I'm officially cool!

Mr Hendrix said so!
Here I am doing a cool cat strut around the house to celebrate my coolness:

I'm going to use the Cool Cat Award to celebrate the quintessential coolness of us brown tabbies. And so I pass the award on to...
(not-so-little) Joey
Tripper (who was cool even when he had a rev-mo)
Sophiekitty (the cool tabby livin' large in the Windy City)
Merlin and Dobby (two very cool tabby brothers)
and Monty Q (nocat can do the Q quite like this cool brother!)

Hope you feel better soon, Mr Hendrix!!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Sunday shadows

I am...

...THE SHADOW!!!!

Aaahh... love this Sunday winter sun!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Friday fashions...

Well everycat, as many of you know, it's winter in Australia right now. And I've been kind of in hibernation lately, and haven't been up to many blog-worthy adventures or in the mood for many photo shoots... I've been spending most of my time in the big bed, as you can see (I stay there all day after Nick and Kate get up and go to work).

So I thought I'd take this opportunity to launch a new Friday series on my blog: Friday Fashions. Now, unlike some of you out there, I'm not the kind of cat that likes to wear fashions. But Kate is a big wearer of clothes, and some of her clothes have a kitty theme. For the next few Fridays, I'll share some of her cat-based fashions with you. Here's one:

This t-shirt has a bit of a story. The cat featured is Lucky, the mascot for the Lucky Book Club, which was a children's book order club that was around when Kate was a kid.

She found this t-shirt in a charity secondhand clothes shop about 12 years ago. I think it cost 50c or $1. When she started wearing it around, one of her friends commented that she used to have a t-shirt like that, but that her mum had donated it to a charity shop with a bunch of her old clothes...

Cheers,
--Pabs

All hail Jeter Harris

... the Catster cat of the week!

Congratulations, buddy!

Cheers,
--Pabs

The fridge meme

My kiwicat friend Poppy Q tagged me for the fridge meme. Here are the rules:
Show us a photo of the front of your Cold Box and tell us about at least one thing on it and one thing you keep inside of it! Tag your friends and remember to stay COOL! And no fair cleaning it up first!!!
So this is our fridge! One confession: I had to break one of the rules, because there was a letter on the fridge with some of Nick and Kate's personal details on it. But it was boring, anyway.

You might have to click to biggify the details, but some of the things you can see are:
1. Magnets: alphabet magnets, a Carlton Football Club mascot magnet and some cute korean magnets.
2. The 2008 Pablo calendar, designed by Nick (but inspired by me!).
3. Some cute cat drawings by my little friends Ellie and Molly.
4. A beautiful portrait of... Poppy Q herself! I promise I didn't put it there just for this meme. Poppy Q was my Secret Paw last Christmas, this photo was one of the cool presents she sent me.

... and now to the inside. Poppy Q thought that we might have some typical Aussie things in there like VB (Victoria Bitter- an Aussie beer) or a Violet Crumble (a honeycomb and chocolate bar- I didn't know these were particularly Australian). Well, none of that I'm afraid, Poppy (VB is a bit of a dirty word in this house... Nick and Kate prefer Tasmanian beers, usually Cascade Lager), but we've got the one thing that matters...

... my stinky goodness!

I hereby tag Mr Hendrix, Dragonheart & Merlin and Mickey Mantle.

Cheers,
--Pabs

We salute you, Mu Shue...

Today, we cat blogosphere kitties salute our very brave friend Mu Shue, who has gone to the bridge. Our rumbliest purrs go out his his mum, Laura, his furry siblings and his brand new baby bean brother and sister. I just know that as soon as they're old enough to understand, Laura will tell Dylan and Ashlynn all about Mu Shue Pooh King Cat the Brave.

Shine on, Mu Shue!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Wednesday wonderings...

Hi everycat,

You might remember my post a few weeks ago containing a funny story about how one of Kate's little human friends thought that she was my (biological) mother? (You can catch up here if you missed it.)

Well, a very, VERY interesting comment was left on that post in the last few days. It comes from another Kate (who is a friend of my Kate and has known me all my life):

Dear Pabs, I knew your mother personally, but she kept the identity of your father secret. Your mothers name was Bathsheba Iraq Petuli, she was small and slender, black and independent. When she was a kitten she would go around the streets wrapped around her human's neck, but she didn't like that after she grew up. I don't know if Kate every met her. She might even still be alive, living in West Hobart I think.

Bathsheba Iraq Petuli... small... black... (my dad must've been a tabby, a manly mancat tabby who had to keep his identity secret because he was a secret agent with the vishus deer squad)... living in West Hobart?! I live in West Hobart! Maybe my mum is my neighbour, and we've been living side by side all these years!

Oh, everycat, I'm confused. What should I do? Should I let sleeping d-o-g-s lie, or should I put the cat among the pigeons?

Mum? Hey, mum? Uh... Bathsheba?

Cheers,
--Pabs

Goodbye, Ben...

Benjamin Oliver Keith Hawkins
24 March 1995 - 2 July 2008

Ben, the two of us need look no more
We've both found what we were looking for
With a friend to call my own, I'll never be alone
And you, my friend, will see - you've got a friend in me

Ben, you're always running here and there
You feel you're not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind, and don't like what you find
There's something you should know - you've got a place to go

I used to say 'I' and 'me'
Now it's 'us', now it's 'we'

Ben, most people would turn you away
I don't listen to a word they say
They don't see you as I do, I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again - if they had a friend like Ben
'Ben' (written by D. Black & W. Scharf, 1972, recorded by Michael Jackson)

It's with a very sad heart that I have to announce that Kate's family d-o-g, Ben, was helped to the bridge this morning. Kate's very brave mum took Ben to the v-e-t, but he had tumours in his mouth and lungs and could not be treated. Ben, a golden retriever-border collie cross, was the son of Gemma, Kate's childhood pet, who went to the bridge in 1999.

I didn't ever meet Ben (because we live 3 hours' drive from Kate's family home), but I'm told he was a loyal, friendly, loving d-o-g, who provided Kate's family with much joy over the years. He will be remembered as an excellent friend, walking and swimming buddy, and a boundary rider without peer (his favourite hobby was patrolling the perimeter of the family's half-acre block). For the first time since she was 5 years old, Kate is now d-o-gless.

But she's still got me.

Cheers,
--Pabs