Some local catvertising...

This billboard ad is part of the current Betta Milk advertising campaign. Betta Milk is the only locally-owned milk company in Tasmania. The premise of the campaign is that Betta Milk tastes so good that Tasmanians want to stop tourists from smuggling it out of the state when they leave... so they've deployed a Betta Milk Protection Squad, complete with 'sniffer cat', to keep our milk in Tasmania. Not a bad idea, I have to admit. I was really stoked when I heard that a cat was going to feature in the new Betta Milk campaign (it's a great boost for the profile of cats in Tasmania), but I have to say that I'm a touch disappointed with the realisation of the concept. There's a few reasons for this:

• The choice of cat. I really don't think that a longfurcat would work as a sniffer cat (or work anywhere, for that matter). Don't get me wrong... some of my best friends are longfurcats (shout out to Monica and Phoebe here). Longfurcats just weren't made to work. They were meant to lounge on cushions and look glamorous. A shortfurcat (like me, for example. Or my little pal Beto), would have looked much more realistic. Although I wouldn't be seen dead in that jacket!
• The cat is a pretty major component of both the print and TV ads. But there's no decent close-ups of the cat in the TV ad. And the guy talks too much. What a waste! I think they should ditch the man and have a voiceover of the cat's internal monologue instead (no appalling mechanical talking cat, please!)
  
• The perpetuation of the myth that cats have an affinity with milk. I don't like milk. Never have. No cat Kate has ever had liked milk. I've heard that cow's milk is bad for cats, anyway. Is this true? Do any of you like milk?

Great to see a cat plastered all over the billboards of Hobart, though.
Cheers,
--Pabs

An inconvenient truth?

[Will global warming turn my fur pink? Sure, it looks good in a Warhol-style portrait, but permanently?]

I'm a bit worried.

The housepeople have been talking lots lately about something called 'global warming'. At first, I thought it sounded awesome... I had visions of some elaborate worldwide air conditioning system that would standardise the global temperature to PTFC all year round (Perfect temperature for cats: 22degC. That's around 71.6degF for my Northern Hemispherean cousins). That would be sweet. But global warming won't be like that in reality. Here's just a few reasons that I think global warming will probably be bad for cats:

1) More erratic weather patterns: Those of you in Australia will know what I'm talking about, given our weather in the last few months. 32 degrees, strong winds and bushfires one day, rain, hail, strong winds and snow the next! Fewer PTFC days, waaay too many THFC days (Too hot for cats). And a bit of wind is great (it carries a lot of interesting smells along with it) but strong winds mess up my fur and put my whiskers out of order.

2)Melting of polar ice caps > rising sea levels: especially bad for cats who live on small islands/low-lying/coastal areas/near the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. I hate getting my paws wet!! This will result in territory loss, and more cats competing for less territory. It will be all work and no play.

3) I can't see these things being very good for our prey, either. Farmers won't be able to grow chickens and cows and turkeys in drought conditions. On the positive side, I have heard that it will be good for pest animals like flies and mice and rats, which I love to catch. But we'll have to hunt more for our food, which will again reduce important sleeping time.

I don't think it's a risk that we can afford. What are your thoughts, cats of the world?

--Pabs

Not the first princess to grace West Hobart...

As those of you in Australia and Denmark would be aware, Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary and Prince Christian arrived in Tasmania for a private holiday today. Their first destination? West Hobart, of course! They've spent the day here visiting Princess Mary's sister Jane, who lives in this, the finest of Hobart's inner suburbs. Local people are so excited... one of Jane's neighbours was so amped up about the media circus that she forgot to put bicarb soda in her banana cake! I kid you not.

Out of respect for the privacy of the Danish Royal Family, the West Hobart Tigers decided not to hold an official feline welcoming party for them. Even though we're extremely keen to open a dialogue with the cats of Denmark, we (and when I say 'we', I mean 'me') know what it's like to have unwanted public attention foisted upon you. Anyway, it's not that big a deal to have a princess in West Hobart. One used to live here:

Princess lived in on the Westside for a number of years at the turn of the century (apart from a stint in a Sandy Bay student sharehouse where I briefly took over from her as the cat-in-residence in 2002, just before my own move to West Hobart with Nick and Kate). So although I didn't meet her, I know what she used to smell like. Princess (sometimes known as Princess Poo) was a truly legendary cat; a cat of consummate style and glamour (much like 'Our Mary'), as well as a skilful hunter (I don't know if 'Our Mary' can compete there). I plan to do a feature on Princess as part of an exciting new series on this blog in 2007- stay tuned! But for now, witness the glamour and beauty of this legendary lady of West Hobart. (N.B. Princess didn't ever play for the Tigers, but was a long-time patron and was awarded retrospective Life Membership upon her disappearance into the wilds of Knocklofty in late 2002.)

Cheers,
--Pabs

My international fan base...

Meet Phoebe and Monica, the co-chairs of my official fan club in the USA. They've constructed a blog in my honour! You'll find the link on the Links sidebar on the right of this page. While I'm flattered, I think they're making romantic overtures towards me! I think they're just carried away with the success of Mike and Christine's online romance. Could an online romance work for cats? I have had the offer of a long-distance romance before, but that's a story for another time.
Cheers,
--Pabs

L'amour sans frontiers...

On behalf of Pablo Enterprises and the Southern Feline Football League, I'd like to offer my furriest congratulations to Mike and Christine, who have just announced their engagement. A match made in cyberspace. I'm currently negotiating with them for the rights to the movie about their romance. Am trying to use it as a ruse to reunite Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe. Or Brad and Jennifer. Or Tom and Nicole. Or Johnny and Wynona. Or Uma and Ethan. Or Kylie and Jason. Or Paul and Heather. Or Angelina and Billy Bob...

Anyway, congrats, guys.
--Pabs

Pablo: A friend to the needy

Just a quick community service announcement to let those of you living in the Hobart area know that the Hobart Cat Centre is currently staging its annual cat food/fundraising drive at local Woolworths supermarkets. You'll see the donation bins near the supermarket entrance (having never been to Woolworths, or any supermarket for that matter, I'm relying on Kate's memory and spatial skills for the accuracy of this information. Apologies if she's got it wrong. She does make mistakes, conrtary to her self-appraisal). The Cat Centre are after donations of tinned cat food and/or cash. **Please note, kittens at the Centre prefer to eat food that does not contain fish, because fish upsets their tummies**

I urge all supermarket-going people to seriously consider making a donation of some kind to the Cat Centre, which does a lot of great work rescuing, caring for and re-housing the stray cats and kittens of Hobart. I'm not asking you to permanently divert your giving to human causes to cat causes (although I'd like to), I'm just asking you to remember the stray cats of Hobart this Christmas. You know why? BECAUSE IT'S HUMANS' FAULT THAT THERE ARE SO MANY STRAY CATS IN THE FIRST PLACE. People don't get their cats neutered. People take on a cat without properly considering whether they can adequately care for it for the duration of its life. PEOPLE DUMP UNWANTED CATS AS IF THEY ARE RUBBISH. You want evidence that cats are affected by The Fall? (apart from death and sickness, thanks humans!) There it is. Stray cats give Cats in General a really bad name due to the damage they do to wildlife, but it's not their fault! A cat's gotta live, any way it can. Who dumped them? Who stopped looking after them?

Become part of the solution. Step up to your God-given responsibilities as stewards of God's creation! Help stray cats in your area!

I've now got a link to the Hobart Cat Centre in the 'links' section of this blog. Check it out to find out more info on how you can help our local strays. If you're not in Hobart, please consider giving to a cats' home in your local area.

Thanks for your time,
--Pabs

They bought me a digital camera!!

It's true! They must have felt bad about not being able to afford a bigger, better headquarters for Pablo Enterprises, so a digital camera is my consolation. So now you get to see more pictures of me doing all the everyday things that I do so well...

This is me eating

This is me having my nightly post-dinner lickbath on MY chair

Hmm... this is just a bit too close

Anyway, I'm stoked because this camera is the key to my new cyber-Pablicity campaign. It means you'll be seeing a whole lot more of me on the internet, and hopefully the boys from the Tigers, too. Stay tuned!

--Pabs