Cats are dicks.
Before the cat lovers of the world descend on the Tor.com offices, think about it for a moment. You have this animal in your house, most likely by choice (and if it’s not by choice, you should probably look into getting that taken care of), and sometimes you can pet them if they’re so inclined. If they are not inclined, you’ll most likely get a swipe of claws on the back of your hand or knuckles. They also tear through your house at three o’clock in the morning, crashing into doors and walls. It’s supposedly to “release energy” according to cat scientists, but you absolutely cannot convince me that needs to be the case in the middle of the night.
My cat, Otter, is a dick. She doesn’t like anyone aside from me—even then, she has to be in the right mood—and will prowl and hiss anytime I have someone over at my house, which does wonders for my dating life. I love her, but it can be an exasperated type of love, like the kind I imagine parents have for their kids when they find out their children have drawn on the walls with permanent markers.
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The House in the Cerulean Sea
When I started writing The House in the Cerulean Sea, I knew the lead character—Linus Baker—would be a fussy, prickly fellow, set in his ways as a mid-level bureaucrat, employed by the Department In Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). He has his routine, living a somewhat dreary life in a city where the rain never ends.
His only burst of color in an otherwise drab existence is Calliope, his diva of a cat he found as a kitten before the novel opens. Though she cannot speak, Calliope plays a central role in Linus’s development as a character, helping him to step out of the rain and into the warm sunshine, surrounded by a cerulean sea.
Cats have a long and storied history in the science fiction/fantasy genre, be it books or film or television. Whether they speak or not, cats—with their otherworldly countenance—tend to make interesting companions, either acting as a foil for the hero/heroine or having their own ulterior motives. It’s why I chose to have Linus—a man without friends—speak to his cat as if she were a person. While she doesn’t speak, she gets her point across quite easily.
Here are a few fictional cats that stand out for me:
Ser Pounce (A Feast of Crows)
George RR Martin kills everything: people, dragons, dogs, beasties, heroes, villains—no one is safe from his diabolically evil mind. Thankfully, Ser Pounce wasn’t one of his many victims, at least not yet. Given as one of three kittens to Tommen (Boots and Lady Whiskers being the other two), Ser Pounce chases a scrap of fur that Tommen tied to a fishing pole. When a mouse is stolen from Ser Pounce by Lady Whiskers, the terrifying Cersei Lannister says, “Ser Pounce must learn to defend his right. In this world the weak are always the victims of the strong.” (And, if she wasn’t terrible enough already, in the television version of Game of Thrones, Ser Pounce is apparently executed off-screen under Cersei’s orders. Yikes.)
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A Feast of Crows
Greebo (Discworld)
Terry Pratchett can make me laugh like most authors can’t. Greebo, a cat with one green eye and one milky white, is no exception. But for me, the humor comes not from when Greebo is a cat (though he does chase bears and eat vampires), but when he is transformed into a human, while still retaining all his cat-like mannerisms. The fact that women fawn over him only adds to his mystique, especially since, as a cat, he made it his mission to father as many offspring as he possibly could.
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Wyrd Sisters
Lying Cat (Saga)
Sidekick to the Will, Lying Cat looks like a sphinx, and is greenish-blueish with yellow eyes. She also has the ability to suss out when someone is telling a direct lie, uttering the word “Lying.” While she can be vicious, she also has kindness in her. In issue #14, Sophie says, “I am all dirty on the inside because I did bad things with—” to which Lying cat replies, “Lying.”
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Saga
Bagheera (The Jungle Book)
Whether it be from the novel by Rudyard Kipling or the sanitized Disney version of the same name, Bagheera—a black panther—is a wonderfully gruff empathetic character. Acting as a protector and friend of Mowgli, Bagheera heartbreakingly reveals why he has the insight into men that he does: he was born into captivity and suffered because of it. While it could have led to him becoming a villain, he instead chose to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, namely Mowgli. He becomes Mowgli’s mentor through their adventures, and in the end, has the best line (in my opinion): “Remember, Bagheera loved thee.”
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The Jungle Book
Church (Pet Sematary)
Church doesn’t speak, doesn’t act as a mentor, doesn’t tell when people are lying. For all intents and purposes, he’s just a cat. But since this is Stephen King we’re dealing with, it’s never that simple. Church dies, a victim of the busy road in front of the Creed home. Unable to tell his daughter that Church has died, Louis Creed follows Jud Crandall into the woods, and buries Church in the “pet sematary”. Church comes back, but he’s not the same. And while he still doesn’t speak, he acts as a chilling lesson in what happens when men try to play god for the love of their family. Things do not end well for Church, or for the Creed family.
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Pet Sematary
Now, if you’ll excuse me. My cat is sitting on my desk as I write this, staring at me in that way she does, statute-still until I give her the attention she so demands. She’s a dick, sure, but I belong to her because she chose me. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
TJ KLUNE is a Lambda Literary Award-winning author (Into This River I Drown) and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company. His novels include The House on the Cerulean Sea and The Extraordinaries. Being queer himself, TJ believes it’s important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories.
Does Red Dwarf count?
The Ghatti’s Tale series by Gayle Greeno.
Oh, and Diane Duane’s feline wizards series!
Hearing Mr Benedict Cumberbatch roll out that Evil Voice of his is never less than delightful, but watching Mr Serkis’ MOWGLI LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE made me terribly sorry he wasn’t given the opportunity to voice Bagheera instead of Shere Khan; if anyone could have pulled off that ‘wild honey dripping from the comb’ quality with which The Black Panther’s voice is associated it would have been him (and I can definitely imagine Mr Christian Bale making a very acceptable, though rather different Tiger).
Oh, and I would be deeply remiss if I didn’t being up one of my favourite Fantasy cats – Salem Saberhagen, the familiar from the 1990s SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH TV show; I’d describe that old rascal as a scene stealer, but it might be more accurate to describe him as walking away with the whole d— series (or at least making a game attempt to in the most delightfully hammy style).
ALSO – The Cat from CORALINE, voiced by the Mighty KEITH DAVID, deserves our attention!
Gummitch from Fritz Leiber’s “Space Time for Springers.”
C’mell.
Catseye Gomez in Simon Hawke’s wizard series.
Rowl from The Aeronaut’s Windlass is another good example.
There’s another ASOIAF cat that bears mentioning – Rhaenys’s kitten, Balerion, whom some fans believe grew up to be the one-eared tomcat that appears a few times in the story proper.
“That’s the real king of this castle right there, older than sin and twice as mean. One time, the king was feasting the queen’s father, and that black bastard hopped up on the table and snatched a roast quail right out of Lord Tywin’s fingers. Robert laughed so hard he like to burst. You stay away from that one, child.”
Princess Arjumand of Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of the Dog is one of the main focal points, and a major foil for the narrator character. Also the mother of a kitten called Penwiper.
Oh, and her existence is at different points of the story either a threat to the very fabric of space-time, or what saves the same. There wouldn’t be a story without her.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden universe books are absolutely lousy with cats, and while the cats don’t talk, they seem to have developed a form of sentience. And as I recollect, while Andre Norton’s books had a whole menagerie of animals in supporting roles, cats outnumbered the others by a good margin. And I seem to recollect a few cats hanging around the Vorkosigan household in Lois McMaster Bujold’s books.
Pixel – The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (Heinlein)
Dax – Tuf Voyaging (George R R Martin)
Pete, another Heinlein cat, figures largely in The Door into Summer.
Alan@11: Merlin, to name just one (esp in I Dare). Not only sentience but also some kind of mystical ability to teleport, and to respond telepathically.
@13,
Pete is the entire reason for The Door into Summer.
Some best cats & their peoples:
Skitty & Dick White – Mercedes Lackey
Nimitz the Treecat & Honor Harrington – David Weber
Spot & Data – ST:NG
Amazing Maurice, the Clan, & Keith – Terry Pratchett
Hobbes & Calvin – Bill Watterson
Bucky B. Katt, Satchel, & Rob Wilco – Darby Conley
Jasmine & Walter – Secondhand Lions (damn chopped onions … )
The Lad and the Lion – Edgar Rice Burroughs (Caveat: I remember reading it several times and loving it when very little, so do not remember/know how problematic its themes and characterizations may actually be.)
And Greebo and Lying Cat forever!
I practically own stock in hydrogen peroxide because of mine, but it’s worth it.
Aslan, Battle Cat, Shiva, the list goes on …
@11.AlanBrown – cats in Lois McMaster Bujold’s books: Zap the cat shows up in Memory, not sure if her kittens were introduced in the same book or the next one, but they were most excellent kittens.
The kitten tree, the less said about that, the better… ooh, the live fur in Brothers in Arms! That’s cat adjacent.
Surely there must be others… Does a leopard count? (The Hallowed Hunt)
Tailchaser’s Song – Tad Williams
The Wild Road – Gabriel King
(not exactly a housecat but…) Honor Harrington Series
Barque Cats series by Anne McCaffrey
Mort(e) – Robert Repino
Crookshanks!
And the cats of Queen Berúthiel.
Gummitch from Space-Time for Springers (by Fritz Leiber) is the most memorable and beloved of the SF/F cats, and for very good reasons. Any science fiction fan who is also a cat lover should be familiar with Gummitch and his incredible story.
It’s one of those stories that you never forget, no matter how many years it’s been since you’ve read it.
I would also like to nominate the moon grey cat from David Mitchell’s books. He doesn’t have a name and he doesn’t get as much credit as he’s due, but always shows up at crucial times in Mitchell’s books. He has powers, but they’re subtle: One character, for instance, narrowly avoids getting killed by an IED in Iraq because he sees the moon grey cat and bends down to pet him at precisely the right moment, avoiding a blast of shrapnel and glass.
And finally, there are Cordwainer Smith’s cats, aka The Partners, in The Game of Rat and Dragon. Those cats play a crucial role in protecting human starships in interstellar space. There are entities between the stars that attack human ships and threaten to end human exploration and colonization, until someone comes up with an idea to have cats launch from the ships in their own small cat-sized ships during attacks. The cats make quick work of the entities, then return to the ship in time for some yums.
Mister from Dresden Files!
Rory from Kate Elliott’s Spiritwalker series is a saber-toothed cat from the spirit world; when he is in the human world he can also choose to appear human, and in that form, can talk. He likes to be petted (by which he means living up to stereotypes about tomcats, which is why your description of Greebo reminded me of him).
The main character of the same series uses the nickname Cat, but it’s just short for Catherine. Rory’s interest in her is quite different from his interest in most young women, but the details are a major spoiler.
Did Haviland Tuf’s cats have names? It’s been years since I read it, but I distinctly remember some scenes featuring cats, including one where Tuf offered cat food to an unruly passenger demanding meat in their diet.
Tigerishka and Miaow from Fritz Lieber’s “The Wanderer”
Meowara Tomocato; the Samurai Cat and his nephews.
I’ll add Tanya Huff’s Keeper Chronicles to the list. Austin is the elderly cat of the main character, who happens to talk. And it’s perfect – he’s an opinionated, furry little sh!t disturber, who objects to his geriatric cat food, eats stuff off the floor, and tries to order takeout.
Thomas Stearns Eliot is usually considered a poet, not a fantasist. Though the distinction isn’t clear to me. It may be that a poet is expected to show more verbal elegance in a smaller word-count.
But if Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats isn’t Speculative Fantasy, I don’t know what is.
Most of the cats therein would qualify.
@@@@@ 20, Plan:
Gummitch from Space-Time for Springers (by Fritz Leiber) is the most memorable and beloved of the SF/F cats, and for very good reasons. Any science fiction fan who is also a cat lover should be familiar with Gummitch and his incredible story.
I second the motion to the extent of providing links:
Space-Time for Springers
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791207/9781625791207___2.htm
Kreativity For Cats
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51493/51493-h/51493-h.htm
Fluffy and PKP (Princess Killer Pinknose) from Beth HIlgartner’s Cats in Cyberspace and sequel PKP For President (aka Prey-Part Politics):
Aineko from Charlie Stross’s Accelerando, who is not only a major character, but in some senses the author of the whole book.
The cat being from Garth Nix’s Abhorson trilogy. Mog, I think?
Eet, the snarky cat-alien hybrid companion to Murdock Jern in Andre Norton’s duology, “The Zero Stone” and “Uncharted Stars,” who is definitely the brains of the operation.
Also, in Andre Norton’s “Solar Queen” novels, Sinbad, the ship’s cat.
How about Tiger from Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys? A rather large and nasty cat…
One cool cat that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the unflappable Mister Cat from Peter S. Beagle’s Tamsin (which also includes a 300-year-old feline named Miss Sophia Brown — but do ghost cats count in this list?).
Mr. Snuggly from Charlaine Harris’s Midnight, Texas series.
Throgmorton from The Lives of Christopher Chant rather leaps to mind.
Mogget from Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series.
@Fernhunter no. 27: Bless Gummitch! I hadn’t known about the sequel. Thanks!
Along the same line, Pixel appears in Spider Robinson’s Callahan series, in which he happily makes the rounds of a crowd of people who happen to be in separate vehicles in motion on the highway at the time.
I want to second the following nominations:
Cat from Red Dwarf.
Gummitch from Fritz Leiber’s “Space Time for Springers.” He’s the reason we talked about our cat, Boo, having conservation of thud.
C’mell, bending the will of Cordwainer Smith’s Instrumentalty, also the partners, especially Lady May, in “The Game of Rat and Dragon.”
Jad Bal Ja, the golden lion, of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan books.
I’d like to add a couple more important ones:
Kitchen cat in Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn: “There be a trick to it, of course.”
Felina Furr, Alley-Kat-Abra in the Captain Carrot and The Amazing Zoo Crew from DC. The brains and level headed member of the team.
Leo, in Pati Nagle’s Pet Noir – he’s the narrator, a smart ass, polydactyl, genetically enhanced Maine Coon, working security on a space station
Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Magic book, Reserved for the Cat. A magician lost a shape-changing duel, and ended up in cat shape. He guides his orphaned daughter to Fame and Fortune.
After the Happy Ending, the cat gets a theater box of his own from which to watch his daughter’s feature dances in the Music Hall show. The notice outside the door is marked, Reserved for the Cat.
Lackey was drawing on old theatrical trivia. In the late nineteenth century, when a theater or opera box was held for a King, Prince, Duke, their special box was marked, Reserved for the Cat.
From Haruki Murakami’s genre-adjacent The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, there’s Mackerel, nee Noboru Wataya, symbol of domestic happiness and all-around plot instigator.
October Daye’s cats Cagney and Lacey.
For that matter, I believe Ripley, the Sphynx who used to inhabit Borderlands Books, shows up in one of the Toby Daye books, though I forget if she’s named or not.
When I saw the title, I immediately thought of Greebo and am so glad he is in the list. I often think of this quote, “It pays to advertise,” Nanny agreed. “This is Greebo. Between you and me, he’s a fiend from hell.” “Well, he’s a cat,” said Mrs. Gogol, generously. “It’s only to be expected.”
― Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad