Friday football finals fever

Well everycat, it's September again, and that can only mean one thing...

The Australian Football League finals series!

That's right! Here's the draw for the first round:

Friday night:
Hawthorn Hawks (finished the regular season in 2nd place) v Western Bulldogs (3rd place)

Saturday:
Adelaide Crows (5th place) v Collingwood Magpies (6th place)
Sydney Swans (6th place) v North Melbourne Kangaroos (7th place)

Sunday:
Geelong Cats v Saint Kilda Saints (4th place)

As expected, Hawthorn won tonight's game against the Bulldogs, but by a far bigger points margin that most of us predicted. For the rest of the games, I tip Adelaide, Sydney and Geelong to win. You heard it here first, sportsfans!

The two lowest-ranked losers from this round will be eliminated, while all the rest will live to fight another week. Keep an eye on each team's form, because in a few weeks, I'll invite you all to tip the winning team and the winning points margin for the Grand Final... there will be a prize involved.

May the best teams win!

Cheers,
--Pabs
(PS My Weekly peeks into the cat-based fashions in Kate's wardrobe will return in October.)

Friday Fashions: Part 6

Part 6 of my weekly exploration of cat-based fashions lurking in Kate's wardrobe...

To be honest, I've stretched the parameters of this segment today, because this particular piece of fashion does not come from Kate's wardrobe. It's a t-shirt that she bought this week for a littlebean friend of ours who has recently had his second birthday:

How cute is that? Kate was kinda hoping that the store made it in grown-up sizes too, but no such luck.

Happy Friday everycat! Hey, I hear that you Americats get a long weekend this weekend. Enjoy!

Cheers,
-- Pabs

Do they normally put it up THERE?

Oh. My. D-O-G!!! She wrestled me into the PTU (I put up the best fight EVER), put me in the C-A-R and took me to the V-E-T. So I've been a little off my food. So WHAT? So some of my number twos have been a little runny. Who CARES? So my gums are a little red. Big DEAL. That does not give ANYONE (especially a perfect stranger) a right to put me on a metal table and squeeze me and ruffle my furs and open my mouth and it MOST CERTAINLY does not give anyone (especially a perfect stranger) a right to put anything up THERE (is that normal?)!!!

So now I'm banned from eating my normal stinky goodness and I have to eat SCIENTIFIC FOOD for, like, the rest of my life.

But at least I'm home again.

Cheers,
--Pabs

PS: You may have noticed that I've been experimenting with the background colour on the blog. I wanted to make it brown, but all the brown options in the blogger template were pretty lame-o. Big shout out to Nick (who is very knowledgeable about all things C, M, Y and K) for helping me find a shade of brown that's just right.

Here comes the sun

Recently, my fellow Southern Hemisphere blogger Poppy Q asked me a very interesting question:

'Have a nice week in Tassie - is it getting a bit warmer now? We have had some nice warmish days but lots of rain still.'

Well, here's your answer, Poppy...



Here I am, toasting my furs in the late winter sun yesterday morning. We've had heaps of rain too, Poppy - as you can see by the muddiness of the pavement (time to get the broom out, Kate!) - but we're starting to have some lovely, sunny days, and a lot of trees are in blossom. As my great friend (and fellow birthday/gotcha day buddy) George Harrison said, here comes the sun, and I say, it's alright!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Friday Fashions: Part 5

Part 5 of my weekly exploration of cat-based fashions lurking in Kate's wardrobe...

This is a kind of a sad one, because this is one cat-based fashion that seems to be nearing the end of its life. It's Kate's awesome leopard PJs:

As you can see, they're old favourites that have seen better days. Especially the bottoms, which have a hole right in the, um, bottom:
I'm so glad that my furs don't wear out. They're much more efficient. (PS, please don't tell Kate that I took photos of her ratty old PJs... she might not like it.)

Cheers,
--Pabs

Blogoversary the second

Hi everycat,

It was my two-year blogoversary last Saturday! I didn't want to make much of a fuss about it because it was a day to stop and send our purrs to Monty Q and his family.

But a few of my closest friends threw me a little surprise party, and threw in all their pocket money to buy me an individual serving of gourmet stinky goodness.

From left to right: Who Can It Bee Now, Mr D-o-g-zilla, Javier, Mrs D-o-g-zilla, Nip Mousie. Centre: Gourmet Stinky Goodness - chicken and tuna mornay flavour!

And to top it all off, last week, Huffle Mawson gave me this award:
It's the Blogging Friends Forever award! Here are the rules:
Give this award to five friends (and only 5) who are dedicated followers of your blog - one has to be a new blogger in a different part of the world. Link back to whoever gave you this award.

I pass this award on to my dedicated friends...
Faz
Parker
Daisy
Those hotties at Hot(M)BC
Dizzy & Sally (my new, far-away friends. Not dedicated followers yet, but it's just a matter of time, right?)

The blogosphere is a great place. I'm so happy to have been a part of it for two whole years now!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Far-away thoughts and purrs

Even though I live down at the bottom of the world, today my thoughts and purrs are in the USA with Monty Q's family as they say goodbye to their dear little girl.

The Cat Blogosphere is with you, Monty, Q! We'll never forget litttle Sprout.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Friday Fashions: Part 4

Part 4 of my weekly exploration of cat-based fashions lurking in Kate's wardrobe...

This one is another gift, from my Aunty Tracey who lives in Melbourne (not to be confused with Huffle Mawson's Tracey). It came from the Melbourne Zoo gift shop! I think that Tracey bought it for Kate because the wild cats on it reminded her of me.
Tracey gives great gifts: just last night, Kate received a Flight of the Conchords CD in the mail from Tracey. Flight of the Conchords is a musical comedy duo from New Zealand (I bet the Poppy Q knows them), some of you may know them from their HBO tv series. Funny stuff.

I'm still sending my rumbliest purrs out to Monty Q and his family after the loss of their baby girl Violette ('Sprout') this week. Her memorial is tomorrow, and to help honour her memory, I've changed the background colour of my blog to violet. You can do it too!
Cheers,
--Pabs

Goodbye, little Sprout

I don't know what to say. Sometimes the world is a very terrible, heartbreakingly unfair place. My tabby mate Monty Q's baby sister, known to the blogosphere as Sprout, has passed away (she had a very bad fall). All my family's prayers are with Monty's family as we remember your beautiful baby girl. Thanks to Daisy and her mum for this most beautiful graphic.

With much sadness,
--Pabs

Friday fashions: Part 3

Part three in my weekly exploration of cat-based fashions lurking in Kate's wardrobe...

Oh, this is an exciting one, everycat: a brand new cat fashion arrived in the mail this week, with this letter:

Here it is:
I think that the people who did the embroidery were working from this photo of me (a reversed image of it, at least!).
It's a great t-shirt, but it's a bit too big for me, and I don't like to wear fashions, so I'm gonna let Kate wear it. Oh, and the secret admirer? I've got my suspicions...

Happy 08/08/08, everycat!
Cheers,
--Pabs

Say hello to my little friend(s)

I've been hanging out with these guys a fair bit lately. It's my friends Who Can It Bee Now? (Kate named him after the Men At Work song; she sings it whenever I play with him) and Nip Mousie (I named him after his insides and his outsides). We fight a lot, but sometimes we just chill out on my favourite chair. You can tell that I like these guys by the way I'm squinching my eyes shut... that's how I smile!

In other news, I'm famous! The famous Karen Jo, poet laureate of the Cat Blogosphere, wrote a limerick about me! Check it out here.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Friday fashions: Part 2

Here's another one of Kate's cat-based fashions (and no, they're not all yellow t-shirts!).This one was a present from my Aunty Tracey, who lives in Melbourne (the home of the great Huffle Mawson and Gypsy and Tasha). Tracey's coming down to Tassie for a visit in September. Can't wait to see her!

Happy Friday, everycat!

Cheers,
--Pabs

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