Here is the information about the pets. Read it once, and you will enjoy PostPet more. There are 4 types of pets and several other characters. --Teddy bear (Maturity : 3 to 10 years old) A teddy bear. Wash it occasionally, and it will be happy. It is easy to keep and easy to bring up. It gets happy easily and has the longest life next to the tortoise. (Great for beginners) --Rabbit (Maturity : 4 to 14 years old) A bit lonely. Bring it up with love. It is not so clever, but it is good at picking up treasures. (Fantastic for intermediate users) --Tortoise (Maturity : 20 to 92 years old) It has a rigid shell and rigid head. It often sends letters to you and your friends. It waits patiently until your friend receives you mail. It has the longest life of the four pets. (Very Suitable for patient people.) --Cat (Maturity : 8 to 18 years old) A fickle cat. It comes back from your friend's house quickly, so you can hand it mail several times a day. But it's hard to please, and it runs away from home easily. Please take care of it. Often sends mail to you and your friends. (Wonderful for advanced users) Basically these 4 pets carry the mail. --Postman Postman is not a pet. You may use Postman while your pet is away, when you send the mail to several people including "Cc:" mails, or when you need to include attachment files. It does a good job. --King postman The boss of postman. (Manager) It has a golden body. It does many jobs. --Goat Lives in In-box and Out-box. Its job is to eat the mail you don't want. --Extra guest While sending and receiving mail, the residents in cyberspace appear outside of the window. Some are good, some are disgusting. Some guests do not come near when a certain interior is installed. Some guests might change the appearance out of the window. --Pets can send the mail to only one person at one time, so please use the pet to send to people on the "List of friends". Pets cannot send mail to several people at the same time, as well as people included in "Cc:". Your pet also cannot carry attachment files. When your friend uses PostPet, your pet appears in your friend's pet's house. If the friend pats or slaps your pet, the status of your pet will be changed. **You will know from your pet's diary whether it likes your friend. --When your friend's pet comes to the house, your pet thinks that the friend is its own friend and may send mails to that friend. So it is not recommended that you give business mail to your pet. For business mails, use the postman. But, we don't anticipate big problems, so take it easy... Each pet, even those of the same type, is different. And its character might change as it grows. We cannot anticipate how your pet will behave. So please be patient with it. There are several ways to take care of your pet. Your pet changes its character according to the way you treat it. While you take care of your pet, it can be happy, remain as it is, or it might throw a tantrum. Handing mail to the pet might help to make it happier. But even if you don't pay any attention to it or feed it, it won't die. If it doesn't die without being fed, where does the pet eat? Well, maybe it picks up something outside when delivering it. To pat your pet, bring the pointer on your pet, and move it. To slap your pet, bring the pointer on your pet, and click it. A "+" symbol showing on your pet means that it is angry. Sometimes discipline is necessary. Every time you slap your pet, it learns what is bad. If you slap it, it does not affect your pet so much, but if your FRIEND slaps your pet, it is a shock to your pet. When the pet gets tired, it starts to sleep. While it is sleeping you cannot hand mail to your pet. It will wake up between 30 minutes to 3 hours later. Then, you can let your pet deliver the mails. Every time the pet goes out, it gets dirtier. If you wash the pet, its appearance improves. But some pets hate washing. If it stands in front of the bowl, it wants to be washed. If the pet is angry, you can give it some snacks. But if you don't give it any snacks, the pet will not die. If the pet is not hungry it does not eat, and it will refuse the snacks it doesn't like. Sometimes your friend's pet might eat the snacks instead. Pets have likes and dislikes, so while it is young it likes the snacks for children, but as it grows up, its taste will change. A pet's character determines its taste. You can choose the interior of the pet's house. The interior has no effects on character of your pet. Extra interiors will be available on the PostPet website periodically. (PostPet website -- http://www.sony.com.sg/postpet/) Sometimes your pet and friends' pets poop in the house. Sometimes your pet doesn't eat the snacks. In these cases, choose "clean the house". Sometimes your pet wanders off the screen and you can't see it. In this case, choose "Wash" or push and hold down the [Shift] key to show its favorite food. Then, it will come back to the screen. Your pet might pick up a treasure on its way back. When you look into the "treasure box" you may find new treasures. Sometimes, the pet gives its treasure to your friend's pet. The treasures are for the pet, not for the master. Pets have almost no concept of value, so it might give away precious things. The treasure has no special functions; it is something for the pets to boast about. The pet has some capacity for happiness. Basically, if the pet can visit a friend's house, deliver the mail, and go home, it will be happy. Happiness has an influence on the pet's life span. If it is not very happy, the pet will run away from the house. The cat is not patient, so be careful. A pet's life span is dependent on the amount of mails it carries. After the pet delivers a certain amount of mail, the life of the pet ends. It can be said that the pet is a living stamp. But don't feel sad. Pets might live longer according to how you treat it. Pets know their task is to carry mails. So when it does a good job, it will feel happy. As the pet gets happier, it can carry more mail and live longer. The number of mail pets can carry depends on the animal type. In general, tortoises live the longest. The next is teddy bears, rabbits, and then cats. If it is happy, it might live twice its average lifespan. By default pet's life span is about 8~24 months. But when it becomes very unhappy it can run away from the home before the end of its life. If it really runs away from the house, it will not return. If you slap the pet too often it will leave the house for a few days, but it will come back. In Version 1.2 there are four pets. However, other kinds of pets will be added in later versions. No. You can only choose one pet and take care of it with love. If you have more than one mail account, you can choose more than one pet. You can assign one mail account to one pet. However, PostPet is developed to run one mail account with one pet from one computer. If you try to use PostPet differently, the pet might not act in the right way. Your pet might send its mail to your friend's pet which visits your pet often. PostPet is programmed that way. But your pet will send its mail to people on the "List of Friends" only, not to anyone else. Your pet might send mails to business partner or mailing lists. To avoid this, use postman for business and mailing list. Your pet will go out of the house for a while to deliver your mail, but it will return after finishing its job. But if it is unhappy, it may run away from home. You will know when it does, because it will leave a good-bye message. If it really runs away from home, it will not come back. (C) Copyright 1996-1998 Sony Communication Network Corporation. All rights reserved. "PostPet" is the trademark of Sony Communication Network Corporation (So-net). "So-net" and "So-net logo" are the trademarks of Sony Corporation.