Thursday, March 01, 2007

Thursday tagging...

Hi everyone, sorry I've been absent on the blogosphere for a while. Kate went away again and Nick REFUSES to help me with my posts (grrrr!). Anyway, a few dudes (Merlin, Kimo and Sabi and Faz, to be precise) have all 'tagged' me since I've been away, and have probably been chewing their tails off in anticipation of my responses. So, here goes... it's an epic!


A. Four places I have lived...
1. Liverpool Street, West Hobart (in a share house with my first mums, Heidi and Nikki, and about a million other housemates).
2. Lynton Avenue, Dynnyrne (where I moved with Nikki when she got married).
3. Queen Street, Sandy Bay (where I first lived with Kate. This was also a share house, inhabited by Uncle Des, Rachel, Gibbo and Oliver... Oliver was a baby bean in Rachel's tummy, though).
4. Bathurst Street, West Hobart (the first place that Nick and Kate lived in after they got married. Huge garden, all mine. Awesome).

Pablo's pontifications: It's ok if you have to live in a share house, but if you can, TRY TO AVOID THEM. A million people live in them and they all might not understand how cats work. They might be loud and thumpy and move real fast so you get all skitty cause you don't know what they'll do next. Too many strangers come to share houses. It's better to live with just one or two people who understand you really well. Having said that, there is more chance of accidentally getting fed multiple dinners in a share house, if you play your cards right.

B. Four things I love to watch...
1. The kitchen. It's where all the food-related stuff happens.
2. My jungle from my observation deck in Nick and Kate's bedroom. I spend a whole lotta time here surveying my outdoor kingdom from the comfort of inside. I'll take some photos of it one day.
3. My shoelaces (when Nick and Kate wiggle them). I know, I know... I don't wear shoes, but my shoelaces are my favourite stringplay equipment. Try them.
4. Australian Idol. Especially the year that Shannon Noll came second. He's my favourite singer. For some reason, Nick and Kate think that's funny...

C. Four places I have been outside my home...
1. The v-e-t. Haven't had to go for a while, thank God!
2. The c-a-r. Just as scary as the v-e-t, I reckon. It's so loud and movey! And I have to go in that lame plastic carrier thing. It doesn't magically transform into a kitty palace just because you put a blanky in it!!
3. My jungle. The neighbours like to think that it's their big overgrown backyard, but it's actually my jungle, and the home ground of the West Hobart Tigers. A great place to rumble with my buddies!
4. Over the street. I don't go very often, but I do dash across the street in the evenings sometimes, just when I feel like pushing myself out of my comfort zone a bit. There's some good smells over there, and it's where my Tigers team mate Graham White lives. P.S. Don't tell Kate that I go over there, she doesn't know!

Pablo's proviso: I'm an outside cat. So it's not really that big a deal for me to go outside my home, at least within a certain geographical radius. And I'm not a social guy, so it's a VERY big deal for me to go to places other than my home, like the c-a-r and the v-e-t. So unless I really have to, I stick fairly close to home. When Nick and Kate go away, people come to my place to look after me. And that's the way I like it.


D. Four websites (or blogs) I visit daily...
1. The Cat Blogosphere. It's how I keep in touch with the news from all my kitty pals around the world. I'm also their 'Offishul Australian Corryspondent'.
2. The Pablo Fan Club blog. Maintained by my lovely lady friends Phoebe and Monica in Oregon, USA. Drop over and say hi!
3. Merlin and Dobby's blog. I started visiting this blog before Dobby came on the scene, mainly because I was amazed at how much Merlin looked like me. It's been great to see how Dobby the kitten has settled in to life with Merlin, and how much he is growing to look like me, too!
4. Faz's blog. Faz (Fazakerly) is a Britcat with an Australian mum. She lives in Wimbledon, England. But not really near the tennis place. That's on the other side of Wimbledon Common, where the Wombles live (I wonder what wombles taste like?).


E. Four of my favourite foods...
1. Raw chicken. Sometimes, when Nick and Kate bring some home from the supermarket, they cut bits off for me and leave them in my bowl. Nocat had better come near me when I'm eating chicken!
2. Cooked chicken. Sometimes they give me some of this too, but without all the sauce and stuff they put on it. As if it's needed to give the chicken flavour.
Nocat had better come near me when I'm eating chicken!
3. Canned cat food (chicken flavour). Almost as good as 1. and 2. Especially at room temperature.
Nocat had better come near me when I'm eating chicken!
4. Dry cat food (chicken flavour). The worst of the best, but still contains that chickeny goodness.
Nocat had better come near me when I'm eating chicken!

Pablo's poultry penchant:Look, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't like meat other than chicken. But something happens to me when that chickeny smell hits my Jacobson's organ. Nick and Kate call it the Chicken Madness. I call it heaven...



F. Four places I would rather be right now...

1. At my food bowl. Eating chicken (of course).
2. My basket. Complete with sheepskin rug (of course).
3. My chair. Upholstered in green velvet (of course).
4. Nick and Kate's bed. Without them (of course).

G. Four toys I have owned and played with...
1. Bungee mouse. A fake mouse (covered in rabbit fur!) with a rattle inside, attached to a plastic bungee cord. Oh, I did some of my best jumps trying to catch him! I loved him so much, I licked his fur off. (He was a gift. Kate would never buy me something with rabbit or other real animal fur!)
2. Mr Sparkle. Just some bit of blue sparkly plastic fringe on a stick. He drove me crazy, though!
3. My red mouse. A Christmas present from my friend Liji Beau. The reddest mouse ever. I like to swing him by the tail.
4. My stringplay shoelaces. A staple in my toy collection.

H. Four nicknames people call me...
1. Pabs. This is pronounced 'pubs', not 'pAbs', where the 'a' is like the 'a' in 'apple'. Same with my full name. There are lots of variations on this, like Pabby, Stinky Pabs, Dirty Pabs, Pabio and Pablometer.
2. Mablo. Kate favours this one. In her more lyrical moments, it is extended to Guantanamablo.
3. Sweet Pea. Don't laugh! Another Kate-bestowed name. It's my mushiest name.
4. My sweet baby tiger/tiger boy/tiger baby bunny boy. I bet you never knew that cats blushed...
Pablo's pseudonyms: There are plenty more, I can tell you! Nick and Kate like to make up songs about me (usually re-workings of existing songs to make them about me). They are usually less than complimentary, but they're about me, so I don't care. They also make up one-off or temporary nicknames based on topical events. For example, during the World Cup (soccer) last year, my nickname was 'Puss Hiddink', a nod to the Australian coach Guus Hiddink.

I. Regarding catnip...
1. Love it
2. It's nice
3. Could take it or leave it
4. Don't like it or can't have it
Answer: I haven't tried it. I'm STILL WAITING FOR KATE TO GIVE ME MY AMERICAN SHRIMPY NIPPY GOODNESS.

J. Regarding cat grass...
1. Love it
2. It's nice
3. Could take it or leave it
4. Don't like it or can't have it
Answer: Sounds like something that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper would have smoked.

K. First things I would by after winning the lottery...
1. The patent for chicken (currently held by the estate of the late Colonel Harland David Sanders, who invented chicken in the early 20th century.
2. A big new headquarters for Pablo Enterprises, with my own private study/bedroom and a rambling garden.
3. The Richmond Tigers. An Australian Football League team, based in suburban Melbourne. I'd appoint myself as their president and relocate them to West Hobart.
4. A teleporting machine, so I can visit all my kitty blogging friends without having to set paw on an aeroplane.

L. Four things I do besides eat, sleep and litter box...
1. Captain/coach the West Hobart Tigers in the Southern Feline Football League.
2. Maintain my blog. I love being part of the cat blogosphere!!
3. Stringplay.
4. Give Nick and Kate as many withering, disdainful looks as time permits.

M. Four things I want to do this summer...
** This question was obviously written by somecat in the Northern Hemisphere, cause we've just finished our summer. I've taken the liberty to change the question to suit my own seasonal orientation, i.e. four things I want to do this winter**
1. Eat more chicken.
2. Find more sunbeams to sleep in.
3. Outsource my outdoor responsibilities (rumblin', surveying my territory and the like) to somecat I can trust (Frankie, maybe?) so I don't have to go outside until spring.
4. Write my memoirs.

N. My four most prized possessions that have limited value to anyone else...
1. My stringplay shoelaces. It took ages to chew them up just right.
2. My sheepskin. It took ages to shed the right amount of fur onto it (stop vacuuming it, Kate!).
3. The old, old matress under Nick and Kate's bed. A mancat needs a hideout!
4. The grass growing in the terracotta pot on our patio. A mancat needs his greens!

O. What I am going to do before tomorrow...
1. Finish these questions! There's still more to go!
2. Eat my dinners tonight! Can't wait...
3. Better do an outside patrol later this evening.
4. Might get Kate to do a bit of stringplay with me.

P.Which of the following is your favorite place to hide and play...
1. Paper bags
2. Plastic bags
3. Boxes
4. Other (explain)
Answer: Boxes, boxes, boxes. They are so interesting! Who knows what might be in them? And they're great to chew. Unfortunately, my place is too small for me to have a permanent playbox, but I love it when Nick and Kate bring a box home for some reason. And thay are so great to chew....

Q. Four other pets that Mommy has had with me...
Does Nick count? (Only joking, Nick, old buddy!). No, none. Kate knows my rules.
Pablo's pet policy: I am very much a solo pet. I don't share. I don't like sharing my house with people (apart from when they feed me and let me sleep on their bed), and I most certainly would not share my home with another animal, even if it was a cat. I am cat enough for any household!



R. Four furiends I tag to respond:
I've taken so long to do this that it's so last week by now. Beto's been conspicuously absent from the blogosphere for a while. Something's going on there... so Beto, if you're out there, I tag you! And anycat who hasn't done it yet who still wants to.

Finished! Yippee! Hope you've enjoyed learning more about me. I know I have.
Cheers,
--Pabs

12 comments:

Merlin said...

Dude. We do look just alike, it's true. And kinda spooky.

Good answers. Ya know what? I've never had chicken.

Victor Tabbycat said...

Hi, Pablo! Wow, my sisfur's meme is alla way in Tazmania?!? I reely like yur answers. An I won't bug you while yur eatin chicken if you don't bug me while I'm eatin chicken! I efun done a chicken dance! Fanks fur playin!

Monica said...

Pablo, Your answers are so thorough and educational as well. I didn't know so much about the Jacobson's organ (except instinctively, of course).

Phoebe said...

I'm confused about how to pronounce your name. Pub-lo? We have always thought it was Paw-blo. Tracy says that is the traditional Spanish pronunciation.

BTW, there is a very funny commercial on the TV here for Taco Bell. It has two lions speaking Spanish, but one of them cannot roll his 'R'.

Jack, Persephone, Tenzing and Lancelot said...

No worries, Pabs, we're cats. We do stuff when we want to. faz tagged me a bunch of days ago, and I still haven't done it. Though I've been a bit busy with new vishus deer developments.

Good to see you back. Even if I didn't notice you were gone suince I wasn't here either!

Christine and FAZ said...

This was excellent Pabs and well worth the wait. I love the sound of your jungle - I would love to have a jungle too. Also be extremely careful crossing the road those car things can be very dangerous and don't really care much about us cats. Finally, I am not sure what you see in chicken, I've tried it but it's not as good as tuna. Have you tried tuna? FAZ

The Librarian said...

Can I add another nick-name I remember from the Heidi and nikki days?

Diablo... Usually after the preposition Pablo...

Pablo diablo...

I'm sorry,Pabs but you still suit that name!

I met a cat in melbourne called Sari. She has her name on her collar in sparkly letters. She is a very elegant siamese. However she is contending with Pabsy for
"The grumpitron title".

Thanks for letting Kate post on my blog using your name Pabsy :)

Kate (Pablo's mum) said...

So many comments to respond to...

Merlin: You've never had chicken? Seriously? I thought you lived in the South...

Phoebe: I think we're on the same wavelength with my name pronunciation. I was just trying to differentiate between 'pAHHblo' and 'pAblo' with a nasty, pointy A. I think the lion in the Taco Bell ad would get it right...

Faz: Yeah, I like tuna. But, in the words of American Idol's Randy Jackson, 'it's just a'iight to me'. Only chicken produces the behavioural sensation known as the Chicken Madness.

Amy: Yeah, I still get Diablo sometimes, because I am still as diabolical as ever! Yeah, it's usually in conjunction with Pablo. Sometimes, it's Pablo Diablo Guantanamablo! And I could out-grupm this Sari any day!

Kate (Pablo's mum) said...

Whoops... out-GRUMP, that is. This meow-recognition software has a few glitches in it.

Christine and FAZ said...

Hi Pabs, it's me again, Faz. Just popped by to save have a good weekend. Looks like spring is in the air here so I plan to do a bit of hunting and sunbathing. What you up to - be careful if you cross that road especially if you've got the chicken madness thing. FAZ

Sasha said...

Hi Pablo, what do you mean by 'tagging'? I am new to blogging and Lynettea tells me she doesn't know.
Diamond from Adelaide.

Kate (Pablo's mum) said...

Hi Diamond! Tagging is just a game where someone 'tags' you and gets you to answer all kindsa questions about yourself. A bit like an email forward. Once you've done it, you 'tag' other people to do it, too. This one's been around the cat blogosphere for a few weeks now, so I didn't bother tagging anycat to do it (apart from my Hobart buddy Beto, who doesn't have regular internet access these days, so I don't reckon he'll do it). But you can do it if you want (it takes AGES, so don't feel like you have to), it would be a great way to find out more about you.