Remember PAWS in Typing Town? A Free Pet Typing Game for Today's Kids
If you went to elementary school in the U.S. in the late 1990s or 2000s, there's a good chance you learned to type with a cartoon cat. PAWS in Typing Town was a staple of school computer labs: a friendly cat, a few letters at a time, and games as a reward for getting through the drills.
Now a lot of those kids are parents, and they go looking for PAWS to share with their own children. Here's what it was, whether you can still use it, and a free modern option built on the same idea.
What PAWS in Typing Town was
PAWS in Typing Town was a cat-themed typing program sold to schools on CD-ROM in the second half of the 1990s. Its roots go back further: MicroType: The Wonderful World of Paws was a typing program for the Apple II, published by South-Western in 1985.
People who used it in school tend to remember the same things:
- Lessons that introduced a few new keys at a time, with PAWS the cat as the guide.
- Drills that turned those keys into words, then sentences.
- Cat-themed games to play once the practice was done.
- Timed tests that showed how fast you were getting.
It was built for the classroom, and one teacher's blog from the time notes that it was pricey for families to buy for home.
Can you still use PAWS today?
Not easily. PAWS was made for the school computers of its day, and there's no edition for today's devices that we know of. It won't run on a Chromebook, an iPad or in a web browser, which is what most kids type on now. Old copies do turn up online, but they're CD-ROM software from decades ago, and getting them to run on a family computer usually isn't worth the trouble.
Why it worked (and still would)
Strip away the 1990s graphics and PAWS did a few things that good typing teaching still does today:
- A friendly animal guide. Kids practice longer for a character they like.
- Small steps. A few new keys at a time, starting from the home row, instead of the whole keyboard at once.
- Games after practice, not instead of it. The fun part was the reward for doing the drills.
- Seeing progress. Timed tests let kids watch their speed go up.
- A routine. It happened every week in computer lab, and short regular practice is what builds typing skill.
A modern, free take on the same idea
TypePets was built by a parent with the same recipe, for today's kids and devices. Instead of following a cat, each child hatches their own pet from an egg, and it grows from baby to master as they practice. Practice earns food to feed it, and milestones unlock hats, glasses, colors and places to dress it up.
- Small steps: eight Finger Training stages, from the home row to the full keyboard, with color-coded fingers and optional spoken hints.
- A reward game: Bubble Pop, where kids type the word on each bubble before it floats away. Twenty levels, from home row letters to short phrases.
- Real reading: short passages about animals, space, science and history.
- Seeing progress: speed and accuracy charts, plus printable certificates and a progress report.
| PAWS in Typing Town (then) | TypePets (now) | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | School computers, from a CD-ROM | Any modern browser, including school Chromebooks |
| Cost | Sold to schools | Free, with no ads and no premium tier |
| The animal | PAWS the cat, as a guide | Your child's own pet, which grows as they practice |
| Lessons | A few keys at a time, then words and sentences | 8 stages from the home row to the full keyboard |
| Games | Cat-themed games | Bubble Pop (20 levels) and a weekly leaderboard |
| Accounts | Installed on each computer | No login; an optional save code carries progress between computers |
Loved PAWS as a kid? Give your child their own typing pet. Free, no ads, no login, nothing to install.
Hatch a pet →Sharing it with your child
- Tell them about PAWS. Kids love hearing that their parents learned to type with a cartoon cat.
- Sit with them for the first session. Check that their fingers start on the home row: A S D F for the left hand, J K L ; for the right.
- Keep it short. 10 to 15 minutes a day is plenty for ages 7 to 12.
- Praise accuracy, not speed. Speed comes once the right fingers hit the right keys without looking.
Frequently asked questions
What was the typing game with the cat called?
For many people who went to school in the late 1990s and 2000s, it was PAWS in Typing Town. An earlier Apple II version from 1985 was called MicroType: The Wonderful World of Paws.
Can I download PAWS in Typing Town?
There's no version for current computers that we know of. It was CD-ROM software for 1990s school computers and won't run on Chromebooks, iPads or in a browser.
Is there a free typing game like PAWS?
TypePets follows the same idea, an animal friend plus small steps plus games after practice, and it's free in any browser. See our list of the best free typing games for kids for more options.
What age is it for?
Like PAWS, TypePets is aimed at elementary school kids, roughly ages 7 to 12.
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