A hot way to end the year

After a reasonably mild Christmas period, the weather has really warmed up in the last few days. Today, it was particularly hot - 32C (that's almost 90F!). While the heat makes me grumpy, I also like to toast my furs on the hot hot concrete.

But one can only roast one's fur for so long. Now it's off to my secret snoozing spot in the neighbours' garden for a well-earned nap.

Happy New Year, everycat!! 2008's gonna be an awesome year. I can feel it in my well-toasted furs.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Hey Adan, look what I got!!!

My very own miracle grass!!

The cat grass was a late housewarming present from my friends Owen and Yvonne. They were the perfect housewarming party guests, because 1) they obeyed my instructions and didn't come to the party, and 2) even though they didn't come, they gave Kate a gift to pass on to me! Thanks, Owen and Yvonne!!

Here I am pretending to be a tiger, letting out a mighty roar from behind the jungle camouflage of my awesome new cat grass. Cat grass ROCKS!!

Cheers,
--Pabs

A Furry Merry Christmas!

Well, Kate didn't have much luck getting me to pose in the Santa hat from Poppy Q... so this is my Christmas portrait for 2007. I hope that everycat and everybean and everydog and every bun and every... everything(!) has a great Christmas. Lots of love and purrs to you all. I'll try and get around the blogosphere and say hello to all my mates, but if I miss you, Merry Christmas from Pablo Downunder!! Hope that all your stockings are filled with juicy morsels of chicken.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Thank you, Poppy Q!!!

When Nick and Kate (and Kate's dad. And the d-o-gzillaz.) came home from the cricket yesterday (see my previous post), my Secret Paws present was in the letterbox!

It was from the lovely Poppy Q in New Zealand!
Wow! So many presents!

Let's see what I've got...

Hey everycat, Secret Paws rocks!! I got three different bags of kitty treats, some kitty toys, a feather mousie... and a Santa hat! Good luck getting the hat on me, Kate!

That feather mouse is asking for it...

I had to teach him a lesson straight away. He's definitely my favourite pressie so far.

Poppy Q even got my beans some presents! Nick got some chocolate and marshmallow fish (but because they're from NZ, you have to say 'fush')...

...and Kate got this most beautiful necklace (in Kiwi colours! Lucky she didn't wear it to the cricket... hey, see her cricket sunburn? On her neck. And she sat undercover all day. I'm so glad I've got furs).

And she also sent me a crazy card, and a lovely portrait of herself so that I can always remember who my awesome presents were from. Thank you so much, Poppy Q, from all of us... glad you were ok after the earthquake in NZ!

Did I mention that Secret Paws rocks?

Cheers,

--Pabs

Where are those crazy d-o-gzillaz now?

Oh wow! They're at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, watching an international cricket match with Nick, Kate and Kate's dad! (For those who don't know, the d-o-g-zillaz were a prize I won in a competition held by the great Jeter Harris. Nick and Kate have been showing them the sights of Tasmania since they arrived here in winter)

See that bunch of guys in green huddled in the middle of the ground? That's the Australian team, celebrating a wicket (that's when you get a batsmen out). You can see the guy in black with his head down walking out of the left of the frame... he's a New Zealand player- he's the one who just got out. The guys in red are the umpires.

Hey d-o-gzillaz, why aren't you watching the cricket?

Oh, they're just trying to get a glimpse of the action up-close on the replay screen. (PS I would NEVER go to the cricket... too many people!!)

Here's Nathan Bracken in action (he's the bowler, centre of the photo).

... and here's the great Mr Cricket himself, Michael Hussey, in the outfield near the d-o-gzillaz.

Looks like a great day was had by all, especially Australia, who beat New Zealand (sorry, Poppy Q) to take a 2-0 lead in the best of 3 series and regain the Chappell-Hadlee trophy.

Thanks for coming to Hobart to entertain the d-o-gzillaz, Australian cricket team! Come and visit me next time you're down. Bring chicken.

Cheers,
--Pabs

I read the news today, oh boy...

This was on the front page of my local newspaper on Thursday! Vishus snakes!! You can read all about it here, but basically, Jelly the cat, having just been on an adventure, wandered back into her family's yard in a nearby country town called Sorell (about 30 minutes' drive from my place) with this copperhead snake twisted twice around her neck and knotted under her chin! Here's a closer look:

Crazy stuff!

Hmmm... says here that some reptile rescue guy came and removed the snake from Jelly's neck, and that Jelly seemed fine... until the next morning, when she was paralysed by the vishus snake's vishus venom! They took Jelly to the vet for treatment, and she's fine now.

This story was big news in Hobart, and around the country! My good friend Felicity even did a story on it which was broadcast on a national current affairs radio program on the ABC (that's like NPR for you Americats and BBC for you Britcats). You can listen to it here. I'm very proud of Felicity- finally, after covering small-time issues such as the federal election and the controversial pulp mill development in northern Tasmania, she's been handed the cutting-edge scoop of the year. She interviewed Jelly herself (wow!) and found out that Jelly bit the snake before the snake bit her.... but she forgot to ask Jelly what the snake said to her to provoke the bite. Never mind, Felicity... better luck next time.

Be alert, but not alarmed, everycat. Mao and Rocky, the cats of Tasmania need some Vishus Snake Repellant, stat!!

Cheers,
--Pabs

It was warm already

Nick and Kate had a housewarming party last weekend, so that all their friends could see our awesome new house. For the record, nobody asked if it was alright with me to have a million people come and invade my personal space for a whole afternoon/evening. But Kate must have felt a little guilty, because she gave me the task of putting together an invitation for the party. I think I did a pretty good job of making it as appealing an event as I could:

Despite my attempts to keep people away from the party, they actually came. Can you believe that they thought that the invitation was a joke? So I spent the day in self-imposed exile on Uncle Simon's sleeping bag in the guest room:

Sleeping bags are the COMFORTABLEST BEDS EVER! Big shout out to Uncle Simon for making it available to me (feel free to leave it at our place when you move into your new apartment...).

Happily, a few people took the 'presents for Pablo' portion of the invitation seriously:

Here's the loot I scored from the party: an awesome new bowl from my friend Kath, a Hobart Cat Centre card and a bag of crunchy treats from my friend Possum (who used to blog, but is now helping her mum and dad get ready for the arrival of their baby boy!), and a can of chickeny, stinky goodness from my friends Penny, Martin and Hannah!

Hey Kath, it works!

So even though a thousand million people ignored my wishes and came to the housewarming party, the fact that I got a few cool presents out of it, and got to snuggle on Uncle Simon's sleeping bag, meant that it wasn't such a bad party after all. And housewarming parties only happen once, right?

Kate, I thought I made you promise not to post this photo?!

Cheers,
--Pabs