Tabs

Tabs the Cat — supermodel, philanthropist, barrier breaker and arctic explorer.

That husky boy loved the snow. In fact, I think his whiskers might have drooped a little if he had found out we wouldn’t have been able to go on a trip to Lake Tahoe due to a last-minute illness, which is basically what happened to us this weekend.

No, it wasn’t Covid. Just another virus, but all three of us got it, which is why I’ve been out of commission so much this week. I’ve been absolutely delirious from lack of sleep since Wednesday.

As Tabs would have said, though, tomorrow is a new day. We’re all feeling quite a bit better now, but we still had to cancel the trip we had planned to go play in snow at Tahoe this weekend.

Tabs’s loving touch would have been handy to have around this weekend, because it never hurts to have an extra set of paws to nurse one back to health.

He was an angel when it came to caring for his assistant when she was down for the count.

That said, there were a few times when Tabs overly enthusiastically offered to operate on me…and whenever I told him no, he seemed shocked by it. I don’t know how he received a medical degree amongst all of his other endeavors, but he did!

Rosie

Rosie, another a lover of snow, also holds a legit medical license.

Even though she’s driven by the cold, hard facts of science, she too is loving and sweet when her assistants aren’t functioning at 100% efficiency, so she was a good caregiver this week.

One thing though? I don’t know if this was a crazy dream I had due to the lack of sleep, but for some reason I vaguely recall being transferred on a gurney into a surgical observation room at one point. In the fever dream, Rosie had her scrubs on and that cold, curious look she gets sometimes when she’s deep in pursuit of scientific knowledge.

Yeah, I don’t know what was up with that… 🤷‍♀️

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

The felines I’ve assisted are vastly different, but one thing they have in common is their love for faraway friends.

For Tabs, it was a squirrel who lived in the neighborhood. This particular squirrel stopped by a few times a week to allegedly visit the oak trees near our house to gather acorns and whatnot, but really, it was a social visit. He and Tabs would stare at each other from afar, communicating with friendly and interested looks, and it was my understanding that neither felt threatened. They were, for whatever reason, fascinated with each other.

I asked Tabs about it once. What was the story behind their long-distance friendship? He said they were both thinking of investing in something called cryptocurrency, which I hadn’t heard of at the time. Tabs was always at the forefront of technology, as you know. I just never he received his insider information from a squirrel.

Rosie

I recently discovered that Rosie, too, has a faraway friend, a small terrier mix named Bella who frequently patrols the neighborhood.

The two stare at each other from their respective command posts, silently exchanging information which I’m assuming has something do with science.

I ran into Bella the other day and asked her if she and Rosie were currently working on any research together. She gave me a knowing look and pointed at a nearby stick. Later, when I asked Rosie about it, she grumbled about security clearance and how I did not have it, so the details remain a mystery to me. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Tabs never passed on an opportunity to get dressed up, and it’s funny…the more elaborate and more time consuming a Halloween costume was, the more he was into it.

He constantly made fun of my need to be comfortable. I think one year there was a costume that involved eight separate fittings, a special suit engineered by Spanx just for him, and 13 different types of bird feathers…

😮

I told him many times that dressing down can be chic. Did he ever listen?

No.

Case in point — the year he dressed up as The Queen of Hearts.

Yes, I said queen. He was forward thinking like that. 😊

Rosie

As you know, Rosie takes a more minimalist approach. She was content to wear a Halloween-inspired bow tie today during our weekly Sunday walk.

I offered to take her to Dolce or Dior, or any of the major houses that we still have connections with because of Tabs’s legacy, but she absolutely refused.

She said something akin to “I am a cat of the people” and left it at that.

It’s not like she didn’t participate in our Halloween adventures, though. She was surprisingly insistent upon doing the art direction for the pumpkins. I think she recently read an article in Scientific Cat Journal about expanding your neural capacity through creative activities, which is why she was so invested in the pumpkin projects here.

Happy Halloween! 🎃👻😄

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

When Tabs famously arrived to his annual Fierce Feline Costume Ball in 2015 wearing nothing but a black candy corn-themed bow tie, it was fire. 🔥

“Fearless,” Anna Wintour wrote at the time. “Pure, unadulterated genius. Tabs is without equal. With a simple necktie, he has shaken the feline fashion world to its core and created a seismic shift in the way cats dress themselves.”

Rosie

Like most cats, Rosie has heard about that pivotal moment. I mean, what cat hasn’t? They teach it in most universities.

It has long inspired her fashion choices, but never as clearly as it did this year.

This year, Rosie decided to go all out as it pertains to candy corn.

This will be her official Halloween 2022 costume, inspired, of course, by her fashion mentor Tabs.

What are you wearing for Halloween?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Fierce, fine fabulousness. Fabulosity. Furr-ocious feline phantasmagoria. Foine. Phenom. Fantastique.

His majesty, the king of feline fashion, Tabs the cat. Mrow!

Today was a classic fall day here in Novato, California, and it was days like this — partly cloudy with a chance of greatness — that Tabs did some of his best kitty modeling work.

The crisp, cool air must have fired him up, along with firing up the other animals in the neighborhood, like the robins, woodpeckers, wild turkeys, cats and squirrels, all of who were also out in force this morning.

A typical mid-October Sunday morning back when Tabs ran the company would have gone something like this: get up, get gravy, get a fur treatment, get dressed and get outside, where he would head directly for the company zinnia patch.

After a quick snack, we’d walk around the circle until inspiration hit him. Then he’d strike pose after pose after pose.

BAM!

Rosie

Rosie’s October Sunday morning ritual is a little different…

There’s way less cattitude, but still a good amount of modeling…

All I can say is the cats in this company have major kitty modeling game. 😊

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Back when Tabs was the ruling force in the neighborhood, all of the felines knew that once fall arrived, it was time to turn up their fashion game. Inevitably, hats, jewelry, various accessories and the occasional tuxedo would all show up amongst the gang of felines parading around the circle.

Tabs’s most audacious outfit happened during the fall of 2011 when he showed up for a walk wearing a vegan leather moto getup from head to tail. Yes, they still talk about that around these parts…

One day a couple years ago, in a fit of heartbreak, I donated most of his fall couture to the Smithsonian, but sometimes I wish I could hug one of his old feather boas…

While a little said, I’m comforted by the fact that his legacy will live on through fashion posterity.

Rosie

Trust me, I tried to get Rosie-Pose to dress up today, but no matter how much I explained that this was the thing to do amongst the cats of the neighborhood, she absolutely refused. She looked up at me and went “MROW!” which, according to Google Translate, meant “NO THANK YOU! I dance to the beat of my own drum!”

So it was a simple collar and her favorite leash today.

Instead of parading around with the other local cats (I could have sworn I saw Harris sneaking around with a red bow tie.), she and Connor Claire spent their morning checking the perimeter for paranormal activity.

Rosie recently watched a documentary about ghost hunting, and is now fixated on proving the existence of paranormal cat activity. 👻🐈‍⬛

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen