Great Rescues Day Book
In 2011 I published Great Rescues Calendar and Gift Book, a 16-month desk calendar that included a commissioned portrait of a rescued cat or cats for each month, plus more about the portraits, cats and rescuers in the back and information on cat care. But calendars go out of date and I knew these stories had to go on.
Great Rescues Day Book carries on the original idea in a way that’s much more permanent. This book is not dated for one year, but has all the dates in a month for you to fill in the birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and social and personal events in your life.
Great Rescues Day Book is spiral-bound and measures 8″ x 10″ to easily fit on your desk or in a purse, briefcase or backpack. While the original Great Rescues had a die-cut cover with the title stamped in gold foil, this has a solid 12 pt. printed cover for durability.
You can buy a book here, or read on. Price includes shipping.
What’s a Day Book?
I’ve used a day book for over 20 years and have all the arrivals and, sadly, departures of each of my cats along with my friends’ weddings, my nieces’ births and the births of their children, the day I first registered a business name, all that sort of stuff, conveniently included in one place.
The February spread of pages featuring Bandit.
On the left is the featured portrait with the kitty’s story, below that the monthly fun quote of something feline. On the right is the month name with enough lines for all possible dates in that month. The holidays that are celebrated on a certain date are marked on that date, but ones that float, especially those Monday holidays, are explained at the bottom just to remind you that they also happen in that month. If animal-themed holidays are celebrated on a certain date, like Spay Day USA, they will also be included, but just the same if they are ones that float like Pet Memorial Sunday they will be explained at the bottom.
Here are the pages individually so you can open them and view them a little larger.
-
- The left page featuring Bandit’s portrait and story.
-
- The right page featuring each date with a blank line to fill in your plans and memories..
About the portraits
The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.
Although Great Rescues Day Book is a 12-month book I am still featuring from the original calendar 15 of the portraits of rescued cats I was commissioned to paint over 20 years as an animal portrait artist (to that date), plus the portrait of my own which I consider my first, “Waiting for Mom”, below.
“Waiting for Mom”, pastel, 16″ x 23″, 1988 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski
That means you get a few pages in the center where you have only portraits and stories to enjoy.
-
- Fawn, and Amaretto, Simon and Merlin’s stories/
-
- Felix and Peaches’ portraits and stories.
While the portraits are lovely and I’m proud of my body of work, the stories of these cats, and the people who rescued them, is what compels me to share them with you. Each of the stories tells of cats from shelters and cats abandoned and saved, cats found inside car engines and cats reluctantly surrendered by people who could no longer care for them, but each one has a happy ending as a cherished companion in a loving home.
And while each cat has an individual story, each rescuer has a story as well of reaching out to an animal in need to bring it in from the streets. In many cases they helped heal physical and emotional wounds and gave that cat a lifetime of love, in return receiving love and devotion; often those humans received some healing in return they weren’t aware they needed.
The story continues
After the calendar pages I have a section where the stories are continued, either with more details or updates; I remained friends with all my portrait customers and received continuing news. I also have notes on how I created the portraits that weren’t included in the stories.
And the story continues…
Resources for cat guardians
Following the calendar section and section of stories of the rescuers and their feline families I’ve included a mini cat-care book illustrated with my drawings. I based this information on the most frequent questions I field from people needing help with cats in any way, from finding strays or orphaned kittens, adopting for the first time or caring for a geriatric cat, a list of household toxins and toxic plants, or helping stray and feral cats and beginning with TNR.
Each book includes 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends.
“22 Cats” Notepaper
Each month on The Creative Cat I post the featured portrait, story and pages from Great Rescues Day Book and then describe the creation of the portrait in detail as well as even more history of the cats and the rescuers. You can browse here to read a few of the stories.
Here are images of the other portraits in the book—perhaps you’ll recognize a kitty you know!
All the portraits on the back of the book.
Purchase Great Rescues Day Book
Price includes shipping, and discounts for wholesale and quantity purchases.
If the book is a gift to someone, or you have a particular cat or cats in mind, I would be glad to add an inscription in the front of your book.
Contents in order
In addition to the calendar pages, preceded by an introduction, I’ve included other information I hope you’ll find both interesting and useful.
Here are the contents in order, and click the bold header to see more information and samples:
Introduction: How my cats turned me into an artist.
About Rescues: Rescuing cats can be exhausting because the populations never seem to decrease and so much can seem to be wrong with the system; it’s my hope that these happy endings will do for you what they did for me, reinforcing my will to continue helping cats.
About the Making of This Calendar: A few notes on how this calendar came together.
Portrait and Calendar Pages: Each two-page spread features a portrait and the rescue story of the cat or cats in the portrait on the left, and on the right a calendar page including every day, week and month celebrating something special about our animal companions and sometimes other animals as well.
Great Rescues Day Book portrait and story/calendar pages.
The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.
And the story continues… notes about the cats in the portraits aside from their rescue stories, what the rescuers are doing now, and notes on creating each portrait.
Resources: basic feline health care and information on determining when a vet visit or an emergency visit is necessary, toxic substances and plants, life stages of cats, spay and neuter, TNR, pet loss, just some fun facts and resources on the internet and in print.
22 Cats Notepaper: Each book includes 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends, which won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest.
Read more or purchase
To purchase see below, or please browse the rest of the site to read more about the contents using the menus on each page or use the links below to read about each section.
Purchase a copy of Great Rescues Day Book
©2011-2025 Bernadette E. Kazmarski | All Rights Reserved.
No content may be used without WRITTEN PERMISSION from the author.
Great Rescues Calendar and Great Rescues Day Book are published by Beauty of a Moment Publishing
Site designed by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
What year is this calendar?
It’s September 2010 to December 2011–I forgot to add it to the site! It’s on the back of the calendar.
Actually, it’s September 2011 through December 2012. Time does fly… 🙂
Too funny, Ingrid! I do so many calendars for printing customers beginning in spring for the upcoming year–I’ve been working on 2012 for a while now–that I never really know what year it is. Doing a 16-month calendar just about did me in!
I’m going to add the correct dates to the front page of the site…