Trap The Cat

Trap The Cat is a free browser puzzle game about sealing a hexagon grid before a determined little cat slips through. You block one tile per turn and the cat moves right after you. It runs on HTML5, it plays on desktop, tablet and mobile browsers, and there is nothing to download.

The Board, The Cat, And One Block Per Turn

Every round drops a cartoon kitten in the middle of a honeycomb of hex tiles. A handful of tiles are already filled when the board appears, scattered around at random, so no two rounds start the same way. The cat sits in the center with open space in every direction. From there it is all up to you, one tile per turn, placed wherever you want. The game has been around since January 2019, built by Reinout Stevens as a browser remake of the older Circle the Cat puzzle, and it still loads in seconds with no install.

What surprised me is how personal it gets. The board looks like a simple pattern of green hexes until the cat starts trotting toward one specific gap, and suddenly every empty tile feels like a real decision. The opening moves are quick. The last few take forever, because you can see the escape route forming and the cat sees it too.

The Cat Hunts For The Shortest Open Route

It would be easier if the cat moved at random, but it does not. It works out the shortest path to the rim of the board and takes a step along that path after every block you place. Close a lane and it immediately recalculates and heads for the next best opening. Once it finds a clean line to the edge, it commits hard, and that is when the little sprint animation starts and your stomach drops.

Two endings, same reset. If the cat reaches the outer ring, it bolts off the board and the game fades into a fresh round with a new kitten. If you seal every route first, the round ends just as quickly and a new cat takes its place. There is no timer and no score screen to stress about. It is an endless supply of cats, and the only thing riding on a round is the round itself.

The tricky part is that you cannot undo a block, so one careless click in the middle can cut your own line of defense in half. Working from the rim inward tends to pay off. Wrap the outer edge first, leave the cat a shrinking pocket, and only then start filling the center. Rushing those last tiles is how most rounds get away from people.

Controls And How A Turn Works

Everything is one repeated action, done with a little more care each time.

Left click or tap on any open hex fills it and passes the turn to the cat.
Clicking the tile directly under the cat does nothing, so you cannot waste a turn on the kitten itself.
Blocks are permanent for the round. Nothing gets cleared once it is filled.
The Reset button in the top left corner wipes the board and starts over.
The game needs a mouse or a fingertip and nothing else. No keyboard keys are used at all.