Deep Thoughts

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

I have been thinking about this whole Joey situation and I have decided that I am going to be nicer to him. He is just a little kid and he doesn't have a mommy cat any more. Monica and I had this whole big house and our brand new big Outside territory. There is room enough to spare. Denis and Tracy sure like him, so he must not be too bad a kid. So I'm turning over a new leaf. I might be able to teach him a thing or two.

Plus, his food tastes really good.

He smells better now.

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

I've been working hard on getting that boy smell out of Joey. It's working pretty well.

I'm sure glad I thought of giving him a bath.

So if you have a stinky little boy move into your house, I recommend giving him a good lick-down to get rid of that smell.

Accckkkkk!

Help! They're trying to strangle me!

I guess he's staying...

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

It looks like that little boy, Joey is staying here. Every person and cat seems to think that he is just so cute! Hmph! At least he smells less stinky because Monica has been giving him baths. I do get to taste some of his food whenever her eats, so that's not too bad. But I'm still keeping my eye on him.
And this toy is mine!

How YOU doin'?

Hello. I am Joey. I'm new around here and I have some questions.


1. Do I get to stay here?

2. Who is Pablo?

3. Can this lady cat by my new mommy? (she's nice)











4. Why doesn't this lady cat like me?

5. What can I do to make friends with her?











6. Can I keep this man? He is really nice.

7. What is the cat blogosphere?











8. What is that red light that runs around at night?

9. Why can't I catch it?

Thirteen Things - Joey

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions and tips. You all asked so many questions about Joey that Phoebe and I did some research to find out more about him.

And so I present to you: 13 Interesting Things about Joey

1. He smells funny. Now that Pablo has explained to me that it is just boy smell, I have decided that we can live with that. Afterall, Pablo is a boy too.
2. He is about 3 months old.
3. He has already had his hooha-ectomy.
4. He is FIV and feline leukemia negative.
5. He used to live out in the wild with his mom and all his brothers and sisters.
6. He was caught so that he could have a hooha-ectomy and he was supposed to go back out in the wild.
7. They clipped one of his ears at the V-E-T's office so they would know he had been there before if he ever came back.
8. He decided that he liked the people and didn't want to go back with his family.
9. He could have gotten eaten by a cougar out there.
10. He doesn't have a mommy cat anymore.
11. He is rather polite and not too pushy in trying to be friends with us.
12. His special kitten food is really yummy. Phoebe can steal it out of his bowl through the prison box window.
13. He looks a bit like Pablo, don't you think?

I guess he's not too bad, but I'm still gonna keep my eye on him.

That Stinky Boy

Dear Pablo,

Can you please help us with this:

Monica ~ This is the little boy who was in that prison box. He is interesting, but he smells funny. When he comes out of that box, I keep my eye on him very closely. He tries to make friends with me, but I am not too sure about that yet. Tracy suggested that he would smell better if *somecat* would give him a little bath. Hmmmph. I'm not his mother!

Phoebe ~ He is just a stinky little boy! I hiss and growl at him whenever I pass by to let him know it, too. He has taken over MY prison box and MY spider yarn toy. He plays with MY ball-in-the-round-thing toy and one of MY mice. I do not like him!
Tracy ~ Phoebe has here-to-fore showed little interest in these items...

Monica ~ Tracy says his name is not really That Stinky Boy, it is Joey and he is our new friend. Hmmm.... we'll see about that.

UH OH!

Click to biggify. Can you see what is in there?

An eventful weekend

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Monica and I had a very busy weekend. We had company come to our house. It was Gilbert and Sydney's mom (T) and dad (D). I could smell them on their clothes. They stayed for two nights in our extra room - the one that Monica and I are not allowed inside of. But when they were not inside that room, I got to visit with them. It was very interesting.

We did a lot of work while they were here. I helped Tracy and T move papers and boxes from one room to another. There were lots of boxes and papers going from here to there. I snoopervised to make sure that they were doing a good job. For a while, everything was a mess, but in the end, the extra room and our computer room both look much better. I think that Monica and I will be able to find important things much more easily now.

Monica didn't help much, but she made sure she got enough rest to keep Denis and D company watching TV at night.

Go Swans! (see below for another new post)

Phoebe and I took 7th place in Pablo's Awesome Footy Finals contest and our team for the final 8 competition is the Sydney Swans. We have got a big elimination game coming up on Saturday. Here is an excerpt of a news clip about how GREAT our team is:

PAUL Roos says the Sydney Swans must replicate the intensity they showed against Hawthorn to give themselves a chance of beating Collingwood in Saturday's elimination final at the MCG.

Roos said he knows how good Sydney can be, especially after thrashing the Hawks by 72 points last week.

“Certainly last week the guys showed that their best is very, very good. And that gives everyone confidence when you know that you can put a very, very competitive team on the field and beat a team fourth on the ladder by 70-odd points.”

The Swans' confidence also stems from that fact that they played so well against Hawthorn without Tadhg Kennelly, who will miss out on the Collingwood clash due to a persistent knee problem.

So, we are cheering on our Sydney Swans. Sing along, everycat!

Cheer, Cheer the Red and the White
Honour the name by day and by night
Lift that noble banner high
Shake down the thunder from the sky
Whether the odds be great or small
Swans will go in and win over all
While her loyal sons are marching
Onwards to victory

And the answer is...

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Everycat and their people gave some very educated guesses, but nocat got it 100% correct. The correct answer was phrase #5. Myow?... Myow?... Myow?... = "There is something that needs your attention. Can you guess what it is?". Note the direct eye contact, upward inflection and persistent nature of my communication. Like many of you, Tracy guessed that what I was trying to bring to her attention was the need to pet me. However, I was actually trying to tell her that the kitty litter needed attention.

Meow - a practical exercise.

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Phoebe really did a good job of explaining some Meow basics (I helped her). And here is your chance to practice what you have learned. Gather your people around and see if they can figure out what I am saying in this video. It's a tricky one. Pay attention to body language, eye contact and inflection.

Our first movie

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Skeezix gave us the information that we needed to learn how to make our very own videos. We are just learning, but this is our first go. What do you think?

Meow - A Language Primer

Dear Pablo,

As Monica has mentioned in a previous post, most people do not have a very good grasp on the subtle nuances of the Meow language. This causes a big communication gap between feline and human that can be very frustrating on a day-to-day basis. I thought it might be helpful to give a beginners orientation to Meow basics.

Meow meaning is conveyed in a complex manner. It is more than just the words that are used, but also the tone, inflexion and body language that are used. There is also a vibrative component to the Meow language that is difficult for humans to grasp. Here are some phrases that are used commonly in our household:
1. Mmmph (accompanied by an upward stretch against some nearby furniture in a human's presence) = good morning, have you petted me yet today?
2. Mee-ow? (given when the human enters your house) = welcome home, have you petted me yet today?
3. Mmmmyew! = I see that you are going Outside, can I come too?
4. Myoooooooorrwww! = Let me go Outside!!
5. Myow?... Myow?... Myow?... = There is something that needs your attention. Can you guess what it is? (food, water, litter box maintenance, petting a cat)
6. Mrrrow (vibratory) = I don't like it when you do that.
7. Mmmm (vibratory) = I love you. ( This phrase is reserved for rare occassions. You don't want your people to get too big in the head.)

I hope this has been helpful. If your people have a hard time understanding Meow, please encourage them to read this post.