"Librarians love cats." Is this a stereotype or is this true? Probably both. Lately there have been a few games that both prominently feature cats and are very good. Let's take a look.
Have you ever aspired to be called a cat lady? In Cat Lady you can live out that dream without all of the hair, feeding and care of actual cats. In this card game there is a grid of available cards composed of cats, catnip, food, toys and costumes. Players take a row of cards each turn and try to collect and feed the best set of cats. There's a bit of interaction as sometimes you will want to use a spray bottle card to block the row your opponent might want to grab. 2–4 players can get through a game of Cat Lady in about 30 minutes. There's both an original version and a deluxe edition which includes customizable cat cards!
Did you know that calico can refer to both cats and quilts? In Calico players are trying to make a beautiful quilt that will earn points for various scoring conditions. There's also other cat points that can be scored. Players take turns placing hexagon shaped tiles on their board while trying to maximize a variety of different scoring categories based on patterns and colors. If you create certain groups you can sew a button to the quilt which leads to more points. 1–4 players can finish a game of Calico in less than 45 minutes.
The Isle of Cats is a strategy game combines a couple of very popular game mechanics in gaming right now. First you draft cards by passing a hand of cards from player to player and select some before passing them on. Second you play cards to put various polyomino (Tetris-shaped) pieces onto a grid in order to best fill the space. All under the guise of rescuing cats from an evil bad guy. This is probably the most complex game recommended on this guide, but even so there's an included Family variant that makes it a little more straightforward so that the game can be enjoyed with a larger audience.
