Anonymous asked: Why did you pick a cat when you were designing Cait Sith? Are cats your favorite animal, or was there another reason behind your choice?

I shall work backwards with your two questions, anon. Cats are not my favourite animal, though I do share the apartment with a total of three cats now, excluding Cait Sith who comes and gos as he pleases. 

There were two primary reasons for choosing this specific feline form:

As a child I generally spent a lot of time in my own head, it was not an easy task for anybody to keep my concentration focussed on things in front of me. However, when I was six we had an influx of stray cats into our garden and that started to change things.

With my Father’s help I managed to house these strays. It was my first piece of construction and I spent hours crafting it, only to find that then I was quite content to spend even more hours watching these little cats go about their lives.

More strays arrived, attracted by the shelter and the sparse food we could provide. I watched them fight over scraps, watched them mate and give birth, watched mothers eating their own kittens, watched them die of disease or accident unable to feed themselves whilst the strongest continued to thrive. 

These stray cats gave me a more tangible understanding of animal drives than even my parents or the other important figures in my life I had back as a wee boy. Latterly I started ascribing them their own names and stories based on their positions under the plate; taking the names and personalities from the books of myths and monsters my Mother used to give me.

When I thought of an automaton crafted for the purpose of infiltrating and spying upon our own animal natures, my thoughts immediately went back to those strays; to the black and white Cait Sidhe of legend, and that of my own back yard.

The other reason was… well, let’s just say, what do you think of first when you see a feline with booties, neckerchief and crown? Do you think first of the purpose on which the designs were based? Or does my dear creation merely strike you as ‘daft’, ‘silly’, ‘cute’, ‘adorable’, ‘annoying’, ‘ridiculous’ or all manner of such adjectives?

How I actually arrived at the final designs is a bit more of a roundabout story, but I will leave that there. I have said quite enough I believe.

-Cmr Tuesti