Hello September!

Hello and welcome to September with the Cats Hollow Gazette — our first issue after my summer baby holiday break, and a slightly smaller one this week while I get back into the swing of things.

This week’s headlines:

Cats Hollow Now Has Its Own Website: catshollow.com

Even though the newest member of our family has claimed a fair amount of my time and attention lately, I’ve managed to find a little time to think about where I want my Second Life journey to go over the coming months. Like everyone else, I only get 24 hours a day, and a considerable number of those belong to RL. So I’ve had to think about my priorities — both in terms of the time I have available and what I can realistically accomplish.

Alongside my SL family, Cats Hollow will be my number one priority. I simply love this town.

So I used some of my time to build Cats Hollow its very own website. It will gradually be filled with information, useful things, fun things and a few little extras. Among other things, I’m planning several Town Services that will eventually be accessible in-world through a terminal at Town Hall, while running through the website behind the scenes. Cats Hollow will also be getting its own Primfeed account alongside our Facebook presence. I’d be very happy to see you following us on both, and I’ll let you know as soon as the Primfeed account is ready.

Just to avoid any confusion: this separation only applies to our websites. Cats Hollow is, and will remain, very much a part of the Lanikaverse — it simply has its own little home on the web now.

Paw-tember Party — September 18, 2026

Autumn is my absolute favourite season — and not only because my birthday happens to be in September. Nature begins to settle down, the days grow cooler and slowly become shorter, and somehow everything seems to shift down a gear. Reason enough for a party, don’t you think?

So tomorrow we’re having a little get-together in Cats Hollow and YOU are invited! Close to Vintage Beach, we have a cosy open-air spot that I’ve given a touch of autumn decoration, and that’s where we’ll meet tomorrow, Friday, September 18, 2026 at 6 AM SLT, simply to hang out together, dance, relax and chat. Come as you are — there’s no real theme. Everyone is welcome, so even if you’ve never been to one of our parties before, don’t be shy. We only bite upon request. 😎

LANDMARK: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zaitsev/99/228/27

There may also be a little cat-and-autumn trivia with a few teeny-tiny prizes. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, Anika Whiskers, in-world.

The Photo Contest Has Ended

I was very happy to see some of you take part in our Early 19th Century photo contest, and I just wanted to give you a quick update: the contest is now officially closed. Next week, I’ll publish a full blog post about it, show all the entries and send out the prizes. As you know, every participant will receive a prize created by me especially for the contest and inspired by its theme. In addition, we’ll be drawing three prizes of L$500, which will also be sent out next week. At the same time, I’ll be preparing our little exhibition at Town Hall, where the contest entries will be displayed.

Autumn Is Slowly Unfolding Across Cats Hollow

Cats Hollow is beginning to settle into its slightly wistful autumn beauty, and little by little I’ve already started bringing the season into town. This year, however, I’ve decided not to turn Cats Hollow into an overwhelmingly Halloween-themed town. There are several reasons for that. As a European, Halloween simply isn’t quite as deeply rooted in my own traditions. I’m also ridiculously easy to scare, which admittedly doesn’t help matters. And over the past few years, I’ve watched Halloween in SL become bigger, brighter and more elaborate every year. It can be great fun, but by the end of it I sometimes feel as though I’ve seen enough orange and pumpkins to last me until next October.

There’s also a rather practical reason. Cats Hollow now stretches across an area larger than two complete Mainland regions. Decorating the entire town for autumn, transforming it again for Halloween and then changing everything once more for Christmas simply isn’t realistic for me. Of course, our residents are very welcome to decorate their own homes for Halloween and add a little Halloween spirit around town, as long as everything is packed away again afterwards. From my side, Cats Hollow will be celebrating autumn more than Halloween this year: changing leaves, cooler days and that particular atmosphere the season brings with it. There will certainly be a pumpkin or two. Just perhaps not a thousand. I hope you’ll enjoy Cats Hollow’s autumn as much as I do.