Crème Puff, the co-author, is a pure bred, copper-eyed Persian with a cream coat, and is an authority on Sudoku. Through Felineancestory.com, she traced her heritage to Abyssinians from three millennia ago. In that time period, the Egyptians were bored and wanted a new game. Not surprisingly, they turned to their revered companions (cats) and requested that they provide them with some new type of amusement. To ensure that the Egyptians would always remember felines, her ancestors developed a grid with a nine-space layout (commemorating their favorite number), and called it tic-tac-toe. However, due to the incredible intellect and cunning of cats, the Ancients were unable to ever beat their furry pets...hence the phrase "cat game". Not wishing to take advantage of a lesser species, the Abyssinians decided to invent a new game which would not compel the Egyptians to compete with cats. As in tic-tac-toe, her ancestors kept the 9-space grid, but this time they arranged nine of these in a square matrix. And so, Sudoku was born.