When I submitted the photo and accompanying story of my cat Marsha in 2001, I crossed my fingers and hoped that her picture would be featured within the next 12 months or so. Imagine my surprise when not even two weeks later, her beautiful image appeared! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

Karen's and Spencer's pointers for submission are worth noting, especially the part about the quality of the photo, the story, and, as Karen added, a bit of whimsy...I believe these qualities are what helped get my Marsha's picture published in short order (it's either that or it must have been a SLOW day at COTD! ).

To elaborate:
Photo Quality - I submitted Marsha's picture in Adobe .PDD format
Story - My account of the day she adopted me is, I must admit, very unusual!
Whimsy - I chose a picture of Marsha dressed in a scarf--you don't see many cats wearing one!

Pardon me if I sound like a stage parent--it's been almost a year since Marsha's picture got published but I'm still very proud of my little girl! To those who are patiently waiting their turn, don't be discouraged--you can always try again, especially if you take better pictures of your cat in the future, or if you have other cute antics to report. My first submission, that of my late cat Cherry, never saw the light of day (and this was around 1999); perhaps at the time there were simply too many entries to choose from--oh well!

Hope this helps...