Souvenirs & Kitty Love

Last week, we were at the 2016 BlogPaws Conference & CWA Annual Conference, held at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort in Phoenix.

Aside from the fact that somemommy callously abandoned us, we have to admit it was an amazing experience.

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On Monday, we shared a little about the event, plus the big award for Best Video at Friday evening's CWA awards. Today, we'll share the rest!

For three days, attendees had access to sessions held by both conferences. Topics ranged from SEO and analytics to photography tips, and a workshop by indie ebook distributor Smashwords.

Yet as many learning opportunities as the conference held, being surrounded by like-minded pet lovers is truly the best experience of all.

An Amazing Community

Pet bloggers and microbloggers are some of the most caring and compassionate people there are. Spending time with those who share the same passions is the best of times, and deep and lasting friendships are formed here.

And then there's the SWAG. Loads and loads of cool stuff that kitties love. And much of it is in the form of gift bags from friends and fellow bloggers!

Product samples from vendors, a stuffed cat from "The Secret Life of Pets" & a cool ChristyPaws card!

We love that it's not all fun and games. Some pet brands are there for your pet's health, like Bluestem oral care and the Heartworm Society of America. (yes, cats can get heartworm too, and it can be deadly.)

And we also kind of really loved that the folks from the upcoming movie The Secret Life of Pets were there supporting pet bloggers - and handing out cool stuffed plush versions of the movie's star characters!

Maxwell: Look, Momma! Christy has bling just like Allie does!

More gifts from our cat friends: Naked & Hungry, Lola the Rescued Cat and Sammy, Orion & Emmy's human

Kate Benjamin, owner of the online cat shop, Hauspanther, (and guest star on Jackson Galaxy's My Cat from Hell) hosted the Cat Style Lounge. In it, you could see the latest in pet furniture, toys and grooming.

And on the last day, Kate held a drawing for all the floor models on display. We won this amazing hand-made fountain by Thirsty Cat Fountains. It's truly a piece of art!

The Thirsty Cat Fountain we won at Hauspanther's Cat Style Lounge

And the gift bags from friends and fellow bloggers just kept coming. Including a ...wait for it ... pink tambourine from Glogirly to use at the Saturday evening BlogPaws Nose to Nose Awards event!

Coco the Couture Cat was handing out toys & treats, as was Glogirly. The CWA swag bag was great, too!

 Speaking of ...
Our mom was knocked speechless when they called her name for an award she had no idea was coming. (Seriouslies, she was dumbfounded!)

To her surprise, BlogPaws awarded us an award for Outstanding Blog About Page!
We want to thank the Academy ....

In all honesty, we are extremely honored and we thank BlogPaws for this recognition!

This award was a huge surprise to us: BlogPaws awarded us for "Outstanding Blog About Page"

 But wait! There's ... more?

Oh yeah, and Faraday especially wants to thank Dawn, the author of Lola the Rescued Cat, for the plastic bag her gifts came in.

He, umm,  thought it was kind of a-a-a-awesome!

Somekitty liked Lola's BAG more than her toys!

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Belated Black Friday Giveaway & CWA Recap

About a bazillion years ago as we cats tell time, our mom abandoned us for a weekend with other cat bloggers at an event known as the 20th Annual Cat Writers' Association Conference.

She was invited to attend the CWA event both for the award ceremony and for three days' worth of conference sessions on writing, photography tips and such.

Her roomie at the event was none other than Glogirly, the designer of the Association's new logo (cool, huh?).

She had a ton of fun hanging out with other celebs such as the author of the very entertaining Whiskerslist: The Kitty Classifieds and Sparkle's very talented human, who also is an author and publisher.

From left to right: Whiskerslist author Angie Bailey, Glogirly & Sparklecat's human
(pardon the awful cell phone camera quality!)

Glogirly presented a very informative session packed with practical photography tips for the newbie and the seasoned shutterbug. And Sparkle's human gave a great talk about how to monetize your blog. A fun time was had by all, except for us poor deprived latchkey kitties back home. But we digress.

Our mom did eventually remember she had three feline dependents, ended her wild gallavanting, and returned home. With swag in tow. Lots of swag.

So much swag, we all decided we needed to share the largesse. So without further ado, we present to you our

Belated Black Friday Giveaways!

The first one is open to all U.S. residents. It consists of two - count'em two - bags of nomilicious treats, plus catnip and mousie toys!

The second giveaway is open only to residents outside the U.S. and it consists of a classical music CD mixed in such a way as to employ sonic anchoring - bioacoustic principles meant to provide a calming effect in stressful situations. Also included are two collars: a festive holiday one plus a kitten-sized one you can share with your favorite shelter, if you'd like. Also included is a package of nip nibblers!

If you're interested in grabbing this loot for yourself, just tell us in a comment below which giveaway you're eligible to win, and be sure we have a way to contact you via email.

The giveaways are open until next Friday, December 6 at noon.  The winners will be announced on Saturday, December 7.

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Rules and FTC Disclaimer:  

No purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Winners are chosen using Random.org and will be notified by e-mail. The winner of the giveaway will need to give us a physical address to which the prize will be mailed within 72 hours.  (no P.O. boxes please) 

If a reply email containing the physical address where the prize should be mailed is not received by that time, an alternate winner will be chosen again by random. The winner will be announced in a separate post following the drawing. 

We were given these samples by the gracious sponsors of the Cat Writers' Conference, and were not compensated in any other way, nor were we asked to do a review or giveaway. All opinions in this article are our own.