by Marjorie Dawson

Marjorie is a fellow pet blogger. We found each other through a site called Blogpaws and I asked her to share with us about her blog.

My name is Marjorie Dawson, and I am the creative dynamo behind the busy New Zealand based cat blog DashKitten.com.

Dash Kitten logo

What Made You Start the Blog?

The blog was inspired by my muse and Founder Cat, Dash Kitten, and the aim has always been to have fun, and help change the lives of cats and their families in a positive way.

At Dash Kitten we celebrate the beauty of our home in New Zealand in the blog’s regular Middle-Earth Monday posts. The posts spotlight everything from the amazing costumes for the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies, to the upside-down weather we have. While the USA can shiver under six feet of snow, I am often found drafting a blog post at the beach or in the garden! This photograph from 2011 shows our first snow in 30 years!

The first snow in our part of New Zealand in 30 years!

The blog and the Dash Kitten Crew have been active fund raisers for almost ten years with fundraisers for animals, friends, or rescues in need. One of our most successful fundraisers was for Bootsie, a cat abandoned by his owners in a trailer park. Bootsie had severe ear problems, but we helped finance his expensive treatment.

Blogging and the Worldwide Community

We are members of the vibrant BlogPaws community. BlogPaws is an organisation that encourages the highest blogging standards and provides countless skill building opportunities for its members. As a result our blog has grown from a small cat blog with big dreams to our appointment as the first BlogPaws International Ambassador in 2016.

Miranda Kitten our blog’s ‘Editor’

We took our responsibilities as Ambassadors seriously and looked to the community of international cat blogs we believed our USA readers might like to meet. Our Worldwide Blogger Series is still going strong and remains a popular feature on the blog.

Movie Making with Dash Kitten

Dash Kitten’s posts on making smartphone movies, choosing movie apps, and developing editing have proven hugely popular, and the blog’s enthusiasm for making movies helped Dash Kitten achieve a Finalist place in the Best Pet Blog Video category at the BlogPaws Nose to Nose Awards this year (2017).

While writing movie making blog posts, I realised smartphones are fun and super useful but many people see them as a mountain to climb before they even think of making a pet movie. We all want to create memories of the pets we love, so the cats and I created an ebook How to Make Your Pet an Internet Movie Star. The aim is to encourage everyone to give movies a try because everyone CAN make movies!

Some of the blogs most popular videos have been our fun records of the ‘Dash Kitten Crew’ and, when we discovered our late adopted senior Dusty adored car trips, we recorded his discovery of our local New Zealand tourist spots. These are part travelogue, and part a record of the trips he loved. While Dusty has passed away, I look at the quiet enjoyment in his videos with pride, and the response to them has been very positive.
Dash Kitten Video “Driving Mr. Dusty”

Dusty Cat, Blogger and Traveler

Reaching Out Worldwide

Although we are far from the USA and Canada, in terms of miles or kilometres, the pet blogging community is strong on creativity, communication, and invention. Dash Kitten is part of an award winning collaboration with two other bloggers: Savannah’s Paw Tracks and Nerissa’s Life. We formed the Adventurcats and between us conjure up wonderful adventures where our cats time travel, drive submarines, and have a lot of fun. A new adventure is due soon!
Dash Kitten Video “The Adventurcats Prohibition Error Part 2”

Marjorie and friend Jake at the Vet’s Office

RIP Dash Kitten

Dash Kitten Blog Muse and Founder Cat

Check out more pet stories and articles in our Pet Perspective section.

Biography: Marjorie Dawson
After a nomadic childhood roaming around Europe, I settled in London where I lived, loved being a handmade creative, and worked with computers. I also met the love of my life in London. We then decided New Zealand was the place to be, so we packed up our home and moved halfway around the world, with our four cats, of course! Then I started DashKitten.com, and the rest is history!