Hello, friend. How’s it hopping? Hope you’re having a hoppy Easter. 🐰
Today I couldn’t help but think back to all the fun Easters we had with Tabs. That cat made everything feel like an event. Part of it was his personality. He was a boy cat, had that confident swagger. He could be calm, even around a bunch of kids, cars and other loud noises. He’d just casually lick his paw, slow blink, roll over and flash his tum. Little things didn’t phase him.
He also loved attention, which he got a lot of also because of this blog and where I was in life. We worked on the blog together. He was both my employer (hehe!) and my creative muse. For many, many years I worked hours and hours every day blogging, and Tabs was right there for it all. He loved every photo shoot, or at least he seemed to, even when I was bossing him around. “Come here, Tabs! OK, picture time. There you go. Look at me, look at the camera! Good boy!” And I’d be snapping away with my camera. He’d just meow, saunter over and flash his gorgeous tum again.
On holidays like Easter, I’d dress him up in, yes, a custom-made felt cat collar or other flashy outfit, and he’d go along with it for a photo shoot. It always took lots of pictures to get a good one, as is generally always the case for blogging or social media. The pics look good most of the time, but you know how it is. It probably took 12 shots to get one perfect one. That’s how it is.
But, I kid you not, every time I’d take down his costume box / wardrobe from the closet, Tabs would come running from wherever he was in the house. I’d hear a thud from somewhere upstairs (him jumping down from a counter or the bed to the floor), and then doomp, doomp, doomp from his paws on the floor and down the stairs. He knew it meant we were 1) going outside for a walk and 2) going to be spending time together. Two things he loved.
The personality we conveyed on the blog was his and mine. Sure, I added something to the mix. I mean, cats normally don’t maintain a Spring to-do list. 🙂 But I don’t think it was far from the truth either.
To me and our family, Tabs was larger than life. He was a celebrity to us, and he gave as good as he got. He loved the attention. He may not have been “posing for the camera,” per se, but he was posing for me.
Connor still remembers him and talks about him when she sees his pics. She knows he was her first animal friend, and I like that they have so many pictures together because of the blog. Hundreds if not thousands of pictures from the four years they had together before Tabs passed.
Rosie is our cat now and she’s our special feline family member, but I do miss the theatricality of life with Tabs. He was the perfect cat at the perfect time in my life, and I’ll always cherish it.
Thank you, buddy. Happy Easter, Tabs. Love and miss you always.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
