Barnes Wins 2025 Goodnewsforpets.com CWA Human Animal Bond Award
Deb Barnes is the 2025 recipient of the Goodnewsforpets.com CWA Human-Animal Bond Award for “Peach Fuzz – 2024 Pantone Color of the Year and Why it’s Connected to Cats and Your Health” Barnes is a past recipient of the award in 2017 and a past-president of CWA (2018-2020). She also won the Shojai Mentoring Award this year. The announcement was made at the CWA Banquet and Award ceremony October 25 at the Wyndham Hotel, Indianapolis. In receiving the award, Barnes said,
“I’ve always shared a significant bond with my cats, but now, as my current clowder of cats enter their twilight years, winning the Goodnewsforpets.com CWA Human-Animal Bond Award is even more meaningful to me. Each day with them is a gift, and the bond we share brings purpose and joy to my life–thank you, Goodnewsforpets and Lea-Ann for sponsoring this award for the Cat Writers’ Association”.
Steve Feldman, president of the Human Animal Bond Research Institute, has judged the award for a number of years. In commenting on why he selected this entry, Feldman said:
“Peach Fuzz – 2024 Pantone Color of the Year and Why it’s Connected to Cats and Your Health” provides a clever and accessible way to explore the health benefits of the human-cat bond. The use of a Top 5 list of these benefits was clear and effective in conveying the science of the bond. The author was able to leverage the health benefits of cats by strongly advocating for cat adoption for people from all walks of life, showing the benefits of the bond at both ends of the wand.”
Goodnewsforpets CWA Human-Animal Bond Award Recipients
2024 Sassafras Patterdale (Lowery)
Claw This Journal: An Activity Book for Cats and Their Humans
2023 Dusty Rainbolt
“Ghost Cats 2: More Afterlife Encounters with Feline Spirits”
2022 Jen Reeder
“Meditating cat offers Zen-like support to kids affected by trauma” on TODAY.com
2021 Kristin Avery
“Second-Chance Cats, True Stories of the Cats We Rescue and the Cats Who Rescue Us”
2020 Katherine Kern
“Imperfectly perfect … together: The power of one cat’s love”
2019 Katherine Kern
“Do Cats Need Human Interaction or Are They Completely Fine on Their Own?”
2018 Deborah Camp
“Pets Are Part of the Family – Vets Are Too”
2017 Deborah Barnes
“The Strength of the Human-Animal Bond”
2016 Ramona Marek (under sister company GNFP Digital)
“The Strength of the Human-Animal Bond”
Congratulations to Deborah and all prior recipients!
For more information on the CWA awards, visit Cat Writers.
