1) How big is the enclosure? I mean, are there really all these cats stuffed into one little place where you can see everyone? Or are there places to hide or get away from other cats? If I knew about it exactly, I think that I could make a map which would help everyone understand it better.
I don't have an exact measurement of the dimensions to give you, but I can tell you it's pretty spacious without being expansive. Picture a football field with a dome over it. It's like that. You can look all around and see cats on the other side, but it takes a good while to walk over to them.
This is a question that gets asked a lot; I should put it in the FAQ after I finish this post.
Anyway, the enclosure is a very plain and bare place. There aren't any plants, and any loose rocks/boulders they could've used for the wall were used, so it's pretty flat, except for the streambed. No real hiding places.
"2) What things come into the enclosure? Are the only prey really crickets and the occasional mouse?"
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There's a colony of big rats living inside; you remember reading about that, right? So cats can hunt those, but they need to work as a team of three or more if they want to avoid serious injury -- those rats are large and fierce.
Alone, cats can hunt lizards, crickets, and beetles, which all come and go from the enclosure (and if a cat hunts one by the wall, it can scurry out and escape).
"How often is it that a snake or bird or something of the sort crawled through one of the cracks and became a piece of prey?"
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I doubt birds can/would get in, but rare animals include snakes and hares. For those, you need to make a special request.
"How often do they see feathers float by?"
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Not often. x) It would be really weird if they did and I'm sure anyone who saw one would be very curious or very disturbed.
"3) Do the cats have any dangers? The cats live in the desert so I imagine that a rattlesnake or something of the sort would come in once in a while and do they ever stir up trouble? Or do the cats have really nothing to fear at all except maybe each other?"
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Like humans are to humans, cats are each other's main threat as far as animals go, but there are also more abstract problems -- cats can die of disease, heat, cold, thirst, and hunger. Cats shouldn't exert themselves at high noon, but at night when temperatures plummet, they need to cuddle up with other cats to keep from freezing. Also, cats sometimes steal and fight over scraps of food. Their main concern, however, would be thirst, since water is not plentiful, and a puddle of water is valuable. Most of the time, there's enough for all, but not always. If a cat's claiming a territory, it'd be a tactical choice to pick a place with a puddle or a dip where a puddle can form, which has the benefits of ensuring water for that cat but puts him at higher risk for a fight.
Rattlesnakes can enter the enclosure, so you're free to include one in a bio (but for role play, please ask first). Adult cats know not to mess with snakes, but queens should keep an eye on their kits, as there is no cure available to snake venom.
"4) How big is the stream and how often is there water in it? How does water ever find it's where there? Does it wander through the enclosure through holes in the side?"
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The stream is tiny. Guys, let me know if this sounds way too small -- imagine something only as wide as the distance between your elbow and the tip of your middle finger. Comming down from higher elevations, it forms a tributary to the larger river (hence "RiverClan") and it has the most water late in the light season; entering the dark season it declines to a trickle and starts to run dry before the light season begins, at which point it starts to grow again. Yes, it does enter through cracks along the sides.
"Or when it occasionally rains does the water get through the cracks at the top?"
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That's how puddles form, but it can help the stream too.
"5) Is there anything else inside the enclosure besides the stream and a graveyard? That must not be that plesant."
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mm.... No. It's a sparse place. No rich fields of flowers and dense jungles and snow-capped mountains. It's not the kind of gorgeous landscape we're used to seeing on the nature channel, and the cats may not love it either, but it's all they've ever known.
"Where do cats sleep?"
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Wherever they darn please.
I have read all the information about Starless, but I think I have some more before I really begin to understand the enclosure.
