Hi everyone! I have a lot to tell you today. First, I want to share what The Chicken Soup people had to say when I contacted them about their awful choices of stories. This is their response word for word:
Thank you for contacting us about “The Cat and His Boy” in Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Very Good, Very Bad Cat. We were alerted to this problem shortly after the book came out and we were embarrassed and chagrined when we re-read the story. We went back to the writer and she explained what really happened and revised her story. Her son had not actually treated the cat that way—she is a big cat lover—but she had been going for a more dramatic effect in the story, thinking it was amusing—which of course was wrong.
Please do not hold this against us. When you are combining stories from lots of people mistakes can happen. We rarely make a stupid mistake like this and we took immediate action when we realized it. We are known for our wonderful treatment of animals and our passionate support for shelters. We provide tons of free cat and dog food to shelters and we actively promote the adoption of cats and dogs from shelters in our books. We even make sure to feature stories about black cats and black dogs, senior cats and dog, and pit bulls—all categories that are harder for shelter to place with families. Royalties from our last four dog and cat books go to the American Humane Association.
Please accept our apology and our assurance that the story has been revised for the next printing of the book and that we will be more careful in the future.
I am glad they already took action as far as this story was concerned. I wrote back and asked about the other stories I complained about written by people who don’t like cats- I am waiting for that response.
Now, I have big news- you all know how we love to hop. Annie of McGuffy’s Reader and I were sad when Hilary Grossman of Feeling Beachie stopped doing her Friday Fill-Ins so we asked her if she would mind if we did it. And she said yes ! Thank you Hilary. So next Friday we will be co-hosting our first of hopefully many hops. There will be 4 fill-ins , 2 from each of us. We hope this will help us all get to know one another better. The fill-ins will be listed next Thursday.
Special thanks to Jamie Swimm ( who also designed my logo and header) for designing our badge: 
If you want to see more of his incredible work, check out his website.
We are very sad to see another beloved pet leave for The Bridge, if you haven’t already, please visit Whitley’s Mama, she is brokenhearted.
This story is so very disturbing to me. I am still appalled that they printed that, and just as appalled that the author (a cat lover?) would write a story for drama, rather than heart and soul. And these are supposed to be true stories! It is wrong.
I am excited about this hop and pleased to co-host it with you. It should be fun, and I hope that many others have will fun with us! It is simple and easy, too.
HUGS!
I am disappointed too that a cat-lover would be going more for drama. I am thrilled to be co-hosting with you too. XO
We can’t believe they just made a “mistake” and missed that story.
What a cool blog hop! We usually do Flashback Fridays but might figure out a way to combine them!!!
The Florida Furkids
I hope you join ours too 🙂 I love your flashbacks though.
I’m really pleased you contacted the book people and that they replied in the best way they could. I love your new logo and header, it’s great! I love reading about all your stories and adventures with animals, keep up the good work!
Thank you, I love your blog too.
That was great that they replied to you! A lot of times, these emails from readers will go unacknowledged.
That was good, but when I wrote back thanking them and asking about the other stories all I go was a thank you.
I’m glad they replied to you AND apologized which was only right of them – whoever edits their material should have caught that BEFORE first printing of course but things do happen – things slip through the cracks and they acknowledged and have fixed it for future printings. Hope you hear back on the OTHER stories too! CONCATS on the new Hop! That will be fun…..love the badge…………
Hugs, Sammy
I don’t see how that story got through either, but I am glad they are attempting to fix it. XO
At least they apologised – but there was really no excuse for printing it in the first. place.
I read about Whitley on another blog. It’s heart-breaking when we lose our pets.
I agree it should not have been printed. Very sad about Whitley, it is hard to lose a pet.
I am glad you got a primarily favorable response, although it still concerns me that this supposed animal lover of a writer would produce such a story.
And, I am so excited about your Fill-In hop! I love hops that give everyone a chance to know each other better. This will be so much fun!
Many prayers to Whitley’s mama.
I hope you will be joining our fill-ins, I think your answers will be great.
I wonder how many copies were printed with that awful story?!?
Good question.
Thank you for sharing their response – and thank you for contacting them in the first place! Sort of an odd response, but hopefully this will get them to pay attention more when editing/selecting their stories.
I thought it was odd too how they defended themselves, but at least they changed the story for the next printing.
Great on hosting the new hop. That rocks.
Have a terrific day and weekend. ☺
Thank you – I hope you will hop with us. Have a great weekend too!
thank goodness they responded to your letter they MIGHT NEED TO HIRE A NEW PROOFREADER.
HAPPY FRIDAY
HUGS MADI AND MOM
They should ask us cat bloggers to proofread the next one 🙂
We met da Chicken Soup peeps at BP last year and they seem nie enough, but we’s not ever read any of da books. Glad they are talkin’ to ya’. And glad they’ll revise, but da original is still out there. What a shame. Good luck hoppin’.
Luv ya’
Dezi
I hope they get many more complaints about it. I hope you will hop with us. XO
It’s good that they responded. Happy Friday!
Yes, it is. Happy Friday!
I haven’t read the story, but good for you for writing to them and letting them know it was not appropriate.
I am so sorry about Whitley. Prayers for the family.
I’m not familiar with this blog hop–I’m still fairly new to pet blogging–so I’ll look forward to learning about it! 🙂
I hope you will hop with us, next Thursday we will list the fill-ins and in your Friday post you can put your answers.
That’s great you contacted the book people and that they replied. Concatulations on co-hosting the blog hop ! We wish you many many hops ! Purrs
Thank you- I hope you will hop with us.
phoebe…..way kewl that ewe & yur crew…. & george & hiz crew ….iz startin up de hop again….we will hafta try & play along thiz time….. { ewe noe how de food servizz gurl iz bout postin & bee in online for uz } ~~~~~~~~ hope thiz message findz brody doin grate & everee one one else two ~~~~~
heerz two a monkeyface prickleback kinda week oh end ♥♥♥
I hope you can hop with us, but I know food service girl is an anal azz :)Have a nice weekend!
That was a great response you got from the publisher and so wonderful that they had already identified the issues and taken measures to fix it.
Purrs,
Seville.
YEs, it is good, but they never addressed the other stories. At least they are dealing with the most offensive.
Good for you for calling them on the carpet.
Thank you 🙂
Four paws up to you for writing that letter, and to them too for responding!!!
Thank you 🙂
We can’t wait for the new blog hop!!! Yippee!!
I am glad you are going to hop with us. 🙂
We have found all the Chicken Soup books to be a little less than stellar since they did their first 2. So we quit reading them altogether. Now my thoughts that they did not proof or edit the stories has been confirmed!
We are happy they admitted their mistake though!
Barb and Nellie
They admitted that one story was a mistake, but there were others that I found offensive and they didn’t respond about those.
The hop sounds like fun! Sometimes we draw a blank instead of filling them in though!
I hope you will hop with us 🙂
I’m glad they replied to you with a thorough answer, not just a “these things happen”. I can’t imagine it was a mistake. Don’t they read before they print? But glad maybe they’ll think on their content a bit more now. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome 🙂 I am glad they are dealing with that story, but there are others that weren’t as bad, but still don’t belong in there.
It was good that the Chicken Soup people responded to you, but we still are a bit surprised that they missed this.
The hop sounds like fun and we’re glad you and Miss Ann will continue with it.
Thank you, me too. I hope you will hop with us.
Whoa! Chicken Soup is my favorite kibble. I’m glad they wrote you back. I think I have a link somewhere to submit stories to them. I think you should write one.
We think you should write one too 🙂
I don’t know how the Chicken Soup people could have printed that story. So careless and such a bad message. It’s great that you gave them feedback, Ellen.
xxoo
Thank you. I am glad they are fixing it, but there are still a lot of copies out there, I hope a lot of people complain.
Not sure if I want to check out any more of those books from Chicken Soup…
That sounds like a nice new hop yoyu will be co hosting, but…We pilely won’t pawticipawte due to time constraints around here…this is why we are so late here with commenting as well…sigh…days need to be 48 hours long, MOL!
Hmmm, we don’t know what ‘piley’ means, but we did mean to type ‘likely’, OMC!!
MOL! 🙂
We hope you will get a chance to hop with us sometimes or at least put the answers in the comments like you used to do. 🙂