my (FICTIONAL) cat (FROM A VIDEO GAME) almost died recently (ITS STILL SAD)

this was originally gonna go on my bulletins but like 2 minutes into writing i realized this is blog material. everyone needs to know about my fictional cat almost dying.

so, i've been a "gamer" enjoying the title don't starve together for the last 5 & 1/2 years. lately, my enjoyment of the game has just been keeping up my daily login streak and weekly check-ins to increase my net value in-game, since

1) don't starve together is a big time commitment, and
2) i only want to play with my friends and they're all focused on "getting an education".

that's totes fine, cuz i enjoy the pursuit of menial daily commitments like don't starve together's daily/weekly gift system. i log in, get my gift, leave myself in-game once a week while i'm snoozing, good deal. i'm gonna enjoy myself and my infinite wealth of wortox skins and item cosmetics to choose from when i DO get the chance to play for realsies.

okay, but what the fuck does that have to do with cats

well, back in 2022, don't starve together got its yearly LNY update for the year of the tiger. when don't starve together has its yearly LNY updates, they celebrate by theming the update around an animal in-game that matches best with the real life chinese zodiac of the year. so, the year of the tiger became the... year of the catcoon (cat-raccoon)!

this update was pretty good, in my opinion. i'm not one to enable off-season events in my world settings often, but year of the catcoon is ALWAYS getting enabled. this is because they added adorable fucking kitties and kittens to find and collect as pets in your world, and everyone loves having adorable kitties and kittens. but for this special LNY update, that's not all don't starve together did.

they also added
a kitten-raising minigame
to play outside of the actual game

don't starve together has a small collection of minigames, playable by accessing the item trader section of the game and clicking on various items on-screen. those games are all pretty fun (ask me about the time i got addicted to "an eggy tally"), and give you items if you earn enough points/etc, but nothing craaazyyy. until the kitten-raising minigame

if you wanna get nitty gritty about how this minigame works, you can check out the don't starve wiki page about it, but TL;DR: it's like the simplest of tamagotchis – god sends you a random kitcoon to care for, and you just gotta feed/pet/clean to keep it happy. if you are good at logging in regularly and pressing buttons, you will have a big fat kitty! and the longer you care for your kitcoon, the older it gets, which is tracked by an age counter in the top left corner of the game screen.

i didn't adopt a kitcoon from the minigame when it was first released. i dunno why. but sometime in april 2023, i decided "fuck it, let's get a pet cat" and adopted my cute forest kitcoon named mimi!

this is a photo of mimi when i first got her:

this is mimi as of today:

(sniffle) she got so big... she's been my pride and joy for a year and a half... i've been diligently taking care of my girl daily, with almost no breaks in my streak.
...ALMOST.

and no, i'm not counting the 3 trips i've taken in her lifetime that account for approximately 1.5 months worth of kitten-less time. this is 'cause for all that time, mimi was safely hibernating in her kittyhouse (kitcoons can be put in stasis if you wanna preserve them in long absences, but they won't age for as long as they're sealed away).

i'm talking a genuine, "i actually forgot to log on in over 24 hours" kind of fuck up. since i've been getting my daily login items for almost as long as i've been on the game, it's such a habit that missing a day is a severe lapse in my routine. and because i log in so punctually for my daily gift items, i also care for mimi on the daily.

now, playing the kitten-raising minigame on don't starve together isn't a victimless sport. kitcoons you adopt from the game have a "lose condition" that will cause them to abandon you after prolonged neglect. as a good kitcoon owner, i've read up on what that lose condition is, which is baaasically a 100-point timer that constantly ticks down the longer it's been since you last cared for your kitcoon. from my understanding, you only have 100 hours after satiating your kitcoon to come back and care for it again before it reaches its lose condition, leaves you, and crushes your dreams and stats. for being a simple minigame, it's horribly high-stakes. and i think you can see where i'm going with this.

SOMEHOW, I MANAGED TO NOT LOG IN TO DON'T STARVE TOGETHER FOR NOT ONE. NOT TWO. NOT THREE. BUT FOUR. FOUR DAYS. FOUR FUCKING DAYS. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW MANY HOURS THAT IS? HOW MANY HOURS COMPRISE FOUR DAYS WORTH OF TIME?

NINETY SIX. NINETY SIX HOURS. 9 AND 6. 96 HOURS. I DID NOT LOG INTO DON'T STARVE FOR NINETY SIX HOURS. AND I HAVE A PET CAT THAT WILL PUT ITSELF OUT OF ITS MISERY AFTER 100 HOURS OF NEGLECT. AND THAT PET CAT IS A YEAR AND A HALF OLD. IF I DID NOT REALIZE, ON THAT LAST DAY, THAT I FORGOT TO TAKE CARE OF MY CAT, I WOULD HAVE LOST FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DAYS WORTH OF PASSIVE TIME AND DEDICATION.

i've only got ONE other instance in memory where i neglected my cat for 48+ hours. the last time it happened, i was horrified. i have no idea what on EARTH i was doing the weekend this happened that made me forget to log into this game for FOUR FUCKING DAYS (even though it was literally only a week ago that this happened). and honestly, i almost made my broken-streak length five days long. i'd had a long day the monday i realized my cat was on death's door, and if not for my friend asking to hang out with me, i don't think i woulda gotten on my computer and logged in that night. and when i would've finally realized i didn't log in for that much time, it would've been so fucking over for me.

the mere thought of losing the cat i've spent almost 2 years caring for shakes me to my applecore. mimi is not a real cat. she isn't even a "real" part of the actual video game she's tied to. but she's my symbol of commitment and love for this game regardless. she's been the bright-eyed face to greet me every time i boot up the game!! if i had to collect my daily gifts without her meowing at me, i don't think my heart could handle it.

if mimi ever does abandon me for whatever reason, i can always just get a new cat. but taking care of a new kitcoon feels like it'd just remind me of the cat i lost. my first, my precious, my mimi.

i guess it's a good thing i logged in just in time to see mimi pathetically mewling for food and attention and got her taken care of. kind of like this, but this is an old screenshot.

oh, mimi. cute mimi. god i fucking love catcoons and kitcoons from the game don't starve together. hey, to lighten the mood, i decided to share some in-game screenshots i found from an old world my friends and i played together. we had year of the catcoon enabled, named our kitcoons after ships and bad words, and built them a cute playpen in our base!

damn, seeing these made me remember how much work was put into this group base...

it's not as big as a cool streamer megabase, but it still took sooo much effort to get our base clean and organized like this. i made the above picture clickable if you wanna zoom in a little more, but the image is kinda blurry anyway. oh well, just in case!

man, now i REALLY want to play don't starve together again...

also, one of my friends reminded me about THE OTHER TIME A VIDEO GAME CAT ALMOST DIED TRAGICALLY. but this blog is long enough, and that's a story for another day. and it's a story about necromancy, because that cat DID technically die. it's a good thing i'm versed in crazy ass wizard spells that resurrect little kitties and kittens from beyond the veil.

anyway, that's all from me for tonight. do we have any don't starve together players in the chat? do we have anyone who's video game kitty died or had a near-death experience? sound off. and remember to pet your kitties every day, whether they be real or digital cats.