Looking after your pet is gentle. It never dies, and its happiness never falls below 20%. Only what you do for it counts, never how you work.
The three needs
Your pet has three needs, which fade over time:
- Fed runs from full to empty in about a day.
- Loved runs out in about half a day.
- Played runs out in about a day.
Happiness is a mix of the three. When a need runs low, your pet tells you when you hover over it, with lines like “Could use a snack”, “Could use a belly rub” or “Wants to play fetch”.
What fills each need
- Fed: feed it a file, which is mostly Fed. The file stays exactly where it was.
- Loved: click it, or stroke it back and forth for a belly rub. A bath is mostly Loved, with a little Played.
- Played: catch or fling the ball, land it on its head for a bonk, play tug-of-war, or let it pounce on your pointer.
- A bit of everything: a treat adds a little to each.
Hover over your pet for a treat, a ball or a bath, or right-click it and open Play & Care.
The Happiness Meter
Open Happiness Meter… from the menu bar or by right-clicking your pet. Clicking the widget opens it too.
- Today shows the meter, the three needs and a line from your pet about the day.
- Week shows happiness for each day and marks the best one.
- Month is a calendar shaded by happiness.
- Year shows each month, plus your totals and days together.
The diary also keeps counts of your habits, such as focus minutes and breaks. These are there to look back on and never change happiness. It holds counts only, with no app, file or window names, and it stays on your Mac. Your pet’s day starts at 5 am.
Teaching it tricks
Tricks are learned from care, counted over all time:
- Chase Tail: 10 belly rubs
- Play Dead: 15 games of fetch
- High Five: 20 treats
The first time it learns one, it hops for joy and tells you. To see how close you are, right-click your pet and open Play & Care. Tricks you haven’t learned yet are greyed out with your progress, such as “Chase Tail (7 of 10 belly rubs)”.
To do a trick, choose it from that menu, or hover over your pet and click the sparkles icon for a random one.