The longer you leave it alone, the more kitties show up and leave you good presents.
It's like it rewards patience. I am not patient now, I'm waiting for Tubbs to haul his lazy all-the-food-eating ass out of there so I can 1) see what he left and 2) refill the bowl.
Though I have four kitties in the yard with an empty food bowl, so I think I'm OK as far as visitors right now.
I have no cats! What kind of soul-destroying game have you people hooked me on?
Make sure there's food, maybe rearrange the toys, then go away for awhile. That's my strategy.
In Real Cat News -- Mom being out of town seems to have made Penny and Lovey (her cat) more tolerant of each other. I think it's more like Lovey would rather be near someone, the bed is next to the computer desk. Lovey is on the bed (he actually prefers the computer chair but I'm occupying it). Penny likes to sleep on my bed (usually) so now Penny and Lovey are sharing close quarters. There was incidental touching last night and currently they are curled up near each other but not exactly touching.
They do not leave me cute gifts however.
When real cats leave "gifts" they're rarely what anyone would call cute.
oops, I had two cats frolicking, and I rearranged stuff and came back and they left, and left behind 1 silver fish each. Sorry guys!
Yeah, if you take away their toys, they leave.
Also, there's specific times for most of the food. I think most of the fancy food (Ritzy bits and above) last for about 3 hours. Frisky bits for 6. Free stuff for 8. That is, unless Tubbs gets to it first.
I had Senor Gato show up once to play with the mouse toy, but he hasn't been lured back since.
Eventually, the yard empties if you don't change the goodies. If that happens, I usually go to Auto-Set in the Goodies menu. Auto-Set changes everything in your yard randomly (although you have to re-fill the food bowls separately).
Tubbs leaves me 30-50 silver fish every time. The trick is not to refill the food dish until he sleeps it off and leaves on his own.
Kathmandu has come by three times and I haven't gotten a photo of him yet! He's like a ninja. Peaches visited me only once and I didn't get a photo of her either. Shy little thing.