The paw prints on the screen was an Easter Egg for ArtRage 2, where leaving the program running for an extended period would allow Tycho the opportunity to walk over your canvas and leave paw prints (they'd vanish once you made any changes though, so don't worry). There was a shortcut key to activate it, as well, but I don't recall the key combination. I don't believe that particular Easter Egg is in any of the AR programs beyond 2, so I wouldn't bother waiting around for it if you're using AR3 or AR4.
Nothing is easy to the unwilling.