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.

Update

Dear Pablo and fan club members,

Phoebe and I have once again been prevented from blogging by the escapades of Tracy and Denis. They keep going out and leaving us for hours on end. They spend a LOT of time at That House (the one that smells like an unhygienic cat). Phoebe and I looked over the contracts quite thoroughly. We voiced our concerns about buying a house with another cat's scent in it, but they didn't listen to the voice of wisdom.
Here is Denis signing the contract. It is official, we are going through with the purchase.

Some of our friends have been a bit confused about this territory expansion. Just to clarify, we are not moving into That House. We are staying right here. We are buying this land so that we have more room to explore. We will own Grandma's house as well as That House. Phoebe and I don't think that we should have any people live there. People tend to make trouble. Here is a picture of what the layout is.
The yellow house is our house. The green one is Grandma's and the grey one way at the end is That House.

In other news, our new cat litter box is working out quite well. Tracy seems to be doing a better job of keeping it tidy.

We were very saddened to learn today upon our return to our blog that club member Anastasia went missing one week ago and seems to have gone on to the Bridge. Anastasia was a classy girl and very stylish. The Pablo Fan Club will be a bit lonelier without her.

We have had lots of new friends stop by the Pablo Fan Club in the last month. We are way behind in confirming them as official Fan Club members. I will see to it that I do that in the next few days.