I adopted Mochi from a shelter in Portland two winters ago, back when my setup was a folding table and a webcam that made me look like a suspect in a police sketch. She was listed as “shy.” The shelter lied. Within a week she had knocked over a monitor, learned to open the treat drawer, and sat directly on the capture card during the biggest stream I’d ever done.
Chat lost its mind. Clip it, they said. So I did — and that clip did more numbers in a weekend than I had in a year. Now she has her own emote, a channel redeem that makes her feeder drop a single treat, and a standing obligation to appear on camera at least once per stream or the regulars riot.
The vet says she’s healthy, the grooming schedule is holding, and she’s finally stopped trying to eat the XLR cable. Progress. Below are the care notes people keep asking for — food, the desk-bed situation, and how I cat-proofed the setup without spending streaming money on it.