**RERUN** **A FLASHBACK TO 2014 WITH WING COMMANDER BASIL** The Smooch Report - Can I Taste Purrlease?

Welcome to

Monday greetings my epic furriends

This post originally aired way, way, way back on March the 3rd 2014. 

Like wow, that is so incredibly old! MOL 

Anyhoo, we were looking for another post the other day and stumbled across this one, which tells the story of Smooch and his sibling's arrival at the P.A.'s work and thought it might be nice to share again with readers who might not have seen it the first time around.

For all our new readers this is just for context; when the blog first started twelve years ago, I Basil, was the only kitty who really used to be here. My fur-sibs popped along every now and again, but mainly it was just me, myself and I. Not that I was being selfish or anything, it was just the way it was! MOL

So when reading today's flashback, mew will gather that we were in the throes of beginning to expand everyone's airtime, so it wasn't just Basil Time all the time.

Smooch's Origins

As mew will remember from last Friday's post, it was agreed that my fur-siblings get a little more blog time and Smooch in purrticualr was furry adamant that another Smooch Report was needed asap. So to appease my baby brofur before he goes all mental on me and licks me into oblivion, here is another installment of:

The Smooch Report

Many of mew already know Smooch, but fur those that don't here's a little re-cap.

Smoochie was part of a feral furrmily living at my P.A.'s workplace. There was a mummy cat and her 6 kittens. They just appeared one day in May 2011, and the P.A. started to feed them all.  

When they were all old enough, each one in turn, was caught and taken to the vet to be neutered and the mummy cat too, (the P.A. believes in being responsible). Anyway, I digress, so the 6 kittens were called: Tiger Lily, Midnight, Ringo, Baby, Starlight and Smoochie. Mummy cat was called Pixie.

1. Starlight  2. Baby  3. Tiger Lily  4. Pixie  5. Ringo  6. Midnight  7. Smooch

The P.A. spent many hours while she was at work taming this furry horde with the help of bucketloads of Dreamies and long feather wands. She managed to hand-feed all of them, and they liked her so much that they even ate the wormer pills straight from her fingers like they were treats!  (This does not happen at our house, effur!! We get stuff squirted on our necks because we won't eat the pills no matter how they are disguised!!)

Poppy is another feral who's been on site for 15 years

Sadly,  Starlight and Ringo went wandering across the busy main road, and I hate to say this, but they went to the Rainbow Realm - both in less than 2 weeks of each other. The P.A. was so furry furry upset. Then Smooch also tried to cross this road; he made it back, but he'd been hit by a vehicle, and his back right leg was badly broken. Anyhoo, the P.A. and Cat Dad managed to catch him, get a pet carrier and rush him to the vet. His leg was broken so badly that it had to be removed.  

After the operation, he was taken back to the workplace as there was an empty dog run/kennel, and he needed to be kept contained while he healed. Smooch was kept in the run for a few weeks, and the P.A. and Dad socialized him further; he wasn't alone as his other siblings were there all the time, only on the other side of the wire.   

After his leg was healed, the P.A. and Dad brought him home and integrated him into The B Team as they knew if he stayed at their workplace, he'd probably try and cross the road again, and next time, he wouldn't be so lucky.

So that's how Smooch came to live at BBHQ. The other furbabies are still at work and seem happy enough to roam around the gardens and the fields away from the road - thank goodness. The P.A. tells them all the time to: 'Stay off the road'

Anyways, Smooch is the most loving, furriendly, kind and sweet kitty mew could effur meet. He is also furry, furry affectionate, and this is where this week's title comes from because every time I come inside after being out to play, he has to taste me!

Can I Taste Purrlease? 

The other evening, I had just come in from another field excursion and flopped on the kitchen table. Smooch, who only goes out under strict supervision, virtually pounces on me the moment I get in the door, so I thought being on the table would give me a bit of a reprieve. How wrong I was!

The tasting assault began with my back foot

Then it moved up to my neck

On to my head

At this point, I got up - I think my face says it all!

I moved along the table, but Smooch is relentless in his quest for outdoor flavours

I think this expression speaks volumes

Help!

It's not that I mind so much, but it's ALL THE TIME, and I am a ManCat, don't get me wrong, having someone to clean the parts your own tongue can't reach is a huge bonus, but being randomly taste tested after every outdoor excursion is something else. 

I love my baby brofur, but sometimes I wish he'd taste test one of the others instead, howeffur, as I'm the only one who likes to venture out every day, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon!!! MOL

**2024 Update** 

Pixie, Smooch's mum is still there, she moved in the house with Nanny and Grampaw. 

And there's also Twinkle, and Rupert. Sadly Squeaky, a lovely panfur went to the Rainbow Realm late last month, which we are all really, really sad about, as he would follow the P.A. into the showroom. Poppy, also has gone to Rainbow Ream... 

Anyhoo, we'll be back on Wednesday with more Midweek News, and if mew missed any other posts, here are the links:

The Purrminator ~ Chapter One

The Purrminator ~ Chapter Two

Amber's Latest Book Review

Sunday Selfies with Me, Basil

In the meantime...

Wing Commander Basil

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com  

**SMOOCH REVISITED** Smooch Around The Wurld and Today We're Smooching All Offur Port Douglas, Queensland in The Magical Land of OZ with Tuna of Moon as My Pawesome Travelling Companion

Welcome To

Woo Hoo Pawsome Pals

Smooch here, and how are mew doing today?

So dudes and dudettes we're going to be Smooching All Offur The Planet as we Smooch Around the Wurld ~ how much fun, so much fun!

Oh and because The B Team doesn't use conventional means of travel, I'll be using the TTTB aka the Time Travelling Telephone Box to go on my little jolly's, so thank cod I won't have to use an airport as I don't think I'd get through security with all the extra covert hardware I travel with! MOL

Furst though I have to do my travel check list:

Oh and I've already had all my travel vaccinations, as mew neffur know and I always think it's better to have the lot rather than risk getting some foreign lurgy which in turn ruins your jolly's! 

So where are we going today?

Today beautiful furriends we're off to the magical land of Oz, last time I went to Tasmania and it was a little bit fresh so I thought some warmz were needed and I decided the tropics were just the place to go! MOL  And also this week I have the best travel companion effur, Tuna of Moon from the pawesome Tabbies of Trout Towne is joining me fur the adventure of a lifetime.

I got his travel docs sorted, courtesy of my epically epic forging skillz contacts in the foreign office.

... just look at that, Tuna has wurld-wide access with no restrictions - wooo hoooo!

So anyhoo I hopped in the TTTB and teleported to Trout Towne, and thank cod Tuna set some flares off on the beach otherwise I might have landed in the sea! MOL

The TTTB landed on the glistening, white sand with a soft thwump.  I threw the door open - quite literally - and Tuna was causally strolling towards me carrying a small case and a paperbag.

I waved most enthusiastically and gave him a huge hug and paw bump when he reached me. "Dude!" I said. "So great mew could join me on this little jolly today!"

"Smooch, thanks fur the invite!" Tuna beamed, then shook the paper bag. "And I brought a snack selection of No 5's, No 7's and a few No 3's fur the journey so we don't starve!"

[If mew're wundering what a No 5, No 7 and No 3 are, way back in 2016 in our Pirate adventure we had to blow up a kraken and rather than waste the tastiness, we ended up taking it back to BB-HQ and devising a lot of kraken recipes and the Tabbies are our biggest customers in the entire US fur Kraken delicacies, we ship them an order at least once a month]

"Dude that's so epic," I replied grinning and taking one of the deep fried kraken rings and dipping in the wowkapow sauce Tuna offured. "Oh jeez that sauce is just amazing dude!"

He nodded and said, "Dude that hot sauce is the best!" 

His eyes almost bugged out as we entered the TTTB. "Smooch I can't believe I'm actually in the wurld famous TTTB, IT'S HUGE in here..." he looked around the bridge in awe. "Like in my wildest dreams I couldn't of effur imagined the size, mew could get lost in here fur days!"

"Fudge got lost fur an entire week once!" I laughed. "But he's ok now!"  

Then I added. "Would mew like to do the honours and push that red button." I pointed to the control console and grinned wildly.

Tuna gasped in delight and paw-smacked the button and off we popped.

32.9433333333333r seconds later we landed.

We burst out of the door and were greeted by miles and miles of beach and ocean, in fact we'd just come from that exact same scenario but this time we were DOWN-UNDER ~ The most deadliest continent on the planet.

We got out the deck chairs as Tuna is quite partial to a bit of chillaxing; next we got the mini speedboat, the surf board, the brolly set up and I whipped us up a couple of coconutty grasstini's. Tuna tried a bit of snorkelling, but broke the surface of the water in a rather frenzied fashion and said, "Smooch dude, there's a fluffing giant jelly fish down there!" 

"Thank cod it wasn't a shark dude!" I replied and then remembered that up here there were salt water crocs, yep they live in the ocean too!

So all water activities were ceased immediately and we decided at that point to head inland and check out some of the sights.

As mew can see Tuna and I had a blast, we saw a few war memorials which we paid our respects at fur fallen hero's in WWII, as we know it most impawtant to honour those that gave their lives fur us today.  

We saw kangeroos, there was some real vishus burds, the cassowary; apparently a descendent of the dino rapters, and can gut mew with one swipe, although I diverted Tuna so we missed that and we went to see the crocs instead.

Tuna said as we started to pack the TTTB, "Mew know my sisfur Dai$y wants to go shopping somewhere fabulous and my new baby brofur Mack should come on a jolly with mew to give him some Wurld experience dude, he's young and I think it would be great fur mew to show him life outside of Trout Towne!"

"Dude it would be my purrleasure to take Miss Dai$y somewhere epic and also to take young Mack under my paw and take him on a really great adventure and I can't thank mew enough fur joining me on this one today, dude mew're epic!"

Tuna grinned and replied. "Smooch buddy, even though mew only have 3 legs, and we've been to the most dangerous continent in the wurld, I've neffur felt safer, thanks dude mew're the best!"

And sadly that brings us to the end of our OZ experience, we do hoped mew enjoyed seeing the sites and it's time I got Tuna safely back to Trout Towne before the FSG realises he's gone! MOL 

Thanks so much fur joining Tuna and I on our magical OZ adventure and I'll be back before mew know it sharing another far-flung destination so hope mew'll join me then!

Until next time

Keep Calm 

and 

Don't Furget The Bug Spray

Smooch

 

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post!

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com 

**A FLASHBACK TO 2014 WITH WING COMMANDER BASIL** The Smooch Report - Can I Taste Purrlease?

Welcome to

Monday greetings my epic furriends

This post originally aired way, way, way back on March the 3rd 2014. 

Like wow, that is so incredibly old! MOL 

Anyhoo, we were looking for another post the other day and stumbled across this one which tells the story of Smooch and his siblings arrival at the P.A.'s work and thought it might be nice to share again with readers who might not have seen it the first time around.

For all our new readers this is just for context; when the blog first started ten years ago, I Basil, was the only kitty who really used to be here. My fur-sibs popped along every now and again but mainly it was just me, myself and I. Not that I was being selfish or anything, it was just the way it was! MOL

So when reading today's flashback, mew will gather that we were in the throes of beginning to expand everyone's airtime, so it wasn't just Basil Time all the time.

Smooch's Origins

As mew will remember from last Friday's post, it was agreed that my fur-siblings get a little more blog time and Smooch in purrticualr was furry adamant that another Smooch Report was needed asap. So to appease my baby brofur before he goes all mental on me and licks me into oblivion, here is another installment of:

The Smooch Report

Many of mew already know Smoochie, but fur those that don't here's a little re-cap.

Smoochie was part of a feral furrmily living at my P.A.'s workplace. There was a mummy cat and her 6 kittens. They just appeared one day in May 2011, and the P.A. started to feed them all.  

When they were all old enough, each one in turn, was caught and taken to the vet to be neutered and the mummy cat too, (the P.A. believes in being responsible). Anyway, I digress, so the 6 kittens were called: Tiger Lily, Midnight, Ringo, Baby, Starlight and Smoochie. Mummy cat was called Pixie.

1. Starlight  2. Baby  3. Tiger Lily  4. Pixie  5. Ringo  6. Midnight  7. Smoochie

The P.A. spent many hours while she was at work taming this furry horde with the help of bucket loads of Dreamies and long feather wands. She managed to hand feed all of them, and they liked her so much that they even ate the wormer pills straight from her fingers like they were treats!  (This does not happen at our house, effur!! We get stuff squirted on our necks because we won't eat the pills no matter how they are disguised!!)

Poppy is another feral who's been on site for 15 years

Sadly,  Starlight and Ringo went wandering across the busy main road, and I hate to say this, but they went to the Rainbow Bridge - both in less than 2 weeks of each other. The P.A. was so furry furry upset. Then Smooch also tried to cross this road; he made it back, but he'd been hit by a vehicle, and his back right leg was badly broken. Anyhoo, the P.A. and Dad managed to catch him, get a pet carrier and rush him to the vet. His leg was broken so badly it had to be removed.  

After the operation, he was taken back to the workplace as there was an empty dog run/kennel and he needed to be kept contained while he healed. Smooch was kept in the run fur a few weeks, and the P.A. and Dad socialized him further; he wasn't alone as his other siblings were there all the time, only on the other side of the wire.   

After his leg was healed, the P.A. and Dad brought him home and integrated him into The b Team as they knew if he stayed at their workplace, he'd probably try and cross the road again and next time he wouldn't be so lucky.

So that's how Smooch came to live at BBHQ. The other furbabies are still at work and seem happy enough to roam around the gardens and the fields away from the road - thank goodness. The P.A. tells them all the time to: 'Stay off the road'

Anyways, Smoochis the most loving, furriendly, kind and sweet kitty mew could effur meet. He is also furry, furry affectionate, and this is where this week's title comes from because every time I come inside after being out to play, he has to taste me!

Can I Taste Purrlease? 

The other evening I had just come in from another field excursion and flopped on the kitchen table. Smooch who only goes out under strict supervision virtually pounces on me the moment I get in the door, so I thought being on the table would give me a bit of a reprieve. How wrong I was!

The tasting assault began with my back foot

Then it moved up to my neck

On to my head

At this point I got up - I think my face says it all!

I moved along the table, but Smooch is relentless in his quest fur outdoor flavours

I think this expression speaks volumes

Help!

It's not that I mind so much, but it's ALL THE TIME, and I am a ManCat, don't get me wrong, having someone to clean the parts your own tongue can't reach is a huge bonus, but being randomly taste tested after every outdoor excursion is something else. 

I love my baby brofur, but sometimes I wish he taste test one of the others instead, howeffur, as I'm the only one who likes to venture out every day, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon!!! MOL

**2022 Update** 

If mew'd like a propurr update on the garage cats let us know in the comments and we'll do a new post as mew can imagine things have changed in eight years, but we will say this; Pixie, Smooch's mum is still there, she moved in the house with Nanny and Grampaw.

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

**RERUN** Smooch Around The Wurld and Today We're Smooching All Offur Port Douglas, Queensland in The Magical Land of OZ with Tuna of Moon as My Pawesome Travelling Companion

Welcome To

Woo Hoo Pawsome Pals

Smooch here, and how are mew doing today?

So dudes and dudettes we're going to be Smooching All Offur The Planet as we Smooch Around the Wurld ~ how much fun, so much fun!

Oh and because The B Team doesn't use conventional means of travel, I'll be using the TTTB aka the Time Travelling Telephone Box to go on my little jolly's, so thank cod I won't have to use an airport as I don't think I'd get through security with all the extra covert hardware I travel with! MOL

Furst though I have to do my travel check list:

Oh and I've already had all my travel vaccinations, as mew neffur know and I always think it's better to have the lot rather than risk getting some foreign lurgy which in turn ruins your jolly's. 

So where are we going today?

Today beautiful furiends we're off to the magical land of Oz, last time I went to Tasmania and it was a little bit fresh so I thought some warms were needed and I decided the tropics were just the place to go, and also this week I have the best travel companion effur, Tuna of Moon from the pawesome Tabbies of Trout Towne is joining me for the adventure of a lifetime.

I got his travel docs sorted, courtesy of my epically epic forging skillz contacts in the foreign office.

... just look at that, Tuna has wurld-wide access with no restrictions - wooo hoooo!

So anyhoo I hopped in the TTTB and teleported to Trout Towne, and thank cod Tuna set some flares off on the beach otherwise I might have landed in the sea! MOL

The TTTB landed on the glistening, white sand with a soft thwump. I threw the door open - quite literally - and Tuna was causally strolling towards me carrying a small case and a paper bag.

I waved most enthusiastically and gave him a huge hug and paw bump when he reached me. "Dude!" I said. "So great mew could join me on this little jolly today."

"Smooch, thanks fur the invite," Tuna beamed, then shook the paper bag. "And I brought a snack selection of No 5's, No 7's and a few No 3's for the journey so we don't starve."

[If mew're wundering what a No 5, No 7 and No 3 are, way back in 2016 in our Pirate adventure we had to blow up a Kraken and rather than waste the tastiness, we ended up taking it back to BBHQ and devising a lot of Kraken recipes and the Tabbies are our biggest customers in the entire US fur Kraken delicacies, we ship them an order at least once a month].

"Dude that's so epic," I replied grinning and taking one of the deep-fried Kraken rings and dipping in the wowkapow sauce Tuna offured. "Oh jeez that sauce is just amazing dude."

He nodded and said, "Dude that hot sauce is the best." 

His eyes almost bugged out as we entered the TTTB. "Smooch I can't believe I'm actually in the wurld famous TTTB, IT'S HUGE in here..." he looked around the bridge in awe. "Like in my wildest dreams I couldn't of effur imagined the size, mew could get lost in here for days."

"Fudge got lost for an entire week once," I laughed. "But he's ok now."  

Then I added. "Would mew like to do the honours and push that red button." I pointed to the control console and grinned wildly.

Tuna gasped in delight and paw-smacked the button and off we popped.

32.9433333333333r seconds later we landed.

We burst out of the door and were greeted by miles and miles of beach and ocean, in fact we'd just come from that exact same scenario but this time we were DOWN-UNDER:- 

The deadliest continent on the planet.

We got out the deck chairs as Tuna is quite partial to a bit of chillaxing; next, we got the mini speedboat, the surfboard, the brolly set up and I whipped us up a couple of coconutty grasstini's. Tuna tried a bit of snorkelling, but broke the surface of the water in a rather frenzied fashion and said, "Smooch dude, there's a fluffing giant jellyfish down there." 

"Thank cod it wasn't a shark dude!" I replied and then remembered that up here there were saltwater crocs, yep they live in the ocean too.

So all water activities were ceased immediately and we decided at that point to head inland and check out some of the sights.

As mew can see Tuna and I had a blast, we saw a few war memorials which we paid our respects at for fallen hero's in WWII, as we know it most impawtant to honour those that gave their lives for us today.  

We saw kangaroos, there was some real vishus burds, the cassowary; apparently a descendent of the dino raptors, and can gut mew with one swipe, although I diverted Tuna so we missed that and we went to see the crocs instead.

Tuna said as we started to pack the TTTB, "Mew know my sisfur Dai$y wants to go shopping somewhere fabulous and my new baby brofur Mack should come on a jolly with mew to give him some Wurld experience dude, he's young and I think it would be great for mew to show him life outside of Trout Towne."

"Dude it would be my purrleasure to take Miss Dai$y somewhere epic and also to take young Mack under my paw and take him on a really great adventure and I can't thank mew enough fur joining me on this one today."

Tuna grinned and replied. "Smooch buddy, even though mew only have 3 legs, and we've been to the most dangerous continent in the wurld, I've neffur felt safer, thanks dude mew're the best."

And sadly that brings us to the end of our OZ experience, we do hope mew enjoyed seeing the sites and it's time I got Tuna safely back to Trout Towne before the FSG realises he's gone! MOL 

Thanks so much for joining Tuna and I on our magical OZ adventure and I'll be back before mew know it sharing another far-flung destination so hope mew'll join me then.

If any of mew would like to accompany me on any future excursions which no doubt will be terribly exciting, possibly a little bit dangerous [might be furry dangerous at times] and definitely once in a lifetime oppurrtunity, send an email to:

deardrbasil @ gmail . com

with Smooch Around The Wurld in the subject line and a nice picture of yourself [which we can clip] plus your name, age and a couple of fun facts about mew, and who knows mew could be joining me on the adventure of a lifetime!

Quickly before I go there's a couple of new puzzles live on the Puzzle Page for your enjoyment.

Until next time

Keep Calm 

and 

Don't Furget The Bug Spray

Smooch xx

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post!

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com and www.pizap.com