We saw names like Icon Baxter Bailey, Ayla the Grump, Chatham and Aloysius. We know that several of them have long since gone to the Bridge, were in fact, some of the earlier elders to go running off, along with Trixie and Grampa Norton. We were also struck by the small community. When did we lose the ability to say happy birthday at the end of our posts? When did we stop immediately jumping into the story lines of other cats?
Remember the interactive posts that Zeus would put out? His travels but it was on our blogs, using our own imagination as he just sort of offered the “plot idea” if you will. Kukka Maria did that for us a lot too. We did that with the Meezers, weaving in the mystery of how Miles had a wet head with the mystery of whether Chey had connections to the Sopranos. There was nothing formal there, just sort of an evolving alternate universe with a dozen or more authors.
Things seem more contrived now. There are so many more cat blogs. It was easier when there were 50 of us and half wrote a post each day and now we have hundreds and two thirds write posts. We also noticed how many of our outside links are no longer working because those non cat bloggers have moved on to other things. They too were friends, although not like many of the cat blogging community. Now that we have Facebook we can find many of the people who have moved on but before that, when they stopped blogging, we lost contact.
Stick around and stay tuned. Maybe you’ll see one of your favorites too.
How cool! Our Mommy was around back then, but she didn’t let us blog. She just “lurked” about reading and enjoying the blogs. We’ll look fur these in the near future. xoxo
We will look forward to the retrospective. We miss bloggers who have stopped posting, miss their friendship. Do you remember Vampy Vic? What a character!
purrrs,
Cory
Seems like a different world, doesn’t it?
We werent around back then, but it sounds like a great time!
It’s truly another world now and sometimes bigger isn’t better. It must have been amazing to be part of that smaller community. We look forward to your posts..
Since you went all romancing the old days on us, I went back and looked to see when I/we started blogging. Our very first post was on Dec 13, 2007. So we’re coming up on 5 years. Oh my Cod! And of course, there are no photos. But there had better be a meowgarita somewhere with my name on it. Ha!
Oh, and since we’re on the subject, I actually credit my (still limited) knowledge of Photoshop to blogging. All of my graphics on my business web site would not exist if I had never started blogging. srsly.
Wow!! We remember those names. Zueses mom is on Facebook and just got married. And well we are so sad with what happened to Kukka. All the others names we know them too. There are some great newer writers but some of the old stuff which back then was groundbreaking is now funny. But great. We look forward to the retrospect. And make sure you tell everyone how found chey friday started.
I started blogging in March 2008 and for several years didn’t realise that people were supposed to be reading!! Between then and now, I have gained a lot more readers, but I write a lot less words and use a lot more pictures! That makes me sad as I like writing, but most people just want to whizz through something that doesn’t tax the brain cell so they can leave a comment, so you go back and leave a comment on their blog! I sound cynical! Have to say, though, that some don’t just do that. Some have become good virtual friends! 🙂
We always get a little sad when we visit a blogger to wish him/her happy birthday and they haven’t posted anything in a year…or two…or even longer. We always wonder if they are okay.
AH the good ole days when the Pooses for Peace forced corrupt politicians to wear ankle guards. Parties, Bite & Runs and hiding from Homeland Security. And the best years when Chey ran for president!
Thanks for the precious memories!
xoxxo
zevo’s pet human
Thank you for the walk down memory lane. I know it is my biggest fault in the blogging world – I love the art of writing and crafting a story, so my blog posts tend to get long and wordy. I know that is a “no no,” but I am not going to change who I am just to fit the modern sound-byte pattern of what makes a blog successful. I am like Chey in that regard, you can take me, or you can leave me!
I look forward to more of your posts. And, of course, I LOVE Chey’s hat and must have it for myself!! Thank you for being part of Zee & Zoey’s Cat Ruler of the World Contest and for all the work you do at Purrfect Pals.
we love remembering. Thank you for remembering Gramma Trixie and Grampa Norton. We still miss them alot. We miss Kukka and Zeus, and so many others. It’s so hard to keep up with all the new bloggers. It was so much easier back then. Remember when Miles was assimilated into the Borg and had to sing show tunes for DAYS ON END to un-assimiliate? MOL.
That was really interesting and I wonder what the new ones will think when they look back several years from now.
we bee lookin forwerd ta yur posts chey coz we wuz knot heer six yeers ago …..
and we gotta say yur hat N glasses bee rockin
butt mind ewe we iz knot sayin this coz ewe R ree lated ta de sopranos… N we bee scared of sum sooooper big dood who iz sittin in hiz car….. watchin us while we bee use in de box ….. and heez takin pictures with his cell u lar deevice of us usin de box…… sew hee can ree port bak to sum dood named capone
noe…
we reely N trooly like yur hat N glasses…it bee leopard 🙂
We are SO looking forward to those posts!!!
We have been blogging for 5 years now and remember many of the events you mentioned 🙂
We also agree with Zee and Zoey about blogging for yourself.
We remember a post made by Kaze,Latte and Chase’s Mom that she once cared how many visitors came. Later, she blogged for the fun of it even if she was the only one to see it.
We are at that stage now. We like visiting more 😉 When we post, we try to be creative.
Our photoshop skills have improved a lot from our early efforts 5 years ago!! Looking at our old efforts make us laugh.
We miss so many of the early bloggers are hope they are happy and well!!
Chey, we also appreciate our friends that have been here a long time too. Naturally that means you,Gemini,now Ichiro and we remember Georgia 🙂
Yup, flashback posts are fun!!
Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
Tiger,Treasure,JJ and Julie
Chey
We dont do FB but the names you mentioned all brought a flood of memories to us.
Yes we certainly remember when there were only a scatter handful of us around. In fact when I started I couldn’t find ANY cat bloggers. They were there but few and far between. There was NO CB then. We started with BLOGGER before you could have comments … and had to have another application to be able to have comments. When that application went away we lost all of our comments from earlier years. That makes us so sad because like you mentioned so many of those cats have gone OTRB.
purrs
>^,,^<
?•*¨`*•. ?Abby?Boo?Ping?Jinx?Grace??•*¨`*•.
We like to walk down memory lane, too, even though it can be sad at times. Mom Paula started blogging with Sweet Praline over 4 years ago. She remembers when she could spend an hour on the computer and visit every single cat blogger. Times have really changed.
The Cat Blog is one of the best things out there.
We started blogging at about the same time that Sweet Praline did. We are always sad when we go to blogs to say Happy Birthday or Happy Gotcha Day and they haven’t blogged for months or years. We too wonder what happened. We’ve been trying to get Mom to comment more on blogs too. It’s always nice to know that somecat out there is reading what you post!
The Florida Furkids
You have spoken volumes and sadly for some I don’t think it is being absorbed.
“Contrived” suits many…so many have agendas other than just wanting to pop into their blogs and write. THAT saddens me.
I have been grossly disappointed with many of the events in the cat blogging community over the past year. To be honest, since I have started my dog blog I find those bloggers to be far more genuine, real, not afraid to share others and they blog for the love of blogging and their pets. Not for notoriety.
Continue on as you have been, there are many like myself who value honesty. Don’t change.
Love the hat and glasses. I’m really new on Facebook, I get cat blogs to read and enjoy the pictures. But I do like a good story, makes it more real and enjoyable. Long or short, something more than 2 words. I’ve noticed I get the same picture alot of the times with no story. I don’t have a blog, just found out what they were! Cat Wisdom 101 was the first, but I have a good collection I read on Facebook or get e mails if I can.
I’ll enjoy looking at your look down memory lane!
Have a Great Time,
Connie Marie
We are looking forward to your retrospective posts Chey. Although we were later coming to blogging than you (6 years ago last July) we remember that we were able to visit every blog that had posted each day. Now it is impossible and we have to mark the majority as read, but of course like everyone we have our favourite blogs and try to read them in one go to catch up. We remember one year not long after we started, our Humans had locked us up again to go gallivanting and you invited us over and took us to various places. We started our Friday Flashbacks (suggested by Vampy Victor) originally because we had got very low on photos. It is good to go back and see the older posts when we choose one.