The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA) & Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA) has named Gina Spadafori as the 2007 recipient of the annual Excellence in Pet Industry Journalism Award. Gina is the co-author of the New York Times best - seller, "Why Do Dogs Drink out of the Toilet?", and "Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet?". Gina Spadafori has been blessed with the opportunity to combine two of her dearest loves—animals and words— into a career writing about animals. Since 1984, she has written an award-winning weekly column on pets and their care, which now appears in newspapers across the United States and Canada through the Universal Press Syndicate. Gina has served on the boards of directors of both the Cat Writers Association and the Dog Writers Association of America. She has won the DWAA’s Maxwell Medallion for the best newspaper column, and her column has also been honored with a certificate of excellence by the CWA. The first edition of her top-selling book Dogs for Dummies was given the President’s Award for the best writing on dogs and the Maxwell Medallion for the best general reference work, both by the DWAA. Along with coauthor Dr. Paul D. Pion, a top veterinary cardiologist, she was given the CWA’s awards for the best work on feline nutrition, best work on feline behavior and best work on responsible cat care for the top-selling Cats for Dummies. The book was also named one of the 100 best feline moments in the twentieth century by Cat Fancy magazine. With internationally recognized avian specialist Dr. Brian L. Speer, Gina has also written Birds for Dummies, one of the bestselling books on pet birds ever written. Her books have been translated into many languages, including French, Serbian, Danish, Japanese and Russian. Gina has also headed one of the first and largest online pet-care sites, the Pet Care Forum, America Online’s founding source of pet-care information. Gina lives in northern California in a decidedly multispecies home.