Cats and dogs moving in!

(TS4 - EP Cats & Dogs) I'm really enjoying this expansion pack. The pets come with a much better individual approach than in previous versions, I find their personality is a lot more diverse. They are charming, too, and a great assets to most families.

I'm not really into RL pets enough to gasp over all those breeds that are available. To me it would be just fine to have five generic versions to choose from. I'll never make use of all those detailed breeds on offer, and never did in previous series, but other simmers will enjoy the rich library, of course.

Also, there was introduced a new sim count meaning there is now a limitation to how many sims your game can handle. It's a rather generous limit though, but you obviously is not meant to fill up all your worlds and homes with families, like I do. You would reach your limit rather quickly. My game is the kind of played families on most residential lots in all worlds, and I like them to spread and mix, building family trees over the generations. Families I played the week TS4 was released are still in my game. So, it would be a headache needing to get rid of a single soul. Luckily I can go on with my strategy, but I can't add many more, and it means only a few families can have pets because they count as sims in this manner. Fair enough.

In my Gloomville (aka Willow Creek) the Crumpleton family has resided Uptown for ages. This family more or less founded Gloomville, and they built themselves a fortune. They have two Siamese cats, Bart and Lucia.

Pictured above is young adult of the house, Charlotta Murderia Crumpleton petting the new household members. I'll pretend they had them for a while, though. If the cats will breed, there might be furry fellows for generations to come, too! Charlotta is the family's main heir, her brother already married and settled with a wealthy woman in Newcrest. More about Charlotta in my future "As days go by" updates!

Also residing Uptown, Gloomville, is the von Kaching family. They are Gloomville's wealthiest, and mostly on the right side of the law, too! Bud is successful in business, and his lovely wife Rose runs a popular gallery at Newcrest. Rose got herself a male Chihuahua named Simelangelo, and I'm not sure it was a good idea when Bud offered the dog a hot dog... The couple has a young adult son, Edward Bertophelus, and a teen daughter, Aili. Will Edward soon find a wealthy woman, like his father encourages him to?

Over at Willow Field, we find the Oaksdale farm. Agaton is head of this household, and runs the farm with wife Sonia and teen daughter Tammy. Every farm needs a dog or a cat - or both, don't they? The Oaksdale farm chose a female Alaskan Malamute, named Doodle. The farm grow mostly Sage, will Doodle help out?

Do you remember my long running Gloomville Diaries? Ochana Mox's household, counting husband Chad and their four kids, young adults Edith and Miranda, and teens Paula and Pivian, now was joined by the female American Longhair named Aileen. Yes, that's right, Ochana named the cat after the mysterious woman who gave her the Diaries challenge. Well, the furry Aileen needs some manners, it seems.
Edith is main heir but still not married, and her twin sister Miranda recently moved to her boyfriend Alan Mugger's farm in Muggerdale, but will have to leave Gloomville, according to Ochana's secret diaries quest...

Across the street lives the criminal Ella Hikes and her brother Adrian. There used to be a second brother who moved down to Muggerdale long ago. Ella has a Boxer named Brutus. He seems a bit neglected and bored, and to be honest there is no reason to believe that Ella will ever teach Brutus any good manners at all.

Down at Muggerdale, Gloomville's poor district, the oldest household is the Mugger Farm. Alan Mugger is a young adult, and his girlfriend Miranda Mox just moved in. I think they are engaged. But if Alan marries Miranda, he can not run his farm like he planned to all his life, because Miranda is forced to settle away from Gloomville, for some silly reason. So, Alans teen sister Janet will get the farm, and Alan and Miranda will assist her until she grows up.

There are two pets on Mugger Farm, the female Collie named Laika, and female Siberian cat Fluff. Mugger Farm holds the farm rights to produce mushroom, spinach and carrot.

Also in Muggerdale, we find the very poor Schwaini household. Elderly couple Miri and Corinne made a living from crimes and magic. Their young adult kids, Sculla and Rambo still are single and staying at home, but Sculla is main heir to their little house. Their two cats are there for the magics, they are both Oriental Shorthair, Jin and Yang, male and female. Corinne sees them as sacred, and in fact Jin and Yang are the real masters of the house. If they would breed, the kittens could be sold for good money. Miri isn't too happy giving up his favorite TV seat, though...

At Oasis Springs, we find Fiona Robberton running her Hostel at Nookstone. She lives alone with her daughter Charlie, who just started school. Fiona was one of the 8 contestants of my "Sims by numbers". Now she is facing failure as her Hostel doesn't attract lodgers, and she can't fund any needed extra installments. The property has a certain value, but what does that help when Fiona can hardly feed her daughter? She got hold of a puppy, a female Airedale Terrier named Stella, that hopefully can take the girl's mind off their situation for a while.

Finally, let's move to the porch district of San Myshuno, where only one household got pets yet. Diego Lobo found it hard to choose between Dalmatians and Poodles, but seeing his two dogs as the art project that he breaths for, the black and pink Poodles won. Male dog named Fodo and female pink dog named Dido. Dogs makes for a good asset in Diego's life. He is still single, his old mother just died, and he never knew his father. He knows for sure that he will not form a normal family, it gotta be special, and he is just about reaching the knowledge of where to start looking!

Btw: Wondering about the "As Days Go By" label? Adding cats and dogs to some families, I also revisited some homes that I did not play in ages, and I'm currently looking into a new way to play my game and to share those stories on this blog. This explains the tag on these photos. "As Days Go By" will be one of my 2018 things here on Simmerville's Sims - more about this shortly... ;)