A happy cat story

I'm cleaning my home office as part of the end-of-the-year activities. I want to share here one of the most curious things I came across. My kids make a lot of crafty things, but this particular one really tickles my fancy.

My youngest son is four, and he recently learned how to play Ticket to Ride: First Journey. After playing this with him, some of the other boys and I got into a game of Clank! The youngest one was flitting around the table and making a bunch of noise, so I tried to think of a good creative challenge to occupy him. First Journey was still on the table, and something about the art caught my eye.

I pointed to the orange cat that is being held by the girl in yellow. Sarcastically, I pointed out how very happy the cat seemed to be.

I mean, look at that face. It's practically a meme in the making.

I suggested that my son create his own drawing of that ever-so-happy cat. He was very excited and ran off to the crafting table. He came back in a few minutes with this:

It's rather faintly drawn in pencil on lined paper, so here's a digitally-enhanced version.

Now, look at that face! That cat is actually happy, and it would love to be held by a girl in yellow on the cover of any train-related board game.

He took a separate sheet of paper, rolled it up, and  taped it behind the drawing so that the whole thing would stand up. I believe he had just seen the Mr. Whiskers standee from the Clank! Expeditions: Gold and Silk expansion, and this inspired him to make his also a freestanding piece.

It was back in 2011 that I wrote about my oldest son's being inspired by a game box and recreating the artwork in a drawing, when he was just a little older than the youngest son is now.

I hope you enjoyed this end-of-year story. I expect to return tomorrow with my traditional summary of the year in games. Enjoy the last day of 2019!