The Zen of Max

One of the anipals I talk to regularly and whose blog I never miss is @maxthequiltcat. I love Max's Mousey cartoons and couldn't wait for each new chapter of his mystery story. When I found out his mom, Lou Belcher, wrote a book about him, 'The Zen of Max' I couldn't wait to get it. I was so excited that I was lucky enough to win a copy of 'The Zen of Max' at the last pawpawty.

'The Zen of Max' is a very heartwarming book. It's about Lou and Max, how they found each, learned from each other, and shared their lives. But all books about pets and their people have that same basic plot. What makes each book unique are the personalities of the people and pets involved, and how the writer tells their story. Well Max and Lou definitely have interesting personalites and Lou really knows how to tell a story.

I enjoyed learning things I didn't know about Max. For example, I did not know that Max was tweeting and blogging from over the Rainbow Bridge. Max had already crossed the bridge when I met him, and I don't think it was ever talked about when we tweeted or in his blog. At least not that I had noticed. I didn't know that Max had moved from one state to another. I don't even like the short ride to the park. I can't imagine driving from one state to another. I also loved learning about Max's idiosyncrasies.

This book is a must read. I give it a definite paws up!

Thankful Thursday

So far I've sold 34 copies of Summer at the Lake with Petie. Today I received my first payment in the amount of $119. I haven't been paid for all the copies yet so there's more money coming (but not until next month)! I took great joy in going to Duncan's Place and clicking on their donate button and donating that money. As both Blurb.com and Duncan's Place both use Paypal, it was very easy.

Ordering is very easy, too. Just click on the picture below and it will take you to the order page!

The deadline for ordering in time for Christmas in the U.S. is December 12. Blurb.com delivers all over the world, so don't think you can't order if you live outside the U.S.

Thank you to everyone who has or is going to order Summer at the Lake with Petie. And Happy Holidays to all!

Random Stuff on a Tuesday

Guess what I got today! A picture of GinaTheMinPin reading 'Summer at the Lake with Petie'. How cool is this?

Catching up on my reading

And another wonderful friend, @BunnyJeanCook, has written about the book on her blog, Bunny's Blog. Now, if you've never visited Bunny's Blog, you should. Unlike yours truly, Bunny tackles important stuff on her blog. Here's just a couple of the things she's written about:

Help Pawcurious Help Homeless Pets
Adopt a Less-Adoptable Pet Week

I hope you'll all add Bunny's Blog to your reading list!

If anyone else wants to send me a picture of themselves reading Summer at the Lake with Petie, please do! Maybe I'll make a whole page of the pictures.

In other news, @BorisKitty is still collecting green papers to help Peanut and Kiki's families with the v-e-t bills. These poor kitties were shot with a pellet gun and need lots of v-e-t help. And that means lots and lots of green papers. So help out anyway you can, even if it's just one or two little papers.

I'm sorry to say that I'm going to end on a sad note here. Yet another beautiful angel, Whiska Pusskat, has crossed the Rainbow Bridge to get his wings. You can read about him here: Whiska Pusskat: In Memorium. I hope you'll all stop by and say a word or two to his family.

There have been so many furriends crossing the bridge lately that I'm thinking I should add an 'In Memorium' page to my blog. Except I'm wondering if that's just a little morbid. What do you think?

In case we don't get to talk to each other again before Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving!

Edit: Here's @smokey8's sisfer, Princess.

She's been doing a lot of reading. Looks like she just finished not just  'Summer at the Lake with Petie', but also 'welcom to my werld' by my pal Henry Steiff (@henryandfriends). Looks like Princess is quite the reader. Now all she needs are copies of @maxthequiltcat's book, 'The Zen of Max' and @CheshireK's book,'Please Send Money' (which I read and thoroughly enjoyed).

Speaking of  'The Zen of Max', I won a copy from the drawing on Max's blog! I'll be doing a review of it after I read it. Can't wait!

Anipals Read!

I've been quite busy this week helping out with a very exciting project! Those of you who attended the last #readpawty know that we decided that we should put together a way for us anipals to share books. @MaggieTKat, @MizzBassie, @Mariodacat, and I had lots of discussions about how it should be put together. Once we decided on the format, I put together a spreadsheet in Googledocs where we can list the books we have for sharing and keep track of who has what books.

The first step was setting up a gmail account for #readpawty where everyone could send their emails and so we had a google account to host the spreadsheet. Then I set up the spreadsheet. Then we got to talking some more, and one thing led to another. Well, the 'another' was a new blog just for #readpawty - Anipals Read. I had lots of fun putting that together. Blogger has lots of cool stuff built in. I even found a background that's a picture of shelves full of books - perfect for a book club blog. @MaggieTKat is working on moving #readpawty stuff from Kruse Kats to the new blog.

Then I decided to make a badge for Anipals Read that pals could put on their own blogs that would link back to the Anipals Read. I knew how to make a picture with a link, but I didn't know how to add the code so pals could copy it. @Rumblepurr to the rescue! He sent me sample code I could use as a base to make the badge.







Copy and paste the code below to add this button to your blog

<center><a href="http://readpawty.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" title="Anipals Read"><br><br><img alt="Visit the#readpawty blog" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_BQZVBTBg_TQ/TGMqj6NIeVI/AAAAAAAAABI/Yf-CqByiZkE/s144/books%20public%20domain.jpg" /><br />Visit the #readpawty blog!</a></center>
This has truly been a team effort. It was fun collaborating with everyone and getting this put together. And now my part in this is mostly done. @Mariodacat has volunteered to keep up the book swap list. And of course, @MaggieTKat will continue to be mistress of #readpawty and keep up the blog, just at the new site. Maybe as we come up with new things we want to add I'll work on design. But everything is pretty much set until we figure out what works and what needs to change.

I hope you will all go visit Anipals Read and join us for the next #readpawty.