This is another game that my husband ordered, and again, I was skeptical at first, but it’s totally won me over! If you love cats, logic, and want to sneak in just a bit of math, Cat Lady is the perfect game for you!
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Cat Lady can be played by 2-4 players. Usually, my husband and I play it without our kids as just a 2-player game. When we do get another player in there, the game totally changes, but is still very enjoyable. I love that when you add more players, you add more cards, helping to keep the game well-balanced.
How to play Cat Lady
To begin, a 3×3 grid of playing cards is laid out. Playing cards consist of cats, food, toys, catnip, and costumes. There are also spray bottles and Lost Cat cards. On their turn, a player takes one row or column from the grid, but NOT the row or column the cat token is sitting next to. Diagonal “rows” are not allowed.
In this layout, any row or column can be claimed EXCEPT Jazz, Snowflake, and the sailor outfit. Instead, the chicken, lost cat card, and Sir Cuddleface are claimed.
Food cards are turned in for food tokens (colored cubes), cats are placed in front of the player, and all other cards remain in the player’s hand. The grid is refilled from the draw pile, and the player moves the cat token next to the row or column they just replaced the cards in.
Lost Cat cards may be turned in to claim a Stray Cat. Stray cats often have some pretty awesome scoring strategies, like allowing you to place as much food on it, and their points are equal to double how much food you’ve fed them. This cat’s name is Cow, but we like to call him Fridge. Other stray cats are worth however many cats of a certain color you have fed, how many toys or costumes you have, or they can even count as a catnip!
These are all of the stray cats. As you can see, most have some unique scoring!
Spray bottles can be used to move the cat token. If you really need the row or column that the cat is sitting by, you can spray it and take those three cards. Spray bottles aren’t worth any points, though.
Stealth math practice galore!
When scoring at the end of the game, the math can get pretty complex. Each fed cat is worth so many points (mostly depending on what their food cost is). Most of the cats are worth a set amount of points, from 1-6. But some cats have variable points. Their points could equal the number of cats of a certain color, or how much food you put on it.
All of these cats are fully fed, so you’d have the following score: 3 (Sparkle) + 4 (Sir Cuddleface) + 2 (Snowflake) + 10 (Antoinette is worth 2 points for every white cat that is fed, and she is also white) + 10 (Cow is worth 2 points for every piece of food you feed her) = 29
Whoever has the most leftover food after feeding all their cats loses 2 points, so you don’t want to just grab all the food you can. However, unfed cats cost you 2 points each, so you also don’t want to just grab all the cats you can. Whoever has the most costume cards gets 6 points, but if you don’t have any, you lose 2 points.
The far right column was previously claimed, so the cat is moved to guard that column. Now, the superhero costume, Sparkle, and Pablo Picatso are the column that can’t be claimed. Instead, Jazz, the lost cat card, and the superhero costume in the top row are claimed.
Scoring catnip
If you only have 1 catnip card, you lose 2 points, but if you have 2 or 3 catnip cards, you gain 1 point for each of your fed cats. If you have at least 4 catnip cards, each fed cat gets you 2 points.
This would be an excellent time to use the spray bottle, to shoo away the cat so you can grab all that food in the top row!
Scoring toys
Toys have a rather unique scoring guide. Unique toys get you more points than repeat toys. There are 5 different cat toys, and for each complete set you have, you get 12 points. But if you only have 3 unique toys, you only get 5 points.
This toy collection would get you 17 points.
Cat Lady is a total winner!
While the scoring can get pretty complex, Cat Lady is such a fun game, it’s totally worth it! Plus, it’s a lot of fun to work out your strategy for how you’re going to get the most points. Are you going for black cats? Were you lucky enough to nab Fridge, err, I mean Cow? Maybe you have a bunch of 1-point cats, but you’re collecting catnip which turns them all into 3-point cats!
Puns galore!
I’ll admit it – I love myself a good pun. And with cat names like Bronte, Pablo Picatso, LeVar Purrton, Hemingway, Keaton, and Chairman Meow, these cats are hard to resist! What will your game strategy be? Try Cat Lady and see if your strategy is better than your opponent’s!