1.6 - Cat ladies and dog people

In the last update Feli met one of the Shepherd kids, a family she would soon grow very close to. If you play as much in Appaloosa Plains as I do you probably know the townies Benjamin Schmidt and Hailey Shepherd. 
These two moved together and had 3 children at around the same time as Lena: Blanca, the girl you already know, Taziano, her slightly older brother, and Elea, who is already a teenager at this time.

Taziano had to shave his head as a result of a bet... He will grow his hair back when he's older and I promise, he is actually quite handsome as a teenager!

The Shepherd family also has... a bunch of dogs. Ralston Schmidt had two puppies (picture below) with the Blackburns' dog and I believe they adopted one more dog as well. 

To be honest, I'm not really sure how many dogs they have. What's important is that Feli, a cat lover by nature, likes them!

I do not interfere with the townies' lives or appearances in this game at all, so I'm very happy about how this family turned out (aside from Taziano's hairstyle or lack thereof)!

The younger Shepherds aren't the only friends Feli has made in school. Also part of the clique are the chubby boy Dereck, platinum blonde Lutz Hennessey (son of Benny Hennessey) and on the far right Ariel Loveland, who moved out of the town during Feli's childhood years.

All in all, Feli is quite popular in school! Which is honestly her only motivation to wake up every morning, since she doesn't really do well there in terms of grades. 

She sits at the small dining table like this and can't get a word on paper, let alone a 100 word essay!

Feli has enough of that. She stands up and fills the food bowls before getting herself something to eat. She might not be a grade A student, but at least she was raised to be a responsible cat owner!

Right as she finishes her quick afternoon meal Lena gets up and makes herself breakfast. She has to work night shifts as a ghost hunter, so she usually wakes up after Feli has come home from school and done her homework (or not). 

"Mom, I'm... done with my homework. Can we do something fun tonight?"
"Mhh, sure! -nom- Today is our - nom - weekly mom and daughter day anyway, isn't it? How about karaoke? -nom- It's fun!", Lena suggests with her mouth full of cereal, displaying amazing table manners.

And how much fun it is! Later in the evening, Lena and her daughter arrive in Mick's Karaoke Bar.

Neither of them are shy or reserved, so it doesn't take long until the duo rocks the bar. 

It's a busy night here and they have quite the audience. Personally I had to mute the game sound at this point, but Feli is pretty confident in her singing abilities and convinced that she'll be Appaloosa's next big star!

Seriously, this guy here in red and white has no idea and is just jealous anyway.

The two rising stars are rocking it 'til deep into the night. Other kids at Feli's age are long in bed already, but thank god Lena is such a cool (or irresponsible) mom!

When Feli sits next to her friend Dereck on the bus the next morning, she almost falls asleep and has a headache from her lack of sleep. Feli daydreams about just leaving school and becoming a famous singer or supermodel or cat breeder or really anything that's fun... Anything that doesn't have to do with math or history.

Speaking of becoming a cat breeder, the newest little fluff Valla continues to grow every day! Even Amy, who is very sceptical of any cats that aren't her own kids, grew fond of her and in a way became Valla's surrogate mother.

The next morning Feli decides that school isn't really that important and she'd much rather do something more fun. She has no accomplices among her two-legged friends though - everyone else in her clique attends school like the good kids they are - so she decides to spend this morning with Ava instead.

"Hey, Ava! Do you want to come with me to the cat park and try to catch some fish together?"
Ava replies with an excited meow.

It's a nice sunny day - much better suited for a day in the park than in class.

"Look, Ava! I got one!", Feli exclaimed proudly. "Haha, I knew I'm better at this than you!"

Ava watches Feli pull the little fish out of the pond.
Of course, she thinks, if I had a bait and that apparatus you're holding, I'd catch more too! Tsk, humans... Fishing is about wits, sharp claws, and cat-like reflexes, not holding bait into water and waiting!

Bonus picture at the end: spot the cat!

1.5 - The tiniest cat

In the last chapter Lena decided to cut down on her number of cats and gave the sisters Amanda and Bok Gil away to her daughter's babysitter. But life can be unpredictable sometimes.

On a chilly summer night a little stray cat showed up near the Koyangi house. Rumor must have spread that this is the right place to come if you're a cat in need...

Clearly this little girl knew where she was heading! 

If you know anything about Lena it won't surprise you that she couldn't resist to bring the little one indoors and take care of her.

"Aww, you must be starving! Don't worry, I'll bring you some food, and you find yourself a nice and warm place to sleep tonight."

This night it is Bharu's shift to guard the food bowls.

Hm? An intruder? In our territory?

He follows the unfamiliar smell to the house door, preparing for a fight against a new rival, and sees... woah, it's just a baby! A tiny kitten! Well... that changes things. Clearly this little one is no danger.

Bharu is relieved and introduces himself to the newcomer. And if you didn't believe in love at first sight between cats, these two are the living proof that it DOES happen.

More cute pictures:

MORE CAT PICTURES

I'm sorry I can't stop -

And it's not only Bharu who is in love with the little girl, who by the way was named Valla. Everyone in the household loves her!

Look how tiny she is!

I could go on for ages like this, Valla is just that cute! No wonder Lena couldn't resist taking her home.

_________________________________

To make this short update not only about Valla's arrival here are also some moments from Lena's and Feli's day at the summer festival. If you remember the last chapter Lena has promised to spend time with her daughter without the cats once a week and this was their "human time" this week! 

Yeah, a water balloon fight! So much fun!
Until...

... eww! Water!

Seriously, why did nobody warn Feli that water balloon fights involve water?!

Clearly, this tragedy completely ruined Feli's day. Lena tries to improve her daughter's mood by offering her to get a tiger face paint, but Feli is still pouting.

"Eh... it doesn't even look like a real tiger. Even I could have done that better!"

What a truly terrible day!

Maybe roller-skating is more fun then? At least it doesn't involve cold, wet water.

The pretty girl next to her is Blanca Shepherd, one of the children of Benjamin Schmidt and Hailey Shepherd if you're familiar with the Appaloosa Plains townies.

You'll get to know them closer in the next updates, since Feli and the Shepherd kids are really good friends.

Ouch.

Finally! A smile on Feli's face on this terrible summer day!

1.4 - They grow up so fast

Bharu: Mom, what is this? It scares me.

Amy: This is the human's fresh offspring. It appears she wanted her own litter after she saw our family so happy.

Amanda: What to do? Should we kill it?

Katerchen: AMANDA!

Amanda: It could be dangerous! Have you heard how loud it screams??

Katerchen: But it is a cat-sized human! Think of how much fun we could have together if we befriend it!

Amy: And don't forget that it will grow up into our next can opener. I agree, we should be nice to it.

Ava: It's so big for a newborn! Look, its paws are the same size as mine!

Amy: Alright kids, lets get out of here. It seems completely harmless aside from the noise, don't worry too much. 

Amanda: Hey, mom. Don't you think it's a little bit weird that the baby is alone in its cage all the time? I remember when we were that young, you never left our side. 

Amy: Humans are different from us, that's no big news. I'm sure she knows what she's doing and is a good parent for human standards.

Ah, and Lena is indeed a good parent... for her furry babies. 

But no worries! Little Felicia, called Feli, isn't all that neglected either. It is true however, that being responsible for a little human is not what Lena really wanted in her life.

If only she had someone to share the responsibility with... 

Lena got an invitation to a party from a common friend of Kenji and hers. She knows, unless Kenji spoke the truth about moving to Shang Simla, she will probably meet him there.

Success! Kenji looks very surprised to be caught here.
"So, how is business on your llama farm going?", Lena snarls sarcastically.
"Uh, it's, uhh... That's... a long story! Uh, anyway, I'm surprised to see you here, I thought you had a baby..."
"You DARE mention her? After leaving me alone when I needed you the most?

Kenji looks terrified but Lena doesn't stop there.
"Not only did you not take any responsibility as a father, you also failed as my friend. Can you even imagine how hard it was for me with all the cats around?"
"Hey, hey... slow down... Who says that I am truly the father?"

He's not wrong. While she's pretty sure that Kenji is indeed Feli's father, she can't prove it either. For a few seconds Lena just stands there, silently staring at Kenji with an angry, disappointed expression on her face.

Then she turns around without a word and leaves. It's not like she was truly hoping to get any kind of support from this manchild, but confronting him did make her feel better after all.

It's not like Felicia needs a father anyway. Katerchen fulfills the role of a surrogate father just fine, don't you think?
Someone who isn't Lena might have been worried that having a human baby being raised by cats more than by its actual parents could not possibly be good for its development, but so far Feli is quite happy around her feline family.

Ava seems especially fond of the human baby. She would really love to have her own babies one day, but finding a good mate is sooo hard nowadays!

Not a single cat was hissing at little Feli. She's one of them!

Time goes by and not much changes in the Koyangi household. Lena has to go to work every night, leaving Feli alone with the cats and an incompetent babysitter snoring in front of the TV.

And so Feli learns early on how to entertain herself.

Look, I'm a cat! Hiding in a box!

The turning point comes one day when Lena calls an old college friend for some chatting.

"And how is the little girl growing up?"

"You mean Bok Gil? Oh, you should see her, she has grown a lot and looks almost like Amanda now, who she is also best frie-"

"... I'm talking about Felicia. Man, do you even notice you have a human child sometimes? You still live like a college student, but you are a mother now! I hope for the kid's sake that Felicia will be able to say more than "meow" when she attends school soon!"

Katerchen overhears the call and hisses in agreement. Yeah, how about you start really caring for your baby for once? I already have enough kids to take care of!

Later that evening Lena thinks back to the misunderstanding in embarassment. Her friend was right, it's time to become an adult now. She can blame Kenji as much as she wants, but she has just as much resposibility in this.

"Hey, Feli, what do you think? How about a mother-daughter day once a week? Just the two of us? Starting... today!"

And so Lena takes her daughter to the park to have fun and learn how to walk on two legs.

(The clipping, ugh)

It's a beautiful sunny day in the park. Another mother and her son are watching a wild womrat. Until Katerchen comes and murders it.

Bok Gil and Bharu are all grown up now!

And with the two youngsters growing up there comes another change in the household: Lena decides to adopt out two of her cats so she'll be able to focus more on raising Felicia. 

The sisters Amanda and Bok Gil are happy to stay together as they move in to their new home.

Their new human is Felicia's babysitter, so they already know her. Ava says a last goodbye to Amanda, while Katerchen is proudly watching his two daughters. How fast they have grown up! 

(Look at Katerchen's loving eyes in the background! This picture is heart-melting ♥)

With only 4 cats left, it's getting rather quiet in the household. Maybe Feli can finally get more attention now, because she, too, is growing up fast...