Long time, no update lol
My original plan was to create Dana and Rufus's family tree and update when that was finished... but I got burned out on that real fast. I do still plan on finishing it eventually, but a few days ago I had an itch to make another planned post on this thread that is way less of a time crunch. I've talked about my first dogz, and my brother's first catz that became mine... but I still hadn't talked about my true first catz! And while I've talked about Sophisto and Pouncer, Princess and Aaron, Dana and Rufus before on other forums... I don't think I've ever told the tale of Calicoo, Calicoo II, and Jester.
I should probably start this off with Stormy, who is not the first catz I adopted, but she's in many ways the catalyst. I mentioned previously Princess and Aaron's son Antar, and his son Star--Stormy here is Star's mother, adopted using Antar's match status on the Petz.com matchmaking service. She, and more especially her son Star, were two of my brother's catz that I found myself especially drawn to. And in the process, I realized that I seemed to really like calicoes... so much that, in all my twelve-year-old wisdom, I decided that I was going to adopt a pair of calicoes for myself and start a line of purebreds.
JESTER
SGCh PH's There's Humor in Everything (30 pts)
Adoption date: February 6, 1999
Favorite color: yellow
Favorite flavor: cheese
And that's how Jester and his original mate, Calicoo, joined my crew! I remember having to take calico after calico out of the adoption center before finally finding my male (given, in my usual laziness, the default name). It was only after I'd adopted them that I remembered that I still had Petz 2 on my computer and could have easily just adopted one there and imported it, setting its gender to male in the process. Oh well. I'm glad I ended up with Jester! He's everything I love about calicoes and definitely lives up to his name.
I don't remember how I came up with Calicoo's name, but I remember being pretty proud of how punny it was lol. Looks-wise, she was similar to Stormy in that she was the predominantly white variety. Personality wise... I'll admit, sometimes she frustrated me. She's often go off and do her own thing, ignoring what I wanted her to do, and she could get grumpy sometimes. I didn't generally use the spray bottle, so I often "punished" her by painting her outrageous colors with the paint can and/or dressing her up in the stupidest outfits I could come up with. I don't think this seemed to phase her, lol.
This is their first child, Late Heart, so named because she was born February 15--one day after Valentine's Day. I made stamps for all of my main couples' first children, so she has one, but I haven't shown her yet--hopefully soon! She takes after her mother in both looks and personality--she's rather aloof and a bit naughty sometimes, so I'll admit it took me awhile to warm up to her. But oh well, I thought, I wasn't going to stop after breeding just one purebred calico, no sir! I wanted more! Hopefully a few males to make breeding more generations a bit easier!
Here are their next three children--Maggie, Patches, and Jane. All females, and all with Calicoo's color scheme as well (although Patches did give me my first mutation). And with Jane also inheriting her mother's sass, I was starting to get a little frustrated. Was the lopsided female-to-male calico ratio from the AC applied to bred calicoes, too? Would I ever get my male?
I know this guy looks very similar to his sisters, but finally, with my fifth kitten, I got a BOY! Still with the same coloration, but who cares! I finally got my male! ...And I remember just staring at the birth certificate on my screen in a blank, because I had no clue what to name him. I don't know how long I stared until my brother turned on the TV in the room and started watching the Muppet Show--Kermit the Frog was on the stage, singing "It's Not Easy Bein' Green." Green this cat is not, but I named him Kermit all the same.
And finally, here is Joey--another boy, and FINALLY, Jester's looks passed down, too! He's always worn the fedora, I don't know why--and I can't even blame my brother for putting it on him, this was all my doing lol.
Sadly, Joey is the final surviving kitten of Calicoo and Jester. You've probably noticed that I have no picture of Calicoo and have only been speaking of her in the past tense. I bred them again, but Calicoo got stuck in her pregnancy. I did the whole "take the pet out, put it back, close the game, move the calendar forward a day, repeat" schtick, but nothing was happening and I was getting very impatient, to the point that I was just really quickly opening the game, calling her out, and when seeing that she still hadn't given birth I'd just immediately close the game and move the clock forward again. Hey, do you know what happens when you take a petz out but don't pet them or give them any kind of attention? Well, I sure found out.
Calicoo ran away. I was devastated. I tried putting her file back in my adopted petz file, but it didn't work--her neglect had wracked up too much. It was the worst thing that had happened to me in the game so far, and my twelve-year-old self was so guilty and crushed by my carelessness that I think I stayed away from the game for a bit. I definitely learned my lesson--Calicoo was my only runaway, and I took care to always give every single petz in game at least a few pets or two every time I opened the game from then on. But that loss really hurt, not gonna lie.
And no, I don't have her file anymore. I think after a few months I just got so depressed seeing it in the runaway folder and not being able to do anything about it that I just deleted it. This was years before the Runaway Rescue program was a thing.
RIP, Calicoo. I'm still sorry.
But, well... life goes on, even in Petz. And after awhile, I decided I wanted to try another go with Jester. This wasn't going to be easy, though. I wanted another mostly-white calico like Calicoo had been. And I also didn't want to take my chances with just adopting one from the AC, wait for her to grow up, only to find out that she and Jester didn't get along. And if I wanted to find a catz who paired well with Jester... well, I'd had good luck with that by using the match status on Petz.com before, hadn't I?
The petz that were available on Petz.com were ones that users submitted, and there were a ton of them. Even when inputting the match status, you'd still find a bunch. I don't remember for sure if there was a way to filter the results. I think there might have been, but I'm not 100% sure--my memory's hazy, and this was nearly twenty-five years ago now lol. However it was that I did it, I managed to find out that there was one, just one, match pulled up for Jester who was a calico that looked similar to Calicoo. Her name was originally Gogo, and she was adopted by someone named Kelly. And I only still know this because she didn't come alone--if I wanted this calico, I had to take the infant kitten still attached to her, too. It was a package deal!
So yeah... this is Gogo's (quickly renamed to Calicoo II) daughter, Mary-Kate. She's pretty neat looking, don't you think? She's only a second gen persian/calico mix, so her brown fur is a mutation. She ended up integrating into my crew nicely--she's mates with one of Princess and Aaron's kids.
I obviously renamed her mom and changed her owner name to mine, like I always did back then, but looking Mary-Kate's family tree in Lnzpro shows her mom's original name and owner. So yeah, thanks, Kelly, whoever you are, for two very beloved members of my crew!
Obviously I had to wait for Mary-Kate to grow up enough to start working on breeding Calicoo II and Jester. And... even though I got her through Jester's match status, I remember having a lot of trouble. They didn't hate each other or anything, but they just didn't seem to react much? I remember there was someone who I found on one of the Petz sites back then to whom you could send petz that you were having trouble breeding--they helped me out a lot, I wish I remembered who they were! Anyway, I had to send Calicoo II and Jester to this person to help, who had never failed me before--and they didn't fail me this time, either.
I do remember usually they sent the petz back to me with the female pregnant, but in this case something different happened and they sent them back with the kitten already born. It was a girl, and they named her just "Calicoo". I did keep the name for awhile, but a few years ago I changed it slightly to "Callicoo". I mean, technically, she's Calicoo III, but let's not get too full of ourselves with all these titles lol
Here are all of Calicoo II's and Jester's children--Callicoo, Adam, Clark, Pepper, Basil, Gonzo, and Scooter. Funny, after having to put up with so many white-headed calicoes the first go-around, all seven of these catz take after their dad. And in another reversal, it's mostly boys this time, with Callicoo and Pepper being the only girls!
Between Jester's six children with Calicoo and seven with Calicoo II, he's the ancestor of every purebred calico I ever bred... and if you've ever looked at the purebred calico page on my crew, you'll see that that's A LOT. Calico obsession?! What calico obsession?! Okay, yeah, maybe just a little...
And no, I don't have her file anymore. I think after a few months I just got so depressed seeing it in the runaway folder and not being able to do anything about it that I just deleted it. This was years before the Runaway Rescue program was a thing.
