Tabs

The gifts have been unwrapped, the guests have all gone home, and the house is finally quiet. Now I’m sitting here admiring the tree ? with my favorite gentleman tabby while sipping a cup of tea and listening to the crackling of the Netflix yule log ? on TV.

It was a good Christmas for Tabs. He seemed relieved when we left him in command of the house yesterday afternoon while we went to visit my parents in the East Bay. Honestly, I think he cherished the alone time, because when we got back home this morning and he saw that we brought back Connor, Tabs had a familiar look on his face that said, “Oh, I see you brought her back… Great.”

[Continue reading…]

Sometimes, you know, when I see my tabby, and I see that his eyes are a little cloudier than they once were, or I notice that he’s been sleeping upstairs the entire afternoon, or he groans a little when I pick him up and give him a hug, it occurs to me that nature is cruel.

Because with as much as we love our pets, and with how purely and unconditionally they love us back, it seems like a cruel twist of fate, doesn’t it? — that they don’t live as long as we do? 🙁

Tabs is getting up there in years. We think he’s between 11-12 now. He’s still a world-renowned kitty supermodel, but the signs of aging have appeared. It seemed like all of a sudden one day his eyes weren’t as bright as they used to be, and he started napping (and turning down more kitty modeling jobs) more than he used to.

He still plays like a boss, of course, and has his spunky kitten moments, but they don’t happen quite as much as they used to.

I notice now when I think he’s having a really good day, and he’s been having them a lot lately.

[Continue reading…]

Yay! We got our tree! ?

Of course, Tabs has to thoroughly inspect it before any decorating can take place.

He has to make sure there are no chipmunks hiding in the branches, because you know chipmunks… You can’t trust them.

This year we set up the tree next to the windowsill where Tabs liks to look outside and survey the hill, and he really seems to like it. Sometimes he hides on the floor behind the tree under the branches, or sometimes he hangs out on his little platform perch.

Thankfully, he hasn’t tried to climb the thing.

Yet.

But it’s bound to happen…

[Continue reading…]

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if Tabs is really enjoying himself…or if he’s just being a cat and doing cat things.

Like on this last Thanksgiving, with my parents and El Hub’s parents and my brother here, we had a pretty full house, and Tabs was always in the mix, walking from person to person for pets and hanging out, but there were times when the convo got loud that he also seemed a little tense..but he still wouldn’t leave the room.

I dunno… It’s just hard to tell sometimes if he really likes something, or if he just can’t leave the room because it’s action, and he can’t help but be where the action is.

Did that make sense? I’m not sure if it made any sense, but I think it might’ve if you have a cat. Sometimes it’s like they can’t not be wherever the action is, ya know? — even if it appears to drive them crazy. Like they can’t help themselves.

I hope Tabs had a nice Thanksgiving this year. I think he did. He did get tons of lurvies from everyone, even though he couldn’t understand why the folks with bad allergies wouldn’t let him sit on their lap, and he devoured his few pieces of roasted turkey.

I think my tabby is grateful for a lot. I know that he loves going for walks on the hill, sitting on my lap while I work, spending quiet time with me, and he loves his custom built Tabby Command Center.

[Continue reading…]

10 MORE things you may or may not know about Tabs

1. Whenever a new person visits the house, Tabs just automatically assumes that this hooman is his new BFF. He’ll walk straight up to them, flash his tum and meow for pets.
2. For all his diva tendencies (see #5 below), Tabs is shockingly well behaved. I almost never have to yell at him to get down off the kitchen counters or to stop clawing at the drapes or to stop pouncing at my ankles from under the stairs. He never tears into his food bags, and he doesn’t claw the furniture.

   The stairs, though? Completely different story…

3. One morning when El Hub and I still lived at our old apartment in Mill Valley, Tabs tried to join us for brunch. The restaurant was right across a busy street from our apartment, so we set out walking.

   This was when Tabs was still a 24/7 outside cat.

   We’d already crossed the street when we looked back toward the apartment and saw a familiar husky tabby scooting in our direction.

   “No!” I shouted, seeing cars approaching. “No, Tabs! Stop!”

   Thankfully, he did. He stopped when he heard our voices and just sat there watching as if to say, “Why can’t I come?”

4. He loves having his fur brushed, but he’s very picky about the technique. If you brush him incorrectly for even a split second, he peaces out.
5. He has a knack for hanging out in forbidden places. Like, what was once the forbidden chair (a chair that El Hub got me for my birthday a few years ago) is no longer forbidden (he claimed it), and he’s been doing it again with the guest bed in baby’s bedroom.

   Sometimes I sit on the bed in there while I feed Connor or just hang out, and Tabs knows that he’s not supposed hang out on that bed, but I caught him on there multiple times. I’ll walk in to find him sleeping on it all luxuriously or cleaning.

   He has zero respect for personal property.

6. He is so not graceful. Poor buddy’s actually fallen from his cat tower a few times, and he didn’t even land on his feet. I think he fell on his side.
7. He loves watching television, especially nature shows. Whenever he hears an avian actor, he perks up, and his tail poofs up when he hears a dog barking.
8. I’ve given up on trying to find him a perfect cat bed because all he really wants to do is sleep on clean laundry.
9. Even as a mature tabby, he still likes climbing trees. Whenever we go out for a walk on the hill, he hops up onto at least one of the oak trees and climbs up as far as he can on his 10-foot leash.

   Having watched him fall from his cat tower a few times…I’m glad he can only go up 10 feet.

10. His favorite foods at the moment are Nutrisca Grain-Free Chicken (his vet recommended that he stick to a low glycemic diet to maintain his energy for kitty supermodeling) dry cat food and Sheba Chicken Entrée Canned Paté.

    And he gets imported New Zealand ZiwiPeak Venison & Fish Cat Cuisine on special occasions…which he loves almost as much as kitty modeling.

[Continue reading…]

10 things you may or may not know about Tabs

1. He’s a ho for egg yolk, a.k.a. an “egg yolk connoisseur.”
2. He’s a decent babysitter. He’ll hang out with me and Connor as long as he gets pet by someone’s hand, whether it be mine or the baby’s.
3. He’ll politely harass you to get his wet food at 9:30 every night, on the dot. He’ll sit in the kitchen doorway staring and staring and staring until you feed him…
4. He likes to supervise me when I use the loo first thing in the morning, and he’s very insistent about it. He’ll scratch at the door, and even if it’s only open a sliver, he’ll use his girth to push his way in.
5. In his old age, he just doesn’t give a sh*t anymore. All the things that used to bother him as a younger cat, like me running on the treadmill when he’s napping on the bed. He used to leave the room because of the noise, but now he’s like, “Whatev…” and just keeps napping.
6. He still gets fired up after eating wet food. He’ll save up all of his energy to go completely buck wild for 15 solid minutes after finishing his gravy.
7. If I’m in the kitchen and open a can of anything, he’ll be down there in less than 10 seconds, no matter what. I actually time it. I count out loud. Last night I opened a can of black beans, and it took him 7 seconds to show up.
8. He’s getting worse about hanging out around my feet, especially when I’m turned around. I’ve almost tripped over him a few times. This usually happens in the kitchen.
9. Honestly, sometimes I think he teases Connor. When he’s outside her Pack ‘n’ Play and she’s inside it, he stares at her as if to say, “Neener, neener. I’m outside and you’re not.”
10. He’s WAY bolder than he used to be about stealing food. When he was younger, he was quite polite about leaving human food to the humans, but now I have to watch him like a hawk. I can’t leave any food unattended, because he’ll grab it in his mouth and run away or start drinking your milky tea when you’re not looking.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addicts,

Karen and Tabs

I always wonder what Tabs is dreaming about when I see his little paw twitching in his sleep.

Is he thinking about the time he cornered a lizard outside on the hill, when he had his paw on it, and the lizard straight up and bit him, and he freaked out? Or is he thinking about the time when he was on his harness and caught a baby bird by the front door?

He only has a 10-foot leash, but he bolted instantaneously off the walkway into the yard. I didn’t have time to react. All of a sudden, I look down and my wonderful little tabby has a tiny bird in his mouth! It was a nightmare…

Well, it was a nightmare for me and the bird, but it might’ve been the greatest dream in the world to Tabs.

Or, is he thinking about the first time I gave him bacon? Maybe he’s just laying there thinking, “Uoh…bacon,” like Homer Simpson does.

Is he dreaming about his kittenhood and his kitty siblings? Does he ever dream about his kitty mom? Does he think about her? Sometimes that thought makes me sad…

I wonder… Do cats dream in images kind of like we do? Does he ever dream about us? Does he dream about me? Does he hear my voice? If he does, what do I sound like in the dreams? Do I sound like the grownups in Peanuts cartoons? “Wah-wah wah-wah-wahhh.”

Is he just feeling emotions like comfort, happiness and fear, or does he actually see memories of things that have happened to him in his life?

Does he make up stories in his mind? Are his dreams fantasies? Like, does he dream of walking into the dining room one day to find a stack of bacon three feet tall? Does he dream of a litter box the size of a playground or other things like that?

I wonder…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen