The Rings of Saturn — a world guide
Somewhere past the last streetlight and a very long way past the moon, there's a corner of deep space where the nebula glows in every color at once. Saturn hangs there in candy stripes, wearing its rainbow rings like a fancy collar. Asteroids drift by at nap speed, a little green saucer putters along minding its own business, and there's no sky out here at all — just stars, and stars, and more stars.
Here's the catch, and it's a good one: the colors of space are every bit as bright as the pets floating through it. A rainbow crowd against a rainbow nebula makes this, we think, one of the trickier hunts in the game. Happily, nobody's keeping score. There's no way to lose and no clock ticking — just one special critter bobbing weightless somewhere in the sparkle, and all the time in the universe to spot it.
What to look for in the Rings of Saturn
Every hidden treasure in this world is a rare — the kind that blends into the crowd instead of politely bobbing up and down to be noticed. In a scene this colorful, that makes for four proper needle-in-a-nebula finds. (The roaming regulars — Cameow Sandiego, Schrödinger's Kit, Penny the Pug, and Mika — can drift through here too, as they do everywhere.)
- Triclops — a friendly bright-green kitty who keeps two eyes for napping and a third on permanent lookout for shooting stars and snacks. Blip blorp.
- Roy Catty — a blond replicat who has watched comets blaze past these very rings. He knows little moments drift away like teardrops in the rain, which is exactly why he takes napping so seriously.
- Meowie Bowie — a dazzling glam-rock star-cat from some far-off galaxy. Cat? Comet? Ground Control gave up deciding and just keeps watching.
- The Mothershipurr — the little green saucer itself, puttering along the rings and beaming up the occasional bewildered space-cow. It comes in peace. It would also like a snack.
Tips for grown-ups
Since the colors won't help you here, try hunting by shape instead: ask which kitty has three eyes? or can you find the little saucer? and let the camouflage do its worst. It's a lovely world for space words, too — point out the planet, its rings, the asteroids, the nebula (a very satisfying word to say out loud). Everything drifts gently, so it plays well at wind-down time; with no timer and no way to lose, a long slow look is a perfectly good strategy. Counting Saturn's candy stripes together makes a fine stalling tactic while small eyes scan.
One more thing…
Real-life Saturn is so light for its size that it would float in water — if anyone could find a bathtub big enough. A floating planet presiding over a world full of floating cats seems, to us, exactly right.