Like most beginners, when I first started using WordPress (in May of 2006) I used a downloadable theme. I eventually outgrew it and in March 2007 I stripped down the blog’s design to just raw HTML. Little by little, I started styling—purposely NOT working from an established design… I wanted to see where playing with the CSS took me. I captured how it looked less than 24 hours into the design.

Since then, I’ve tweaked and refined endlessly, but still kept the basic feel of that design I did in a day over twenty months ago. While I really like the design, it’s time for a change. So, what better way to archive the design than releasing it as a WordPress theme?

I’m calling it Tabigail.

Why Tabigail? One of the features of the design was a rotating Polaroid-style photo in the header. I’d change it every so often. However, the last time I changed it was December 15, 2007—one year ago today. That was the day we had to put our beloved kitty, Abby (or Abigail the Tabigail), to sleep. I never could make myself swap out the image of Abby.

I’ve built a new page specifically for the Tabigail theme. You download the theme there and I’ve also posted setup and customization tips that allow you to make the theme more “you”. On that page, I briefly wrote about what makes Tabigail a compelling WordPress theme:

1. So super simple. A quick peek at the CSS will show you that there’s really not a ton here beyond plain HTML.
2. No sidebar. You know those annoying over-crowded sidebars so many blogs have? This theme has NO sidebar.
3. Socially savvy. The footer features a list of links to your social networking profiles. Because, really… it’s not all about your blog anymore. Plus, these links are marked up in an hCard with rel=me (just planning for the future!).

Just a note on that last one… what’s cool about that hCard with all those rel=me links? Well, as far as I know, nothing yet. But as the need to consolidate web identities becomes more mainstream, Tabigail will be ready to tell any service provider where all your social media identities are located.

Dude, you’re future-proof!

So, please… take a look, download the theme, and leave a comment letting me know what you think. This is my very first WordPress theme (well, publicly available one anyway… I’ve done a ton)… I’m hoping somebody finds value in it!

I’m hoping this post proves to be therapeutic.

I’m not afraid to say it. I’m a cat guy. Particularly, I’ve been a MY cat guy. Since 2002, Erin and I have had the best cat I could have ever imagined. Today, we had to the hardest thing we ever had to do. We had to put Abby down.

We thought we were just adopting a pet. But Abby turned out to be one of those remarkable animals that becomes a member of the family. She moved with us from an apartment to our first home. She helped us welcome two children. She was Ella’s best buddy. She let that kid do anything to her. She slept with us every night. She spent every minute of Erin’s two horribly sickness-dominated pregnancies sitting by her side. In many ways, she really was our first child.

I am an absolute wreck today. Erin is, too. Ella really doesn’t understand yet. Nolan… I’m just sad Nolan will not remember her.

One of my fatherly duties is taking thousands of photos and videos of our kids. I had practice with this task by doing the same for Abby. Below are a couple of video clips I really liked.

Abby Six Months

This is a compilation of clips from our first six months with Abby.

Abby Meets Fred

Abby was particularly interested when Erin decided to get a fish.

We also have a slew of photos of Abby, many in the very interesting poses she used to decide to sleep in. Here’s one of my favorites.

I don’t know what else to say. This really hurts. She was just an amazing cat. It feels so weird to be sitting here with Erin watching TV and me on the computer and Abby’s not with us on the couch. Something is missing.