Happy New Year 2010

I love Rupert's country house. It's in a little town in the Berkshires with a general store where everybody knows us, and a library that has my book -- autographed, of course. We caught lots of mice, which Mrs G said she appreciated, but Mabel was less than thrilled when we brought one to her.

For New Year's Eve, Mrs G made a roast beef dinner with all the trimmings for the humans and chicken liver mouse with bacon chips for Rupert and moi. Everybody finally went to sleep, so Rupert and I curled up on a pouf in front of the fireplace in the library -- the one with pictures of Mr and Mrs G on the mantel.

Packing For The Country

Christmas was more fabulous than even I could have imagined. We wrapped presents for all of my friends, and they gave presents to me. It was so exciting to open everything and I got to play with all of the beautiful ribbons and wrapping papers.

Actually, the whole thing was quite exhausting, so I'm glad we were invited to spend New Years in the country with Mrs G and Rupert. Mabel packs as if she's going away for a month instead of a week, but all I need is my little brown leather suitcase with my initial on the front. I packed a party dress for New Year's Eve and lots of scarves and mittens because there's snow all over.

We're leaving early in the morning, so I think I'll go to sleep now...and dream of mice!

Hanging the Christmas Wreath

Mabel and I went to the Greenmarket so we could Christmas-ize the apartment. First we bought a huge wreath that had red balls and holly berries to put on the front door of 5A. Then we got yards and yards of pine boughs and pine cones and holly sprigs to decorate the mantels and the window sills. We also got lots of poinsettias -- some in red and some in white because Mabel likes to put them all over the house.

My favorite flowers are the amaryllis bulbs. Mabel kept picking up the red ones, but I meowed and meowed and pulled on her coat sleeve until she finally realized that the best ones had red and white striped flowers -- much more festive as far as I was concerned. I don't know what she would do without me!

When we finished decorating, Mabel invited my friends for Christmas cookies and fish tea. They all admired the wreath and they got to take home their very own little catnip plants in tiny green pots tied with a red ribbon.

Don't you just love Christmas!

Tallulah & Friends in The Christmas Mirror

Alice and Rupert and Monty came to my Tallulah The Cat Store today to buy Christmas clothes. We all dressed up and Mabel took pictures to put on the bulletin board in the store, and then she gave some to each of my friends.

We looked so fabulous that almost everyone in the store bought Christmas clothes for their cats, too. There are going to be a lot of very happy, very well dressed cats this season.

I am so proud.

Christmas Cat Clothes at The Tallulah the Cat Store

I got a big surprise this morning. Diana came to the store from Pets! Pets! Pets! loaded down with boxes. They were all tied up because Diana knows how much I love to pull at the ribbons and paper.

Inside the boxes were Christmas clothes for my Tallulah The Cat Dolls, which are a big hit in my store. The everyday outfit is a red and green striped cape with a red and green plaid bow. It's very nice, but kind of ordinary. The really special one is the Sugarplum Fairy outfit. There's a long red velvet cape with rhinestone stars all over it and white fur trim. And then, there's a tiara with red and green twinkles.

And the biggest surprise was in the last box -- both outfits made especially for moi! Now I can dress my Tallulah doll and myself like twins.

Decorating the Tallulah the Cat Store

We've been so busy decorating the store that I haven't had a minute to write the blog. There are ribbons and bows and tinsel around the windows and walls, and a Christmas tree decorated with cat toys.

Mabel thought we should pre-wrap a lot of things to make it easy for people in a hurry. We wrapped lots and lots of cat toys and Tallulah's Treats and my Tallulah the Cat doll. We also made boxes of the Mabel's Table Gourmet Food in two different sizes: Gourmet Week and Gourmet Weekend.

The part of the store that cats like best is the mirror they look in when they're trying on cat clothes. It looks very Christmassy with tinsel and red and green balls.

Cat Store Bulletin Board

Tallulah The Cat Store is is so much fun. I love to drop in and watch people buy Tallulah stuff. I especially like it when people bring in their cats and their cats' pictures. It's so cute to watch the little cat faces when they see their little cat faces on the bulletin board.

Nigel had a great idea. Monday is kind of slow at the store, so he brought his camera and took pictures of the cats who came in, and we put them up right away. Everybody loved it. Now Nigel is coming in every Monday to take cat pictures. We may need to get another bulletin board.

Tallulah the Cat Has a Facebook Page

I'm making so many new friends, I decided I should have a special Facebook Page, so last night when Mabel was on Facebook I meowed my little head off. She looked at me, and finally the light bulb went on. I love Mabel, but she's not very good at the computer thing so she called Nigel and made him come right over to Facebook me! I want to have a million, zillion friends...and they'll all buy stuff from my Tallulah The Cat Store. KA-CHING!

The Cats Are Friends Again

I heard Mabel and Mrs. G talking about how my friends are avoiding me. Mrs. G had invited us all to her Penthouse again to play on the terrace and she noticed that Rupert and Alice and Monty kept running away from me. Jenny has been working on a new recipe for catmint tea and Mabel suggested she make up new bowls for the cats and give a tea party.

This afternoon my friends came over and I was a nervous wreck. What if they ran away from me in my own apartment? But Jenny laid out a beautiful table cloth and poured her new tea into the new bowls. Everyone loved their bowls and slurped up the tea.

After the tea, Mabel gave a special gift to everyone but me -- which I thought was totally brilliant. Rupert and Alice and Monty tore off the wrapping paper and inside were balls with bells inside. They started to play with them while I watched. After awhile Alice rolled her ball to me and I rolled it back. Then Rupert rolled his ball to me...and finally, Monty rolled his ball to me, too. And we were all friends again.

Tallulah the Cat Book Signing

I just got back from my first book signing at Tallulah the Cat Store and my paw is three times it's normal size from signing all of those books.

Pets! Pets! Pets! put ads in the newspapers and on web sites and Mabel and I got there early to get the signing table set up. Mabel was so worried that nobody would come, she kept pacing around the store and talking to herself and calling her friends on her cell phone. Then she looked out the window and almost had a heart attack. Cats and people were lined up around the block waiting for the store to open.

I talked to the cats and Mabel talked to the people. They were from New York City and New Jersey and Long Island and Connecticut and PARIS and LONDON and even TOKYO!!! It's really lucky that cats have two languages : cat, and people -- from wherever they live.

I think Pets! Pets! Pets! should send me on a round-the-world book tour.

Jealousy is So Ugly!

I have become a social pariah. Mrs. G invited us to come and play on her terrace and Rupert and Alice and Monty ganged up on me. They said my ego is the size of the moon and all I talk about is my store and how famous I am and they're just sick of it. Then they turned their backs and played with Rupert's new wind-up mouse without me.

And Monty -- who I thought would love me forever -- said everybody's getting tired of the Tallulah dolls and they should make dolls of him and Alice and Rupert. Which is really a good idea, but I don't know if Pets! Pets! Pets! will go for it.

It is so not fair of them. I share all my toys and let them drive my car and they get all of Jenny's food for free. Maybe I'll just hang out in my store and make a whole lot of new friends and see how they like that.

Cats & Girls Forever

Our plan worked perfectly. Zan rang our bell and when Mabel answered the door, I ran down the hall and scratched on Becky's door. Zan came after me, while Alice meowed as loud as she could, and when Becky answered the door, I jumped into her arms and Alice jumped into Zan's arms. After a few seconds, the girls made up.

Mabel and Alice's mother planned a special tea party for the four of us to celebrate. They made invitations and Jenny created a special new dish for the cats called Catmandu -- it's a tall mountain of ground pork with a layer of hard boiled egg yolks and a topping of rice.

For the girls, Jenny made a new kind of cupcake with tiny nuggets of caramels and bitter chocolate, and she put marshmallow frosting on top.

Everything was dee-lish!

Tallulah the Cat and Alice Make a Plan

Alice came over for tea and we commiserated about Becky and Zan's fight. Alice says that Rachel is really stuck up and she's a very bad influence on Becky, who used to be so sweet. Becky is rude to everyone now and her English accent suddenly got very strong like she's some kind of royalty.

Alice doesn't know what to do, but I had an idea. Mabel invited Zan to come and play with me tomorrow. Rachel has to go to the orthodontist so she won't be at Becky's house. I told Alice that when Zan rings our bell, I'll run out into the hall and scratch on Becky's door. Then Alice will scratch on the other side of the door and we'll meow very loudly until Becky opens the door. I'll jump into Becky's arms and Alice will jump into Zan's arms and the girls will have to talk to each other.

Becky & Zan are Fighting

Becky and Zan had a big fight and now they're not speaking to each other.

A new girl named Rachel just moved to New York from London and she knows Becky's cousins, so now Becky and Rachel go everywhere together and Zan feels left out. And I feel left out too because Rachel has no interest in me when she comes to play with Becky -- I can't imagine why not.

So Alice plays by herself and I play by myself and Zan mopes around her apartment, according to Mabel who is friends with Zan's parents. Life is very boring and I'm going to have to do something about it.

Opening Day of Tallulah the Cat Store

Tallulah the Cat Store opened at 10 o'clock and by noon there were cats and humans lined up around the block. They bought so many things I was afraid we would run out, but Pets! Pets! Pets! was totally ready. They had blogged and twittered and advertised and they had a basement full of products to sell.

Jenny gave out hundreds of tastes of Mabel's Table Gourmet Food for Cats and Kittens, Tallulah's Treats and her very own Jenny's Fish Tea. Some of the cats loved the food so much they licked Jenny's hand to thank her. She's already talking about new foods to add.

Becky and Zan and Charlie came after school and they brought lots of friends. They especially loved the bulletin board and promised to come by soon with pictures of their pets. The dog people asked if they could bring pictures, too, and Mabel said the more the merrier.

I have to go to sleep right now because we have to be up extra early to watch The Morning Wake Up Show. They came to the opening with the hosts and they're doing a whole segment on my store in the morning. I just love being famous.

Tallulah The Cat Doll

Diana said she was going to bring over a bunch of stuffed cat samples for us to look at.  I really thought that Pets! Pets! Pets! should make a Tallulah cat.  Who wouldn't want a stuffed cat that looks like moi.

She walked into the store with a big box that was gift wrapped within an inch of its life and she put it on the floor so I could tear off the wrapping.

OMG  they made a Tallulah doll.  She looks just like me and there are different outfits for her.  Mabel must have let them into my closet when I was having a play date.  They have me in my tutu, and my bikini, and my Chanel cape that I wear to the ballet.  I'm so excited I can hardly wait to tell all my friends.

Tallulah The Cat Store Bulletin Board

Mrs. G came to the store with Rupert and she had the best idea. We're going to have a bulletin  board so humans can bring in pictures of their cats.  Mrs. G gave us one of Rupert and me rolling around in the catnip.  Mabel said she has hundreds of pictures of me, of course, and that she'd ask Becky and Larry Lewis for pictures of Alice and Monty.  

Becky had the cutest picture of Alice and me on a bicycle for two cats.

Personally, I didn't think Larry Lewis was the picture-taking type, and I was right, of course.  Mabel pulled out our pictures and she was going with Monty just sitting there looking like a cat -- totally boring, so I kept pushing the one of Monty and me on our scooters which is much more exciting.  She finally went with my choice.  Sometimes, humans are so slow.

Decorating My Tallulah the Cat Store

They're working away on my pop-up store. First the walls were going to be pink...then they switched to green...and now they're trying aquamarine. I like aquamarine because it looks like the stone in one my favorite of Mrs. G's rings. Maybe she'll wear it to the opening -- unless they change their minds again.

They also started to put our food on the shelves. Mabel and Diana put all the MABEL'S TABLE FOR CATS & KITTENS in the most prominent place, and TALLULAH'S TREATS were off to the side. Well, I just pushed those MABEL'S TABLE cans right off the shelves. I had to do it three times before they got the message, but they finally realized that the store is about me -- Tallulah. Pets! Pets! Pets! may be the money, but they wouldn't be here without moi.

Pop-Up Store

Pets! Pets! Pets! wants to open a pop up store that will be a laboratory to try out new products....along with our gourmet cat food, of course. They found an empty boutique right around the corner from 997 Fifth Avenue, where we live, and Mabel and I just came home from looking at it. The store didn't look like much to me, but Mabel said it has possibilities.

While we were looking in the window, a cute dog came along and we kind of checked each other out. He told me his name is Max and he lives in the neighborhood. I sort of hoped Mabel would talk to Max's human and maybe we could have a play date, but Mabel can be so paranoid sometimes -- she's probably worried that Max's human is trying to rent the store out from under us.

Right now Mabel is on the phone with Diana at Pets! Pets! Pets! talking about decorating and products and all kinds of things. It's just too exhausting....I think I'll take a nap.

In The Hamptons With Al

The Countess called on Thursday to say we should come to the beach right away and stay until Labor Day. It's lucky we had so many outfits planned.

It turned out that her dog, Alexander The Great, is actually tiny. He’s even smaller than I am and that long name is just ridiculous, so I call him Al.

We're having the best time going to the beach and having barbeques with ribs and lobster…dee-lish! I hope Al and I can see each other in the city.