Recently we were invited to participate in The Pet Bloggers Journey. Each year since its inception, pet bloggers have come together to post about where they've been and where they're going. It's a wonderful opportunity to reflect on what our blog means to us, where we hope to bring it, and celebrate a little history.
Each blogger answers a brief series of questions. We think it's both interesting and inspiring for our friends, readers, and other bloggers. We really hope you do too!
But first, and as we are entering our eleventh year of GLOGIRLY, we'd like to share a quick history of how the fun began.
It all started with a rescue.
They say that adopting a pet impacts two lives. The life of the animal and the life of the adopter.
But we believe it can mean so much more and reach farther than your wildest dreams could ever take you.
A Cat Named Katie
Gloman adopted Katie in September of 2005 as an anniversary gift for Glogirly. It had been many years since Glogirly had a cat and to say it was love at first sight is an understatement.
It was Katie's voice Glogirly heard when she wrote her first blog post ten years ago. Katie was the inspiration behind it all. If Gloman hadn't come home with a tiny bundle of black & white fur all those years ago... well, we just can't imagine. We'd have not met all of you, our dear friends and readers. We'd have not met hundreds of wonderful pet bloggers from all corners of the world. We'd have not been able to donate thousands of dollars in prizes, supplies and cash to help no-kill cat shelters. Even Glogirly's design business began right here on the blog.
And so it all began with a tuxedo kitten named Katie.
A Cat Named Waffles
Our favorite mischief-maker came to be as a result of our blog too.
"Waffles" began as a character on the blog. A made-up sidekick for Katie. He was just a cute stock photo Glogirly started Photoshopping into graphics for the blog. She made up his goofy personality, his innocent and curious voice, and in a very short time found herself in love.
On a late Saturday night in November of 2012, she opened up her laptop and went to Petfinder.com. She entered our zip code, clicked search, and there he was. The cutest orange kitten she could imagine. She drove to the Humane Society in Buffalo, MN the next morning and brought him home. She never imagined that his personality would be EXACTLY how she'd written him.
Our family just wouldn't be complete without Katie, Waffles and all of our beautiful friends and readers. Thank you for sharing your time with us.
Pet Bloggers Journey:
When did you begin your blog?
(And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about.)
We published our first blog post, titled
Nice To Meet You, on June 16, 2009. At the time, we were a one-cat blog and household. The blog was completely voiced by Katie the elegant tuxedo kitty with a dry and sarcastic wit. Our focus has always been entertainment and humor. When Waffles the goofy, orange tabby joined the family in 2012, the blog morphed into daily conversations between the two and has kept that format ever since.
Name one thing about your blog, or one blogging goal that you accomplished during 2019, that made you most proud.
In 2017, we relocated from Minneapolis, MN to the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. We're probably most proud of being able to integrate mountain life from a cat's perspective into our format.
Which of your 2019 blog posts was your favorite and why?
We love sharing mountain life with our friends and readers, and we've found that these posts are some of our most popular as well. Probably the most popular topic is our driveway, or more specifically, the driveway drama we've witnessed again and again and again. Here's just one of our driveway drama posts -
The Bomb Cyclone Snowmageddon
What was the biggest blogging challenge you faced in 2019, and how did you tackle it?
Probably the most difficult day we faced in 2019, was a day that started off as a routine vet visit. We just about lost Katie that day and Glogirly really struggled with how to tell the story of what happened. Our posts are almost always "of the moment," sharing the day's events. That's where we so often find the smiles and giggles. But not this day. The post was titled,
The Day Our Hearts Stopped. The outpouring of love and support from our friends and readers was overwhelming and touched our hearts so very deeply.
One goal that we all seem to share is we want to reach more people. What is your #1 tip for bringing more traffic to your blog?
We're less concerned with the amount of traffic than we are the quality of traffic. We like to think of our visitors as family. We're honored and humbled to be so warmly welcomed into our readers' hearts and inboxes.
Do you do sponsored posts/reviews?
We used to do a lot of sponsored blog posts and reviews. As we've moved to a more abbreviated blogging schedule though, we really prefer now to just focus on fun and conversations between Katie and Waffles. That's not to say we'll never have another giveaway or product feature again, but it would have to be something very, very special.
Looking forward to 2020, if you accomplish only one thing through your blog, what do you hope it is?
Our goal is the same today as it has always been. If we can make a difference in the life of just one person, bring them a smile during a difficult time, start their Monday off with a giggle, touch their heart in some way, we've accomplished the most amazing of things. That's what it's all about and what really matters.
What steps are you planning to take to ensure you reach your goal?
No matter what each day brings, we look for the silver lining. That's where we find the things that make us giggle and smile. That's what fuels the fun in our blog posts and the conversations between Katie and Waffles.
The blogging landscape is constantly changing. What changes in blogging do you see coming in 2020 and beyond? What plans do you have to evolve?
The biggest change we've made in 2020 has been moving from posting MWF each week to one day a week, Mountain Cat Mondays. We've made a few fun design changes as a nod to our focus on mountain living through the eyes of two funny cats as well. We're looking forward to sharing more and more unique stories of what it's like living at 8,000'...and of course, what a couple of funny cats have to say about it.
We'd like to thank our friend and blogging colleague, Colby Molita, from
Puppy In Training, for hosting the 2020 Pet Bloggers Journey and inviting us to come along for the ride. If you'd like to explore other pet bloggers and their own personal journeys, just take a peek at some of their stories below.
