Feline Friday is my chance to celebrate famous cats across the arts, whether their origins are in gaming, film, anime, literature or anywhere else.

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Lucky the Calico Cat

First Appearance: Doodle Champion Island Games (2021)

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have almost reached their completion, with a few more events to be decided. For some nations, their athletes have risen to the challenge to claim their place among the immortals. For others, they will leave with bitter disappointment and an agonising wait until their next shot at redemption.

For all, however, they are merely living in the shadows of an Olympic champion — one who dominated the competition in seven completely different disciplines. Her name is Lucky, but make no mistake, there was no luck involved. Only skill.

Acting as the main character for a delightful, fully interactive Google Doodle, Lucky is a ninja cat who journeys to a distant island to challenge its champions in elite contests of strength, skill, and occasionally, underwater dancing.

Released in 2021, Doodle Champion Island served as a tie-in for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics (yes, the ones that took place an entire year later due to… reasons). As Lucky, players were tasked with completing a series of mini-games themed around sports of the Olympiad, including table tennis, skateboarding, archery, rugby, artistic swimming, climbing, and marathon racing.

Upon her arrival, Lucky is given the choice of which team she would like to join, suggesting that she carries multiple nationalities and can pick amongst them however she likes. In her free time, she can fulfil side quests to assist the locals, and generally proves to be a reliable, fiercely driven protagonist. This is noteworthy, as they are traits generally not associated with cats.

Despite the fact that this is ostensibly an Olympic tie-in, Champion Island plays loose and fast with its rules, with most events taking place between only two competitors (Lucky and her opponent). Stranger still, she is given endless opportunities to try again if she falls short. That’s ok, though, because her rivals are shameless cheaters who should have been banned from the start.

I’m looking at you and your multiple balls, Tengu. I’m filing a complaint with the IOC this very moment.

Upon completion of all seven sports, Lucky is seemingly declared the winner of the Olympics, and everyone celebrates with delicious mochi and a festive dance. Seeing such universal joy for such a dominant competitor, I guess the closest comparison would be when Simone Biles wins a gold medal.

Although Doodle Island Games was released in honour of a bygone event, it is still fully playable to this day, and makes for a fun way to kill an hour or two. Alas, it appears as though Lucky retired at the top of her game, with no French-themed sequel in sight. It seems like a missed opportunity to me, because I desperately want to see a pixellated kitty breakdancing with reckless abandon.

On the plus side, I can click on my web browser to fling bouquets whenever someone wins a medal, so perhaps the spirit of camaraderie lives on after all.