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Post by skissors on Jul 3, 2016 22:27:12 GMT -5
Day One
-Name your new pet/Why'd you name it that?
Meet Macavity, or Mac for short. When I first brought this girl out, I was immediately reminded of the song Macavity: The Mystery Cat from the musical Cats (or the poem of the same name by TS Elliot, for you literary types). In particular these lines came to mind: Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin; You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in. His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly domed; His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed. He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake; And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.
You have to admit, she's got the look down pat. And, though the original Macavitiy is male, I think a more masculine name will suit this tough little female kitty just fine. Though it remains to be seen if she will live up to her namesake and become "the Napoleon of Crime" or simply be content carrying out more causal cat capers; I wouldn't be surprised either way.
-What do you think of your new pet?
So far, I'm pleased. I love it when I can find a name that perfectly suits a pet right away, like I did with Mac; that usually means I click with the pet faster too. I'm normally not a huge fan of alley cats, but I think she has a balance of sweet and sassy that I'm already finding endearing.
-What personality does it have?Guess. No, but seriously, I'm seeing lots of alley cat in her (obviously), but she doesn't quite show it enough for me to think she's entirely pure alley. As for what else though, I'm not sure, as I haven't seen her do any other breed-specific actions yet. Maybe I'll have a better hypothesis as the week goes on. -Find your new pet's favorite foodI employed the wholly scientific method of laying out the 4 food dishes in a row then letting Mac out of the carrying case and... It appears she likes the green dish or the red dish Whichever dish she likes, it is very clear that she does not like the silver one. Or maybe she's just admiring her fierce glare in the shiny surface. After much debate, Mac returned to the red dish to eat a somewhat full meal, only to hop back to the green dish at the last second to take one final nibble, then act completely full, as if to purposely reject any sort of definite conclusion. I think the final answer is that Mac is the type of cat who likes to mess with scientific studies. -Find your new pet's favorite toyHopefully,the quest to find Mac's favorite toy will go a bit smoother. First she went for the jingle ball, but that only amused her for a moment. After that she attacked which filled her first with anger, then with dread. Did she think at first the plush was another feline, then panicked when she realized it was only a stuffed facsimile? Who can say. All I know is that the experience with the kitty plush caused her to become so exhausted that all she could do afterwards was crawl to the corner and take a nap. -Give background information on the pet you picked to take part. Where'd you get it? Why'd you get it in the first place?/Why'd you pick this pet to take part?Nap time seemed like the perfect opportunity to write a bit about the cat I'd chosen to be Macavity's partner in crime: Schmendrick. He's a recent addition to my clan; I got him from delighty not too long ago in response to a wanted ad I put out on on Whiskerwick. As for why him? I simply wanted to use a cat I didn't know well yet, and when browsing through my to-be-sorted folder he happened to catch my eye. -Introduce your new pet to the pet you picked to take partOnce Mac woke up from her nap, I brought out Schmendrick so they could me. At first, they ignored each other, with 'Drick more interested in the toys, and Mac more interested in personal hygiene. Eventually they noticed each other. 'Drick pounced on Macavity, but after a brief tussle, she continued to ignore him. It's not exactly, the reaction I was hoping for, but hey, at least they don't completely hate each other.
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Post by skissors on Jul 4, 2016 11:47:15 GMT -5
Day Two
-Go to the beach. Make sure you dress for the occasion.Cue up the calypso.wav*, 'cause we're going to DA BEACH! And since I happen to be completing this task on July 4th (that's the USA Independence Day, for our friends in foreign lands), we're going to throw a beach party, American style!
First things first, I packed for a day of fun, including plenty of toys, two rugs beach towels, fired chicken for lunch, and some fireworks for the end. Next, it was time to dress for the occasion. Unfortunately, petz beachwear is rather limited, especially in appropriately patriotic colors. I decided on accessory a piece would do, with Mac donning a snazzy red-and-white bandana, and 'Drick sporting some star-spangled swim trunks. After that, it was off to the beach! I let Schmendrick and Macavity have lots of quality play time together, although wrestling in the sand and playing with the fish bone that washed ashore seemed to be just as interesting of pastime as actually playing any of the toys I had brought. Such is the way with cats, I guess. Once the kitties had enjoyed a fair bit of playtime, I decided it was time for lunch. Luckily I had plenty of fried chicken for both. After lunch, I let the kitties have more play time. However, they seemed to be slowing down, so it seemed like the perfect time for the fireworks show. After the show finished, it was time head home and put them to bed, and good thing too, as the kitties seemed completely wore out. -Are your petz getting along?
Yep, about as well as I could have hoped. There is the occasional scuffle, but no more than you'd expect a pair of rambunctious young kittens. I'm quite pleased with choice of Schmendrick, as I have done a gameplay contest where the two petz absolutely hated each other, and it was a miserable time. I had hoped I might see a bit of a romance between the two, but they're still young, so there's plenty of time if it's meant to be, and if it's not, then that's ok too.
-Are you happy with your choice of pet to include?Yes! I feel like I really lucked out picking Schmendrick. As I said before, he actually gets along with Macavity, which is a huge boon. Secondly, I feel like his playful cheerfulness acts as a good contrast for Mac more somber demeanor (I don't actually think she's actually played with a toy for more than a few seconds the entire time I've had her out thus far). I do hope that he will manage to coax Mac out of her shell in the coming days.
*does anyone else associate this bit of music with the beach play scene, or is it just me?
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Post by skissors on Jul 5, 2016 12:30:38 GMT -5
Day Three
-Go to the backyard and plant some things.
Morning of day 3, and first things first, it's off to the garden to do a bit of planting. The kittens "helped" as best they could. Experience has taught me to forgo the watering can when cats are out, so we spend quite a while waiting for our luscious garden to grow. Macavity and 'Drick at first seemed rather unsure about the whole ordeal, but eventually they got into the spirit of thing. There was a bit of excitement when a mouse showed up. Surprisingly, Schmendrick caught it, though he let it go shortly afterwards. Here's the final garden. Not the prettiest thing in the world, but hey, we had fun.
-Try on some new clothes. Any your pet preferred? Hated?
Once the garden finished growing, it was off to the clothes closet for a bit of dress up. First, I thought it might be fun to let the petz dress themselves by means of the old auto rolling ball game. Here are the final outfits they chose for themselves. Pretty stylish, no? After that, I decided I'd try a few outfit themes Jungle Cats Old West Circus Medieval Magical Hipsters 90's Kids At this point, the kitties patience for dress up was wearing thin, and so was my ability to come up with clever outfits, so I decide to call it quits. I didn't notice if the petz had and preferred outfits, though I can say Mac was NOT a fan of the princess hat. -What did they look best in to you?
I personally thought Macavity looked best in her hipster outfit. And I loved Schmendrick in his little wizard getup.
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Post by skissors on Jul 6, 2016 12:55:08 GMT -5
Day Four
-Visit the snow scene. Remember to dress for the weather.
It's day four, which means we're officially past the halfway point! And first things first, it's off to the clothes closet to get ready to go to the snow scene. After we got all bundled up, it was off to the snow scene! The kitties had a lot of fun playing with the snowballs While there, the kitties were visited by Bear, the snow scene host. Him and Schmendrick hit it off, although Mac was not as big of a fan. Mitzy, the other snow scene host, also showed up. Both the kittens really liked her, although she couldn't have cared less about them. -Play with both petz indoors after the snow scene.
The catz had a fun time playing in the snow but eventually it was time to go in. First we went to the clothes closet to undress, then we grabbed a couple of mugs of hot cocoa to warm up in front of the fire. After they ate, the kitties were too worn out to play, and I was running a bit short on time, so I decided to call it a day.
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Post by skissors on Jul 7, 2016 2:26:00 GMT -5
Day Five
It's day 5 already! Schmendrick and Macavity are officially adults now! To celebrate, I made them wear stupid hats! Yay! And as we all know, puberty brings about many changes in young cats, and eventually, the inevitable happened. (seriously though, I left them out together for like 5 min, and this happened. stupid horny teenagers.) Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled programing. -Try to teach your new pet some tricksPretty sure this is not going to go as planned, but what the hell, we'll try anyways. Since the only thing harder than training one cat is training two, I decided to split the kitties up for a little bit. First up was Mac. I decided I'd start with the classic treat-based training. It went about as well as you'd expect. Maybe Mac could excel at some more unconventional tricks? Nope... and kinda? Whatever, I'm counting it. Since Mac's amazing talent of sitting on things had been reveled, now it was time to see what 'Drick could do! The attempts at more tradition tricks were met with similar success, but maybe 'Drick could also do something unusual? Surprise! Schmendrick is actually fairly adept at jumping through hoops. Who knew? -Visit any playscene dressed up With our kittens' newfound talents exposed, where else could we visit but the circus? First, some fancy new circus outfits were in order. Then, once we arrived, the dynamic duo had to show off their fancy new talents. Bailey the Ringmaster stopped by for a visit to make sure everything was in order. Gustav also stopped by, but Mac and 'Drick were too busy goggling at each other to notice. Seriously though, is there anything more adorable than two petz making lovey faces at each other? I don't think so. And of course, there's no better way to end a romantic evening than by blowing stuff up with a cannon! And boy did I come prepared. It's a good thing I did, too, because these things are stupidly hard to photograph. Anyways, both the kittens and I had had a long day at this point, so I decided to call it quits. Okay, you didn't really think I'd finish this update without showing off the baby, did you? Meet little Mavrick! I know, I'm not going to win any points for creativity in the name department, but shut up, it's cute. Really though, I think Schmendrick's expression says it all.
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Post by skissors on Jul 8, 2016 23:21:47 GMT -5
Day Six
-Decorate the Family Room
Since my catz have started a family now, it's only fitting that we decorate the family room. I debated letting the kitties make the decorating decisions, but considering what my real life cats seem to enjoy... I decided against it. That's more like it. Let's see if the kitties appreciate it or not. The kitties actually seemed to like the new setup. And I though it would be trashed within minutes. -Visit the South Seas. What'd you find there?
After the home decorating session, it was off to the beach for some treasure hunting. Fitting, really, since the reason this update is so short is because I spent all day playing Pokemon Go. First, some appropriate attire was in order. Next, it was off to the beach! It didn't take long for our first treasure to appear: a coconut, nearly the size of little Mavrick. And, through the magic of leaving the scene and returning another treasure appears: a bottle! The message read: Luck is coming your way. Repeating the leave-and-return method, we find... a hairball! Not exactly what I was excepting, but Schmendrick seemed to like it. After repeating the process several more times, here is our final haul. Not bad for a hard days work of clicking back and forth treasure hunting.
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Post by skissors on Jul 11, 2016 15:18:55 GMT -5
Day Seven
-Wind down by staying in and playing with some toys.Day seven is finally here. It's the last day with the kitties, or at least the last day I'll share with the world. Today we're going to stay in and just play with some toyz. Little Mavrick is up and walking today! I can already see some of his father's playfulness. -How did everything go? What'd you learn about your new pet? Do you think you'll go back to PetzA, or keep playing this way?
During playtime, I decided to reflect on how this week went. I had a lot of fun playing the game this way again. I learned a lot about both Macavity and Schmendrick. Macvity is one of the most unusual catz I've ever studied; she is just not playful in slightest, preferring to sit and groom rather then play with toys. Schmendrick, in contrast, is one of the most playful catz I've ever seen. I don't know if I'll keep playing this way all the time, but I think I will start keeping a small group of naturally raised petz again. It amazes me how it's still so much fun just to open up the game and just watch some petz; each one really has their own unique personality. In closing, I'd like to thank midnightwolf for hosting this contest and sending me Macvity, delighty for sending me Schmendrick, and everyone at P.F. Magic for creating a game that still manages to be magical even after all these years. 'Till we meet again -- Macavity, Schmendrick, and Mavrick 🐾
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