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Tad Carlucci · 03-06-2014, 09:11 PM

Cat cost accounting, if you want to call it that, is pretty trivial. The KittyCatS region is the main cost. There's a few dollars a month for the web site, and a few cents (pro-rated) a month for the domain name.

Their primary source of income is food. Milk and other vitamins probably run a distant second, with Starter sales (including collectible/limited edition) following far, far behind. Pet kits probably fall at the bottom of the list, following well behind clothing and accessories.

Except for food costs, we're *NEVER* charged for boxes or live cats, anywhere.

Boxes never cost anything.

You can store as many boxes or live cats as you want in your avatar's inventory.

You can store as many boxes or live cats as you want in the Cattery.

If you ignore region rental costs paid (eventually) to Linden Labs, even in-world boxes and live cats are free.

If you store them in your inventory and lose a few dozen and come back in a year or two and ask for them to be replaced, they will be, for free.

If you find one which is so old it won't even go to the Menagerie, they'll update it, for free. (And, if it's an ancient Starter, is that ever a hassle for them! They have to create it BY HAND and trust you to delete the old one.)

Cats, live or boxed, NEVER "expire". They're never disabled. Even a cat which has been sick for three years is not disabled.

You can CHOOSE to purchase food. If you don't, yes, the cat gets "sick" but does NOT "expire"

In-world, if you don't like the blanket for a sick cat, just change prim mode.

Yes, a sick cat can't breed, but that's not germane to a discussion of pets.

And, yes, a few of the interactions don't make sense when the cat is sick. But it only costs a week's food to fix a sick cat. And that's at half-rate "pet food" level .. or 1/40th of a 20-Pack. That's 74.5 L$ .. nowhere near the price of a Pet kit .. to get them back.

As to my estimates, I'm using "round figures". If you want better estimates, see my other thread. I used "perhaps over a million" to allow for cats sent to the Menagerie.

I agree that pets would have some effect upon the player-to-player markets, if there were any significant quantity available. At present, I doubt there's enough Perma-pet'd cats out there to have any real effect.

I agree the price for pet kits is far too high. I disagree the price should be simply reduced.

When you're thinking about how the company views cats consider: all cats, live, box, menagerie, pet, deleted, or lost from your inventory, are identical. They are nothing more than a record (maybe two or three) in an SQL database. For the company, a "cat" is basically "free". Make another one, or another million, and their cost is the same as if there were no cats at all.