Thanks for reaching out! We've tried to contact all our Magical Kitties backers, but it looks like you slipped through the cracks somehow. 
The good news: Magical Kitties is printed, packed up in its container, and awaiting shipping to the US from Shanghai.
The bad news: We don't expect Magical Kitties to arrive in time for us to deliver it to you by the holidays, because Covid.
We're very sorry to disappoint you, but unfortunately, this setback is out of our hands. Here's what's going on.
We import our games in shipping containers from our manufacturing partners abroad. In this case, Magical Kitties is shipping from a manufacturer in China. Usually, these shipping containers are loaded on a boat, sail to the west coast of North America, and are unloaded in Seattle, Vancouver, or Prince Rupert. From there, a container of games is loaded on a train, which chugs across the continent to the intermodal port in Duluth, Minnesota, where it clears customs. A semi truck picks it up and drives it to our warehouse about ten miles away. We unload the games, and start packing them up individually for shipment to our backers.
The problem in this case stems from the very first step: getting the container on a ship. Because of the pandemic, space is severely limited on ocean freighters, and shipping rates are already triple what they were a year ago. Once we do wait our turn in line for a spot, the time it takes to cross the ocean can vary plus or minus a few days. A bigger variable is that we don't know how long that container might be delayed at the North American port, waiting to be unloaded from the container ship, waiting for a rail car as a part of another pandemic logjam, or being selected for a customs search and pulled aside. This time of year there are can be unpredictable delays on the tracks due to weather events. In short, it's impossible for us to predict exactly when the games will arrive, but based on our shipper's timeline, we won't make our original target delivery.
So as of right now, we're unhappily resigned to waiting in line for open shipping space, which likely means a delivery-to-you target of late January. We're extremely disappointed not to be able to make the holidays, especially because we know it means adjusting any gift-giving plans if necessary.
Thanks for your patience and your understanding. We'll post updates on our Kickstarter page as we know more. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/magical-kitties-save-the-day/posts
-Michelle Nephew
Co-Owner Atlas Games
