I Started A New Website And Almost Lost My Damn Mind

So here’s my big news.

After many, many months of talking about it, I wrote a children’s book, based loosely on the story of how Nicki came into our lives. And when I say loosely, I mean word-for-word as it really happened. Originally, I wanted to write the book with my daughter, but she was all eyeroll and I don’t really have time for this and after a few months of threatening, cajoling and DNA testing, I gave up on it and asked Peajaye to do the illustrations.

He agreed, and that’s how I ruined his life. Because he was consumed with drawing cats and my family and getting feedback from me like “Can you make Nicki more purr-y and the Mom A LOT MORE GLAMOROUS WITH BIGGER BREASTS AND A HEIDI KLUM-CUM-MONA LISA SMILE? Oh, and also make her look very wise, so that it’s clear to everyone that she’s the soul of the family. Thanks.” And that’s not even getting to the whole cat butt discussion.

Just as Peajaye and I were really getting into the book writing/illustrating swing of things, my daughter and her team of lawyers said something like “thanks for stealing my idea!” And then I remembered that it had been originally her idea, albeit one that she hadn’t executed, and as they tell you in Intellectual Property 101, you can’t copyright an idea. And then she said “so you think stealing is ok?” and after consulting with our Dream Team of Judge Judy reruns, Peajaye and I decided to let her work on the book with us and take photographs of Nicki and have a say in how the book turns out. So my dream of writing a book with my daughter sort of did come true. (Related: I’m thinking of a way to make Peajaye my daughter.)

And as we were finishing up the book, I realized that Peajaye still had a bit o’ life in him, so I thought that we should design a website to go with the book, because what kind of a moron has a book without a website these days? But because I am not designy, Peajaye had to do everything.

I have to tell you — I struggled with this website. Because at first I thought that it would be “Nicki’s blog” but after writing one post about taking a nap on a sunny bed, I immediately went to one of those Get Drugs for Cheap From Canada websites and ordered poison pills. After a lot of back and forth with Peajaye and my kids, together with some meditations over Nicki’s litterbox, we finally have a format with the new site.

It’s called Wanted Cat and I love it so much.

It’s part photos of Nicki, part blog posts written by me, my daughter and Nicki herself (ahem) and part hilarious YouTube videos of Mews News You Can Use–one minute news segments about what’s rocking the cat world lately. It’s a great way to catch up on all things feline so that you don’t sound like a moron at your next cocktail party.

There’s also a place for you to submit your cat’s photo to be featured as our Feline Foto of the Week. Obviously this is an amazing opportunity for your cat. Seriously, please consider submitting a photo on the site. And if you think Young Ladrinka is not participating in this project, obviously you know absolutely nothing about Young Ladrinka.

Peajaye came up with an idea that I’d pay the kids $1 for the best photo of Nicki every week so now there’s an intense competition about who will get the weekly $1. Needless to say, Nicki is exhausted.

I hope that you will check it out and I hope that you will love it.

And don’t forget to get multiple copies of the book— one for every room is a nice idea (unless you live in a one room apartment, in which case, one for every day of the week, because you deserve it, goshdarnit!)

One year ago ...

• Canonization - 2013