In memory of the lovely Mia (1994-2007)
Lots of love and purrs to Ghost, BG and Jen at this heartbreaking time.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Pink Pablo

What with moving house and Nick and Kate going to Melbourne for a holiday, I've left my run a bit late to do this, but while it's still October, I'd just like to do my bit for breast cancer awareness. Let's hope that humans find a cure for it one day... mostly so that those affected by breast cancer can live long and happy lives, but also (less importantly) because I don't look so good in pink. Think I'll leave the pink stuff to Skeezix and Daisy from now on!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Thursday Thirteen: 13 things I will miss about my old place

Here's a tribute to my old apartment and the good times I had in (and around) it. I'll count down, Letterman style, to the #1 thing I will miss the most:

13. My disused barrel-turned-into-an unsuccessful-garden-bed snoozing spot. Aah, I can still feel the hot sun on my furs!!

12. My camouflage garden bed snoozing spot on the patio. A great place to chill out incognito.

11. My bottom-of-the-entry-stairs lookout post. A great place to pose, too!

10. My under-the-clothesline lookout post. Who am I kidding, everywhere is a great place to pose!

9. The Line. Like 'The Man in Black', I walked The Line a lot. You see, the linoleum floor in front of me is the kitchen floor, and is just a few steps away from my beloved food bowl (just follow my longing gaze). I was only ever officially allowed in the kitchen when it was feeding time (like that stopped me when they weren't home!); between times, I had to walk The Line. Nick was very strict about The Line. I wasn't supposed to have even a paw or a whisker or the tip of my tail across The Line during non-mealtimes. Ha. Cats live to break arbitrary rules like that!

8. The bath. Best drinking water in the house! A great place to leave one's pawprints, too.

7. My basket near the window (you can see it on the floor to the left of the table). The perfect place to grab a snooze while keeping an eye on my territory over the neighbour's fence. Here's a shot with me in action:

6. The lovely Frankie. We had our rough times, and a few fights, but she's a great kid.

5. My mate Skinny Ginger. He was always trying to nose in on my territory, but I came to respect his tenacity and knowledge of automobiles.



4. My second-favourite vantage point: the bedroom window. We lived on the first floor, so the bedroom window provided a super view of my territory over the fence. If you biggify it, you can see that I'm in the picture above, but here's a closer shot:

3. My favourite vantage point: on top of the pillar that supports the patio. I always felt really brave up here, and it was a great place from which to survey my territory over the fence. Again, here's a closer shot:
2. My territory (a.k.a. 'The Jungle'), an overgrown backyard next door to our apartments. Unused by humans, but adopted by the West Hobart Tigers as our home ground. In the picture above, you can see Skinny Ginger (left) and Frankie (right) going through some training drills. I let them share my territory sometimes. For training purposes only, you understand...

1. My catflap. Thanks for the good times, Isaac Newton! It was great living in a home with a catflap. It was my window to the world, my independence. We sure had some good times.

As cool as the new place is turning out to be, I'll miss the old flat and my surrounding territory...

Cheers,
--Pabs

Wordless Wednesday: I'm steppin' out!

A short paws(e)

Hi everycat, just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna be taking an enforced break over the weekend cause Nick and Kate are off to Melbourne for a wedding (my sort-of-aunty Kate is marrying her beau, Herbie. I don't know him, but I'm assured that he passes the 'suitable husband' test). Uncle Simon is coming to look after me, so it will be good times all around. I'll do heaps of new house-exploring (now that I'm feeling braver) and give you a report on my new pad early next week.

Until then, take care dudes, and sorry for the lame-o post title.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Trippin' Tabby Tuesday

In honour of my Mackerel Tabby brother-from-another-mother Trip's new blog, here's my Trippin' Tabby Tuesday picture. Thanks again to Zoolatry for the image.

Pablo's post-move update: Things are going well. I'm eating and using my tray again, and I've begun exploring the house at night. I still spend my days under the blankets, but at night I come out and put my eau de Pablo around the house. It's much bigger than the old place- could be awesome, actually!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Mancat(!) Monday

Pabs again. Still under the blankets... but thanks to all the encouragement I've received from all of you, I've poked my nose out into the new place a bit. It might be worth exploring after all...

Jeter, I asked Kate, and my new place isn't in the great state of New York (although Kate would love to move to a nice loft in the Village...). The new place is still in Australia... still in Tasmania... still in the city of Hobart... still in the suburb of West Hobart! Turns out we've moved about two blocks from the old place, which is great because it means that I don't have to transfer out of the West Hobart Tigers. That would have meant a lot of red tape.

Anyway, I've put my nose out there... maybe the rest of me will follow in the days to come. But I'm not making any promises.

Cheers,
--Pabs

An undercover update

Hi. It's me. Pablo. I'm the lump under the bedclothes. This will be my blogging location from here onwards. In fact, it's going to be my living location from here onwards. As promised, here is my moving update. They've moved me to a big new house with new smells and sounds and frankly, I don't like it one bit. I don't even know how long I've been under here. Who knows where I am now? I don't, that's for sure. So here I am, in denial under the blankets. And here I'll stay. Maybe if I stay here long enough, everything will go back to the way things used to be.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Tuesday newsday

What's all this?

Empty cupboards...

Empty bedroom...

Oh no! We're not...

...moving?

This looks pretty full-on, everycat. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Pablo's outback adventures

Look at this amazing portrait that the Zoolatry cats made for me! It's a tribute to the desert heart of my country, Australia. See the big rock that I'm sitting on top of on the right? That's Ayers Rock, which the Indigenous people of Australia call Uluru. It's a very sacred place for them.

As you can see from my body language and facial expressions, you have to be very alert in the desert, cause there are vishus animals there like dingoes and snakes. Daisy, I think you'd like it there, because it would be the kind of place that lizards hang out. Maybe you could go there and make some scientific observations?

Thanks for my portrait, Maggy and Zoey, I love it!

Cheers,
--Pabs

The screengrab meme

So here's a screenshot of my computer desktop today. Nick and Kate are pretty slack at filing all their files in the appropriate place (truth be told, they're mostly Nick's design files), which means that the picture on the desktop is a little hidden. But it's cool, so I'll tell you who the people are.

The third person from the left is my mate Anthony. He's a musician who lives in Hobart. He's kinda famous and is even going on an international tour later in the year. You can check his stuff out here. Anyway, the picture is taken in his lounge room, which he's turned into a recording studio. He records local musicians for a living. One of the 'local' musicians he records from time to time is none other than Brian Ricthie, the bass player from the Violent Femmes! That's Brian second from the left. He lives in Tasmania now. How about that?
... and the ladies on the far left and far right? Well, they are Kim and Kelly Deal! Kim is the bass player from ultra-influential indie band The Pixies. She and her twin sister Kim were also in the band The Breeders. Kim was in Tasmania for a Pixies gig earlier this year and I guess Kelly came along for the trip, so they dropped in to do a spot of recording at Anthony's place. How cool is that? Famous rock stars just down the hill from my place! They probably tried to come and visit me but got lost or something.

Thanks for tagging me for this meme, Faz! Here are some of the others who've done this meme: Francine of La Place de Cherie Chez Francine Bloggishi Unchained Melody LadyJava’s Lounge Mariuca Revellian Dot ComDesktop Emila’s Illustrated Blog Spiff, The Spaceman Rolando Brown Baron The Kat House MAX Mother's Home! I Was Born2Cree8 Skittles' Place Faz the Cat

I hereby tag anycat who wants to do this meme. Go for it!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Life after footy...

Last week me old mucker Faz asked me what I'd do with myself after the AFL season finished. Well... meet Pablo the Viking!

That's right, everycat! I've selected the Minnesota Vikings as my team for the National Feline League season. Following them will keep me occupied until February, when Aussie Rules will be close to starting its pre-season again. Why the Vikings, I hear you ask? Well, Kate's boss is originally from Minnesota, so it just seemed fitting. Thanks so much to Maggy and Zoey for the great Vikings artwork.

I know that the Vikings haven't had the best start to the season (we're 1-2, and lost our home game against the Packers 23-16 last weekend- congrats Zippy, Sadie and Speedy!), but I'm hopeful that things will look up. Especially since they've got me cheering for them now:
Skol Vikings! Let's win this game
Skol Vikings! Honor your name.
Go get that first down
Then get a touchdown
Rock 'em, sock 'em, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! FIGHT!
Go Vikings, run out the score, you'll hear us yell for more!
V-I-K-I-N-G-S
Skol Vikings, let's go!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Something else to celebrate...

Everycat knows that yesterday was Grand Final Day, right? Well, there was something else to celebrate yesterday... my 100th post!

Nick and Kate helped me celebrate in true footy style. Every week when footy players run out onto the field, they run through a HUGE banner made out of crepe paper, decorated in team colours and featuring a catchy slogan to motivate the team. When players have milestone games (like 100th, 200th or 300th games), the banners feature a message for the milestone player. Guess what? Kate made me my very own banner! Check it out:

Here I am preparing to run through the banner. On Grand Final Day. I feel just like Jimmy Bartel!

Hang on. This is harder than it looks...

Um... I might have to get back to you on the banner run-through. Sorry. Awesome banner though, Kate! Thanks.
Cheers,
--Pabs

That One Day in September...

Well, footy is over for another year. The winning team?

In front of a crowd of over 97,000 people, Daisy's Geelong Cats beat Sooty's Port Adelaide Power won by a massive 119 points (24.19.163 to 6.8.44)! This is the biggest points margin in an AFL final ever. Port never even looked like winning, sorry Sooty. The Cats were just too strong all across the ground. So congratulations, Daisy, the grand winner of my AWESOME Footy Finals Fever competition! Click here to check out some pictures from the big game.

And guess what? Tripper won my Grand Final footy tipping competition! His was the closest guess at the winning margin, he tipped Geelong by 66 points. Congratulations Trip, my tabby brother!

Can't believe that season 2007 is all over. Wonder what I'll do now...

Cheers,

--Pabs

Grand Final Eve...

I can't believe it's Grand Final Eve already! Thanks heaps, everycat, for your entries in my Grand Final tipping competition. Haven't entered yet? Click here for details. Entries will be open until 2pm Australian Eastern Standard Time tomorrow (29 September), with the Big Game starting at 2.30pm (that's 0430 GMT/UTC, click here to work out what time it will be where you live).

If you're up for an interesting Aussie culture experience, you can listen to the radio broadcast of the game LIVE by visiting the AFL or Radio Australia websites (I can't guarantee that these will work, but I'm pretty sure they will!)

Once again, a reminder of the contenders:

Daisy's Geelong Cats

versus

Sooty's Port Adelaide Power

The majority of footy fans are going for the Cats, partly because they've had the best form in the competition this year and partly because they're a sentimental favourite... they have not won a premiership since 1963! But there's quite a few fans going for Port as well. They're pretty tough, and tasted premiership success in 2004, so you can't write them off. Anything could happen on the day, especially if the weather is bad, which I think it's forecast to be (we've had lots of rain and wind in southeastern Australia in the past day or so). Either way, the game is gonna be HUGE!

As promised, here are Daisy and Sooty's entries for the creative part of my quiz. They're great.

Sooty's entry:
Sooty created a team called the Leopards, whose uniform is yellow with black spots and leopard-skin tights. Here is the Leopards' theme song:
We are the leaping Leopards
and we do not need shepherds
because we are the fiercest in the game

Our teamwork is flawless
all other teams are claw-less
our mighty spots will beat them every time

So come on, all you Eagles
you Hawks, Crows, Swans and Magpies
We'll make you all duck soup when we are through!
Grrrrrrrrrrr!!

Daisy's entry:
'My team would be called Curly’s Cuties. My team colors would be pink and white. Here is my team song: Go, Cuties, Go! You can Fight! You can BITE! Fight, Bite, WIN!'

Well, everycat, get into the Grand Final spirit! Help Daisy and Sooty cheer their teams on! I need to go nap to get ready for The Big Day tomorrow.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Football, football, football...

As part of Grand Final Week, I thought I'd share some of the creative answers that the finalists in my AWESOME footy finals fever competition sent in. If you remember, one of the questions I asked was: 'Imagine you are in charge of a new AFL team. What is your name? What are your colours? What are the words of your club song?'

This was Phoebe and Monica's answer:
'Our team would be the Medford Missies. Our team colors would be pink and purple and our fight song would go like this:
We are the Medford Missies, hear us purr
We have pretty colors in our fur
We will fight fight fight to win the game
The Medford Missies is our name.'

And here is Faz's answer:
'My team would be called the Wimbledon Warriors (because that's where I live). Our colours would be green and purple which are my favourite colours (see blog) but also the colours of Wimbledon (so it must be fate). Our song would be sung to the tune of 'It's a small world after all':
We're the best club that's for sure
Warriors win over all
We're the best club that's for sure
We're the Wimbledon Warriors

We play AFL and we always win
We kick and catch and never flinch
We are so cool, we are no ones fools
We're the Wimbledon Warriors

We're the best club that's for sure
Warriors win over all
Green and Purple always score
We're the Wimbledon Warriors'

Here's Yoggie's entry:
Yoggie's team would be called the Ark Warriors (after his favourite Swedish band, The Ark). His team colours would be black, white and pink. The Ark Warriors' theme song would be 'The Worrying Kind', which is a song by The Ark... it was Sweden's entry in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest!

Gypsy and Tasha ran out of time to complete this question, but they said that their favourite team in the AFL was the Brisbane Lions, whose colours are maroon, blue and gold. Gypsy said that the Lions were his favourite team because he is a miniature mountain lion in a cat suit and also because his mum originally came from Brisbane. Their theme song is sung to the tune of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise! (JH, if you remember, the Lions are your buddy Keiser 's (may he be playing happily at the bridge) human Daniel's favourite team).

The Hot(M)BC:
'Tasmania Tuxies! Our colors ... sorry... colours... are black and white, of course! And our mascot is Mini the Tuxie -- she should be good for something other than just eating. Our jumpers could be black and white or we could all wear our furs (or dye our furs/skin black and white for the games if some players weren't natively tuxie cats.)Our song (Sung to the tune of "Dixie") is "Tuxie!"
I'm so glad to be in tha land of Tuxie
Good times here are not forgotton
Cheer away - Cheer away
Cheer away - Tuxie land
In Tuxie land where I did win
All the time on the tuff old shin
Cheer away - Cheer away
Cheer away - Tuxie land
Then I'm glad I am in Tuxie Land - Cheer away - away
In Tuxie land I take my stand
I live and win in Tuxie
Cheer Away - away - I live and win a Tuxie'

As you can see, the entries were all of an awesomely high standard. I'll save the Grand Finalists' entires until Friday, which is Grand Final Eve! Woo hoo! And hey, don't forget that you can still enter the Grand Final tipping competition. It's easy! Click here for details.
Cheers,
--Pabs

Footy's night of nights: The Brownlow Medal

Tonight, we celebrated footy's night of nights: the Brownlow Medal. Every year, the Brownlow Medal is awarded to the best and fairest player in the league, based on the umpires' votes throughout the regular season (I guess it's similar to an MVP). You could be forgiven for thinking that the Brownlow was named after me ('cause I'm brown and my name is pab-LO... brownLO...), but it was actually named after Charles "Chas" Brownlow, a great player and administrator from the early days of the game.

As you can see, I dressed up for the occasion. It's strictly a black tie affair, and a night for the players' wives and partners to strut their stuff on the red carpet. It's the Oscars of AFL.

The medal was won this year by Jimmy Bartel, from the Geelong Cats, who scored 29 votes. Congrats, Jimmy!

The d-o-gzillaz really enjoyed the night, by the way. Here they are watching Jimmy:
I know he doesn't look very happy. I think he was just overwhelmed and a bit emotional. Who can blame him? His name was written in the AFL history books tonight!

To have YOUR name written in the AFL history books, enter my footy tipping competition, where you guess the winner and the points margin of Saturday's big game. Scroll down for more details.

Cheers,
--Pabs

Grand Final Week: Get involved!

Ok everycat, it's finally here. AFL Grand Final Week! The Big Game is not until Saturday, but we've got a whole week to build up the anticipation. As promised, I'm gonna be sharing the finalists' creative entries with you. But there's more! Everycat can also enter my FABULOUS footy tipping competition. It's so easy! You don't have to know anything about footy to enter. All you have to do is give me your prediction on who you think is going to win the Grand Final, and guess the correct points margin. Here's a reminder of the contenders:

Daisy's Geelong Cats

versus

Sooty's Port Adelaide Power

So, your 'tip' (guess) will involve selecting 1) the team you think will win and 2) the correct points margin. As a rough guide, the last 10 grand finals have been decided by an average margin of approximately 29 points (29.1 points, to be precise). And don't forget to include your name! Here's an example of what I'm after:
Pablo, Port Adelaide, 57 points (not my actual prediction, just an example)

This competition is open to all cats and dogs and bunnies with blogs or Catster/Dogster IDs. Animals from multiple animal households can have separate entries. The only cats who can't enter are Sooty and Daisy, cause they're already gonna get awesome prizes for being grand finalists, and I wanna share the love around! The entrant who selects the correct team by the closest points margin will win; in the event of a tie, the entrant who posted first will be judged the winner. (PS I reserve the right to change these rules at any time, because I'm Pabs.) What do you win? A donation to the Hobart Cat Centre made in your name and a yet-to-be-determined kitty treat! Just post your entry in the comments to this post. Entries close at 2pm Eastern Standard (Australian) Time, this Saturday, 30 September.

Good luck, everycat! Ooh, I love September!

Cheers,
--Pabs

Preliminary final 2: Kangaroos v Port Power

This evening's game decided who will play the Cats in next weekend's Grand Final. The contenders?

Gypsy and Tasha's North Melbourne Kangaroos

versus

Sooty's Port Adelaide Power

On their home ground, Port Adelaide let everyone know that they're going to be a strong contender in next week's Grand Final by handing the Kangaroos a massive 87-point thrashing, 20.13.133 to 5.16.46. Bad luck, Gypsy and Tasha! Sadly, this loss marked the final game for 311-game Kangaroos veteran Glenn Archer, who has retired after 16 years in the game.

So, the big Grand Final next week will see Daisy's Geelong Cats take on Sooty's Port Power. It's sure to be a mighty contest.

To find out how YOU can be involved in the excitement of the AFL Grand Final, check out my blog tomorrow!

Cheers,
--Pabs