★ [ Guide to Lacuna Pets & Items ] ★

[Lacuna]

I know a lot of more recent pets go unnamed, so I wanted to name mine and share with you all a little bit about them!

General Facts About my Pets:
- A few of my early pets were designed in GIMP with a trackpad, but all of my other pets were done in FireAlpaca with a cheap Wacom or Huion pen tablet.
- I am a purist and I very, very rarely color the lineart or color the CS tag something other than white. I try to make my lineart edits match the CS style as closely as possible, too!
- I find designs that are based on something easiest. The hardest designs for me are based on my own imagination.
- I love to work with the chicken and cat linearts the most.
- Pets take a long time for me to create because I'm a stubborn person armed with a tablet pen rather than a skilled artist.
- I do not draw as a hobby, and I don't really consider myself an artist. Sometimes I'd say I am a designer (I do graphics work outside of CS for my own projects and occasionally freelance) but CS pets are the only time I really draw.
- I go back over my pet design about a thousand times after I create it, looking back at it posted on a CS background and making tweaks because I am a bit of a perfectionist to my own vision.
- I am usually very careful about making designs flow with the lineart and making sense if the pet was in a different pose, which is just my style and preference for pets.
- I collect PPS pets, but I am generally more reserved about making PPS pets because they are special to me.

Table of Contents:

Staff Dogs
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Items (All Years)

Total Lacuna Pets: 184

2014: 1
2015: 21
2016: 31
2017: 24
2018: 18
2019: 35
2020: 28
2021: 17
2022: 9

Breakdown by Species:

Chicken: 51
Dog: 23
Cat: 22
Dwarf Hamster: 21
Butterfly Wolf: 16
Horse: 16
Rat: 9
Syrian Hamster: 7
Deer: 6
Chameleon: 4
Pony: 3
Guinea Pig: 3
Draft Horse: 1
Fox: 1
Custom: 1

[Lacuna]

2014: Aries

Link to original post/story: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2437517&p=77631561#p77631561
My very first CS pet! Designed in GIMP with a trackpad.




2015: Ziggi

I did not write a story for this one as far as I can tell, and it was a totally random design. I was just trying to push myself creatively!




2016: Ruffian

Link to original post/story: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3173043&p=102472466#p102472466





2017: Alanna

Link to original post/story: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3569388&p=112729047#p112729047
Alanna is a character from Tamora Pierce's books, and she's my favorite author.




2018: Kalliope

Link to original post/story: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=3902056&p=121099048#p121099048
I suggested this palette, and I did so partially because it looks like the trans flag.




2019: Jax

This outcome was loosely based on a character of mine, Jax. It was also a personal challenge not to edit the outside lineart. I made the newborn design this year.




2020: Nerine

I'm not sure I ever released this name before now, but here it is! My most edited pet ever, and quite a challenge. I'm proud of it though!




2021: Iyleen

Link to original post/story: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4616576&p=135982896#p135982896




2022: Cam

Link to original post: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4778081&p=139539092&hilit=staff+litter#p139539092

[Lacuna]

Easter
My first non-staff litter pets! Still working with GIMP and a trackpad here. They aren't really based on anything, just colors I liked.



Calico Chick | Dappled Brown Chick





July - Flamingo Chickens
This was the first thing I ever drew with a tablet, mostly as a test, and around late April/May. I never expected them to get released! They were based on random pictures of real flamingos, but I wasn't focusing on any specific breed or being true to it. Therefore, I'm using a user suggestion for the names.





American Flamingo | Puna Flamingo | Lesser Flamingo








July - Constellation Horses
These were made in late June, right before July started, as a tribute to my birthday on July 25th. The Leo outcome grew on my birthday! Despite this being so old I still really like this litter, especially the Cygnus outcome.





Cassiopeia Constellation Horse | Cygnus Constellation Horse





Leo Constellation Horse | Ursa Minor Constellation Horse





Candy Event
Summer Event 2015 was my first time attempting lineart edits! It was definitely a learning experience. I originally intended the first cat to have honey inside of it, but at the time everyone thought it was caramel, so I just went with it. This event was also the first time I made items. There are quite a few if you take a look.



Berry Gummy Worm | Sour Gummy Worm | Watermelon Popsicle


Caramel Chocolate Cat | Strawberry Chocolate Cat





Advent
I made 2 pets for the theme in 2015, which was pets based on previous newborns!





Egyptian Tuxedo Cat | Around the World Horse





Hanukkah
I think the PPS cats are adorable, so I couldn't resist designing one. As for the hamsters, there is actually a full set of 9 candles. I made the lineart edit for the dwarf, but I was struggling to come up with designs on such a small canvas, so Swiftalu helped, and Tess made the Shamash candle from a Syrian hamster. I've only included the ones I colored here.



Icing Candle | Ripple Candle | Star of David Candle


Sufganiyah Kitten

[Lacuna]

October - Parrot Chickens
I believe this remains the largest litter I've ever made. It was based on real parrots, and assigned a lineart variation by relative size of the bird, with roosters being largest. However, I misidentified one parrot and thought it was tiny, making it a PPS. I later corrected this by making it a GUPPS!






Scarlet Macaw | African Gray Parrot | Sun Conure

Rainbow Lorikeet | Yellow-Thighed Caique | Alexandrine Parakeet

Cockatiel | Fischer's Lovebird | Orange-Breasted Fig Parrot





November - Savannah Blooms 2nd Gen Cats
This was my first ever try at a 2nd gen litter, and I have to admit I went a little off-script with how different the children were to the parents! I'm fond of it, but I definitely think I improved in future 2nd gen litters I designed. You can view the heart image for this litter here.





Mint Chocolate Cat | Natural Parchment Cat | Blue Lotus Kitten

Savannah Grass Cat | Flower Garter Cat





December - American Curl Cats
One of my less common original design litters! While the ear edits of these cats are based on the American Curl breed, the designs are vaguely natural fantasy. I know a lot more about cat breeds now than I did then!



Orange Cream Curl | Brown Smudge Curl | Calico Curl Kitten

Tuxedo Curl | Wildcat Curl





Halloween
Some people were disappointed about the reused lineart, but I really loved it and wanted to design more candles! Halloween is my favorite holiday, but I'm not up to super edited monsters.



Candy Corn Candle | Purple Bat Candle | Glowing Skeleton Candle

Spiderweb Candle | Frankenstein Candle | White Chocolate Candle





Advent
This year, the theme was turning items into pets. I had a good time with that! I also created my first GUPPS pet and resurrected an aurora-themed chicken that I had actually created in 2015 to go with some pets made by another artist.



Medieval Quiver Dog | Scythe Chicken | Cactus Rat

Aurora Chicken | GUPPS Orange-Breasted Fig Parrot

[Lacuna]

January - Ballet Dogs
This litter was based on different ballets! I was a semi-professional ballerina until I was 17 and I wanted to do a tribute to that. The teen stages look like they're wearing leotards/simple costumes while the adults have specific influences from each ballet's story. This was also my first dog litter, before this, I had only used the dog lineart for staff pets or one-offs.



Swan Lake Ballet Dog | Midsummer Night's Dream Ballet Dog | Giselle Ballet Dog

Don Quixote Ballet Dog | Coppelia Ballet Dog





November - Honey Chickens
I created this litter because I really wanted to try a themed litter rather than designs based on something specific, and I chose honey! I added extra shading to the glass container outcome, but I still think I could have made it more golden. I didn't really mean to have two chicken litters released in the same month, but all hail the supreme chicken!



Honey Field Chicken | Beehive Chicken

Honey Jar Chicken | Pollinated Flower Rooster






November - Monochrome Fruit 2nd Gen Chickens
My second 2nd gen litter went a lot better, in my opinion! We had only had two previous litters of 2nd gen chickens, one of which was highly edited, so I had a lot of options. I picked a black and white parent and a colorful parent so I could better work on designs. You can view the heart image for this litter here.



Inverted Dragonfruit Chicken | Green Grape Chicken | Sunset Mango Chicken

Rainbow Dragonfruit Chicken | Blackberry Rooster





December - Bath Bomb Dwarf Hamsters
I used the pet design suggestion thread, where someone offered the idea of bathbomb themed pets. I decided dwarf hamsters were the perfect shape! And of course, I had to sneak a little pride in.



Condiment Bath Bomb | Gold Sprinkle Bath Bomb | Ocean Bath Bomb

Rainbow Bath Bomb | Pan Pride Bath Bomb | Watermelon Bath Bomb





Halloween
I made some gravestone ponies for Halloween! I really enjoyed working with the rock and mossy textures as well as the mushrooms and ivy leaves. The dates are Mary Shelley's real lifespan. This was the first, though not last, time I worked on pets in public, in this case at the restaurant my wife worked at.



RIP Gravestone | Mary Shelley Gravestone





Advent
For advent I was inspired by my success with the honey chickens and tried to make another glass pet! I decided on a snow globe, and the challenging part as actually the wood texture.



Snowglobe Horse

[Lacuna]

CS Birthday
For CS's 10th birthday we were able to request which lineart we wanted to do in the big birthday litter (which had one palette, similar to the staff litters) and of course, my first choice was chicken. A lot of artists don't find working with this lineart very easy, but I still love it. However, I was kind of stumped on this particular design. There were four or five failures before I settled on this one!



10th Birthday Chicken





May - Creamsicle Syrian Hamsters
This was a completely random litter based off of a palette, all the outcomes had green eyes to tie into the green outcome!



Grapeberry Creamsicle Longhair| Orange Creamsicle Longhair | Mint Creamsicle Longhair

Lavender Creamsicle | Grape Creamsicle | Strawberry Creamsicle | Peach Creamsicle





May - Sapphic Skies 2nd Gen Chickens
In April 2018 I had a cheeky idea, to use the chicken lineart to intentionally breed two hens together for pride month. I choose two chickens with a near rainbow of colors... and got so excited I finished them early, and they ended up getting released in May. However, these are the original lesbian pride litter chickens. <3 You can view their heart image here.



Chromatic Clouds Chicken | Pride Sunrise Chicken | Sunset Skies Chick

Chocolate Hearts Chicken | Rainbow Smoke Rooster





August - Ocean Formation Butterfly Wolves
It was quite a pet journey before I made a litter of butterfly wolves! These were based off things you might see if you spent some time in the ocean! Just a fun litter, not taking it too seriously.



Grassy Island Butterwolf | Sandy Beach Butterwolf

Coral Reef Butterwolf | Volcanic Eruption Butterwolf

[Lacuna]

Special Releases
Though this was one of the last things released for 2019, I wanted to put it at the top because I'm so proud of it! I actually created this pet in 2018, but its release was pushed back to 2019 so we wouldn't have two vegetable UR foods in a row. I loved the idea of making an avocado, and I definitely didn't want to make it sad/rotting. So, the "UR Teacup" was born. I think it's pretty clear it's an avocado pit from the beginning, but watching the theories unfold was fun!



UR Avocado





June - Pride Flag 2nd Gen Chickens
I took a bit of a break from designing pets, but when I came back it was of course for the 2019 pride litter! I bred two roosters this time, and chose them carefully to make as many real pride flags as I could between their colors. I could have just made a pride flag litter, but to me having the queer parents was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up. This does mean that the colors may not be exact to the pride flag represented, or that the colors could represent more than one pride flag. I have always said that if you find that the chicken matches a certain flag, you are correct. I want to represent as many people as possible! You can view their heart image here. Fun fact, I originally had different text on the heart image, but it was decided it might be confusing. You can view the alternate, unreleased image here.



Bisexual/Genderfluid Flag | Polysexual Flag | Agender/Aromantic Flag

Asexual/Demisexual Flag | Transgender Flag





July - Lacuna Family Cats
I decided to do a litter of natural cats for my birthday based on real cats in my life! I considered making one of them into my custom instead, but in the end I wanted to share them with everyone. I started trying to create them at least a year before, but I'm glad I waited because the final versions came out much better than my original attempts. The blanket design on this litter includes my favorite colors/themes as well as a leo constellation and XXV, roman numerals for 25, my birthday. The first two cats are mine, Buddy is my mother-in-law's, and Lucifer was my grandma's. I believe they could all be siblings genetically if they were related. Luna grew on my birthday.



Black Mackerel Tabby (Josie) | Cream Scottish Fold (Luna)

Orange Tabby (Buddy) | Gray Ticked Tabby (Lucifer)





Fae Mischeif
I made three litters for the Fae Mischeif event! Let's take a look at them individually:




Squirelly Hamsters
The dwarf hamsters have been edited into many things in their time, and I couldn't believe there were no squirrels! For the Fae event, it made complete sense to me that they would be sneaking around stealing crystals from the mine instead of nuts from the trees, so I whipped some up. They are only loosely based on real squirrel breeds. Also, a few of the crystals were a bit intentionally pride-themed. I can't help myself!



Gray Crystal Squirrel | Tan Crystal Squirrel | Brown Crystal Squirrel | Red Crystal Squirrel





Fae Touched Chickens
Next up with have some chickens! Looks like the fae snuck into your coop, gave your chickens fairy-locks, and turned their eggs magical.



Fairy-lock Rooster | Fairy-lock Hen

Citrine Amethyst Egg | Peridot Egg | Azurite Egg





Changeling Ponies
Finally, my favorite! This litter started out as all ponies, but they grew up a little... fae, if you will. I intended them to be changelings, switched by the fae to be different species and grow wings and colored accents. This is actually (sort of) a 2nd gen litter, but they weren't released as such, deemed too different from the parents in their final form. But, you can view their unreleased heart image here and I think you'll be able to see the parents' influence on the children!



Changeling Pony | Changeling Horse

Changeling Draft Horse | Changeling Deer




Halloween
Halloween was also a busy one for me this year! I made three litters for this event as well. Let's get into them:





Gummy Skeleton Chameleons
Halloween pets don't always have to be scary... though I suppose these are when you think about them! I'm really proud of how the shiny effects came out on these chameleons compared to my last tries at making gummy things came out during the Candy Event.



Bubblegum Gummy Chameleon | Bitten Gummy Chameleon | Horned Gummy Chameleon





Spooky Plushie Pups
Next up we have a set of Halloween PPS plushie dogs! These were my first ever pets to be released as token pets, and they were also my first pets that went rare when they were assigned rarities. I'm sure my older pets will go rare on their own eventually, but these were rare from the jump!



Zombie Brains Plushie Pup | Pumpkin Guts Plushie Pup | Haunted Cards Plushie Pup





Lantern Pets
This group includes multiple species of pets turned into lanterns! I think I really improved from the last time I did wood texture on my snowglobe horse, and the lighting was fun as well; if you look closely you can see the lines indicating the other side of the lantern's glass. I just had the vision for these one day; they were actually the first pets I created for this Halloween.



Fox Lantern | Butterwolf Lantern | Rat Lantern




Advent
This advent I made a GUPPS of one of my favorite pets I've ever done, the Glowing Skeleton Candle Rat. However, the one I found even more fun was for the "Lost Sibling" theme that was highlighted for this advent. After making a litter of chickens that were actually pride flags instead of pride-themed, I wanted to go back and make one more, which was the perfect pride flag design to come from the lesbian chicken parents. I intentionally chose the rooster lineart to highlight trans lesbians.



Glowing Skeleton Candle GUPPS | Lesbian Flag Chicken

[Lacuna]

April - Bandaid Dwarf Hamsters
I was watching one of my favorite doll customizing Youtubers make a doll with a bandaid over its nose, and I was inspired. Not much else to say here except I think I improved on my small canvas designs, especially the gray and blue outcome!



Blue Bandaid | Purple Bandaid | Green Bandaid

Yellow Bandaid | Magenta Bandaid





May - Jelly Donut 2nd Gen Dogs
It's hard to choose, but this may be my favorite litter of all time. Every outcome came out exactly as I had planned, there are no weak links, and from the get-go I was fully invested in the "Jelly Donut" / "Peanut Butter & Jelly" theme I had chosen for the parents. I think is pretty much peak performance as far as all my 2nd gen litters go. You can view the original heart image here.



Jelly and Cream Donut | Jelly with Blueberry Sprinkles Donut | Blueberry Frosted Donut

Cinnamon Swirl Donut | PB&J Donut | Frosted Donut PPS





May - Calico & Tabby Cats
I got a new cat, so you got a new natural cat litter! However, unlike my previous litter, the cat here doesn't look exactly like my cat, so I don't have her name included. If you're curious, though, the most similar to her is the calico tabby, and her name is Nea. I believe it is genetically possible for all of these cats to actually be siblings, just like with the last batch!



Calico Tabby Cat | Dilute Calico Cat

Bold Calico Cat | Orange Tabby with White Cat








June - Pride Flag Redux 2nd Gen Chickens
Of course I couldn't let June go by without a pride litter! This time I chose two hens, both for their combination of colors and the markings on one's wing that looked suspiciously like I could display some flag colors when I used it in their children. I also thought the purple chicken's chest marking could be used to represent the intersex flag, and it worked out well! Please see my past June chicken litter notes for more info on my pride pets in general. You can view the original heart image here.



Genderqueer Flag | Nonbinary Flag

Intersex/Rainbow Flag | Pansexual Flag





Easter - Painted Egg Cocoons
For Easter I made some butterfly wolf coccoons out like they were painted eggs, and added animals to them! I thought it would be cute, but the end effect is a /bit/ creepy.



Owl Cocoon | Frog Cocoon | Bunny Cocoon

Blue Duck Cocoon | Pink Duck Cocoon





Carnival Event - Popcorn Piggies
Full credit to Anouki for creating the lineart edits for these Guinea Pigs, I just colored them. Not much to say here, I just like the juxtaposition of the natural piggies with the unnatural packaging.



Buttered Popcorn Piggie | Caramel Corn Piggie | Cotton Candy Popcorn Piggie

[Lacuna]

April - Autism Acceptance Rats
April is Autism Acceptance Month, and I know there are tons of neurodivergent users on CS, so it seemed like an awesome idea to make some autism-themed ratties! I am autistic myself, and it was a super fun litter to design using the rainbow infinity symbol (the puzzle piece ain't it) and the #RedInstead movement that counters "Light it Up Blue" by the organization Autism Speaks, which autistic people do not support. The third outcome is also a bit of a nod to the large number of queer and nonbinary/trans people in the autistic community.



Red Instead Rat | Rainbow Infinity Rat

Light it Up Rainbow Rat





May - Lace Chickens
It was the end of April and I realized that a hatchery species litter had fallen through, so I decided to scour the suggestion thread for ideas and design some pets on my 7-hour layover in the Philidelphia airport. These were based on the prompts of lace and vintage watercolor paintings, and I was secretly hoping the whole time that someone from CS would notice me and my silly pen tablet coloring away.



Green Lace Chicken | Blue Lace Chicken

Purple Lace Chicken | Red Lace Chicken





June - Pride Flag 2nd Gen Deer
Some people were probably worried that I'd make chicken pride litters forever, but the truth is... they're not the only species on CS with sex/gender dimorphism! I chose two deer with antlers that covered the spectrum of the rainbow, and off we went! This year was awesome because other artists created pride litters as well, and we had the most flags represented at once as we've ever had! I'm glad you all responded well to past pride litters so we could do this, along with the flag item release. There is definitely more to come. You can view the original heart image here.



Rainbow Pride Deer | Lesbian Pride Deer | Achillean/Gay Pride Deer

Bisexual Pride Deer | Pansexual Pride Deer






November- Moth Butterwolves
I saw someone request more moth butterwolves on the pet suggestion thread since the last and only litter was from March 2015. I decided to go for it and picked out a set of mostly orange/yellow/white moths to make a cohesive litter. I put a lot of thought into making the growing stages match the real caterpillars/cocoons too.




Isabella Tiger Moth | Garden Tiger Moth
|
Io Moth | Cecropia Moth

[Lacuna]

[list]

May - Famous Racehorses
Two of the races of the Triple Crown take place in May, and I needed an idea for a horse litter. I decided to choose a horse that had won each race and had something unique about that race/themselves. It was also hard to choose horses because so many look so similar, so I needed ones with unique markings. For Secretariat, he's simply the most famous horse, and he won the Triple Crown, including his Bellemont Stakes win that was very memorable. For Rachel Alexandria, she is one of the few female horses to win a Triple Crown race, specifically the Preakness Stakes. She also won the Kentucky Oaks, the race the day after the Kentucky Derby that is just for fillies. I chose Giacomo who won the Kentucky Derby from 50-1 odds, and was also one of the few gray horses to win. This horse has a midstage that is adult, as gray horses become more white as they age and the best/clearest pictures I could find of him were about 7 years after he won, so I wanted to use them.

Secretariat | Rachel Alexandria

Giacomo

June - Pride 2nd Gen Horses
I really wanted to make another set of pride deer, but I honestly just could not find a pairing that I was happy with. A lot of deer on CS are more natural colored/brown and that's just not a common color in pride flags. As I did sexualities in 2021, I really wanted to do more gender flags this year. I loved the idea of kintsugi horse as one of the parents, as I and many other queer people have experienced trauma or queerphobia and come back stronger and more proud.
You can view the original heart image here.

Rainbow Pride Horse | Queer Pride Horse

Demigirl Pride Horse | Demiboy Pride Horse

Agender Pride Horse | Nonbinary Pride Horse