Back to the Cats Paw Island Avatar Chat Home Page Cats Paw Island General FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions

Cats Paw Island is an avatar chat, a virtual land where felines of all shapes and sizes roam. Leave your mundane life behind and be feline for awhile. Explore and chat with others. Become a member and be a part of our world!

Cats Paw Island is brought to you by William Underwood, website co-owner and web developer.

Copyright © by wunderwood LLC.


About Cats Paw Island
How much it costs
Creating an account
A Cats Paw Island tutorial
The rules / Chat 'rating'
Asking for help
Becoming an administrator
Role-play on Cats Paw Island
Technical problems
Reporting bugs
Submitting art for poses or rooms
Contacting us / Feedback
About Cats Paw Island Deltas
About Cats Paw Island subscriptions

What is Cats Paw Island? (back to top)
Cats Paw Island is a 2D graphical avatar chat. That means that, unlike with a text-only chat (think AOL® chatrooms), there's a unique visual element: you control a small drawing of your character (called "avatar") on a background scene such as a forest, a meadow or a castle room. You can interact with other online users by chatting and changing "poses" to make your character do different actions and express your mood. Your avatar can be any species in the feline family or even an "anthro" (half-human or anthropomorphic) animal, and it can be sleeping, sitting, walking, pouncing, and more. Your speech will appear in an on-screen text log as well as in a small speech bubble above your avatar's head. You can use the chat directly from your web browser, and you do not have to download any program. This is a place to hang out, have fun, meet new people, and chill with friends.

Here's a screenshot! (opens in a new window)
Cool! So how much does this cost? (back to top)
You can use Cats Paw Island for free, but but if you want to get access to custom poses, or have a personal chatroom on the site, you will want to purchase Cats Paw Island Deltas and use them to buy a subscription, as described in the chart at the bottom of this page. We still have free accounts, of course. If you want to hang out here for free, you still can.
Sign me up! Wait, how? (back to top)
Sign up here!. By signing up for Cats Paw Island you agree to be subject to rules of conduct and terms of use.
I registered, and there's so many buttons! How do I use this thing? (back to top)
Look here for the Basic Cats Paw Island Tutorial and that should be enough to get you started. If you have any further questions, you can try asking other users you see in the chat, or call on a member of our Administration or visit the Cats Paw Island forum.
What are the rules? What happens if I break them? What is this chat rated? (back to top)
Our rules are written in detail here: The Rules of Cats Paw Island, and they describe what the acceptable behavior for Cats Paw Island is and what can happen when you ignore that. In brief, we consider ourselves a PG-13 chat; so basically if it's not on "The Simpsons" it's not okay to do in the public rooms. Temporary private rooms are available to all members, but the private room ratings range from "G" to "X" and they are controlled by the private room owner. If you are a parent of an underage Cats Paw Island patron and you have any questions about this, please e-mail Bill Underwood at .

Along with the rules of conduct for this site, in order to participate you must also agree to abide by our Terms of Use. By making use of the services on this website you agree to the terms of service described in this document.

We want everyone to have fun and be safe, and these rules are in place to help make that happen. Not following these rules can result in a kick (being "chased" from the chat, logged out), or a ban - which could be a few days or permanent, depending on the offense and how many strikes you've got. We have a very low tolerance for troublemakers, so just don't do it.
Who do I ask for help in using the chat or when someone is bothering me? (back to top)
First off, if someone is bothering you, ignore them. Literally. On Cats Paw Island, there is an ignore feature, and that should always be your first line of defense if someone is bothering you. You can ignore them and they will *disappear* from your chat window (and you will also disappear from theirs). It will look to them as though you have signed off the chat. Other users in the room can still see you and still see the person you are ignoring. To ignore someone, either click on their avatar and select "ignore" or type "!ignore {username}" in the text box when you're in a room ({username} is their Cats Paw Island name).

Our Administration is here to help you: whether that means answering a simple question, or protecting your chat experience. The Admins have the ability to give official answers to questions, as well as kick and ban troublemakers from the chat - they are Cats Paw Island's police. If you see a rule being broken, please report it to us. If someone is bothering you, remember that you have to ask them to stop before it counts as harassment. Please keep a copy of your scroll log to show us as a record of the event. Never hesitate to ask for help if you don't feel right about a situation.

How to contact an Admin: When you first log in and see the map screen, to the upper right hand corner is a list of the online Administrators. If you then look in The Mysts, you will see the names of Administrators in italic and either red (Betas), blue (Gammas), or fuscia (Alphas). For minor problems contact a Gamma and for more serious problems contact a Beta. You can "call" them from the room you're in and they'll come to assist or you can go to them. (Note: "Problem Tickets" are available but we prefer that this is used to report technical problems when there are no Admins online.)

Just like the Alpha of a real wolf pack, Underdog is the lead Alpha of Cats Paw Island, and he is ultimately in charge of the chat. He has a team of Alphas to assist with the managing of Cats Paw Island. There are also Betas, and Gammas in our Administration Team, and they patrol the chat and manage the different aspects of making Cats Paw Island work. A lot of members have been around for a while and may be able to answer basic questions. These symbols only appear on our forums by default, but you can see them on the chat too. Set the checkbox for "show ranks" in your Cats Paw Island profile.
How do I get to be an Administrator? (back to top)
Number one, don't ask us for it. If you're helpful, friendly, and follow the rules, you're bound to be noticed by the Administration eventually. We occasionally open applications when we feel the need to do so. DO NOT ask us to open this process! We open applications when we need more hands on deck, and we're the ones who decide when and who that is.
Can I role-play (RP) here? (back to top)
RP is when people pretend to have clans, packs, mates, families, battles, and so forth. This site was meant for chatting, not for role-playing. But, we do understand that a lot of people are interested in RP. We want to have a place for people that want to role-play, but the main Cats Paw Island site isn't intended for RP. So please do not force people to role play with you, if they do not want to. Do understand that we do not allow people to use public rooms (role play or otherwise) as camps/clans/territory. You can only do this in PRIVATE rooms.
Why can't I get into the chat? (back to top)
This could be for a number of reasons. Make sure you have the most up to date version of Flash, which you can find here: Adobe Flash website. If you have some kind of firewall installed, (most schools and some business networks have this sort of protection), then that could be blocking Cats Paw Island. Also, try clearing out your cache and cookies through your browser's internet options. Currently, the chat works best in Internet Explorer 7 and pretty well in Firefox as well as some other browsers. If none of this helps, go to here: The Technical Support Forum for help.
I found a bug (something that doesn't work). What should I do? (back to top)
Tell us! We need your help in order to find all of the bugs and problems with Cats Paw Island so that Underdog can fix them. Read this: How To Report Bugs and follow the instructions to post in our Tech Support forum.
Can I submit my own art for my character? (back to top)
Yes! Look here for our Art FAQ!
I may want to speak with an administrator before registering, or I may have a question that's not explained here. Or maybe I have some feedback for you. (back to top)
If you'd like to know more before registering, please e-mail your questions to . If you have a question that isn't answered here, please contact an Admin on the chat or use the Forum.

If you have feedback for us, we'd love to hear from you about how we're doing, or take suggestions for new features. We need your help to make this the best chat that it can be! All we ask is that you give your thoughts politely and respectfully, even if it's criticism. You can post in our Suggestions Forum section, you can email Underdog, or you can speak with any available Administrator about your ideas or opinions.
Where can I find out more about Cats Paw Island Deltas? (back to top)
Check out the Cats Paw Island Deltas FAQ to learn about the currency used on Cats Paw Island and other Chatlands sites.
Where can I find out about the different subscription levels and what they allow? (back to top)
Check out this chart. It shows you the different subscriptions and how much they cost per day in Deltas. Cats Paw Island Deltas (Δ) are the unit of currency on Cats Paw Island. There is more information about what you get at each of the subscription levels on this page.


That should do it! Have you read both the rules of conduct and our terms of use yet? If not, please do so right away!

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