Waiting for Christmas

Well, the presents are under our tree. We had a little bit of snow on the ground this morning. Christmas must be getting very close.


We'll just wait right here for Christmas day to come. Merry Christmas from your friends Monica, Phoebe and Joey!

Temptations test

A very very long time ago, Tracy and Denis went to visit Pablo and I sent some Temptations as a very special present from me to him. Unfortunately, the were confixated by the border patrol because food from America can be very dangerous to Australian security. Well, I wanted to at least show Pablo what the Temptations were like, so that he would know that it would have been a very good present. It turns out that recently, Kate found some real Temptations in a store in Hobart, so he has gotten to try them as well. Did you like them, Pablo? Monica, Joey and I sure did.
This is what they look like. They are not as big as they look in the picture on the bag, but they sure smell good.

We had a very hard time waiting for Tracy to take the pictures before we started eating them. I would have smiled for the camera, but I think you will understand that I was busy getting a sample.
The picture on the bag shows that there is a soft filling inside the crunchy outside, but we ate them so quickly that we couldn't ever confirm that was true. So Tracy did an experiment to be sure that the soft center was really there. It's not as big as it shows on the package, but I don't care really.

Grandma's house

Dear Pablo and everycat,

Do you remember when I told you about this lady?

She is my grandma and she lives next door to our house. While Tracy and Denis were visiting Pablo in tomorrow, Phoebe, Monica and I got tooken over to her house for a vacation. I'm going to give you a tour of Grandma's house.

In these two pictures, you can see that Grandma has some good toys for us to play with. One is a furry animal on a string and the other is a birdy. This birdy doesn't fly like MY birdy does, but it does bounce up and down on it's string.

Here is Phoebe showing you the living room and the chairs that we have at Grandma's house to rest on. Grandma has lots of interesting stuff to look at in her living room. I especially like the pretty shiny crystal glass things that sit on the window sill. Grandma didn't like me investigating them, though.
This cat lives at Grandma's house, but she doesn't say a word. She just sits and stares at you all the time. It's kind of creepy.

Monica is showing you the best chair at Grandma's house. It's a great place to stretch out and have a nap.

And here Phoebe is showing you the bedroom with the bed where we all liked to sleep. This is where Grandma click, clicks on the computer and so we like to keep her company.
Grandma only has an old-fashioned litter box (not a robot one like at our house), but she keeps it nice and clean.
I hope you liked my tour.

They're finally back!

I think that Tracy and Denis got lost in a time warp somewhere for a while, because they were gone for a VERY LONG time. But they finally made it back to today and came home with some very special presents from Pablo. But before we get to the gifts, let me show you what I found when I looked through Tracy's picture files:

Look, it's Pablo! Isn't he looking very handsome and stately in that stance?

And he gave a special smile for us.

Here are our gifts placed in an important spot in the house.

Tracy, Kate and Denis in Pablo's very presence! It was really such an honor for them.

Pablo said he didn't get to spend a lot of time with Tracy and Denis because he was busy with important business. Here he is hard at work on a photo shoot.

And Tracy said he conducted a lot of important business from this "office space" in the garden. An excellent location! See below for another post about our presents from Pablo.

Our gifts!

Well, onto the gifts that Pablo sent to us. Wasn't that thoughtful of him to do? Here they are directly out of the suitcases. Don't you think they look a bit banged up? Tracy should have taken better care of them on the trip.

There is also a card from Pablo with a great photo of him on the front. He's in serious stalking mode.

We were all very excited when Tracy presented them to us. Joey, that one's mine!

Phoebe read the card first, then I did. Joey still can't read that well...

Here is what it said - doesn't Pablo have excellent hand-writing? You can click to biggify and see if you can read it.

Next we all got our very own presents. Here is mine in a lovely feminine gift bag:


Phoebe's bag is nice too:
Joey was so excited, he wouldn't hold still.

Look! It's a koala.
Phoebe's is a possum. He looks cuter than our American possums.

And Joey got a kookaburra. I hear they are very jolly birds, but Pablo says he likes to eat them for breakfast!

Thank you, Pablo! We love our great gifts!

Where are they now?

Dear Pablo,

Monica, Joey and I are having our spa vacation at Grandma's house. She was able to confirm on the internets that Denis and Tracy have gotten to tomorrow to visit you. I hope that they gave you a good greeting from us and our gifts as well. We haven't been able to check your blog to see how it went.

Now I am wondering what they are doing. It seems like they have been in tomorrow for a long time. Could you please tell them to come back soon?

What's up?

Dear Pablo,

Joey wrote that post quite a while ago about his new "space ship". I hadn't been watching what he was typing as closely as I should have, or he wouldn't have gotten so out of hand. Just to set the record straight, this:
is not a space ship and NASA will not be calling. This is just the latest hair-brained idea of Tracy's to get out of cleaning our bathroom facilities. It is called a "Litter Robot" and you can read about it here. Joey thinks it's great fun, but me - I'll take the good old fashioned box, thank you very much!

Since I broke the news to Joey, he's been moping around, ashamed of his mistake. Silly boy!

Now, as to other news. Pablo, you mentioned twice before something about Tracy and Denis going to visit you. They never told me about it or asked my opinion. So I did some looking around to see if I could confirm this information. Here is what I found:

They have certainly been reading some books about Australia, and you live in Australia. But these are not books about Hobart, they are about Sydney. Now what does that mean? I'm a bit concerned about this whole idea. Since you are in tomorrow, are they going to have to take a time traveling machine to get to see you? Is that quite safe? So I sat them down and asked them straight out if they are going through with this trip against my advice. And they were resolute.

Well, in that case, we have got to plan what we are going to send to you, Pablo. Phoebe called the meeting to order, but Joey didn't understand how to conduct himself in a proper meeting.

We've got a good start here, but it doesn't seem like enough for you, Pablo.
Hmmm.... time to think.... what else do we need to send to Pablo?
You will find out soon! Us? We'll be enjoying a spa vacation at Grandma's house.

Cool Cat Award!

Wowie! Pablo gave me a COOL CAT award. See? There it is right up there?

I think it is because he heard that I am in training to be an astro-cat. Here is my practice space ship. Here I am going in the space ship.


It is filled with special space sand. I think I am supposed to practice going potty in space as my first training skill. But it is also a very comfortable place to just lounge in.


And here I am exiting the space craft. The best part is that a few minutes after you exit the space craft, it starts a take off procedure that involves spinning in place.

I wonder how long before I get the call from NASA to go into the weightless simulator.

I'm going to give the cool cat award to the very cool:
Faz
Kavan
Rocky of Artsy Catsy and
Madness.

Check up

Dear Pablo and all my friends,

I know that you all remember how very sick that I was a few months ago and have wondered and asked about my health since. Well, the other day, Tracy called my V-E-T to get a refill of my medicine and the V-E-T lady wanted to see me again. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to get put into a prisoner box and taken to THAT place.

Monica tried to comfort me while I was waiting. But then Joey came along to pester me.

Anyway, we went in the moving machine and the people took my blood and the V-E-T lady poked me, squeezed me and listened to me. She told Tracy that when she got my blood results back she would call to let us know if I am actually better. None of us were sure what we would find out. I am feeling much better now, but you never know if my liver is really all better or not.

Well, much to everycat's relief, my bloodwork came back completely normal! All of the numbers were in the right places - the kidney ones and the liver ones. Even the sugar one was good in spite of me taking my steroid pills. I asked Tracy if that means I can stop taking my pills. She said, "no, I can NEVER stop taking my pills again." We still don't know why I got sick in the first place, but it seems to be related to my being off my steroid pills. Oh bother!

From Tracy: really it was so funny - Phoebe has gained so much weight back that the vet tech came in three times to be sure that it was Phoebe I had brought and not Monica. I think, and the vet agrees, that Phoebe's illness was a combination of some sort of physiological process like an infection and the stress of having Joey introduced into the house. In the absence of the steroid medication, something got out of hand for sure. And then when she stopped eating, the liver just went down hill. It is amazing now to remember how skinny she was and it wasn't that long ago... She's more playful now as well and Joey and her seem to have reached some sort of agreement. She secretly likes to play with him and will initiate it at times.

My Tunnel Toy

This is my tunnel toy. My people got the great idea to buy me a tunnel from our friends Tara and Kavan, who have one just like this. Tracy said that she had to search and search to find one because our local pet-o-rama didn't carry them.
As you can see, it has a peaking-out hole half-way through. this is a very handy place for Denis to drop my toys in so that I can pounce on them. Pablo, do you have a tunnel toy? If you want, you can come to play with mine.

Have you seen this?

This is called a "Wordle". I made it from the RSS feed of our blog. I'm very surprised to find that we write more about Tracy than we do about Pablo on our blog. It just doesn't quite seem right. What will the Wordls of your blog look like? (click to biggify and go to the website where you can make your own.)

A Cozy Spot

The other day I snuck into our "guest room" (we never really have any guests) when the door was left open and I found a nice cozy spot. Can you see me?
Look a little closer...
Ahhhh. Nice and cozy. Tracy wanted to know how I got snuggled in here so nicely, but I'm not telling. Where do you like to snuggle?