Rosie

Tabs

Shaka, brah! Hang ten! It’s finally surf weather!

All the cats I know are totally stoked about getting to the beach this summer, especially Rosie. She can’t wait!

Speaking of surfing…during his gap year, shortly before his stint as a professional feline football player, Tabs spent a year on the pro cat surfing circuit.

For a short time there, he was ranked third in the world among male chonky tabbies.

And when he wasn’t riding monster waves, he was a world-renowned kitty free diver…

And a professional luxury resort swimming pool tester…

Rosie

Rosie is very excited because she heard that the temperature is supposed to climb into the 80s next week, which means beach days!

She’s been perfecting her summertime style lately. What do you think of her plumeria cat collar??

This morning on her walk, Rosie even gave us an impromptu hula lesson.

Oh! I’m so glad it’s summer. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I’m buggin’ out!

Err, well…Rosie did.

I mean today she was buggin’ out, just like Tabs used to.

Allow me to explain… 😂

Tabs used to really enjoy Entomology. You could even say he was an Entomology enthusiast.

Sure, he enjoyed birding more, but he did like looking around the neighborhood for lovely insects, especially ladybugs. Praying mantises were another fave.

This shouldn’t come as a big surprise. After all, he was an extremely creative cat.

How do you think he came up with so many colorful feline fashion ideas? Obvs, right? Insects were a major source of his fashion inspiration.

Some are even pretty tasty.

Rosie

Rosie has carried on this particular hobby too. As a matter of fact, she accompanied Connor around the neighborhood today to look for rollie pollies.

As I understand it, they found quite a few.

According to Rosie, Rollie pollies are miracles of nature.

Get this: they aren’t actually insects. They’re crustaceans! Like crabs and lobsters! 🦀🦞

Who knew?!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Dang! It’s really heating up! It was well into the 80s here today. 🌞

Tabs would have called this sunglass weather, and I’m sure he would have busted out his Ray-Bans.

So, he and I went for walks outside almost every day, but it was usually in the afternoons. His favorite time, though, to walk around outside was either dawn or dusk. Basically, he loved the night life, which comes as no surprise I’m sure.

But summertime, for sure, was his favorite time of year.

It’s not quite summer yet, but today was probably the first day that really felt like it. Today felt like summer.

Connor and I spent a couple hours at the pool while Rosie stayed cool at home.

Rosie

But then when Connor and I got back from swimming, Rosie took me for a walk outside. 🙂

Like Tabs and most other cats, she’s solar powered, and the sun resets her point of view.

She feels a lot better about the daily grind when she gets to catch some rays.

I mean, who doesn’t feel better after enjoying a beautiful day like today?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Agh, busy weekends. Don’t you hate ’em? So many things to do. Gotta pay the Paris team in QuickBooks, order 1,000 orchids for the office, pay the gravy caterers, take the Maserati in for an oil change. SO many boring errands to run, but a cat’s gotta do what a cat’s gotta do.

You know, Tabs was such an incredible employer because he wasn’t just a genius kitty model. He was also very “paws on” on a corporate level. He didn’t simply delegate everything. Sure, he was the lead kitty supermodel for the entire agency, but his official title was CFO (Chief Feline Officer), so he also did the back office things too. He wasn’t just the gorgeous face in front of the camera. He was also the brains behind the entire outfit.

Well, he and I were. 😸

Rosie

Rosie definitely knows when to push for a specific project, but she appreciates her weekend downtime much more than Tabs did.

Of course, when she’s working on a paper for a scientific journal like Feline Nature or Scientific American Cat, she’ll work through the night typing away at her computer, but when she’s between projects like she is now, or while she’s waiting for a new grant to come through, she spends a lot of meow time outside.

It works for her. It’s how she recharges her batteries, I guess.

And who am I to question her? She’s not even 10 years old and she’s already won two Nobel Cat Prizes. I think she knows what she’s doing. 😹

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

It’s almost dusk here at Casa de MBB, and we’re getting cleaned up and ready for bed, but I still wanted to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

There’s so much to say about Mother’s Day, isn’t there? It can be an emotional day in many ways for many reasons, different for everyone. People have such different relationships with their parents and their children and all of the creatures they care for, and life is fleeting. We all lose our care givers and loved ones someday, and days like today mean different things to all of us at different times in our lives.

I pray and hope your day was good to you.

Every Mother’s Day, just like every other day, I also think about Tabs.

Oh! — sometimes when I see an old picture like this one below, I tear up, especially on Mother’s Day.

I sure miss my special boy!

Rosie

As you may or may not know, Rosie the Magnificent has her own connection to Mother’s Day because she is…

A mother!

Happy Mother’s Day, Rosie.

This is one of her brood. These were pictures I took when she still lived with my friend, who was Rosie’s foster family in 2019. It was a few months after Tabs crossed the Rainbow Bridge, and I missed being around cats. Visiting Rosie and getting to know her helped me with my grief.

These pics were taken shortly after Rosie had kittens, and I really got to see how caring and sweet she was.

Rosie did a great job, and all of her kittens were adopted.

Over those months in 2019, Rosie’s loving nature guided me to open up my heart to a feline friend again, and now she’s a member of our family.

Happy Mother’s Day, Rosie, and to you as well. ❤️

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Tabs loved to travel. Yeah, he loved hanging out in airports, loved the whole routine of it all, the getting up early, sleeping on the plane, sleeping in the car on the way to the airport…the duty free shops, playing on the people movers, hailing cabs, riding cable cars, Uber. He loved it all.

He got bit by the travel bug as a kitten and must have filled half a dozen passports with stamps from his adventures around the world. In fact, I can’t think of a country he didn’t go to.

Maybe Vatican City?

Oh, wait — he went there in 2016 to meet the Pope.

He went everywhere. He saw it all. I mean, that’s not a big surprise, right? For the world’s most successful — and first — kitty supermodel?

One day toward the end of his career, I asked him what his all-time favorite destination was, and he was such a sweet boy — you know what he said? He looked into my eyes, gently put his paw on my thigh and said, “Meow.” Right here with you. 😢

I know he was just being his usual charming self. I mean, really, how could Novato ever compare to Paris? Or Milan? Or Hawaii, Tokyo, New York or Rio???

But, you know, I’m sure he also loved being home. Even the world’s greatest travelers need someplace to come back to. Everyone likes to have a place they call home, and this was his. ❤️

Rosie

Rosie, on the other hand, who’s also known as Rosie Parmigiano, is a total homebody.

Don’t let her cosmopolitan interests and her close ties to the international cat science community fool you. If Rosie had her way, she’d never leave our circle. She’s perfectly content to work on her experiments here and communicate with her global cat colleagues by video chat and email. Some Microsoft Teams too.

Some cats love to see the world in person, while other cats really like to stay local.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen