My beautiful black cat, "Kat"
BelgarathMTH
Member Posts: 5,653
Hi, I couldn't resist the temptation to post this screenie of my fighter-thief, "Kat". The screenies were just made in my current IWD:EE run. Notice the number of kills at the bottom right. 
So, she's my "devil cat", my black cat familiar, and, her name spelled with a "K" is also inspired by the new "Gotham" series, as the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, aka "Kat" is fast becoming a favorite theme of mine.
I am pretending that she is my cat familiar, since I am playing a sorcerer in this run. I am now kind of enjoying the idea of having my familiar be a magical being who can shapeshift to human form and be an actual party member, while her "true form" stays secreted away in my pack. I think she's pretty awesome.
I got the idea because of how closely bonded I was to a beloved black cat, now sadly deceased, who was my beloved cat daughter for 13 years of my life. (Wait - it was 13 years. Talk about black cat related superstitions!)
I was crushed beyond what I can express when she passed. I absolutely, definitely had to make a saving throw against dying myself, and I absolutely, definitely lost a permanent point of constitution, or maybe even two or three points. I still miss her.
I had named her "Ariel", actually intended as a variant on the name of the archangel Uriel or Auriel, though I found out later that the Hebrew root "Ariel" also means "Lioness of God". Here are two pictures of her:
I wish her eyes could be seen in all their green-yellow intensity in the photos, but unfortunately the camera flash kept reflecting in the depths of those uncannily intelligent eyes of hers that could then not be photographed well.
Anyhoo, my "cat familiar" fighter-thief has the "lion's share" of kills in my four-member party now, thanks to her being a "beast" with the Bow of Sseth, and her use of sneak attacks. Here are a few more screenies, if anyone's interested.
So, she's my "devil cat", my black cat familiar, and, her name spelled with a "K" is also inspired by the new "Gotham" series, as the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, aka "Kat" is fast becoming a favorite theme of mine. I am pretending that she is my cat familiar, since I am playing a sorcerer in this run. I am now kind of enjoying the idea of having my familiar be a magical being who can shapeshift to human form and be an actual party member, while her "true form" stays secreted away in my pack. I think she's pretty awesome.
I got the idea because of how closely bonded I was to a beloved black cat, now sadly deceased, who was my beloved cat daughter for 13 years of my life. (Wait - it was 13 years. Talk about black cat related superstitions!)
I was crushed beyond what I can express when she passed. I absolutely, definitely had to make a saving throw against dying myself, and I absolutely, definitely lost a permanent point of constitution, or maybe even two or three points. I still miss her.
I had named her "Ariel", actually intended as a variant on the name of the archangel Uriel or Auriel, though I found out later that the Hebrew root "Ariel" also means "Lioness of God". Here are two pictures of her:
I wish her eyes could be seen in all their green-yellow intensity in the photos, but unfortunately the camera flash kept reflecting in the depths of those uncannily intelligent eyes of hers that could then not be photographed well.
Anyhoo, my "cat familiar" fighter-thief has the "lion's share" of kills in my four-member party now, thanks to her being a "beast" with the Bow of Sseth, and her use of sneak attacks. Here are a few more screenies, if anyone's interested.
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Comments
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Okay, now that's out of the way, I really like your character concept, here. It's pretty awesome. Reminds me a little of some webcomics I've read (and *may* have blatently stolen from for my D&D games...).
Also, I'm sorry for the loss of your real-life kitty. I've had cats most of my life, and I know how hard it is to lose them. You have my sympathy.
I have rescued two tiny kittens from a raging storm and flood a few months back. They were soaked wet and and so cold, they were in a camatose, death like state but with the help of a veterinarian friend I was able to nurse them back to life. Gave them to a nurse friend whose twin daughters adopted the twin kittens. They grew up nicely and are very happy and healthy now. ^^
Sorry for your loss. But I take solace in knowing that your cat, errm, 'kat', lives through the iwd:ee game and kicks some major butt for you.
I've recreated pets that I've lost all the time in games. Heck, I've been playing Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire, and I named by Mightyena "Shadow," named after our beloved black lab-mix who'd passed away years ago. Any game where you can have an animal companion or a pet, they'll be there.
Pets never die, so long as they live on in our hearts and memories. :')
I have had the privilege of living with three beloved male cats, (Kaos, Michael, and the still-living Blue), and, as any cat-lover knows, male cats and the kind of bond you can have with them is totally different than the relationship with female cats, be they fixed or not.
(Most of mine have been fixed, with some complicated exceptions. Samantha was Kaos' mother, for example, but was later fixed, while Kaos was allowed to roam outside unfixed and spawn who knows how many other cats. Samantha and Kaos were cats from my teen years, though, so my mother was actually in control of what was done with them. I don't think she ever bonded with them like I did, though - she was a "dog" person to the core. I was the one who loved our household cats. As an adult cat owner, I have always had them fixed for obvious responsibility and suffering-in-the-world-reducing reasons. It changes their base personalities surprisingly little.)
Male cats are much more babies and needy than female cats. Female cats are strong and independent to a fault, and insist on mutual respect, but they can give you an awful lot of reinforcement and love if you understand them and respect their insisted-upon rights in the household. An unfixed male Tom however, can be a frustrating study in the worst of testosterone and male posturing. He'll urinate all over your house to mark territory, and he may fight like a warrior to ensure his dominance. I am smell-blind, but I'm told that Tomcat "spray" is worse-smelling than skunk spray. So, almost any Tom needs to be fixed in order to be a suitable pet. But, once that's done, he'll insist that you treat him as your infant baby.
It's interesting that my outer persona is very devoted to the divine "trinity", expressed in Forgotten Realms lore as either "Tyr the Father, Ilmater the Son, and Torm the Holy Ghost", or as my own self-made divine trinity of "Oghma the Father, Deneir the Son, and Milil the Holy Ghost", cough, cough, Christianity infuencing D&D, cough, cough.
But my inner persona is so very cat-like and devoted to Sharess. I love to party, I love my creature comforts, sometimes completely overriding my outer devotion to being a lawful good or lawful neutral follower of some made-up lawful good deity, and, when I was young, I was into fitness and looking model-perfect, and I think I would have made Sharess proud, especially with my patronage of cats. Usually my inner cleric/mage-of-Sharess only comes out when I am very, very, crap-faced, falling-down drunk.
@Nonnahswriter , thank you so much for "getting me" with this thread. When my first adult-owned male black-and-white, Michael, died around 2009 or so, I was so emotionally devastated that I didn't know how I was going to put myself back together. I cried for at least 24 hours, and I thought I was going to crack up.
I consoled myself by starting a Baldur's Gate game playing a totemic druid who kept a constantly (or as constantly as possible) summoned spirit cat, which I pretended was the spirit of my departing and then departed loved one, still with me. I started that BG-run during his last two days of life, with him in my lap as I played. I know it's irrational and crazy, but I felt like saying to him, if only he could understand, that, "Here, my beloved companion, we will be together forever here in this little cartoon of a game world. My spirit is there, and now yours can be too."
I doubt it made *him* feel any better, since he was weakened to the point of not being able to walk, and probably extremely nauseated and in some pain, but it certainly made *me* feel better. I'd like to think that at least he drew some comfort in his final days by being in my lap, in his and my familiar-smelling and feeling blanket.
This ability to keep my beloved late cats "alive" in D&D games is especially satisfying in Neverwinter Nights, where I can have a powerful black cat ("panther") with me for the whole game experience. For that reason, I almost always play a mage, sorcerer, or druid in NWN1, or a druid or cleric with animal domain in NWN2.
Shoot, now I'm thinking that after I finish my current IWD run, I may start NWN1 and NWN2 runs as one of the appropriate classes, just so I can get the beloved "black cat familiar" or "black cat animal companion" throughout the gaming time and thus memorialize my loved and lost cats, not to mention as a tribute to my two still-living ones.
Yes, I know, this is all totally cray-cray to anyone who has never bonded with a cat. It's a bond that I think is the closest thing in real life to the imagined "mage-familiar" bond in D&D.
I've always been a cat person, but honestly I think I'm an animal person in general. I probably should be a druid since I've had dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, etc. Pretty much any creature which is lost seems to find its way to my house, or friends bring them along in hopes I'll have a spot for them. I've never been able to make a bond with any sort of reptile however, since from what I can tell such creatures aren't capable of bonding (although I've read turtles and komodo dragons can act a bit like dogs), and "bug" creatures leave me cold (spiders! eek!). But, yes, creatures are spiffy.
I think it's neat that you work your animals into your gaming sessions. Kat sounds like a cool character.
I feel you, @BelgarathMTH , having lost 1 CON too one day. Nonnaswriter is right, they'll always stay in our heart.
P.S. A fighter/thief is a fun class for a character, especially with sneak attacks.
(P.S. Do NOT apply this theory to girlfriends!)