Spotlight on: Canines

Dear faithful fan club members,

Many of you may not know our canine members in the Pablo Fan Club. We met them when we first started this blog because their people are all friends of Tracy's. Our dog friends are at a disadvantage in trying to emulate the feline values promoted by Pablo and the fan club, but they do their best. I thought it would be a good idea to introduce them.Here is Sydney. She lives with Tracy's best friend from high school. You can see that she tries to be very helpful with chores in her house. She also lives with our cat friend, Gilbert, but they do not get along very well. I think their mutual membership in the Pablo Fan Club will help them to keep the peace in their house. I have smelled Sydney on Tracy's clothes when she came home from a road trip.
This is Sherman. He and his two cousins live in the state of New York. Sherman was the first of them to start blogging. His secretary is his human brother and they post lots of pictures and jokes. He seems a little insecure about his standing in his family, but as long as he is fed, he's happy.
This is Jasmine, but she also goes by Jazz or Jazzy. She is Sherman's cousin. She goes outside a lot because she lives in the country. You can see that she is emulating Pablo values of being vigilant of her property. She also lives with three cats, so she has some good examples of feline priorities right in her household.
And this is Jake, the third of the cousins. He lives with his mom, dad and two boys. There is a picture on his blog today of how he was tortured in the bathtub by his family. But he says that they are generally very nice to him. Here you can see that he is practicing sleeping in an excellent feline-like position.

It has been an interesting cross-cultural experience getting to know some dogs. But I hope they don't come over to our house for a visit.

Photo Hunters - Rare

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Here is my second installment of Photo Hunters. I was looking in Tracy's pictures for something rare. Well, I found this picture of San Francisco. When Denis and Tracy were there they did the 49 mile scenic drive all over the city! Afterwards, they found out that it is very rare for people to actually do the scenic drive...
Next I found this picture of a latte that Denis made for Tracy. See the pretty heart that he made in the milk foam? It is very rare that he makes one because it happens only by accident (it has happened twice).
But then I found this picture:

I think it is the most rare thing for a goat to catch a ride on a camel's back. (Tracy took this one in India.)

Our Toys

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

I wanted to show you the toys that Monica and I have. You can see that we have the exact same ball-in-the-round-thingy as Jeter Harris does. I don't play with it as much as I used to. It took me a while to find out the trick, but you cannot get the ball out of the track. Sometimes it is still fun to bat it around if I am bored. We have an assortment of mice as you can see. The one on the left looks a little crazy and he makes crinkle noise when you kick him. We have had him for a long time and he's pretty fun. The next blue one is cute and soft. Sometimes he is good for cuddling with or carrying around in your mouth. The small orange one is my favorite. He is new. I like to chase him around in the kitchen where it is very slidey and I can pretend that he is running away from me. My old mouse was made of felt and his tail came off. I think this one will last a little longer. You may not be able to see our feather very well, because I am holding it in my paws. It is on the end of a dangly fabric. This toy requires human participation and we have started playing with it more often lately.

You may notice that Monica is not very interested in any of these toys. It's true. Her very favorite toy is the lazer light toy. She runs around after it and tries to catch it. I chase it sometimes, but I get the feeling that Denis and Tracy are laughing at me when I do... So usually I just watch Monica chase it. She doesn't care if they laugh at her.
All right, can we play now?

Together

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

As you can see, the eagerly anticipated arrival of my very own harness has come. Tracy bought me a pretty pink one because she was thinking of Lilly Lu at the time and also because she knew I would look great in pink. She was right, don't you think?


This was only the second time that I went Outside on a harness, and I was still a little nervous. I sat and watched Phoebe for a while. Grandma held onto Phoebe's rope and Tracy stayed with me. (That clearly means that I am more important in my household.)



Once I was ready, we went exploring. Here are some interesting discoveries about our yard. This area used to be a jungle as you can see from the tall greenery that is growing there still.




And here we can clearly see that there was a volcanic eruption many years ago. That is why there is so much red rock in this area. It makes a very crunchy noise when you walk on it and it's a little prickly on the paws. We have two convenient walking paths that allow passage through the volcanic area of our yard.








After a we were through with our independent explorations, Phoebe and I teamed up for grounds patrol. We kept in mind all the great suggestions that all our friends made about what we should do on our rounds.













I think that Tracy and Denis are very glad that we are here to keep an eye (or four) on things. Everything is in place for today.

Photo Hunters - steps

Dear Pablo,

Here is another game that I have not played before, but it looks like fun. I have to find a picture that is of the theme of the week.

We do not have any steps in our house. I do not have a good picture of me taking steps. I don't have any step-brothers or sisters.

I found this picture of Phoebe sitting on Denis' small step-ladder. She likes to climb up on top for the view.

Head Shots

Dear Pablo,

We had Tracy take some new pictures of us in case we decide to go into modeling or acting, we can give them to our agents. How do you like them?
Phoebe - red hair, green eyes. Looks great in green and black! Would be interested in being in an action movie.
Monica - blond hair, green eyes. Looks great in blue or pink. May be interested in spokesmodel career for cat grass or cat nip.

Also, we never gave the official welcome to new Fan Club members Daisy, Chairman Mao, Kimo and Sabi, Las 6 Cucarañas, Rocky and the Artsy Catsy gang, Sulftanus and Guy, and finally, Zippy, Sadie and Speedy. Welcome one and all. You will find the Pablo Fan Club pledge on the side bar for your handy reference.

Going Pink for Lilly Lu

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

As you probably know, Lilly Lu is very sick and everycat is praying and pulling for her. Monica and I do not know Lilly Lu personally, but she is a great friend to fan club members Daisy, Jeter Harris and Tara. Lilly Lu's favorite color is pink, so we changed our blog colors for a while to cheer her up and show our solidarity. Get well soon, Lilly Lu. From your new friends Phoebe and Monica. Here is where to find updates on how she is doing.

I did it!

Dear Pablo and loyal fan club members,

Thank you all for your encouragement about going Outside. Since so many of you have fun out there and Phoebe kept going on and on about how great it was, I decided to give it a shot. How do I look against the green grass? I think it makes my eyes stand out.

I was a bit nervous to first go out the front door, but once I took a look around at all the interesting things to see, I forgot to be scared. The harness didn't even bother me much. I had been watching Phoebe very carefully from the window, so I explored some of those places she had told me about. Firstly, I wanted to go under the porch, but Tracy said "no way!" Then I thought I would give some of the different plants a taste. Again, a negatory from Tracy. She says some plants are poisonous for cats and she doesn't know which ones, so I should just stick to tasting the grass. What a bother!

Look at these pretty flowers and plants over here. I tried to eat these ones, too. I mean, really, why would they plant them if they weren't meant for snacking on?

Ha ha! Phoebe had to watch me through the window this time. Watch and learn, little sister! Tracy says if I decide I like this, she will get me my own harness and we can all go Outside together. The End. ~Monica










This is SO not fair! That is MY harness and I am the one who is supposed to wear it and go Outside. ~Phoebe

It's time for a nap.

Dear Pablo and friends,

I am so tired from all my Outside adventures. I have been going out each day and I really do like it. Today I walked all the way to Grandma's house for a nice long visit. It was fun to go in the door, check out the rooms and then go back Outside again. I'm still a bit unsure of what I should do when I am Outside. I start out on the porch and I'm never sure what to do first. Can you friends who have more Outside experience give me some tips about what important activities I should include on my rounds?

You have to keep in mind that Tracy is always following me around. Sometimes I am glad that she is there because sometimes I get a little spooked by a noise or some people nearby. Then I walk over to Tracy and rub against her legs. It is reassuring. But other times, she really slows me down. And she is very noisy with her walking! The other day I tried to catch a bird. I was sneaking up on it real slow-like. Then when I went to pounce, Tracy didn't keep up and the bird got away!

Now, I'm just cozying up with Monica for some beauty sleep.

13 Reasons NOT to go Outside

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Phoebe's recent adventures have got me contemplating whether I should try going Outside. I'm still conflicted about the issue. Here are some of the things in the CON column:
1. in order to go Outside, you have to wear a harness.
2. the harness has to go around your neck and clips around your chest.
3. that would be uncomfortable.
4. there are very large vishus birds that fly over our house and are very noisy. Tracy says it is just because we live near an "airport".
5. the gigantic vishus birds will probably snatch me up and eat me.
6. the giant vishus birds will probably be even louder from Outside.
7. if I go Outside, I might get all dirty. The first time Phoebe went, she got lots of leaves and sticks in her furs.
8. if I get dirty, then Tracy will probably comb me.
9. i don't like to be combed.
10. if you go Outside, the people hold onto your rope.
11. you cannot go wherever you want to.
12. you cannot go into some very interesting places like under the porch, or under the car.
13. if you get scared Outside, you cannot run away and hide.

Here are the only two reasons I can think of that going Outside might be okay:
1. Pablo says that it is a good thing to do.
2. There is lots of grass out there.

Look at me!!

Dear Pablo,

Look! I got a new harness. If you look closely at this picture and the one of my old harness, you can probably see the difference. Tracy had to take the other one back. Even though it was pretty striped colors, the one-piece, figure-8 design made it too easy for me to get it off my head. I did that twice on Monday and on Tuesday, Tracy turned it back in for this one. You will notice this one has more buckles and straps on it. I have tried to pull it off my head, but this one stays put. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but Tracy is glad of it.

So far I have gone Outside each day since Sunday. I am getting used to my expeditions and getting much more brave. Monica keeps a close eye on me through the window because she is worried about me:







Here I am checking out all the pretty flowers. We have a lot of them. I hardly noticed on my first time Outside because I was so distracted by all the loverly grass.






For a while I visited with Monica to reassure her that I was just fine. But that got boring fast!













So then, I had Grandma take over holding the rope so that Tracy could take some proper pictures of my adventures. I wanted you to see how brave I am, Pablo.








See, here I climbed on top of our "doghouse". No dog lives at our house, so I'm not sure why we have a doghouse. It turned out to be very slidey and I had a hard time posing for this picture, but I hope you will understand.

(note: this "doghouse" is simply a structure that hides the piping for our water service ~ Tracy)





Look at what I found next! A wall to climb on and some wood pieces to sniff. They smelled different from the dirt and grass. These plants don't have any flowers yet. I wonder why?








Well, that is about all the interesting things that I saw on my Tuesday expedition. I hope you are very proud of me.

The Very Exciting Easter

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Phoebe alluded to what happened on Easter here at the Pablo Fan Club Headquarters, but I am going to start off telling the story. Tracy came home from church with a bag from Petco and inside was this:
Phoebe wasn't sure what to make of it, so I decided to come over for a look:
Hmm... Seems a little fishy to me. Something sneaky is coming up I told her. After a while, Tracy and Grandma ganged up on Phoebe and stuck one part over her head and the other part they wrapped around her chest. They clipped on the long rope in between her shoulders. She was walking funny trying to sneak away, but it was snapped onto her. Then, Tracy and Grandma opened up the door! Usually when they open the door, they pick Phoebe up or stick something in her face so that she cannot run outside, but this time they were telling her to go out the door. This was very strange and I warned Phoebe it didn't sound like a good idea to me. I don't know why she is so obsessed with The Outside anyway. I think it is much safer in here. I will let Phoebe take over the story now because she is very excited to tell you all about The Outside.

Thanks, Monica... Well, it is true that I was scared of the harness when Tracy first put it on me. I didn't realize that it had to lock around me. It felt very strange and I wasn't sure what to do. I went out the door and crept across our front porch trying to get away from Tracy and Grandma. I didn't know why they were following me. The first place I wanted to go was under the car, because that is where I usually hide when I sneak out of the house. Tracy and the harness kept me from doing that, so I laid down on the sidewalk and sniffed these pretty flowers while I thought of what to do next:
I looked around and gathered my wits about me. Tracy was not scolding me or grabbing me, but she had me by the harness. That's when I saw the grass! Grandma buys us little boxes of grass and it smells and tastes good. But this was lots and lots of grass everywhere, not in a little box. I finally thought of the best thing to do - go eat the grass.
Denis even came over to say hi to me.
I stayed outside for about 20 minutes according to Tracy. I started to get used to the harness and Tracy following me around everywhere. Just when I was going to explore more places besides the grassy part, there were some scary loud noises and big things around me. I don't remember the details very well, its all a blur to me. I was trying to run away, but I could only go in circles around Tracy. She was pulling on my harness and getting close to grabbing me when I discovered an important thing. I can get the harness off if I back up away with the rope pulling forward. It just slips off my head! Tracy says this is a flaw in the tightness and it will be remedied next time. Hmmm...

Well, I must say that going Outside on a harness is not what I was expecting. I'm still not sure what I think of it. I will have to go Outside a few more times before I decide if I like it or not. The End ~Phoebe

Aha! Well, we see that I was right in the first place. It is safer to stay inside. ~Monica

Something Loud

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Something very loud happened here at the Pablo Fan Club headquarters yesterday (Saturday). Tracy was doing something with the oven called "self-cleaning". We could smell a little smoke, but no one seemed worried about it. Then all of a sudden, there was a horrible beep, beep, beeping all through the house. We all scurried about trying to get away from it, but it was everywhere. Tracy and Denis were yelling something about "smoke alarms", opening windows and fanning up near the ceiling. It took a long time to get the beeping to stop.
What happened next was really exciting! They opened all the windows in the house and turned on all the fans to blow the air around. It was like the outside was in the house and everywhere. It stayed like that all day long. Monica and I sat in the windows and our furs all blew in the wind and we could smell the outside. It was wonderful. That was our Saturday. Just wait till you hear what happened today!

We're Back!

Dear Pablo and faithful fanclub members,

Well, the weekend has come and Tracy is back at her post helping us blog. Thank heavens this crisis is over. Thank you to you who were ready to start picketing for our rights at a moment's notice.

It turns out that we do not have a contract with Tracy regarding her blogging services. She says we have a "good faith agreement" which means it's not formal. She provides us with food, water, toys and scritches. In exchange, Phoebe and I supervise the household activities, guard for intruders and generally grace her with our presence. The blogging bit was an add-on for mutual benefit, but she says that it must come after work stuff, chores, blah blah blah. I guess we can live with that.

So, anyway, we are back in action and ready to catch up on all our friends' news that has happened in our absence.

On Strike, Part 2

Dear Pablo,

Thanks to our friends who have voiced (or typed) concern about the strike here in our house. Monica thought that she was reading our contract with Tracy, but it was actually a magazine. She told me to look for the contract so I'm looking in this stack of papers on our desk. I'm not sure how Tracy finds anything here in this pile of stuff. (but it does make a nice platform for me to sit on while we blog.) Hmmm... The thing is, I don't remember us ever signing a contract.

On Strike

Dear Pablo,

I'm sure that you have missed me and wondered why I have not been blogging lately. Tracy has gone on strike and not been helping us blog for a few days. She says she has just had some other priorities right now. I'm checking our contract now to see how long we can let this continue before we take measures. I'll get back to you.