Showcasing my petz

[commander]

Hello all!

This is something I've been wanting to make for awhile now, and now that I've joined DG I figured this is the perfect place to do it. I want to really shine a spotlight on some very special petz of mine, namely the "main couples" I had back in middle school and high school who ended up being the foundation of most of my early crew. I'm old enough that this was all pre PetzA, so these were all raised the only way the could be at that time, naturally. These petz are all old too--over twenty years old, in fact! They've made the move between many computers and many versions of the game, and I'm very glad to still have them after all these years.

Anyway, who better to start this showoff thread with than my two oldest catz? (Although they absolutely look fantastic for their age.)

SOPHISTO

SGCh PH's Sophistication Comes with Age (35 pts)

Original adoption date: summer or fall 1998

Original import date to P3: December 23, 1998

Latest import date to P3 (and thus date that shows in her profile): January 27, 1999

Favorite color: green

Favorite flavor: wetfood/leftovers

Sophisto is old enough that she predates Petz 3. She was adopted in 2 at some point by my younger brother--back then, all the dogz were mine and the catz were his. Originally playing petz under the belief that even one day of not opening the game would cause their neglect to skyrocket and make them run away (we were young kids and didn't know any better yet), we frequently returned our petz when we left town for a night or two and adopted new ones. Fortunately, by the time this lovely lady was in our game, I'd learned that neglect in the game doesn't work that way, and Sophisto was there to stay. My brother grew very attached to her, and her place in our adopted petz folder was permanent, even as we continued to return and adopt new petz.

When we got Petz 3 for Christmas, she was the only pet either one of us imported to the new game (at least as far as I can remember, and at the very least she's only one of two to have remained in our game for any amount of time). She was my brother's special cat, and he wasn't about to leave her behind.

Now, the allure of the new features of P3, namely breeding, had me hooked from the get-go and I basically wanted to breed all the petz, all the time. My brother, however, was a much more responsible petz owner. He didn't want too many kittens, and didn't want Sophisto to have any, so he spayed her. And again, this was long before PetzA, so there was no way to undo that.

But, well, after seeing the results of breeding our catz Princess and Aaron, and dogz Dana and Rufus, my brother had a change of heart. Or maybe I convinced him to have a change of heart lol. I was sometimes a bossy big sister that way... And fortunately, we did have a way to undo Sophisto's spaying... as her original file was still safe and sound in P2. So she was re-imported, and the search for a mate began.

Going by Pouncer's import/adoption date, the search only took one day, although I remember it being longer than that... maybe we reimported her multiple times. Or maybe it really was just one day and I'm remembering wrong. At any rate, at the beginning it didn't go well. Sophisto is very haughty, you see, and turned up her nose at the suitors we attempted for her. My brother wanted cute meezer kittens, apparently, and tried to get her together with a cream meezer named John. It... didn't go well. They fought constantly in that big ol' ball of angry catz violence. I caught a picture of them, leaping in the air and at each others' throats, and I wish I still had that pic, it was pretty epic.

I did find a match for Sophisto, though, in a rather surprising place.

POUNCER

SGCh PH's A Secret That I Never Could Keep (34 pts)

Original adoption date: late 1998 (before December 23)

Import date to P3: January 28, 1999

Favorite color: red

Favorite flavor: wetfood/leftovers, soft/mouse, waterbowl

On January 28, I decided to play the original Dogz game before opening up P3. And then the original Catz game. And then Petz 2. The original Sophisto was still there, of course, and I took her out to give her some attention. While she was out, a random B&W named Pouncer came up to the door. I let him out too. What happened next blew me away. Sophisto, the picky as heck catz who didn't seem to tolerate anyone, tolerated Pouncer. More than tolerated, in fact. They were being very affectionate with each other, as if they were in love--despite this being P2, a game where petz couldn't breed and didn't even have genders.

I don't know if I'm remembering their interactions correctly (it was quite a few years ago now, lol) and if they really were acting exactly like P3 catz in love. What I know for sure, though, is that their interaction was so significant that I immediately closed P2, opened P3, imported Pouncer (making sure to set the gender to male, of course!), and took him out with the P3 version of Sophisto. And I didn't even have to wait a minute for that red heart to pop up.

Pouncer, then, is the most "accidental" member of my founding petz. If I hadn't happened to open P2 that day, and if he hadn't happened to come up to the door while Sophisto was out, and if they hadn't happened to be so infatuated with each other even in that game, then I guarantee that Pouncer would have been left in P2 and been long forgotten many, many years (and computers) ago. It's such an amazing stroke of luck that I found him, and I'm still kind of taken aback on how very nearly he would have been left behind. I'm so glad he made his way into the main fold! For a B&W, he's very affectionate, and likes to lick and nuzzle my cursor when he's out alone. He acts kind of grumpy sometimes, but I know it's just an act.

Sophisto and Pouncer have nine children: John (yes, my brother named him after that failed Siamese suitor for Sophisto lol), Duke, Mandark, Marvin, Katherine, Elijah, Wendy, Sid, and Floyd. Here's their family tree! (It's a pretty big image, just to warn you lol).

This is their first kitten, John, the result of that first meeting in P3 lol. I haven't entered him in shows yet, but he does have a stamp, too. (Feel free to collect any of these stamps, btw!)

Uh... Duke? What are you doing here? I don't have a stamp of you yet, and I'm not planning on posting about all of your siblings on this entry, it's long enough as it is...

"I'm here because this is my place, of course! Don't you see the name? This is MY group. About time someone recognized my greatness."

Uh... well, Duke, you are great and of course you're welcome here, but I hate to break it to you... the Duke in Duke's group is a different Duke. It isn't you.

"WHAT?! Unacceptable. I'll be in my trailer." (storms out in a huff)

Aw, sorry, Duke! I'll make a stamp of you eventually, will that make it better?

[tigeranne]

Um wow, you've got a diva on your hands there! I love how you still have Petz from the 90s! There's quite a family descending from Sophisto and Pouncer, that I'm looking forward to hearing more about!

[Ordalie]

This was a great read and made me feel very nostalgic! I'm always a little envious of people still having their petz from way back, but it is also amazing to see some of those originals still being around.

The part about you frequently returning petz so they would be taken care of made me smile   (As someone who had well over 400 dogz in her list, most of them run away, I can't relate^^') 

[commander]

Thank you both! I'm glad my little stories are entertaining

I'll be showcasing my other original catz pair, Princess and Aaron, next! Just gotta get more pics of them. I guess I have a project for this weekend lol

[commander]

My weekend project took a lot of weekends lol. I've been pretty busy (as usual), and in my free time I've been distracted by other games that aren't Petz. But in the back of my mind, I kept hearing Princess demanding that she get her just dues, so finally, I'm able to appease her... oh, and her mate too lol

PRINCESS

SGCh PH's I Expect Total Obedience (31 pts)

Adoption date: December 23, 1998

Favorite color: yellow

Favorite flavor: fish

Technically, Aaron was adopted slightly before Princess, but since I tend to think of my mated pairs in the female/male combination, Princess gets to go first. Which she is quite glad of! Princess has always been a bit short-tempered. She'll seem happy and carefree but some little thing will suddenly set her off and before I know it, she's scowling. She does really like the camera, though, so it's hard to get photographic evidence of it lol. She's always got a happy face while I'm snapping pics!

As I mentioned above, Princess was the second catz my brother adopted when we got Petz 3 for Christmas. Since he'd adopted Aaron first, he was specifically going for a female to eventually breed with him. I don't know why he picked a tabby or if that was one of his favorite breeds, but pick a tabby he did. He dressed her in the hat and socks shortly after adopting her, and she isn't Princess to me without them. Showing her and having to take a pic of her unclothed was super weird, lol...

AARON

SGCh PH's Look in My Eyes, I'm Still Alive (36 pts)

Adoption date: December 23, 1998

Favorite color: blue

Favorite flavor: fish, milk, catnip

Aaron was the first catz my brother adopted in P3, and like Princess he also dressed him right away (apparently he really liked that fedora; Pouncer wears it too lol), and Aaron just doesn't look like Aaron to me if he's not wearing his fedora and grey sweater. He's your typical scaredy oshie, terrified of many things... although Princess doesn't set him off. (Which is kind of funny, because sometimes Aaron sets Princess off in her own way lol)

Despite their differing personalities, Princess and Aaron have always gotten along well and I don't recall there being any trouble getting them to breed once they reached adulthood. They have the most children out of any of my petz couples, seventeen! (When breeding them in P5 they had rather large litters lol) They are Antar, Poppies, Schnookums, Curly, Erin, Valentina, Halo, Teddy, Glory, Ariel, Cottontail, Peter, Moppsy, Floppsy, Thomas, Connie, and Marionette. Here is their ridiculously complex family tree!

Here is their oldest child, and the first catz we ever bred in P3, Antar, born January 2, 1999. I haven't shown him yet, but he does have a stamp, so here he is! Poor guy is scared of the camera and everything else like his oshie father, so I don't know how successful he'd be as a show cat, but maybe I'll give it a go someday.

And I would be remiss to not mention Antar's son Star, who was the first petz I ever entered into shows, and he's racked up an impressive 55 points! I know his looks aren't anything special nowadays, but I was totally blown away by him when he was born, and he's always been one of my favorite catz, and has sort of become my mascot. In fact, Star is pretty much single-handedly the reason why calicoes are my favorite catz breed

[tigeranne]

That family tree makes my Sims legacy families look straight forward, LOL! Star is a very pretty cat. I'd love to breed a white tabby in only three generations. Still looking forward to hearing more about this intriguing dynasty!

[paige@rattlesnake]

commander, thank you for sharing these precious Petz memories. <3 They're really nostalgic and sweet. I have some old petz too that I was like "OMG THEY ARE SO PRETTY" and they're the kind of petz that these days... are not, shall we say, highly sought after. I love that you still have petz from the 90s. I might have some on a floppy disk but I think they are pretty much unrecoverable at this point, RIP Annabelle (1st gen calico) & Sebastian (1st gen maine coon). Looking forward to seeing more about them <3

[lobb]

I love it when petz have whole family tress, that's so cool!

[animexxxkoibito]

I love the stamps you have for all of them. What a cute family!

[commander]

Thank you so much, everyone!

So yeah.. it's been awhile since I've been to this forum, but I'm back! It's time to showcase MY true oldest petz, since the catz were originally my brother's. Me, though, I'm a dog person, so I went for the dogz! I don't have any from Petz 1 or 2, but I do still have the first two dogz I adopted in Petz 3.

DANA

SGCh PH's Den Mother (32 pts)

Adoption date: December 23, 1998
Favorite color: red
Favorite flavor: beef

I remember that back when I had Petz 2, I always had a Great Dane in my crew (and I usually named him Bootz lol), so when we got Petz 3 I knew for sure what breed I would be adopting first. I feel rather confident that I would have still gone with the default "Bootz" name if the dane I adopted had been a boy, but the first dane to come out of the adoption center door was a girl, and I guess I didn't consider that name girly enough. I remember musing aloud, "What should I call a female Great Dane?" and my mom, who was in the room, said, "How about Dana? Dana the Dane?" Thanks, Mom!

Dana became something of a mom herself to my other petz. Being a dane, she's not the most graceful of petz, but she gets along well with nearly everyone else and is just generally a very sweet girl. I'm very glad that she's the dane that came out of the adoption center doors all those years ago.

RUFUS

SGCh PH's Ten Thousand Percent Goofball (32 pts)

Adoption date: December 23, 1998
Favorite color: blue
Favorite flavor: beef

Of course, the main draw of Petz 3 was that your petz could breed, so Dana needed a mate, so after Dana (and Aaron) were adopted, we went right back to the adoption center. Nowadays sheepdogs are my second-favorite dogz breed (right after poodles), and I'm not sure if they were my second-favorite dogz breed then (right after danes) and that's why I picked one, or if I just picked a breed at random. Either way, Rufus was adopted, given the default name because I was apparently very unoriginal at the time lol.

Rufus is silliness personified. He's always flopping around and doing trick and making silly faces at the screen. Even after all these years, I still never tire of watching his antics. I did, a few years ago, brex his eyes to be a bit bigger because I've become totally spoiled by the Cargo fixed sheepie eye size OW. He looks much better without his old beedy eyes, lol

Dana and Rufus (and their family) are also in the only PetzPix that I still have from back in the day. I definitely took a lot of pics of my petz back in the late 90's/early 2000's, but unfortunately, only three remain. Here they are!

Dana and Rufus being silly in boxes. It did take me awhile to settle on Rufus's clothing choice (Dana, however, has worn the bow and flower sweater from the beginning).

Here's Dana with her first puppy, Xena! As you can see she wasn't a fully-grown adult yet.

And finally, here's Xena with her first puppy (and Dana and Rufus's first grandchild), Splash.

Dana and Rufus have had fifteen children: Xena, Callisto, Coolio, Hula Girl, Padmé, Laughter, Danielle, William, Hope, Puddles, Wish, Domino, Lily, Snowball, and Hannah. Here is their... oh wait, yeah, I haven't made their family tree yet. I guess that's another project to work on!

Here's Xena all grown-up. I will always maintain that she is one of the most beautiful mixies out there, and I think she's the reason why I love dark dark brown eyes so much in Petz. She's also a SGCh herself, with 32 points, same as both her parents

And finally, this is Xena's mate, Darth Vader. I wanted to show him for a few reasons. One of the reasons is that I hardly ever showcase him, despite how long he's been in my crew and how many of my petz he's in the ancestry of! I adopted him from the Petz.com website on their matchmaking service, using Xena's match status that's in her profile. Every petz I ever adopted this way mated with their intended partner very easily, by the way, so that match status did really work! He's a dane/dali mix, and assuming that his dane father had blue fur, Darth Vader has two mutations His eye color, obviously... but also his eyelid color. Darth Vader naturally has orange eyelids. As much as I liked him otherwise, his eyelid ALWAYS bugged the heck out of me. And when I finally downloaded Lnzpro and found out I could very easily change the eyelid color, I was overjoyed! ...Until it didn't work. I felt like I would have to just deal with his orange eyelids forever! Until I finally learned that after changing the eyelid color, you have to take the pet out and click "restore original colors". And finally, FINALLY, Darth Vader's eyelids are a reasonable color!

In addition to the family tree project, I still have a few more petz I'd like to showcase here, so stay tuned, hopefully I'll get it done quicker than this update came lol. Thanks for reading; I'm glad you all are enjoying learning about my oldest petz so much