List of fictional cats in literature
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list of fictional cats in literature is subsidiary to the list of fictional cats. It is restricted solely to notable feline characters from notable literary works of fiction. For characters that appear in several separate works, only the earliest work will be recorded here.
Named
| Character | Earliest appearance | Author | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alonzo | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A black and white tom, often considered the 'second-hand-man' to Munkustrap. He saves Demeter from Macavity, and is the first to attack him after he defeats Munkustrap. |
| Aristotle | The Nine Lives of Aristotle | Dick King-Smith | A kitten depends on his nine lives and the magical powers of his owner (a friendly witch) in order to emerge safely from various adventures.[1][2][3][4][5] |
| Azreel | Doctor Sleep | Stephen King | This cat living at the hospice where Dan works has the special ability to feel when someone is about to die.[6] |
| Bangs | Sam, Bangs and Moonshine | Evaline Ness | Bangs is a little girl's cat in this winner of the 1967 Caldecott Medal. In a variant of Aesop's The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Samantha romanticizes her life, pretending that Bangs can talk and that her mother was a mermaid. When a neighboring boy, Thomas, believes her and goes to search for the mermaid, Bangs follow him; they are caught in a seastorm and lost. They return safely, and Sam learns the folly of spreading "moonshine," or nonsense.[7] |
| Behemoth | The Master and Margarita | Mikhail Bulgakov | An abnormally large black cat who walks on his hind legs and carries a pistol. Being a member of the Devil's entourage, he is wicked and devious. He has a penchant for chess, vodka, and pickled mushrooms.[8][9] |
| Bombalurina | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A flirtatious red Queen with a white chest and black spots and marks.[10] |
| Borregad | Lyrec | Gregory Frost | Borregad and Lyrec are of an energy-based race who can shapeshift. When they hunt their archenemy into another world, Lyrec takes human shape, but Borregad has only enough strength to take the form of a cat.[11] Borregad, a Jester figure, finds a variant of Guinness stout to cheer himself in this fantasy world. |
| Bubastis | Watchmen | Alan Moore | A genetically altered red lynx with stripes belonging to Ozymandias. |
| Bustopher Jones | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A parody of an Edwardian gentleman of leisure and is described as the St. James's Street cat, a regular visitor to many gentlemen's clubs in the area, including Drones, Blimp's, and The Tomb. He is also extremely obese. |
| Buttercup | "The Hunger Games Trilogy" | Suzanne Collins | Primrose's cat, hated by main human character Katniss. |
| Buzzie | The Drugstore Cat | Ann Petry | A Manx kitten who learns about patience and self restraint. |
| Captain Wow | "The Game of Rat and Dragon" | Cordwainer Smith | A telepathic tom cat who works happily alongside humans to fight outer space monsters known as Dragons, Captain Wow perceives them as rats and is a successful slayer of these invaders. |
| Carbonel | Carbonel: the King of the Cats | Barbara Sleigh | Carbonel: the King of the Cats is the first of a three-part series about this royal cat, all published between 1955 and 1978. (Reprinted versions have different titles: Carbonel: the King of the Cats, Carbonel: the King of Cats, Carbonel: the Prince of Cats, and so on.) Carbonel's feline subjects miss him after the witch Mrs. Cantrip abducted him. Unfortunately, he cannot return to his throne until the enslavement spell that Mrs. Cantrip cast on him is undone.[12] He is helped by the human children Rosemary and John. Carbonel is depicted as a black cat, as shown by the book cover illustrations of a wide variety of reprints. Library Journal called it "A must for all libraries." New York Journal-American wrote, "A truly bewitching story reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland," and The Horn Book Magazine enthused, "Magic and everyday life blend smoothly in this highly enjoyable fantasy, perfect for reading aloud." |
| Cat | Breakfast at Tiffany's | Truman Capote | Pet of Holly Golightly. |
| Cat | It's Like This, Cat | Emily Cheney Neville | A stray cat that 14-year-old Dave Mitchell adopts as a pet and confidant.[13] Winner of the 1964 Newbery Medal. |
| The Cat in the Hat | The Cat in the Hat | Dr. Seuss | A mischievous anthropomorphic feline from Dr. Seuss's book of the same name. |
| Cat Morgan | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | Retired and works as a doorman at the book publishers Faber and Faber. He is a gruff but likeable character. |
| Chairman Mao | Valis | Phillip K. Dick | Gloria Knudson's cat |
| Cheshire Cat | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | Sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Hearts' croquet lawn, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by having made its head appear without its body, sparking a massive argument between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether something that does not have a body can indeed be beheaded. |
| Chibi | The Guest Cat | Takashi Hiraide | Chibi is a stray cat that is quickly adopted by a neighboring family, though she makes regular visits to the couple, much to their delight. |
| "Church" (Winston Churchill) | Pet Sematary | Stephen King | This unfortunate cat is killed by a truck, buried in the ancient burial ground of the title, then returns home, in a manner reminiscent of the dead son in the horror story "The Monkey's Paw". |
| C'mell | "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" and "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" | Cordwainer Smith | C'mell is an uplifted Persian cat with reddish fur who looks, in these stories, like a red-headed woman with discreet (and discrete) feline features. She is the heroine of both stories, being a far-future cat/woman with psychic powers including telepathy. She courageously helps her society, both in gaining more rights for "underpeople" (animals given intellect, speech, and physical make-overs) such as herself and in saving the lives of humans.[14] She appears in only two short stories but remains "the most enduringly popular cat in science fiction and fantasy."[14] |
| Conrad | The Cat Who Caught A Killer | L.T. Shearer | Conrad is a male calico cat who talks and helps Lulu Lewis, his chosen human who is a retired police officer and lives on a canal boat, to solve murders. |
| Coricopat | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | Male twin to Tantomile. Coricopat and Tantomile are often portrayed as psychic cats, as they sense the presence of danger before it becomes apparent to the other characters. |
| Crookshanks | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | J.K. Rowling | The pet cat of Hermione Granger. He is described as having a "squashed face," which was inspired by a real cat Rowling once saw, which she said looked like it had run face first into a brick wall; most likely a Persian. Hermione buys Crookshanks from a shop in Diagon Alley out of sympathy, as nobody wants him because of his behaviour and his squashed looking-face. Rowling has confirmed that Crookshanks is half Kneazle,[15] an intelligent, cat-like creature who can detect when they are around untrustworthy people, explaining his higher than normal intelligence and stature. |
| Demeter | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | Demeter is black and gold with a few patches of white and red or orange (and she wears gloves instead of arm warmers, giving her a more elegant touch.) She is the cat who unmasks Macavity when he tries to disguise as Old Deuteronomy. |
| Dinah | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | Alice's pet kitten in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In Through the Looking-Glass, she is an adult with kittens of her own (Kitty and Snowdrop). |
| Djibi | Djibi, the Kitten | Felix Salten | An independent cat who survives a drowning attempt and chooses for herself where to live. |
| Donut | Dungeon Crawler Carl | Matt Dinniman | A female tortoiseshell Persian and multi-award-winning show cat who accompanies the titular Carl throughout the series. |
| Dragon | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | Robert C. O'Brien | The farmer's cat who killed Mrs. Frisby's husband. |
| Electra | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | One of the youngest female kittens in the tribe of Jellicle cats. Like many of the other young feline characters, she is in awe of the Rum Tum Tugger, a flirtatious roguish male main character. |
| Faithful | The Song of the Lioness series | Tamora Pierce | Magical cat who is a loyal companion to main character Alanna starting in book 2. |
| Fiddle | Charmed Life | Diana Wynne Jones | Gwendolen used one of Cat's lives to turn his fiddle into a cat named Fiddle. |
| Findus | Pettson and Findus | Sven Nordqvist | A cat who dresses up and talks with his old Swedish farmer, Pettson. |
| Firestar | Warriors: Into the Wild | Erin Hunter | The main character for the first arc of Warriors books (the "Original Series") as well as a major supporting character for the subsequent arcs, he is a flame-colored tom with deep green eyes. |
| Francis | Felidae | Akif Pirinçci | In this 1989 German-language mystery,[16] which has been translated into 17 languages and became a worldwide best-seller, Francis ("a wise-ass of a cat and new to the town"[17]), investigates the murders of several cats. Publishers Weekly wrote, "A clever, offbeat thriller in which the sleuth and most of the other main characters are cats, this ... won Germany's prize for best crime novel of the year in 1990. As an allegory on Germany's Nazi past, it is facile and ambivalent. The detective/narrator, Francis, an irrepressibly curious house cat, deduces that whoever is murdering the neighborhood tabbies has a warped mind and is attempting to breed a 'super race' of felines."[18] Felidae was adapted into a 1994 German animated neo-noir film directed by Michael Schaack and starring Ulrich Tukur as Francis. |
| Fritti Tailchaser | Tailchaser's Song | Tad Williams | Tailchaser joins with friends Pouncequick and Roofshadow on an epic quest. |
| Ginger | The Tale of Ginger and Pickles | Beatrix Potter | A yellow tomcat who ran a shop with his partner Pickles, a terrier. |
| Ginger | The Last Battle | C. S. Lewis | A talking cat of Narnia, he is a four-legged member of the triumvirate who cause civil war and real terror among his compatriots. Ginger lies at every opportunity ("Aslan would want you to do this!"). His co-leaders are Rishda Tarkaan, Calormene captain leading the battle against Narnia with the sole motive of bellicosity, and Shift, a greedy ape who seeks power to sate his gluttony. Ginger is finally punished for his evil deeds by having his ability to speak removed and being banned from Aslan's Country. |
| Gon | The Cat's Elopement | Andrew Lang (translator) | Original German by David Brauns. A handsome tom who saves his beloved Koma. |
| Graymalkin | Macbeth | William Shakespeare | A gray cat. The first witch's familiar. In Act I, Scene I the witches plan their next meeting - with Macbeth - "When the hurlyburly's done. When the battle's lost and won." Before the exit, the first witch calls out "I come, Graymalkin!" |
| Great Rumpus Cat | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A hero in the world of the book and the musical. |
| Greebo | Discworld | Terry Pratchett | A foul-tempered, one-eyed grey tomcat whose owner, Nanny Ogg, insists against all the evidence that he is a sweet, harmless kitten. In the course of the books, he has killed two vampires, eating at least one of them in the novel Witches Abroad:
|
| Griddlebone | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | Companion to Mungojerrie, a white fluffy Persian queen who first appears in the poem Growltiger's Last Stand. She inadvertently leads to the demise of her suitor, the dreaded Growltiger, at the hands (paws) of a gang of Siamese cats. |
| Growltiger | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A pirate cat. |
| Gummitch | Space-Time for Springers | Fritz Leiber | As Fritz Leiber, a cat-lover, describes him, "Gummitch was a superkitten, as he knew very well, with an I.Q. of about 160. Of course, he didn't talk. But everybody knows that I.Q. tests based on language ability are very one-sided. Besides, he would talk as soon as they started setting a place for him at table and pouring him coffee."[19] Gummitch is unable to prove himself by coffee; he proves himself by saving a life in his household. |
| Harry Cat | The Cricket in Times Square | George Selden | Friend and guide to New York City for Tucker Mouse and Chester Cricket. The novel was a 1961 Newbery Honor Book. |
| Jellylorum | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | |
| Jennie[20] | Jennie | Paul Gallico | A young boy named Peter is transformed into a cat after an accident, and is taken in by Jennie and taught the ways of cats. |
| Jennyanydots | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | An old cat who lies around the house all day, but at night, teaches the rats, mice, and cockroaches to be good. |
| Josie | SCP-529 - Josie the Half Cat | Various | A grey tabby cat designated SCP-529 by the SCP Foundation, whose rear half is invisible and intangible. Josie moves normally despite her absent half.[21] Character was the mascot for the SCP Series.[22] |
| Jupiter | The Deptford Mice | Robin Jarvis | A bloated, evil ginger tabby worshipped as a living god by sewer rats. He dwells in a dark chamber and no one has ever seen any more of him than his blazing red eyes, so his rodent followers are unaware of the true feline nature of their deity. |
| Khat | Midnite | Randolph Stow | He is a talking Siamese cat who persuades Captain Midnite to become a bushranger and formulates his plans. |
| Kitsa | The Indian in the Cupboard | Lynne Reid Banks | She is a housecat who acts as an occasional antagonist, frightening and hunting Omri's animated toy Indian. Kitsa is black and white, with green eyes, noted for her independence and disobedience. |
| Kitty | Bad Kitty | Nick Bruel | She is a housecat who wreaks havoc around her owner's home when she is in a bad mood, hence the name. She has black fur and a white tuft of fur on her chest. |
| Koko | The Cat Who... | Lilian Jackson Braun | The nickname of Kao K'o-Kung, one of two cats who help detective Jim Qwilleran solve cases in the series. |
| Koma | The Cat's Elopement | Andrew Lang (translator) | Original German by David Brauns. A lovely cat who is the beloved of Gon. |
| Lady May | "The Game of Rat and Dragon" | Cordwainer Smith | A telepathic cat who works happily alongside humans to fight outer space monsters known as Dragons, she perceives them as rats and is a successful slayer of these invaders. Her human partner, Underhill, is in love with her, knowing that no human female mind could ever equal the Lady's. |
| Leonardo | "Me and My Cat?" | Satoshi Kitamura | A cat who switches with his companion, a boy called Nicholas. |
| Liszt | "Edward the Conqueror" | Roald Dahl | A woman believes a stray cat who appreciates her piano music is a reincarnation of Franz Liszt, to the disgust of her cat-hating husband. |
| Macavity | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A devilish cat. Part of the poem about him says, "Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity". |
| Maisie MacKenzie | Maisie Comes to Morningside | Aileen Paterson | An anthropomorphic cat who lives in Morningside, Edinburgh, Maisie wears a kilt and her adventures have taken her from Glasgow to New York to Brazil and even climbing in the Himalayas. Her feline friends are Professor Mackenzie and Mrs McKitty.[23] Maisie is featured in over 20 books, and has a line of soft toys; the books have been adapted for a television series, with dubbing by Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter.[24] |
| Maurice | The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents | Terry Pratchett | The eponymous fast-talking confidence trickster cat who operates a 'pied-piper' scam in the Discworld series of books - organising teams of rats to infest a town and then rapidly withdraw after payment to a 'tame' human. |
| Mehitabel | Archy and Mehitabel | Don Marquis | An alley cat who is the best friend of the cockroach Archy. Drawn in a series of newspaper comics, she is "a toujours gai" ("always in a good mood") old dame with the soul of Cleopatra." A song, "Toujours Gai," was written for Mehitabel in the 1971 animated musical comedy film Shinbone Alley. It was later covered by Eartha Kitt on her CD album Purr-fect: Greatest Hits.[25] |
| Mickey | Barbary | Vonda McIntyre | A cat owned by Barbary, a twelve-year-old girl, that travels with her to live on a space station. |
| Midnight Louie | Crystal Days | Carole Nelson Douglas | 20 lb (9 kg) tomcat companion to (and fellow investigator with) amateur sleuth Temple Barr, occasionally assisted by his sire 3 O'Clock Louie, his Ma Barker and her 24th Street gang, and his kit Midnight Louise. |
| Mikesch | Kater Mikesch | Josef Lada | A tomcat whose owner teaches him to speak. |
| Minoes | Minoes | Annie M. G. Schmidt | A cat who gets transformed into a human by a chemical accident. |
| Miss Moppet | The Story of Miss Moppet | Beatrix Potter | One of Tabitha Twitchit's daughters. |
| Mister | The Dresden Files | Jim Butcher | A bob-tailed grey tomcat belonging to the wizard Harry Dresden. He is often used as a vessel for Bob (a spirit of intellect) to inhabit on intelligence missions. |
| Mittens | The Tale of Tom Kitten | Beatrix Potter | One of Tabitha Twitchit's daughters. |
| Mr. Mistoffelees | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | An aloof magician cat who can perform a variety of magic tricks such as pulling kittens from a hat and being heard in places where he is not. |
| Mr. Pusskins | Mr. Pusskins | Sam Lloyd | A pampered orange tomcat. |
| Mrs. Norris | Harry Potter series | J. K. Rowling | The pet cat of Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch. She patrols the corridors of the school looking for students skipping class, often foreshadowing the appearance of Mr. Filch himself. J. K. Rowling named the character after Mrs. Norris from Jane Austen's 1814 novel Mansfield Park.[26][27] |
| Mog | Meg and Mog | Helen Nicoll | Faithful friend of Meg the witch. |
| Mog | Mog the Forgetful Cat | Judith Kerr | Faithful pet of the Thomas family. |
| Mogget | Sabriel | Garth Nix | A mysterious white cat that serves the Abhorsen, who may be more than he appears. |
| Moxie | The Subtle Knife | Philip Pullman | Will's cat who leads him through the window to Cittàgazze, where he meets Lyra. Later, Will's daemon settles as a cat. |
| Mungojerrie | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | Part of a duo with Rumpleteazer, a couple of petty thieves with a reputation for destruction. |
| Munkustrap | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | |
| Murr | The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr | E. T. A. Hoffmann | |
| Nigger Man | The Rats in the Walls | H. P. Lovecraft | Plays a pivotal role. |
| Noboru Wataya | The Wind Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami | Later renamed Mackerel. |
| Old Deuteronomy | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A very old and wise cat that can be found resting in all sorts of places throughout town. |
| Oliver | Oliver in the Garden | Margaret Beames | |
| Orlando | A Camping Holiday | Kathleen Hale | The eponymous hero. |
| Pangur Bán | "The Monk and His Cat" | Attributed to Sedulius Scottus; translated by W. H. Auden and others |
Set to music by Samuel Barber and others. The cat in this 9th-century Irish monastic poem is described as a happy mouser, whose simple enjoyment of success in the hunt is likened to that of the author, a monk, when he learns something new in his studies. |
| Peter | "The Smile of the Sphinx" | William F. Temple | This cat is thought, by the narrator, to be an extraordinarily stupid cat "who could never learn the simplest of tricks";[28] in fact, Peter is extraordinarily brilliant. He is part of a race of Felidae who originally lived on the Moon and who came to Earth, ages ago, to enjoy being spoiled by the Egyptians. This science fiction tale explains why dogs howl at the Moon, why the Great Sphinx of Giza has its shape, and even why the Moon has craters. |
| Petronius the Arbiter (Pete) | The Door into Summer | Robert A. Heinlein | The smart, loving cat of protagonist Daniel Boone Davis, who occasionally carries him in a carrying-bag and gives him saucers of ginger ale to drink. Dan calls him Petronius the Arbiter because he thinks that Pete is a good arbiter (judge) of personality. If Pete dislikes someone, Dan will distrust that person; Pete has always been proved right. |
| Pitty Sing | "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" | Flannery O'Connor | The grandmother's cat. She brings him on their ill-fated trip against her son's wishes "because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself." She jostles the cat, hidden in a basket, causing him to jump onto the shoulder of Bailey, her son, which results in the family car crashing. |
| Pixel | The Cat Who Walks Through Walls | Robert A. Heinlein | The title character of the book, who has an inexplicable tendency to be wherever the narrator happens to be. In one scene Pixel does, in fact, walk through a wall, and it is explained that Pixel is too young to know that such behavior is impossible. |
| Pluto | The Black Cat | Edgar Allan Poe | Pluto is the narrator's cat. After becoming an alcoholic he starts abusing the cat, then trying unsuccessfully to kill it. When his wife intervenes in one incident he kills her instead then bricks the body up in a wall. The narrator is caught when the police come and hear sounds behind the wall, where the narrator accidentally entombed the still-living cat along with its mistress. |
| Poppy | Poppy Cat | Lara Jones | Poppy Cat, a young neckerchief-wearing kitten who is the protagonist of the series and the leader of her teammates, Alma, Zuzu, Owl and Mo. She takes them on big extraordinary adventures to faraway places by every vehicle they need, but they have to stay away from Egbert, because he is not nice to them. |
| Princess Arjumand, aka 'Dearum JuJu' | To Say Nothing of the Dog | Connie Willis | Princess Arjumand is the beloved pet of Tocelyn 'Tossie' Mering in the 19th century whose great-granddaughter in the 21st century will control a very large endowment that the time travel faculty of Oxford greatly needs. Princess Arjumand is brought into the future to save her from drowning and sets off the plot of the book when the hero is tasked with returning her to her own time. Is particularly fond of goldfish. |
| Ralph | Rotten Ralph | Jack Gantos | A mischievous red cat who enjoys playing mean, practical jokes on his family. |
| Ribby | The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan | Beatrix Potter | A cat with a love for mouse pie, a good friend of the dog Duchess and cousin to Tabitha. |
| Rroû | Rroû | Maurice Genevoix | In the film adaptation, the gray tabby kitten is born in an attic, sees his mother fall to her death, is taken in by a girl, lost in the woods, injured, recovers, and is left to live in the woods with a white cat. The novel Rroû by Maurice Genevoix was published in 1931 and republished in 2023 upon the release of the film adaptation Mon chat et moi, la grande aventure de Rroû (My Cat and I, the Great Adventure of Rroû). Where subtitled in English in English-speaking countries, the cat’s name is Lou, and the film is called A Cat’s Life. The film is rated PG for fear, death, violence, and language. |
| Rum Tum Tugger | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A fickle cat that brings trouble with his indecisiveness. |
| Rumpelteazer | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | Part of a duo with Mungojerrie, a couple of petty thieves with a reputation for destruction. |
| Sagwa | Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat | Amy Tan | A kitten who gained her Siamese markings by accident. She is capable of writing in Chinese with her tail. |
| Sampson | The Church Mice series | Graham Oakley | A cat that lives at a church and looks after mice. |
| Scarface Claw | Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and various sequels | Lynley Dodd | A tough cat who scares Hairy Maclary and his canine companions, and even scares himself. |
| Sid | Six-Dinner Sid | Inga Moore | Sid is a sleek black cat that manages to reside at six homes at the same time, receiving all the benefits, including six daily meals. In 2005 an audio adaptation of the book was made and was narrated by Peter Sallis.[29] |
| Simpkin | The Tailor of Gloucester | Beatrix Potter | The Tailor's pet cat who fetches an essential cherry-coloured silk twist, but angrily hides it after he finds the tailor released his captive mice. After a change of heart, he gives back the twist. |
| Skimbleshanks | Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | T. S. Eliot | A cat working on the train to Glasgow and without him, the train cannot go. |
| Slinky Malinki | Slinky Malinki | Lynley Dodd | The stalking and lurking adventurous cat who is a common cat during the day but becomes a thief as night falls.[30] |
| Small Bob | House of Hades | Rick Riordan | Small Bob is Bob, AKA Iapetuse's skeleton cat in Tartarus. He is a dead cat, only made from bones. His image flickers, making him seem different at times.[31] |
| Sprockets | Mission to Universe | Gordon R. Dickson | Sprockets is a stowaway feral kitten who becomes spaceship mascot. The crew members superstitiously believe that his finally learning to purr will portend success in their search for an inhabitable planet.[32][33] |
| Squire Gingivere | Mossflower | Brian Jacques | Squire Julian Gingivere was odd among cats in the fact that he was a vegetarian. He lived with the owl Captain Snow, but the owl's appetite for meat, his bad table manners and their conflicting personalities led to a disagreement and then separation. |
| Stew-Cat, Blue-Cat and Clue-Cat | The Thief of Always | Clive Barker | These three cats are the friendly familiars of the magical Holiday House. |
| Tab | Watership Down | Richard Adams | Tab is one of a gang of talking cats who live at Nuthanger Farm. When the protagonist rabbits raid the farm, the cats prove to be bold, dangerous enemies and are subdued only by the wits of Hazel and Blackberry, the brawny courage of Bigwig, and the speed of Dandelion. On his next trip to the farm, Hazel is assaulted by the green-eyed Tab, but the little girl of the farm saves Hazel.[34] |
| Tabby McTat | Tabby McTat | Julia Donaldson | The titular character of the children's book which was later adapted into an animated short film on the BBC. He sings alongside a busker named Fred. |
| Tabitha Twitchit | The Tale of Tom Kitten | Beatrix Potter | The mother of three kittens Miss Moppet, Mittens and Tom Kitten, who tries hard to cope with their mischievous behaviour. |
| Tao | The Incredible Journey | Sheila Burnford | A Siamese cat who accompanies Luath, a Labrador Retriever, and Bodger, a Bull Terrier, on a 300-mile journey through the Canadian wilderness to rejoin their human family. |
| Thomas Gray | Thomas Gray: Philosopher Cat | Philip J. Davis | A female cat living in Pembroke College, Cambridge. She assists a historian of science in his work. |
| Thomasina | Thomasina, the Cat Who Thought She Was God | Paul Gallico | A ginger cat that seemingly returns from the dead. |
| Tiddles | Ginger and the Mystery Visitor | Charlotte Voake | A cat that makes itself at home at Ginger and Kitten's house. |
| Tobermory | "Tobermory" (in The Chronicles of Clovis) | H. H. Munro | In a short story by Saki, a cat is taught to talk, but knows too many personal facts about people and is all too willing to talk about them.[35] He is taught by mild-mannered Cornelius Appin, who calls Tobermory "a Beyond-cat of extraordinary intelligence".[36] When Tobermory embarrasses everyone present by proving to be a consummate gossip, his owner attempts to poison him. Saki's biographer comments, "The cat eludes the strychnine left out for him and falls instead in combat with a big yellow tom from the rectory. Not a hero's death but an honorable one, and comedy depends heavily on a sense of honor."[37] |
| Tom Kitten | The Tale of Tom Kitten | Beatrix Potter | A curious but disobedient kitten in the children's stories "The Tale of Tom Kitten" and "The Roly Poly Pudding" by Beatrix Potter. |
| Trillion the Three-Headed Lion | Beast Quest | Trillion is a large, three-headed lion that cannot swim. He lives in the Central Plains. Tom, with the help of Tagus, defeats Trillion, and Tom goes through the Lion's Gate into Gorgonia, home of the wizard Malvel. | |
| Tufty | Diary of a Killer Cat | Ann Fine | A much maligned and misunderstood cat who gets blamed for the disappearance of a pet rabbit (amongst other misdemeanours). |
| Ungatt Trunn | Lord Brocktree | Brian Jacques | An evil wildcat who conquers the mountain stronghold Salamandastron. But the good badger Brocktree comes to regain the mountain. |
| Yoko | Yoko | Rosemary Wells | Yoko is a Japanese-American kitten who is getting ready for her first day of school. Unfortunately, her first day at school goes badly when she gets teased by the other students for her lunch: sushi. |
| Yum Yum | The Cat Who... | Lilian Jackson Braun | One of two cats who help detective Jim Qwilleran solve cases in the series. |
| Zoppino | Gelsomino in the Country of Liars | Gianni Rodari | A red kitty drawn on the wall by a girl named Romoletta and miraculously revived. Gelsomino's best friend. |
Unnamed
| Character | Earliest Appearance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Black kitten who eats human flesh | Cat's Eyes by Lee Jordan |
A mild horror story in which a black kitten becomes an abnormally large black cat, who haunts the isolated house of the heroine, Rachel. In its kittenhood, it had led the other thirty cats of Old Miss Mulgrave to dine on her when she died in her home and the cats were starving. Rachel fears it is stalking her and her baby, with reason: "It was starving.... Now it would eat anything."[38] |
| The Cat in the Picture | "The Cat in the Picture" by Wright Morris |
In this macabre tale originally published in a 1958 issue of Esquire, a black cat slowly displaces a retired captain from his bed, his wife, and his home. The surprise ending is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. More than one commentator compared the writing with Poe's.[39][40][41] |
| Mr. Sneaze's cat | "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Sōseki |
The supercilious, feline narrator describes the lives of an assortment of middle-class Japanese people. The name of the cat is not given. |
| Suzdal's super-cats | "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal" by Cordwainer Smith |
Commander Suzdal saves a colonial planet by imprinting a genetic message on cat cells, which instructs them to train themselves and to be ready to fight in the time of his need, then sends them back in time to a nearby moon. "A subjective second later, the cat-people save Suzdal" from an overwhelming alien attack.[42] |
| Various far-future cats | "Puss in Boots" by Ronald Anthony Cross |
This science fiction story describes a world full of far-future cats on a planet where "cats were the closest thing to a religion that they had" and where cats "wandered freely and slept wherever they chose. There were huge communal cat boxes everywhere...filled with some form of brightly colored pellets, which automatically emptied and were refilled with more of the same stuff." The fact that cats are no longer fed actual meat is a clue to the mystery in the story, about whether men are any longer real men.[43] |