Getting a Drink

Dear Pablo and friends,

Have you tried drinking water out of these things? It's hard to get at but it's very tasty. For some reason, Tracy doesn't like me doing this...

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.

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 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.

Doing our part

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Well, we finally got our pictures into the new computer box and then the new ones off of our camera. Hooray! Here is a picture of our new cat litter. One day, Monica and I were discussing the public service announcement that Pablo gave a while ago about global warming and wondering what we could do about it. Our old cat litter was a clumpy kind. Tracy took out the clumps and put them in a bag and threw them in the garbage can. From there they went to the dump and sat there for who knows how long in with all the other gross stuff.

Well, we searched for something better and this is what we found.Our new litter is really different. It comes in little twigs. When we pee on it, it turns into sawdust. Tracy scoops out the poops and flushes them. When it all turns into sawdust, we will put it in our compost pile and it will be useful! Isn't that a neat trick?

Pet Peeve #4

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

This is called Bubble Wrap. You should watch out for it and stay away! It comes in boxes in the mail. The boxes are great, of course, but the Bubble Wrap is nothing but trouble. I know it looks harmless enough. But do you see how Tracy's fingers are holding it? She is squishing it and making a horrid popping sound! When she does this I slink away and hide. Then she apologizes to me and promises not to do it again. But it's like she can't help herself, she just keeps doing it. The best thing to do is carry it straight to your garbage receptacle and throw it away. Because the people are hopeless; they just can't resist the popping.

Announcements

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

You may have noticed that I recently added some useful links on our sidebar as a service to all fan club members and friends. Have you noticed that Blogrolling is not working lately? Our lists are not showing when blogs have something new to read like they are supposed to. I found out that the only part that is not working is the way that blogs automatically show as updated. This is called "pinging". You can still manually "ping" your blog and it will show as updated on all the blogrolling lists. We put a link to the form to ping your blog manually. It is really easy, you just fill in two spaces and hit the ping button. If you do that each time you post something, your blog will show as updated on ALL the blogrolling lists.

Most cats know about the Cat Blogosphere, where you can get lots of current news about all your friends. You can also add your name to the list of new posts for that day by scrolling down to the first post on CB for the day. The best way to let everycat know that you have a new post on your blog is to "ping" it on Blogrolling and then add your name on Cat Blogosphere. Plus, Pablo is the special Australian correspondent for CB. He has a special repurrter badge with a very handsome picture on it. I love to read his reports.

The Cat Blog Help Center is an excellent resource for any questions you have about how to customize your blog. Skeezix started it and he is very smart. He has helpers who answer your questions. You can search for the topic you need info on and it's probably already been answered. Or you can write a question in the first post at the top of the blog and someone will answer it for you. The Cat Blog Help Center is where we learned about "pinging" for blogrolling.

Lilly Lu is feeling so much better and almost back to her old self. So I changed our colors back from pink. I had forgotten what color it used to be...

And finally, I have been made a Pink Lady because I look so good in pink. I'm so honored and proud. Here is my badge.

Vishus Deer

Deer Pablo,

I have been reading about the problem with Vishus Deer that some of our new friends are having. It sounds very scary. I don't think that any of them live around our house, because we have not seen them come by here. But I found these pictures on our computer. Tracy says she saw these deer in a nearby town. This group here is obviously hunting for some cats to bother in this house.

But this one here doesn't look very vishus at all. It is just a little one and it likes the flowers. Do Vishus Deer like flowers? It doesn't seem possible.
But here is a big bird that Tracy also saw. It must be looking for Skeezix or Daisy, like those other two large birds that they saw. I think that everycat should be quite careful about Large Vishus Birds as well as the deer. They seem to be in cahoots together, from the looks of things.

Laundry how-to

Dear Pablo,

Sydney and Gilbert have been arguing lately about which of them is to help their mom with the laundry. Since I am an expert at helping with laundry, I thought I would give a simple primer for all of our friends.

In case anyone has not noticed, the human species does not have much fur to keep them warm. (If you look closely, they have very thin hairs, but certainly not enough to guard them from the chill.) Because of this unfortunate disability, they drape themselves with clothing to fend off hypothermia. The poor things are slaves to their clothing, always needing to wash it, fold it and get it out again. It's a vicious cycle. It's the least I can do to help them out a bit. Here are some tasks that you can do to help your people with the laundry as well:
1. sitting in the empty laundry basket helps to remind them that it is time to wash a load of clothes.
2. sitting on top of the clean clothes (unfolded) in the basket helps to compress them in preparation for folding. (flatness is important to make the clothes fit into the drawers). Above you can see me performing this task recently.
3. similarly, sitting on top of the folded clean clothes offers further compression. There is also the added benefit of contributing some of your fur to the clothes so that they will be warmer.
4. inspection and supervision. The "sniff test" ensures that the clean clothes are truly fresh-smelling.

Of course, cats are more suited to these tasks. Dogs are generally too big to fit into the basket. But it's nice of them to try to help.

Tips from Monica

Dear Pablo,

I'm afraid that Phoebe has led little Possum astray on a couple of her points. As a number 2 cat, Phoebe is not aware of the big responsibilities which come with being the number 1 household cat. In a multiple cat home, one cat must take on this important role and in our case, that is me. As an only cat, I can only assume that Possum will need to assume this role as well. At any rate, I cannot passively practice being "polite and demure" in order to gain special privileges. I have to make sure that I continue to assert my authority around here. People have such short memories and need to be reminded constantly to see to the daily chores involved in serving the cats in their home. Here are some ways to maintain an atmosphere of proper respect for cat authority:
1. sit on your people whenever you feel like it. Don't be discouraged if they push you away, just wait a few minutes and go at it again. With repetition, the people generally get the point and start petting you.
2. stare at your people and tell them what they need to do. Since people do not understand meow, you need to speak slowly and loudly and repeatedly until they get the message.
3. train your people to do an action on command. In my house, this involves turning on the water faucet. My cue is jumping into the bathtub and staring at them. If that is not enough prompting, I remind them of the proper action by licking at the faucet. Ongoing practice in obedience is very helpful in reminding them who is in charge.

In a multiple cat household, it is also necessary to maintain the number one position with your colleagues. Other cats are much more responsive to the subtle means of maintaining order than people are. From time to time, however, it is just necessary to interrupt attention that is being bestowed on the other cat and redirect it towards you. The goal here is not to be mean, just to maintain order. All cats deserve the people's attention. They just need to remember that you have the first rights to all things.

PS. I do not stay in the bedroom at night because it is boring. Not because I'm not allowed...

Tips for Possum

Dear Pablo,

Now that little Possum has found a safe home, I thought that it would be good to give her some tips about life with humans. Here are a few pointers to start. Monica may decide to give some tips of her own later on.

1. be adorable. This is not a hard thing for you now, Possum, since you are a little kitten. People find kittens to be irresistible. But when you get older, you will need to be sure to maintain an adorable quality. Grooming is important here, to keep your fur nice and soft so that the people want to pet you.
2. be aloof. Be sure to make it clear to your people that you do not need their attention. Although it is very nice and fun and pleasant to be around your people, it is important to always keep them wanting more of your attention and not the other way around.
3. be polite and demure. This is similar to the previous tip. By being polite and undemanding, the people want to be around you more. This can gain a cat some special privelidges such as being allowed into the bedroom at night when other cats are kept out.
4. always keep them wanting more. I know I said that already, but it is the most basic and most important rule of living with people.

Good luck Possum.

Lazer toy

The preparation and ...







The pounce!







Dear Pablo,

This is my lazer light toy that I had Tracy tell you about before. You should definitely get one. You are right that it is good for night training. The only problem bit is getting your people to pick it up and engage. You can do running, chasing, pouncing, etc. Sometimes they get cutesy and point it at my tail, trying to get me to chase around in circles. Oh the things that we put up with...