One year ago today I published my first post on Gold Country Cowgirl. Although that was my first post on this blog, I was not new to blogging. It took me a while to find my blogging passion but I think I finally made it.

One of my biggest passions is horses. I’ve owned horses for quite a few years and have done a lot of trail riding and camping. I decided I wanted to document and share these experiences so I launched my Horse Buzz A-Z website in August of 2012. Of all the blogs I’ve written for, I think I enjoyed writing these destination travel guide posts most and would still be writing them except that horseback riding is a lot different here than in Southern California. Trails are not highly publicized and there aren’t many horse campgrounds so I have not posted anything to this blog since I moved.

Since I enjoyed writing my own blog so much, I decided to start a blog for the cat rescue I volunteered with to help promote their mission and adoptable cats and kittens. At the same time I was volunteering, I was doing some pet sitting for a friend’s business. She moved out of the local area and turned the clients I had been serving over to me. I really loved pet sitting so I decided to start my own business. In January of 2013 I launched my Savvy Pet Care website and blog. I have continued to pet sit here in Amador County and post to this blog occasionally.

This beautiful girl with the awesome eyes is a new client. Her 3 litter mates stayed under the bed but Wallace followed me everywhere and helped me with all my chores. #cats #catsofinstagram #catsofig #graycat #ambereyes #petsittershelper #petsitter #petsitting #lovemyjob #SavvyPetCare #savvypetblog

A post shared by Savvy Pet Care (@savvypetcare) on Sep 25, 2016 at 11:39pm PDT

Towards the end of 2013, I began having health issues and, early in 2014, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had surgery which was followed by chemotherapy. During my down time, I read a lot of blogs. Somehow, I don’t quite remember how, I discovered pet blogs – not blogs about pets but blogs BY pets. I enjoyed reading these stories written from dogs’ and cats’ points of view and decided I needed to do something fun, so in August of 2014, my cat, Christy Paws, published her first post. Christy has been pretty much taking the winter off due to inclement weather and has only posted sporadically.

I fully expected, once I was able to seriously go back to work full time, to continue to live in Southern California, struggling to make a good living in an expensive location, but you never know what life is going to dish up for you. I had to move and was looking for a place where I could continue to foster for the rescue and keep my five cats I had adopted. Not an easy task when you are most likely going to be renting.

I had a couple of opportunities fall through and was feeling pretty defeated when my friend, Kelly, casually told me the house next door to her here in Northern California was going to be available in about 30 days. What?!? I had planned to retire here but figured that couldn’t happen for at least five years or so. I had always told her that the house next door to her is where I wanted to live! How weird is that?

There were so many things to think about. It was scary to make this huge change on my own, leaving my friends and the life I knew, but at least I would not be alone when I moved. Kelly and her family were here and the friends she had made since she moved here in 2011.

I contacted the owner of the house and made arrangements to rent it. I began preparing to move my four-bedroom household 400 miles to a two-bedroom house. How much junk can one accumulate in 13 years? Oh my gosh. I threw away, donated and gave away so much. It all seemed so hard and daunting and I was always tired from the chemo, but I did it.

Kelly came down with her horse trailer and I moved the furniture, my horse and my cats in October. I had to go back down for a month to finish my chemo so I stayed with another friend, Nancy, for that month. Finally, in November, I finished cleaning out my house and moving the rest of my stuff. Kelly flew down and drove back with me because she didn’t want me driving alone so soon after finishing chemo. Good friends are hard to find, folks. Cherish them.

Where I Found My Blogging Passion

This move is probably the best thing I could have done for myself, both physically and mentally. I am surrounded by beauty and peace. The pace here is so much slower, there’s next to no traffic and relatively little stress. Life is good!

Now, don’t let that slow pace fool you. There is still plenty to do here. When I lived in Southern California, I didn’t do much other than trail ride and horse camp. We did that almost every weekend so there wasn’t much time for anything else. Once I moved here to Gold Country, I knew I wanted to see and do as much as possible. So here I am. I’ve found my blogging passion. I’m back to my beginning of documenting places and events.

Thank you so much to all of you who have visited, commented and shared. It means so much to me that you spend some of your valuable time with me. More importantly, though, I hope that, at least once in a while, I inspire you to get up, get out and go do something fun or even just cook something new and tasty.

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Until next time…