Rosie

For the humans, today was the day to get our Christmas tree, but for the cats, today was when the machinations started for how to take down the tree. Rosie concluded that the most effective way is to swat at the ornaments or destroy the lower branch ornaments.

I caught Rosie in one of the rooms with a chalkboard with all kinds of equations on it. There was a tree in the middle and something about the trajectory of a tree falling?

Tabs’s style was completely different. He’d just go in there and knock the dang tree down. Very different cats. Same agenda though.

Rosie

My fellow cat ladies, you know how it is with the Christmas tree. The lower branches are completely bare, and you know better than to risk your best ornaments on the bottom layer because cats will figure out how to shatter even the shatterproof ones.

Truth.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Tabs and Rosie have many things in common, like fabulous fur, overachievement and a desire to give back to the community — Tabs, through his many philanthropic endeavors, and Rosie through her new STEM scholarship for cats.

While Rosie is the true scientist in the Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC family, Tabs was no slouch when it came to science and technology. In fact, he developed his very first iPhone app when he was only five.

But that was merely the prelude to his storied technological career. Shortly after that, he engineered his own robotic assistant.

Then he earned his PhD in gravy research…

Later, he actually designed the original SpaceX Raptor engine for Elon Musk.

Rosie

As for Rosie’s technological accomplishments, she’s just getting started. Like Tabs, she excels in her intellectual pursuits in part because she also takes care of her body. She trains three nights per week at Meow Martial Arts MMA gym.

Her days are split between her work for NASA…

And coding…

And her archeological pursuits…

Yup, I think it’s safe to assume we’ll be seeing many great scientific accomplishments from Rosie. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Tabs always made fun of my penchant for roses. He would say, “Roses are for saps,” and he was all about narcissus. Allegedly, it was because he liked the lines and the color palette. The white and the orange looked particularly fetching against his fur. But some cats whispered in the shadows that it was because he was a narcissist. 😹

Of course, they didn’t really know the true Tabs because he was the type of cat who would talk smack about your love for roses, but then he’d send you, like, three dozen roses if he found out you were feeling down. (They were usually pale pink, by the way, in case you were wondering.)

Rosie

All of the cats I’ve assisted have had a surprising amount of depth. Rosie, as you know, is somewhat of a cat genius. In fact, are you aware that during her free time she works with an environmental group of cats up here in Tahoe who fight against climate change. Yup, she advocates for the local mountain lion population, helping to study their genetic diversity…and she also skis. Side note: she’s not very good at it, but poor thing, she tries. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

When we think about the icons of industry, the paragons of industrialization, one name frequently gets thrown around: Henry Ford. He revolutionized the world of mass production with his conveyor belt assembly line.

Well, that’s all well and good, but in the feline world, there’s only one captain of industry, and it was Tabs. He took feline fashion manufacturing into the twenty-first century, increasing production through his many technological developments from small sewing shops producing a few outfits per day to large-scale automated factories producing thousands of pieces of cat apparel per hour, all of them of impeccable quality.

Some cats and people say it all started with the world-famous fall feline scarf you see here…

It was with this scarf that Tabs ramped up his production facilities from a few units day up into the thousands, and by November of 2015 cats in every town across America and around the world were rocking it.

Rosie

Since Rosie has taken over as Chief Feline Officer of Tabs the Cat Industries, LLC, she’s carrying on that legacy. Cats everywhere can head down to their local Petco or Nordstrom to get one of their own — all around the world.

Like Tim Cook after Steve Jobs, Rosie is focused on increasing efficiency and scaling up, and since she’s taken over, the company has tripled earnings!

[Continue reading…]

Rosie really impressed me this weekend. She took initiative on something she’d been wanting for a while, and her dedication reminded me of Tabs.

As you know, because I’ve spoken ad nauseum about it and, I mean, it’s pop culture history and part of the historical record, Tabs was a mover and a shaker. He knocked down barriers for a living, like he was playing life dominos, just boom after boom — awesomeness everyday.

One minute he’s finishing a novel; next minute he’s producing his own reality TV show.

He was hungrier than a tiger when it came to achieving greatness, and he had personality oozing out his pores.

He was always on the go, heading somewhere to accomplish something.

I managed his calendar, so I know. Boy, I could tell you some stories. He was the only cat I knew who would book two kitty modeling campaigns for the same day, and he did it ALL. THE. TIME.

So, that thing I mentioned Rosie was working on? Well, she’d been wanting to see the snow, because she’s only seen it once in real life, and it was years ago. She wanted to play in the snow, but it doesn’t really snow here in Novato, so what did she do? She built a snow machine!

Rosie

Yup, Rosie built her own snow machine, and she cranked it up this morning.

I’ve worked with two brilliant cats in my lifetime. I sure am lucky. 😊

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Happy Halloween! 🎃

It’s a rainy one here this year. It’s not pouring though, but it was enough to discourage Rosie from donning full regalia. This year she opted instead for the simple ensemble but sparkly ensemble down below.

That said, a little bit of rain wouldn’t have stopped Tabs from going all out on a Halloween. Not even a snow flurry could have done that. There was nothing he liked more than getting dressing up for a holiday. Any holiday.

Rosie

Rosie’s plans for tonight are to do a little trick or treating on the circle, followed by watching classic horror movies on the couch with snacks.

Sounds like a plan!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

What a rainy day!

Holy mackerel. It’s been raining nonstop — nonstop! — since yesterday afternoon. It’s been constant rain for almost 24 hours! I can’t remember the last time it rained like this, but it’s been years.

We live up on a little hill, so we don’t have any flooding right here, but the roads below us are flooded. The county sent texts to our phones warning us to stay home unless it’s an emergency, which is what we’ve done. I don’t know how many inches of rain have fallen, but it must be at least a few, thank goodness. It’s very welcome because of the drought, and this should mark the end of wildfire season.

Tabs would have gone buck wild for rain like this. He, like most cats, got really fired up whenever it rained. He always wanted to go outside to check it out. As soon as I’d open the door, he’d dart out, then rethink his choices and run back inside, haha! It was like, “Yea! This is great! Wait… This is water! What the hell?!”

Rosie

Rosie did something similar today. She desperately wanted to go outside. She was mewling at the windows, but as soon as I opened the door, same thing. She took one step outside, got her paws wet, and then bolted back in the house!

Cats… 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

You know, as Tabs’s main assistant (his only assistant really), I struggled at times to fulfill the terms of my employment agreement. He did not make it easy on me; however, the job, I may have mentioned before, had its perks. One of the big ones was that I got to sit in on styling meetings where he would style celebs.

Was I ever allowed to talk to Keanu Reeves? No. My M.O. was to remain in the background and take notes. Nevertheless, I learned so much during those styling meetings. Tabs was definitely a rulebreakers when it came to fashion, but one traditional rule he firmly believed in was that if you find colors that are complementary to your aesthetic or your fur pattern for that matter, you take the color palette and you run with it.

Rosie

I was trying to explain that to Rosie today when I gave her this autumnal, rust-colored collar. I said, “Rosie-pose, don’t you see how the rust tones in this work of art play so well with the orange in your fur?” And she was just like, “Nah.” She was not having it. Instead, she wanted to talk to me about binary stars. I don’t know… She’s on an astronomy kick I think. She watched a Carl Sagan documentary, and now she just won’t stop talking about planets and stars.

Anywho, I keep trying to get her to accept the side of her that could be fashionable like my former employer. Maybe one day I’ll break her down. All this is to say that while I’m no fashion wunderkind, I do believe Rosie rocks the autumn tones very well. 😊

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen