My true confessions...

Well, Monica has tagged me for Marilyn MonREOW's True Confessions meme. Trouble is, I confessed most of my confession-worthy deeds in my seven facts meme, like my greasiness and the fact that I wasn't properly toilet-trained until I was two. But never fear, cats of the blogosphere, there's always more dirt in the Pablo Files...
So... my true confessions:
1) This is related to my pre-toilet-trained days, when I used to poo in corners... a lot. When I went to live with Kate, her housemate Rachel nicknamed me... Pablo Poopants. Part of the reason I shaped up with my toilet training was to live down that name.

2) When I was a youngcat, I disgraced myself by jumping up onto the lap of a dinner guest and proceeding to eat her delicious meal from her plate. You snooze, you lose, Jan!

3) Like most of you out there, I jump up on tables and benches when the housepeople aren't around. But I've also got a thoroughfare. Nick and Kate call it the 'kitchen bench', but I know better. It' s my thoroughfare between the loungeroom and the rest of the apartment. Who needs doorways when you've got a multi-level thoroughfare?

[Here's Nick cluttering up my thoroughfare by making jam. Photo taken from the loungeroom.]

4) Okay, this is a biggie. You know the West Hobart Tigers? The Australian Rules Footy team that I captain/coach in the Southern Feline Football league? Well... nocat in the SFFL actually knows how to play footy. We have teams and training sessions and we get together for matches, but we don't know how to play. We're working on it though, and that's the main thing! I'm actually trying to get star Australian Football League player Matthew Richardson (a Tassie-born footballer who plays for the Richmond Tigers) to come down and do a training clinic with us.

5) I have a pinup of a Balinese hottie from Cat Fancy magazine on the fridge next to my food bowl!
Don't worry, I only buy it for the articles! You can also see my picture of Amos and Heidi, my favourite Garfield comic (Panel 1, Jon:'Who knows? Maybe there are beings on other planets?' Panel 2, Garfield: 'Yeah...' Panel 3, Garfield: 'Chickens would be nice...'), and above that is a picture of Axel rolling around on the floor of his Nonna and Nonno's house.

So that's my true confessions! I tag Phoebe, because I don't think she's done hers yet, and I tag Axel too, for a very specific confession... I wanna hear about his breakout at Melbourne Airport!

Cheers,
--Pabs

My 50th post: Dedicated to Heidi

It's my 50th post! I've been blogging since August last year, so it's taken me a while to get here. I love blogging; I'm so glad I started. I've made so many friends from around the world and you've all had the chance to get to know me a bit... it's great! Thanks, everycat, for your comments and encouragement.

Anyway, I'm dedicating this post to Heidi, one of the two young ladies who adopted me as a kitten and lived with me until I was 2 (when I went to live with Kate). Heidi got married last month in Seattle, Wa, to a fine young man called Amos:
Isn't she pretty? She's been living in Indonesia teaching English for a few years, so it's been ages since I've seen her. I couldn't get to her wedding, but I sent her a great gift. It was a picture of me, the most sultry and manly mancat picture I could find, which I got Kate to have made into a jigsaw puzzle. We broke it up into its pieces and put the pieces in a pretty little bag. Here's the picture we used:

Heidi was nice enough to send me a thankyou card, a wedding picture and a newsletter. Here I am checking them out:
Amos is a Christian missionary pilot on the island of Yap in Micronesia. Heidi and Amos will be going back to Yap as soon as Amos has finished racking up some flying hours stateside. Who knows when I'll get to meet him? I'm glad I don't have to live on Yap with Heidi because:
1) It would take a million plane rides to get there, and as I've said previously, cats were never meant to fly.
2) Yap sounds like an island where lots of noisy little dogs live. I hate noisy little dogs.
3) Heidi used to mix rice with my cat food. Ew! I hate rice.
4) Heidi used to dance around with me while singing ABBA songs. I hate ABBA. (Many people blame my current neuroses on these ABBA experiences in my formative years.)

Anyway, congratulations Heidi and Amos! Come and visit me sometime... but don't expect me to visit you.

Cheers,
--Pabs

A meme: Seven things about me

Hi everycat!

My good friend Phoebe (co-chairfeline of the Pablo Fan Club) has tagged me for a meme. So here it is: seven things about me.

1. Ok. Let's get a few awkward ones out of the way first. Fact Number One: I have two litter trays. See?
(Don't worry- they're clean!) There's an explanation here. Whe Kate first got me, I wasn't totally down with the whole toilet training thing, even though I was two years old. Kate noticed that I didn't like to use the tray when I'd already... um... been in it. So she gave me two, so I'd always have a clean one! I don't mind so much these days; in fact, I mostly go outside these days. The trays are just for nighttime and rainy days. P.S. Kate's thinking of trying me on the crystal stuff... do any of you use it? What's it like?


2. We all like to rub our scent on things, right? I know I do:

Well... I'm pretty greasy. Nick and Kate regularly have to clean the grease from my favourite rubbing spots in the kitchen (and on the legs of the ironing board).
See the greasy black mark? Even I admit that it's gross. But a mancat needs to mark his territory!


3. I don't do laps (sitting, sleeping in people's laps). Ever. Fact Number Four kind of explains why.


4. By my rough calculations, I've lived with 15 people over my seven years in the world. (For the first 2 years of my life, I was a sharehouse cat. Since then, I've lived exclusively with Nick and Kate.) I had to deal with too too many people when I was a youngcat... I think this is why I don't like people so much. Even now.


5. But recently, I've decided to let Uncle Simon pick me up without going nuts at him! Here's Uncle Simon. He's Nick's big brother:

Letting Uncle Simon pick me up is a Big Deal. It's his reward for feeding me when Nick and Kate go away. He understands my needs.


6. I have a post-food 'soul cry'. After I've eaten, I do a couple of really long, deep, mournful meows. There's two main reasons for this: 1- it's an existential cry. Kind of like, 'I eat, therefore I am a cat'. 2- I'm mourning the fact that I've just eaten, and the point just after eating marks the longest point before I eat again.

7. This is a big confession... I have a 'brother'. His name is Ben. That's not the confession part. This is the confession part:
Yep, he's a dog. He's Kate's dog. He lives with her parents, 300kms from here. Frankly, that's not far away enough. I've never met him; I've only smelt him on Kate's stuff after she's been to visit him. Let's hope it stays that way!

So there you go. Seven very candid facts about me. Now I have to tag other cats to do the meme. I tag Beto, Axel, Jack and Persephone and... any othercat who hasn't been tagged!

Cheers,
--Pabs

While the Kate's away...

I am not allowed on the table.

It's one of the Cardinal Rules.

But when Kate flies off to Melbourne for a week, such rules go out the window. Tables are great. I love being up on higher levels. You get a different perspective on life. Speaking of different perspectives (how's that for a segue?), Kate sent me back this picture she took in Chinatown in the Melbourne CBD:

They're Chinese lucky cats, said to bring prosperity to businesses who display them in their window. I'll have to ask my Chinese friend Shelley what the characters say.

Anyway, Kate's back home now, having attended her 'important conference', seen her football team get thrashed (that's what we call it when one team beats another by a big margin) by Nick's football team and dressed up as Madonna at Aunty Tracey's karaoke birthday party. She didn't get to go and see Axel though, which sucks.

So I'll be back on the blogosphere as normal now. But I don't think I'll try my luck on the table anymore. I might get squirted with the water spray!

Cheers,
--Pabs