vialose

Hello and Welcome to Neopian History 101
Years and Years ago , you could paint your Pets "Glass" or "Stone"  
They were not popular and the colors were discontinued
Glass pets were changed to Tyrannian
and Stone pets to Island
however the paint brushes still exist as R180 (retired) items and you can buy them from user shops but you can't use them 

Unicorn Paint Brush  was an idea that didn't really take off ... they tried to add unicorns to the pets .. 
but i think they decided to create a whole new Unicorn pet and call it "Uni" ... then removed the Paint Brush from the site and replaced it with Uni Gem 
Unicorn pets were thus changed to the basic Red we all know and love

I got an e-mail, but don't have access yet. So I think I'm in the same boat as you.
Edit- Literally got access while in the middle of refreshing at the money tree. Here's the neomail that came with it. 
 

OK I was looking for this email in the wrong email account. I did receive an email from NP's and it says they are offering me access to the closed beta. of the NP's mobile. It says not everything is moved over yet but that there is new features. Here is a list
Our Brand New Homepage
News, Alerts, & Site Events
Customisation
Dailies and Games
Bookmarks
It also says if you got the email then you will be getting access soon. There is a button to the right, next to the Log In. By pushing the button you can switch from original NP's site to the Beta site. Apparently I got the email message from them yesterday evening. So I am oing to sign in here in just a bit. If anyone has any questions just post them and I'll try and answer best I can. If you want to know more about the email message you can ask that too but I gave you the basics from the email.

Low and behold, soft white cheese was the answer!! Thanks for the tip! 

Okay wait your comic was so cute!!! Please do more! 

I don't have the exact date, but the Pound has been down, pretty much, since the "issue" with the pet images not displaying - around 23 March 2018, last Friday. So, almost a week. If you go to the Pound and click on "Adopt", you will be "greeted" with this message at the bottom of the page: