🗨

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

[Image Description: A gray and white "tuxedo" cat. The picture is a close-up on her head, which is turned so that three-quarters of her face is towards the camera. She's got yellow-green eyes that are fixed on something in the distance.]

^that was my Raina. She's been gone many years now, and I've gotten used to life without a cat, but that doesn't mean I still don't miss her. I still, at times, find myself chanting her name to calm myself down when I'm anxious.


[Image Description: A photo of a young calico kitty. She's standing on a large windowsill, her face turned to look at something off screen to the right. Her tail is upright at attention and curled to the left.]

I would be remiss if I didn't include a picture of 20 minute kitty. This was a neighbor's cat who came up to our patio door, so we let her in for a while. I was ewcited! Mom, less so. Unfortunately the experience solidified her as an anti-cat person, and since I live with her, I have to go without one.


[Image Description: A picture of my sister's dog, Charms. She's a black Labrador and is at attention because I called her name before taking the photo.]

I watch Charms sometimes when my sister goes on vacations. I am NOT a dog person, but as dogs go, Charms is pretty good. We're used to each other now, so it mostly goes smoothly. Why is she named Charms? because she had a brother named Lucky.

---

Okay, so I can't have a real cat, but I can knit cats!


[Image Description: Two realistic knitted kitties, shown from the front. They are both "tuxedo" cats, with one orange and the other gray.]

I've misplaced them, alas. I really should find them again and perch them on my bed because they ARE a calming presence. They're even more realistic from the rear:


[Image Description: Two realistic knitted tuxedo kitties, shown from the back. They are gray and orange, and look very much like the classic "kitty loaf".]

---

When I first started playing Final Fantasy XIV, I was skeptical of the whole minion thing (minions are small critters that follow you around.) I mean, we had nothing like that in Final Fantasy XI and still enjoyed that game! So I admit that I thought the idea of minions to be a little silly.

Then lassarina gifted me the Fat Cat minion, and well, what a charming minion! She's very plump and rolls to her side.

Animated gif of the Fat Cat minion rolling about under cut!

[Image Description: The Fat Cat minion from Final Fantasy XIV. She's a plump calico cat and likes to roll around.]

I've been playing FFXIV for years now, and no longer use Fat Cat as my minion. Now I use Starbird:


[Image Description: The Starbird Minion from Final Fantasy XIV. It's a blue bird with gray beak and white belly. It's got really long dual tails and large wings.]

The reason I use Starbird? She plays a big role in Endwalker, the first expansion that I played live at its launch. Also, I ran the dungeon Starbird comes from SO MUCH. So, so many times until she finally dropped for me. Can't imagine using a different minion now.

---

I want to end with a game I played in 2024 that I really, really enjoyed. That game is Stray, in which you play as an orange street cat. I really enjoyed it! The cat does cat things like scratch at furniture and knock things over, but you do this as a way to explore the world and solve puzzles. There's some action sequences where you need to escape from enemies, but I found them all short enough that I didn't mind having to try them over and over (I am not great at action games!).

Anyway, have a clip from the game:


[Video Description: An orange cat jumping about an apartment. He finds a computer and jumps up on the table to investigate, stepping on the keyboard in the process. Kitty typing detected!]