who were not charged for leaving a dog in a car in a mall parking lot when the temperature was in the triple digits.
I'm not sure how many of the readers here realize I have a degree in photography and spent 12 years in a studio. I've showcased some of my work on my new site. Along with animals, I enjoy photographing clouds and run down buildings. I literally have hundreds of photos to add so it will take awhile before the site is 100% the way I want it. Lack of a scanner is my main drawback.
A lot of my Facebook friends never realized I'm a photographer, and a lot never realized I write. I Googled my name one day and learned my photos are receiving as much attention as my stories. I'm really proud of them. Especially those I took back during the day when all I had was an old Minolta SRT MCII 1.7 film camera. I find it awesome that as I was building my writing portfolio, my photos were gaining attention without my knowledge.
I'm very proud of the Furby's House page showing my collection of photos of our rescues. Most were made using my BlackBerry since it's the easiest way to photograph them. I really need to get back in the habit of keeping a digital camera ready to go at all times. I'm afraid I'll miss a lot of candid shots when I do.
There's also an adoption page I intend to keep updated with cats who are looking for a home of their own. I've had some of these cats for well over six months with no luck in placing them.
It is for that reason I have a chip in link and a PayPal address for people to donate. In today's economy donations are down. It's a constant worry on how I'll be able to feed everyone and without the help of a lot of my friends I couldn't. So feel free to send a few dollars if you can. I have roughly thirty cats at any given time and it gets expensive.
Furby also has a large following and his own page on the website. A lot of you may not realize he now has a blog on PoC. He's very upset with me for not finding much time for dictation for him to write. All of his Furby stories and many many never before seen photos of my little man are on his page. (If you go to the home page and use the search box at the top of the page and type in "Furby", you'll see lots of stories about him).
Midnightmunchkin Whineybutt is also becoming well known in the social circles. In reality, Furby is addicted to sliced cheese and spinach pizza. I never dreamed when Midnight survived the feline distemper that she would stand a chance at catching up with Furby in popularity. Our little girl has surprised me. She also has a blog on PoC as well as her own page on Facebook.
I recently began writing for www.examiner.com for the Greenville, SC area. My expertise in domestic violence involving animals on this website echoes what I preach on PoC. That those who abuse animals turn into monster's who abuse people.
Speaking of animal abuse, I've been accused of scaring people into keeping their cats indoors. I won't apologize for this if I've made anyone paranoid. It's a dangerous world outside for pets. I only report the abuse to bring attention to it. If I can make one person think twice about leaving their cat outside overnight, then I've done my job. My personal reason for keeping cats inside is the fact I've had to scrape up and bury too many beloved cats who were hit by a car while I slept peacefully in my bed.
I have a lot of future plans for the new year. I hope to branch out on examiner.com and have my own column on genealogy. I've have over 35 years experience and want to share my knowledge on that subject.
I'll continue to write on abuse, both animal and domestic as I believe they go hand in hand. I hope to add many more cat/dog photos to the new website to share my rescues with all of you who have been so good to me. If you only have time to read one of my stories, it should be Kids Killing Cats. I believe it's the most important I've written out of all of them - Kids Killing Cats.
I hope everyone will look over the Journalism Bibliography page on the new site and forward articles to friends. I believe I have written something for everyone during my past two years. I'm the first to admit I come up with some off-the-wall topics. Hopefully I do a little educating as I entertain. I only write about topics I'm interested in. Anything else would be "WORK" and chances are that would take the enjoyment out of it.
I do know I'll continue to preach the message of adopting shelter cats. For those readers who still believe in declawing, I'll stress to them to adopt declawed cats from a shelter. There are plenty of them available since the turn in rate on declawed cats is so high due to behavior problems. Feral cats will also be high on my priority list since Furby, and our rescue Renny, were both ferals.
I hope you will all continue to read my stories throughout the coming year. I don't know what I'll write about that I haven't already covered. Topics have an interesting way of landing in my lap when I least expect them. I like to think KARMA is rewarding me for my love of the animals.
I plan to add several more pages to the new website. It's my hope that parents with young children will set their kids down in front of one of my gallery pages and let them enjoy the cat photos. Most are only snapshots, but I'm proud of how my cats and dogs pose for me and love to share them.
Thank you everyone for standing by me and enjoying the stories. And thank you Michael for teaching me how to get noticed by the search engines.
Elisa
