List of fictional cats in literature

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 and Author	Notes
Alonzo	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A black and white tom, and is 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 by 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.
Bangs	Sam, Bangs and Moonshine by Evaline Ness	Bangs is a little girl's cat in this winner of the 1967 Caldecott Medal.
Behemoth	The Master and Margarita by 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.
Bombalurina	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A flirtatious red Queen with a white chest and black spots and marks.
Borregad	Lyrec by Gregory Frost	Borregad and Lyrec are of an energy-based race who can shapeshift. When he and Lyrec hunt their archenemy into another world, Lyrec takes human shape, but Borregad has only enough strength to take the form of a cat. Borregad, a Jester figure, finds a variant of Guinness stout to cheer himself in this fantasy world.
Bustopher Jones	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by 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.
Carbonel	Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh	King of the Cats, presumed missing by his subjects ever since the witch Mrs. Cantrip abducted him. Unfortunately he can't return to his throne until the enslavement spell Mrs. Cantrip cast on him is undone.
Cat	Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote	Pet of Holly Golightly.
Cat	It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville	A stray cat that 14-year-old Dave Mitchell adopts as a pet and confidant. Winner of the 1964 Newbery Medal.
Cat Morgan	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	Retired and works as a doorman at the book publishers Faber and Faber. He is a gruff but likeable character.
The Cat in the Hat	The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss	A mischievous anthropomorphic feline from Dr Seuss's book of the same name.
Cheshire Cat	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by 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 field, 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.
"Church" (Winston Churchill)	Pet Sematary by 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".
Coricopat	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by 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 by 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, an intelligent, cat-like creature who can detect when they are around untrustworthy people, explaining his higher than normal cat intelligence and stature.
Demeter	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by 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), is the cat who unmasks Macavity when he tries to disguise as Old Deuteronomy.
Dinah	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by 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).
Dulcie	Cat on the Edge by Shirley Rousseau Murphy	A talking orange tabby cat, "the sharpest feline sleuth on the mystery scene--one cool cat, a clawed and formidable enemy of crime," Dulcie has solved numerous murders and other crimes with the help of her mate Joe Grey. Dulcie is also a library cat. (For the Joe Grey Cat Mysteries series, Murphy has received eleven national Cat Writers' Association awards for best novel of the year.)
Electra	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by 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.
Findus	Pettson and Findus by Sven Nordqvist	A cat who dresses up and talks with his old Swedish farmer, Pettson.
Firestar	Warriors: The Darkest Hour by 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 by Akif Pirinçci	In this 1989 German-language mystery, 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"), 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 tabbys has a warped mind and is attempting to breed a 'super race' of felines." 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 by Tad Williams	Tailchaser joins with friends Pouncequick and Roofshadow on an epic quest.
Ginger	The Tale of Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter	A yellow tomcat who ran a shop with his partner Pickles, a terrier.
Ginger	The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis	A talking cat of Narnia, he is punished for his evil deeds by having his ability for speech removed and being banned from Aslan's Country.
Great Rumpus Cat	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A hero in the world of the book and the musical.
Greebo	Discworld by 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: "The bat squirmed under his claw. It seemed to Greebo's small cat brain that it was trying to change its shape, and he wasn't having any of that from a mouse with wings on."
Griddlebone	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by 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 by T. S. Eliot	A pirate cat.
Gummitch	Space-Time for Springers by 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." Gummitch doesn't get to prove himself by coffee; he proves himself by saving a life in his household.
Harry Cat	The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden	Friend and guide to New York City for Tucker Mouse and Chester Cricket. The novel was a 1961 Newbery Honor Book.
Joe Grey	Cat on the Edge by Shirley Rousseau Murphy	A talking gray-and-white tomcat that has solved various murders and other crimes with the help of his mate Dulcie. Joe Grey has a docked tail after his tail was broken by a drunkard. (For the Joe Grey Cat Mysteries series, Murphy has received eleven national Cat Writers' Association awards for best novel of the year.)
Jellylorum	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Jennie	Jennie by 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 by T. S. Eliot
Jupiter	The Deptford Mice by Robin Jarvis	Worshipped as the Lord of All by the rats, feared like a dark god of the sewers.
Kitty	Bad Kitty by 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.
Liszt	"Edward the Conqueror" by 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 by 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 by 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. 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.
Maurice	The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by 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 by Don Marquis	An alley cat who is the best friend of the cockroach Archy.
Mickey Miggs	The Kitten Who Thought He Was A Mouse by Miriam Norton	An abandoned kitten raised by the Miggs mouse family, who was not aware that he was a cat until he was befriended by and the children Peggy and Paul and the household cat Hazel.
Midnight Louie	Crystal Days by Carole Nelson Douglas	20 Pound (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.
Minoes	Minoes by Annie M.G. Schmidt	A cat who gets transformed into a human by a chemical accident.
Miss Moppet	The Story of Miss Moppet by Beatrix Potter	One of Tabitha Twitchit's daughters.
Mister	The Dresden Files by 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 by Beatrix Potter	One of Tabitha Twitchit's daughters.
Mr. Mistoffelees	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Mrs. Norris	Harry Potter series	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.
Mog	Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr	Faithful pet of the Thomas family.
Moxie	The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman	Will's cat who leads him through the window to Citta'gazze, where he meets Lyra. Later, Will's daemon settles as a cat.
Mungojerrie	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Munkustrap	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Nigger Man	The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft	Plays a pivotal role.
Noboru Wataya	The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami	Later renamed Mackerel.
Old Deuteronomy	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Orlando	A Camping Holiday by Kathleen Hale	The eponymous hero.
Peter	The Smile of the Sphinx by William F. Temple	This cat is thought, by the narrator, to be an extraordinarily stupid cat "who could never learn the simplest of tricks"; 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 by 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 doesn't like someone, Dan will distrust that person; Pete has always been proved right.
Pixel	The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert 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 by 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.
Ralph	Ralph, or, What's Eating the Folks in Fatchakulla County? by Ned Crabb	Ralph weighs over 200 pounds, so he is a large kitty, but not a mean one, in this comic novel set in a fictional county of Florida. This murder mystery gives the "Who Did It?" answer away on the dust jacket illustration and becomes a fun "Whydunit" as the novel explores various characters, including the family that raises giant cats and a number of local villains who are eaten.
Ralph	Rotten Ralph by 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 by Beatrix Potter	A cat with a love for mouse pie, a good friend of the dog Duchess and cousin to Tabitha.
Rum Tum Tugger	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Rumpelteazer	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Sagwa	Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat by Amy Tan	A kitten who gained her Siamese markings by accident. She is capable of writing in Chinese with her tail.
Scarface Claw	Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and various sequels by Lynley Dodd	A tough cat who scares Hairy Maclary and his canine companions, and even scares himself.
Simpkin	The Tailor of Gloucester by 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 by T. S. Eliot
Slinky Malinki	Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd	The stalking and lurking adventurous cat who is a common cat during the day but becomes a thief as night falls.
Sprockets	Mission to Universe by 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.
Squire Gingivere	Mossflower by 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 by Clive Barker	These three cats are the friendly familiars of the magical Holiday House.
Tabitha Twitchit	The Tale of Tom Kitten by 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 by 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.
Tim	Tim the Travelling Cat [title unconfirmed]	A cat tries to make it back to its owner in Britain during the War. Out of print.
Tobermory	"Tobermory" (in The Chronicles of Clovis) by 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. He is taught by mild-mannered Cornelius Appin, who calls Tobermory "a Beyond-cat of extraordinary intelligence". 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."
Tom Kitten	The Tale of Tom Kitten by 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
Thistleclaw	Bluestar's Prophecy by Erin Hunter	An ambitious grey tom living in ThunderClan. Tigerstar/claw's mentor.
Tristram and Yseult	"The Hart" by Greg Costikyan	These two cats belong to the narrator of a short fantasy story and are described fondly: "Tristram and Yseult twined about my legs, meowing, and holding their tails high; they got stew, too, and a bit of milk."
Ungatt Trunn	Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques	An evil wildcat who conquers the mountain stronghold Salamandastron. But the good badger Brocktree comes to regain the mountain.
Velcro	"A Gift Before Leaving" by W. R. Thompson	Velcro, over twenty years old, lives with Hannah in a futuristic, artificially intelligent house. Velcro finds that whenever he meows, the house delivers a full bowl of cat food, and he gains five pounds before Hannah finds out and reprograms the house.

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."
Cat in the Picture, The	"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 shocking ending is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. More than one commentator compared the writing with Poe's.
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.

See also

• List of fictional cats