My history with the Dogz 4 game went through a few phases, and it all began with the Old-School Era!

The families below were mainly focused on during the years immediately after I bought the game in high school (2001 - 2003) and during my last few semesters in college (2006 - 2008).

The hiatus in between was due to a performance issue that made the game run unplayably fast on Windows XP systems. Thank goodness this problem was eventually solved by PetzA!

Like all dogz in my original family tree, these families are naturally raised. ♥

Tambo & Faith
Focus years: 2001 - 2007

Tambo and Faith are my ultimate old-school couple. Tambo was my original Adoption Center adoption, Faith was my inaugural online adoption, and their eldest three children were the very first puppies born under my care!

Tobias, Pyramid, and Slate all hail from the Windows 98 days, and I played with them and their parents constantly back then. Each one had such a unique personality, and they all got along with each other. This family of five just felt "right." And yet even though I'd intended them to stay that way forever, I eventually caved to my curiosity over how many coat colors in this litter were really possible when PetzA gave me an unexpected second chance at playing the game in the post-Win98 world.

So along came June, the absolute spitting image of her mom, and then September. Since I was extending the family to see how many different coats I'd get, it seemed a good place to stop when the first repeat color appeared. I didn't know anything about the Petz 4 genetics system at the time and figured I'd probably exhausted the possibilities. That, and I didn't want to make the family too large.

The sad thing is that I never really played with June or September after they were born, which I feel bad about. I feel bad too that they were born at such a different time and under such different circumstances than their older siblings that they almost feel like they're a part of a different family. I need to make a point of focusing on those two in the future and building some tighter bonds.

Tobias & Enya
Focus years: 2002 - 2007

Tobias and Enya are my favorite pairing of all time. Tobias was my first puppy born in the game, and Enya -- whom I applied to adopt from an online kennel based on her unique look -- turned out to be the most unexpected bundle of personality ever (read: RIDICULOUSLY HYPER). I love them both immensely on their own, but their happy couplehood just amplifies those feelings.

That said, I learned some hard lessons as I grew this family! For one, it took me years to realize that Enya would never pass many of her unusual traits to her puppies. She's a hexed pet, and back then I didn't understand what that meant in context of the game's mechanics. (Hexed pets have had their individual code edited, but inheritance in the game is governed by the contents of universal breedfiles instead.) Had I known, I most likely wouldn't have pushed this litter beyond their fourth pup, Autumn.

I also learned that putting any puppies from my original family line up for adoption is risky business for my sentimental heart. I was really excited by my (re?)discovery of the RKC forum in 2014 and particularly stoked for the chance to participate in the adoption scene of an active Petz community. It also seemed the perfect solution to my overgrown litters, as I found myself completely incapable of deleting or excluding puppies from my family line for any reason. So, I put five up for adoption, four of whom found new homes... and although the experience was fun, years later all I do is look at how Mamoru is a tiny version of his father with his granddad's ears and I am FILLED WITH REGRET. ;__;

The last lesson here -- which I would forget and have to re-learn a few times in the future -- is that my max size for naturally raised litters is five or six. Any more than that feels unwieldly and uncomfortable, because large families like these are invariably a result of my pushing for "just one more pup" to see some kind of genetics equation play out, and I've found that I often don't bond with the puppies as strongly when I approach the game that way.

Harlie & Slate
Focus years: 2008 - 2015

Harlie and Slate are another one of my favorite pairings. They are the absolute definition of chill. Although their kids were born across all three of my so-called Petz eras, Slate's long history with me as one of my original second-gen puppies lands him and his family firmly in the Old-School camp.

This family is like a time capsule of all my big Petz-playing phases. Slate goes all the way back to my first year with the game; Dust, Cinnamon, and Rabbit were born right as I was finishing up college and moving in with my partner; Chiptune and Samus were born while I was in graduate school; and Traveller arrived during the beginnings of the COVID-19 shutdown. I don't think any other litter I have is as time-balanced as this one.

Harlie is a bit of an interesting enigma. Her genes can't be read by GenePoolz, but I don't think she's a hex. But maybe? I adopted her from an online kennel run by someone named Mary from whom I also picked up several other pups, one of which turned out to be Harlie's son! (I only noticed this years later.) I'm pretty sure I adopted Harlie in 2007 after I discovered PetzA, because I vividly remember the breedfile-, asset-, and pet-downloading spree I went on in the wake of that revelation. Petz had been returned to me, and my enthusiasm could not be contained.

Although Traveller was almost one pup too many, she instanty became one of my favorite new-school additions to the crew. This is one instance where I'm super glad we tried for "just one more."