Great Rescues Book Signing at FosterCat Spaghetti Dinner
Posted: August 2, 2011 Filed under: animal artwork, animal rescue, animal welfare, book signing, cats, fostercat, fostering pets | Tags: benefit spaghetti dinner, book signing, crocheted pawprint washcloths, donate to fostercat, foster cat, fostercat inc., great rescues calendar and gift book, peaches and peonies 1 Comment
Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book
Join me for a book signing for Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book at the FosterCat annual spaghetti dinner on September 10! I’ll be there with my special pen to inscribe a dedication to your favorite rescue kitty—or kitties, no matter how many.
It’s also time to think about “back-to-school” gifts, and not to early to think of holiday gifts for the end of the year. I’ll donate 10% of all my sales that day to FosterCat, so you can increase your donation if you attend the dinner and buy a book!
I’ll be donating a few things to the Chinese auction—one copy of Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book which I’ll be happy to inscribe for the winner, a framed print of one of Peaches and Peonies, and perhaps set of crocheted pawprints or a basket of notecards as well.
The Carnegie Arts & Heritage Festival is that weekend, but I will be at the dinner for the signing and with merchandise for sale.
I hope to see you there!

Click this image, print it out and post it!
The dinner is on Saturday, September 10, 2011 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church in Green Tree.
The menu includes spaghetti with a choice of either meat or meatless sauce, salad, rolls, beverage and dessert. Takeout orders will be available.
Helping to raise more funds in addition to the meal prices, Chinese auction items including restaurant and other gift certificates donated by local businesses will be on display, and you can also buy tickets for the 50/50 raffle. Cat toys and other items will be offered for sale at the event.
Tickets are $9 for adults and $4 for children ages 12 and under.
Click the image of the flyer at left, print it out and post it wherever you think people may be interested in attending—vets’ offices, hair salons, your local church, local businesses and gyms in the area, groomers and at your own place of business.

FosterCat, Inc.
If you can’t attend but still want to help FosterCat and its network of 25 foster homes, you can always make a donation at their website, www.fostercat.org. Even if you don’t live near Pittsburgh, consider making a donation to this organization that both removes cats in peril from shelters and keeps them out of shelters in the first place, giving them a loving and comfortable foster home until a permanent home can be found.
FosterCat, Inc. is an all-volunteer 501c (3) organization formed in 1999 to provide for the temporary care and also permanent placement of homeless kittens and cats. Through its network of 25 foster homes, FosterCat has fostered and placed over 1,050 kittens and cats for permanent adoption. There is no paid staff but everyone volunteers their professional talents as well as foster talents, and the only expense outside of direct care for cats is the cost of advertising the organization for potential homes and for foster homes.

Peaches and Peonies, pastel © B.E. Kazmarski
They were the recipient of the online auction of the print of “Peaches and Peonies” in honor of Peaches’ 100th birthday, and I regularly feature cats they have in foster in June for Adopt-a-Cat Month.
Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church is located at 1000 Green Tree Road, Pittsburgh.
For tickets, visit www.fostercat.org to purchase on line or call Carolyn Kozlowski at 412-531-4776.
A Special Book Signing with Ingrid King of The Conscious Cat
Posted: April 12, 2011 Filed under: animal welfare, books, books about cats dogs and animals, cat writers association, cats | Tags: book signing, buckleys story, cats, ingrid king, stray cat cafe, the conscious cat 19 Comments
The two reprobates I arrived with, Jay Davenport, human of Stirfry and Tabatha, and Bernie Tracy, human of the famous Steeler.
On Sunday I took off for Falls Church, Virginia with a person I’d never met before to get together with a bunch of other people I’d met on the internet. Sounds like the sort of thing they tell you not to do, but I happened to know that each of these persons, including myself, owned at least one tortoiseshell cat, so I knew the worst we’d do is talk about what our cats did in the litterbox or deposited on the floor.
Besides, I did know one of the people—Ingrid King, author of Buckley’s Story: Lessons from a Feline Master Teacher and the personality, along with tortie Allegra, behind The Conscious Cat website and author of the blog post that brought us all together, “Tortitude”—the Unique Personality of Tortoiseshell Cats. I had met Ingrid at a Cat Writer’s Association conference in 2009 and purchased her book the following spring. And the group of us have been trading cat stories for at least a year on the blog post, so we had only to meet in person to feel complete!
We met at the Stray Cat Cafe in Falls Church, VA, hosted by Harry and Julie Shubin, and the book signing and Chinese auction proceeds would benefit an organization for which he volunteers and fails in fostering for the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation of Arlington, VA.
I mention “fails in fostering” because they’ve officially added another cat, Piper, who had been a foster for about five minutes, as evidenced by their car…but they’ve also found homes for many cats thr0ugh the years.
We also had the pleasure of meeting Renee Austin of Whimsy Cats Specialized Home Care for Cats in Ashburn, VA and author “you-know-who” of Eva’s blog EvaEvaEva. Eva and my Peaches were BFF, and Peaches even became Eva’s virtual assistant for a while last year. Don’t just adopt a senior kitty, hire one too! I was very happy for the opportunity to meet Renee, especially since out cats had become such good friends using our computers behind our backs.
While it’s nice to see Ingrid and Renee, I also wanted to catch a little bit of the artwork in the cafe—really wonderful colorful style and actually dimensional as the paintings continued right off the canvas onto the wall. Along with the Lost Dog Cafe, the Stray Cat Cafe helps to support the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue, so you can “eat, drink and rescue”. The menu includes Mouse Tails, Catnip Dip, Nachos Gatos, and many more feline-themed foods, and feline-themed drinks like a Neuter Shooter, Feral Hiss and other amusing names that have to do with less-than-amusing feline activities.
Not wanting to arrive empty-handed, I was glad to donate Tortie Girls t-shirts to the Chinese auction and sets of Feline Art Cards and Animal Sympathy Cards for sale to benefit the organization.
We’ve been corresponding on the internet and feel as if we’ve known each other for years, but without the internet we probably wouldn’t even know about each other. All of us remarked at what a wonderful opportunity it was for us to be able to get to know each other, share stories and interests and eventually get together thanks to Ingrid’s one blog post about “tortitude”!
You can see photos of everyone’s cats by visiting The Conscious Cat on Facebook.