I had a BEAST all cued up to send out for the MEOW and then it hit me, "Hey Tom it is the Christmas Holidays, people don't want to be sitting alone for hours solving, they want to be engulfed in family celebration and shopping and eating and drinking...so I put it away (you will see it I warn you, it is called "Patterned Behavior" and it is coming to a web site near you soon, mwah ha ha) and grabbed this one I think is probably at the VERY hardest a Calico.
Kitten
★ Calico
Persian
Puma
Lion
It has been thoroughly tested by several (Cinny, Whimsy and Meg) though that was so long ago and there have been changes so they might not immediately recognize it. I will be providing universal nudges on Friday and individual nudges via PM as needed. You'll be seeing quite a bit of me for the next few weeks because I have the Christmas and New Year's Day puzzles as well as the New Year's Eve Eve puzzle - but I promise, none of them are more difficult than a Calico.
OK, enough of that or you won't think it is me writing this....now get to work!!!
NUDGES:
Nudge 1] How many times have you seen clues written almost EXACTLY like the title and known immediately what to do?
Nudge 2] The English language is a complex, and amusing, one. Not only is it harder to learn than many others, but it consists of many others.
Nudge 3] Can you think of everyday words that really are borrowed from other languages? When you ordered those little chocolate discs covered in white candy beads, the nonpareils, did you know they had no equal? ?
Nudge 4] Has anyone ever snuck a foreign word into the conversation or puzzle and you didn't recognize it was foreign, perhaps they did not know it was foreign.
Nudge 5] Even the word symmetry, which this puzzle unfortunately does not have, has a French and Latin background.
Nudge 6] The meta answer has 7 letters which means there are probably 7 things you have to find. Given the previous nudges can you do a reconnaissance mission to find them?