Gosh, lots to reply to in this thread! I'll do my best to respond to the concerns and questions that have been brought up as they directly relate to KittyCatS, and if anyone else has further questions please feel free to message me in world.
Our post regarding this bug is here: http://kittycats.biz/blog/2013/12/26/important-drop-bug-information/. Thank you to those that re-posted it also.
"The Kittycats teams all state that it is a LL bug but I cant find any information on it aside from their website and they said that it effects all breedables but not all breedables are effected because not all breedables are interactive as kittycats."
Our post that I linked above stats that "other breedables are affected". We knew that Dwarfins customers were experiencing some issues, and Meeroos may have been experiencing some issues as well as shown here: http://www.worldofmeeroos.com/?q=node/13384. The Dwarfins post is linked in our blog post above, as well as here: http://dwarfins.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/missing-dwarfins/. Thank you to those that re-posted this also.
Before I address some of the direct concerns I want to give a little background on this issue as it concerned KittyCatS.
One of the most popular features of KittyCatS is the ability to Interact with the cats via their menu. These Interaction functions allow a customer to Cuddle, Hold, Lay with, Walk, and Play with their cats. Using the radial menu, they can also Pet their cats and Megapuss owners can Ride their cats. You can read more about KittyCatS Interactions here: http://kittycats.biz/help/category.php?id=6
When KittyCatS launched, initially customers would stop Interacting with their cats by Detaching the cats. However some customers would find that their cats would detach into inventory as a "parentless" object outside of the Inventory and Library folders and thus disappear. This is apparently an old SL issue that affects no-copy objects that attach to your avatar via a menu. After testing extensively, the suggested alternative was for customers to right click the physical cat and Drop it instead. This has worked well since our launch in 2011, and while some customers did still experience issues from time to time, the vast majority have been able to use Drop as a viable workaround.
About a month ago however, we began to notice an increase in tickets from customers that would lose their cats due to the Drop option being greyed out and having to Detach instead. Initially we thought it may have been to due to an influx of new customers since the end of summer (more customers = more tickets.) However over the recent holidays, the number of tickets regarding this issue suddenly exploded, and after researching the problem and finding it was a known issue that a) was affecting other breedables and b) was being looked into by LL, we made the decision to suggest to customers that they not Interact with their cats unless necessary for breeding. For those customers that did need to Interact with their cats for breeding purposes (ie. to give them the happiness/love gain buff) we suggested a workaround where they could Attach their cats directly to the correct attachment points, and then detach when done, much like one would detach a hair or clothing prim.
So that is where we are now. Knowing that the holidays are a busy time for everyone, we trusted that the issue was being looked into and that this was just a case of needing to be patient and allow LL to handle things. Once it seems like the bug is no longer affecting Interactions with KittyCatS, we'll give our customers an "all-clear" so they can get back to cuddling, holding, laying, and walking with their cats.
Now to address some of the specific concerns just so that there's an official word on them from us
"The thing is you have to buy milk to gain happiness now instead of just cuddling the cats."
Vita-Milk is an optional product. It provides a buff to Happiness and Love gain. It's not required for your KittyCatS. It's what we call a convenience product. For all of our convenience products, there is a free workaround. In the case of KittyCatS, the free workaround is to use the cat's Interaction menu to lay with, cuddle, or hold the cat. This causes the cat to attach to and animate your avatar via its menu. Customers could also right-click on their cats to bring up a radial menu and "Pet" their cat. Doing any of these activities for 30min would provide the same buff that the Vita-Milk product provides. I want to make it clear that at no time have we told customers affected by this issue that they HAD to purchase Vita-Milk as a solution. As was pointed out, we've instead offered a workaround detailed on our blog post linked above.
"Also, if I kept attaching the cats they might not want to return my cats anymore..(that was from a non CSR)"
I think they key here is that you were told this by someone that is not an official representative of KittyCatS, therefore it's not something that you should take as an indicator of policy. If you do need an official reassurance however, then as the Head CSR for KittyCatS, I can state that if you send us a ticket with the lost cat's ID#, and it's shown to be owned by you and not in the Menagerie, we will assist in retrieving it.
"its just they are not understanding that some of us really enjoy intereacting with teh pets more than trying to make money breeding that exclusive animal that everyone wants..."
On the contrary, we understand this very well! As we said in our blog post: "We realize that the walking animation and interactions are a large part of the appeal of KittyCatS for many, and we truly apologize for the inconvenience that this latest bug has caused in regards to your ability to enjoy your cats." So don't worry! We want you to enjoy your KittyCatS and once we know that this bug won't be an issue, we'll be sure to let our customers know.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify a few things regarding our product! If anyone has any concerns specific to KittyCatS, please don't hestate to contact me in world so I can assist you.
Kitten Longmeadow
KittyCatS, Head CSR
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