Sims Sunday: All The Little Creatures

You know what the problem is with having elderly people as bandmates? They die. In fact, we have had complete turnover in the band this week. The new bandmembers are:

1. Coreopsis’ sister Cagney.

2. A vampire named Ethan Parrot.

3. A guy named Evan Farmer who has refused every invitation to come over, and who I can’t find on the map. I have never seen him, except in the little thumbnails on Coreopsis’ menus. He looks a little like Dan Castellaneta.

Oh, speaking of elders, both Butters and Denise have turned old. Butters was particularly pleased to retire from his career with the military.

Remember how I mentioned a terrifying graphics glitch with animals who visit the lot? I finally managed to snap a screenshot. It only happens the very first time an animal visits, and only for a few seconds.

Here is a doggie. Doop dee doo, minding his own business.

GAAAAAH!

AAAAAAAAAH!!

And then right back to being a doggie.

Brr, it’s terrifying.

Speaking of things that are terrifying, I mis-spoke in the comments on last week’s post. It turns out that Coreopsis has indeed inherited the ability to turn into a doll.

UGH MOVING ON.

I had a lot of time to kill as Coreopsis climbed the career ladder. I decided to start collecting all the minor pets.

In addition to the major pets (cats, dogs, unicorns, and horses) the Pets expansion pack also brings minor pets. These are collectibles, like gems and seeds, which spawn at various places around the map. Collect them all!

There are lizards…

Turtles…

Birds…

Plus rodents and snakes. But I didn’t get pictures of her collecting them.

When you bring home your minor pet, you have to buy them a habitat. This is where the game really impressed me, because not only is each habitat demonstrably unique depending on the animal it houses, but it’s also really nice.

It’s basically exactly what I would buy and set up, if I were going to. (I have had a lot of pets in real life.)

Snake habitat, this one has our garter snake in it…

Rodent habitat, featuring the pygmy hedgehog she captured…

Lizard, with the little blue lizard (I forget the name)…

And for the birds, you have a choice of a large parrot cage or a branch stand. Here, Coreopsis is teaching her captured Blue-and-yellow Macaw (which I named Captain Squawks) how to talk.

At one point I panned back to the bird room and discovered this on the floor.

I thought that Captain Squawks had died, and this was his gruesome remains. But after cleaning it up, the bird reappeared. So I guess this is the game’s version of bird poop? I don’t know. I was confused.

“Well hello there, little fella!”

This is Butters attempting unsuccessfully to capture a bluebird. If you don’t do it right, the bird bites you and flies away.

Call it the Bluebird of You Should Probably Have That Looked At By A Doctor.

Coreopsis also got bitten a few times. Here, she’s trying to collect a Spotted Sixam, which is like an owl wearing a bluejay costume. I don’t know.

CHOMP.

Once you capture a bird, you can wear it around town on your shoulder, like this adorable little nuthatch here.

I have big plans for this, and they involve the FALCON.

That’s right: we now have a FALCON as a pet.

I can’t stop thinking of King of the Hill. Maybe I will name our falcon Rusty Shackleford.