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  vCat  —  a tiny pixel pet for your desktop
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Double-click vCat.exe and a little pet moves in. 🐈‍⬛

IT'S A TAMAGOTCHI NOW! 🥚➡🐈
  Your pet has a whole life. Pick "🍼 New pet…" from the right-click
  menu to welcome a new baby:
    - 🐉 Dragon and 🦊 Fox hatch from a wobbling EGG (give it ~90s).
    - 🐈 Cat, 🐕 Dog and 🐇 Bunny are delivered by a STORK. 🪶
  Then watch it GROW UP in real time, like a real Tamagotchi:
    🥚 egg → 👶 baby → 🐾 kid → 🧒 teen → 🐈 adult → 👴 elder
  Each birthday it gets bigger and throws a little confetti party. 🎂
  Babies are tiny, wobbly and nap a ton; elders slow down and snooze.
  After a long, happy life an elder peacefully passes 🌈 — and a new
  baby of the lineage arrives, so the family never ends.
    - Don't want goodbyes? Turn on "♾ Immortal" in the menu and your
      pet ages but stays forever.
  Each animal has its own look (ears, colors), its own voice (woof,
  roar, yip, squeak, meow), and the dragon even has wings. Everything
  is saved per machine, so your pet — name and all — is truly YOURS.

She lives along the bottom of your screen (and on top of your
windows, when she feels like climbing). She is always on top but
only the cat herself is clickable — everything around her clicks
straight through to your desktop.

WHAT SHE DOES ON HER OWN
  - wanders around, sits, lies down, grooms herself
  - stalks and POUNCES on your mouse cursor if you wiggle it near her
  - scratches the edges of your windows (tiny claw marks!)
  - paws at your desktop icons
  - CLIMBS the side of your windows, paw over paw, and hops onto
    the top — works on normal AND maximized windows now. She walks
    along the title bar, perches on corners, and naps up there.
  - if you MOVE or close a window while she's sitting on it, she
    falls off and flips you off with a censored swear bubble and
    an angry hiss. she has opinions. 🖕#$@%!
  - does BACKFLIPS off windows and after big wins ("ta-da!")
  - chases her own tail until she's dizzy
  - HUNTS the little mouse that sneaks across your screen every
    once in a while... and proudly brings you what she caught 🐭
    (it disappears after a few seconds, don't worry)
  - random zoomies, especially late at night (real cat hours)
  - watches BIRDS that fly past, chatters at them (ekekek!), and
    leaps to catch one when it swoops low enough
  - needs to use the bathroom! give her a litter box (Decorate
    menu). if there's no clean litter box, she'll go on the floor
    and leave a mess you have to clean up (click it, or use the
    Decorate menu). scoop the litter box now and then (right-click
    it) so she keeps using it.
  - takes naps, dreams (zzz...), and does a big stretch after
  - sleeps more at night, like a proper cat

TAKING CARE OF HER  (right-click the cat)
  - food / water / love bars are shown at the top of the menu
  - 🐟 Feed     - when she's hungry  (she asks with a fish bubble + meow)
  - 💧 Water    - when she's thirsty (water-drop bubble)
  - 🏃 Zoomies  - sends her sprinting; makes her very happy
  - 🔴 Laser pointer - a red dot follows your cursor and she goes
                  ABSOLUTELY FERAL chasing it. she will never catch
                  it (it's a laser) and that's okay. ends by itself.
  - 🧶 Toss the yarn - throws a yarn ball where your cursor is. it
                  bounces and rolls (real physics!). grab it with
                  the mouse and FLING it — she'll chase it down and
                  whack it around until she's done, then flop next
                  to it. the kitten plays too!
  - 🤸 Do a trick - BACKFLIP!
  - 🍬 Give a treat / 👋 Come here - little ways to interact
  - 🎀 Look - dress her up! 🎭 Costume (batcat 🦇, spidercat 🕷,
              wizard 🧙, king 👑, devil 😈), 🎨 Fur color, 📏 Size
  - ✏ Rename - name your cat (and kitten). The name sticks to
              this machine like a save file, so she's *your* cat.
  - 🏠 Decorate - make the place feel like home! Add a cat bed
                  (she naps in it), food & water bowls (she
                  self-serves when hungry/thirsty — less nagging
                  you), a scratching post, a potted plant (she
                  bats at it), and a cardboard box (she hops in
                  and perches on top), and a 🚽 litter box. Drag
                  any item to move it, right-click an item to
                  remove it (or scoop the litter box).
  - 💤 Nap time - tells her to take a nap

  When you move or close a window she's sitting on, she falls off
  and flips you off — and now the whole screen SHAKES from the
  impact. She's got attitude.
  - 📏 Size     - smol / normal / chonky
  - 🎨 Fur      - black / ginger / gray / snow / choco
  - 🔊 Sounds   - tiny 8-bit meows, purrs and chirps (on/off)
  - 🐾 Kitten   - adopt a little kitten! it follows her around,
                  cuddles up when she sleeps, chases its tail and
                  pounces on her. (no extra chores - she looks
                  after it)
  - ❌ Bye bye  - she goes home (progress is saved)

  Click her to pet her (hearts + purrs). Hold the mouse button and
  drag to pick her up by the scruff — she will dangle, then drop
  and land on her feet. The kitten can be petted and carried too.

  She only needs attention a couple of times a day. She can get
  sad, but she can never die. Everything is saved between runs in
  %APPDATA%\vCat.

NOTES
  - First start: Windows SmartScreen may warn because the exe is
    unsigned. Click "More info" -> "Run anyway".
  - To have her move in automatically at every boot: press Win+R,
    type  shell:startup  , press Enter, and put a shortcut to
    vCat.exe in that folder.
  - She lives on your primary monitor.
  - Antivirus false positives can happen with PyInstaller exes;
    the full source code is in vcat.py.

Made with <3 (and Claude Code)
