After consultation with the older stock of citizenry in our little community it has been revealed to me that Neufreistadt was - in its early days - the home of a most weird and wonderful occurence:
In a manner that could be said to mirror the exodus of cats from the town of Hamelin (visited by the infamous pied piper) the city of Neufreistadt was suddenly blessed with an influx of a great number of cats each of which seemed determined to exercise its free will and find its own favourite spot of the city in which to nest.
At the time I understand this incidence was viewed upon by the residents as a mysterious incidence bordering upon being a nuisance since everybody would have to look twice where they put their foot lest they risked being ambushed by a cat in the middle of scaling the very slippery and narrow staircase leading to the Biergarten for example.
It took a prolonged and concerned effort by a group of dedicated citizens to seek out all the kittens and resettle them to responsible households, where they could be expected to thrive, prosper and make the most of their nine lives.
The event has long since passed into Neufreistadt folklore and it could be said that today the event carries more significance as a symbol of how that mysterious force of 'destiny' tested the limits of the Neufreistädters compassion and careful attention to detail. A test which of course was passed with flying colours and is in great part responsible for the fact that the city seems strangely gifted with at least nine lives if not more.
In commemoration of this incident and to further strengthen the Neufreistadt spirit of good humoured compassion and playfulness I would like to propose that we establish a "Katzerennen" (i.e. a cat race) across the Marktplatz.
The idea is simple but holds some potential I believe:
1) A starting line and a finishing line is put up at opposing ends of the Marktplatz
2) A number of teams register to participate in the race. Each team consists of: Avatar A, avatar B and an autonomously moving cat that reacts to having its name called (preferably one of [url=http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?n ... 7:3pri1llm]Damianos Thetan's designs[/url:3pri1llm]). The cat must have been given a suitably exentric name in advance and must be owned by one of the participants.
3) The Avatar A from all the teams lines up at the starting line whereas avatar B lines up at the finishing line.
4) The race starts from a count of 3 and each team rezzes their cat at the starting line. It is now the task of the two avatars to get their cat to reach the finishing line before all the other cats by using a combination of cat calling (Damianos' cats react - sometimes - to having their name called) and coercing.
5) During the race a combination of cat toys and pillows may be rezzed in the middle of the Marktplatz to hopefully distract the contenders of the other teams. Bets can be made on such diverse topics as which cat is first over the line, how many times will the sim crash and so on. The team members are expected to be suitably adorned with catsy memorabilia. There will be a special prize for best dressed team.
6) A winning team is found and honoured by being photographed along with their cat. The photography is hung on display in the Biergarten until the next Katzenrennen and the participating teams clear up their rezzed prims.
So far this event is just a concept so I did not adorn it with any date. I'd like to hear if there is any support from the community for making it an event. We will probably need an extraordinary dispensation from the chancellor to be allowed to rezz autonomously moving animals in the sim for the day. In addition to that we will need teams of twos and of course the cat, which costs a small fortune - 250L$. I am willing to sponsor up to 8 cats but you need to present a good name for the cat and tell me who your team mate will be.
Let me know if you think it is a good idea and if so when would be an appropriate time to stage it.
