I have to admit, cats are one of my favourite things in the world. The gentle purr, soft and warm body, head bumping… I could continue on and on about it, because, God damn it, I just love the animal!
So it made sense for me to make a list of my favourite book cats. And you know what? It felt like picking a favourite child. I have to admit that I have forgotten a lot of cats I’ve read about… So here are some honorable mentions: Behemoth (Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov), baltais kaķis (Kaķīša Dzirnavas by Kārlis Skalbe), Salem Saberhagen (Sabrina the teenage Witch by various authors (note: I mean the book series I read when I was little, not comics of TV series)) and I want to mention Garfield as well, because I deemed his comics to not fit into the literary genre. So here we go…
5. Mogget after serving Abhorsen became a friend and servant of Sabriel in a book by Garth Nix. He isn’t really a cat… more like a demon trapped in cat’s form, but he is more often feline than not, so it counts. I loved Mogget in the first book (haven’t read the sequels yet), he always had witty responses and funny remarks plus the mystery of him all together made him a great character and being a cat cannot really hurt a character.
(Review.)
4. Crookshanks in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling. This might feel like a definite for some, yet I wasn’t sure about it, because Crookshanks doesn’t appear that much in the books. I like the cats story – the fact that Hermione got him because no one else wanted him seems like a thing I would do. I love the cats colour, the fact that he is half kneazle and can detect when untrustworthy people are around and in general is more intelligent than an average cat. And while I am on Harry Potter, I will drop in a freeby: I feel like I have to mention Umbridge as well. I am probably the only person on the planet who liked her, but her old cat lady spirit speaks to me.
3. Mister Kindly from Nevernight by Jay Kristoff is somewhat debatable cat, first of all, because I haven’t finished reading the book yet, so my judgment might be clouded by how I want to trust him. Second of all he is not a real cat, he is a shadow in a shape of cat. The reason I like Mr Kindly mostly is because he cares. He might be an evil or good spirit, but he cares about his ‘owner’ – Mia and he helps her in his own way. But what made me like him more is how he is also scared and shows other emotions than just comic remarks, and that makes it easier to relate to him.
2. Kawamura in Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami. This is a very complicated novel and I am not going to try to explain it, I will just explain the cat. Nakata is a slow man, but he has a special gift – ability to talk and understand cats (awesome, right?). He uses this ability to find lost cats in his local area and returning them to their owners. Once he stumbles on a particularly hard case and Kawamura is one of the cats he tries to question to find out what happened to the missing cat. But Kawamura is very repetitive and speaks in strange sentences because he is addled after being hit by bicycle. He is a lovely and sweet character and although doesn’t really appear that much, I liked him a lot. As there are many other cats in this book, I should mention Otsuka and Mimi too. I liked their characters.
I love and hate this book at the same time, but mostly I loved Nakata’s attitude towards cats.
1. Chibi in The Guest Cat by Hiraide Takashi. As you can understand, the cat is in the center of attention of this book, it is a book about love and loss and although I didn’t really like it (I cried though), I loved the protagonist in it – Chibi. She was so cute, friendly and nice to people, yet she also had her own life and it kind of made me look at the world from the eyes of a cat.
(Review.)
As we can see cats are very often used as a sign of magic, but sometimes they are just… cats. And while looking out for all the books I’ve read with cats in them, I found a whole lot of cat books I haven’t read, which means that this will probably be revisited!
August 16, 2016 at 17:18
I love this Lol!!
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August 16, 2016 at 17:46
Cats are the best! You should try the Keeper series by Tanya Huff (or pretty much anything by her). Austin is my favourite literary cat by far.
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August 17, 2016 at 19:50
Thank you, always happy to hear cat related suggestions! 🙂
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August 16, 2016 at 17:49
I’ve only read one book by Murakami. I don’t think I was ready for his brand of crazy at the time. I need to pick up this Kafka though.
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August 17, 2016 at 19:51
Oh, this is definitely crazy and brutal! Other pieces I’ve read by him, haven’t been so violent.
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August 16, 2016 at 18:18
Ooh I love cats so much, and I’m getting my first one this fall internal screaming! I’m really excited to read Nevernight even more now because of the cat, and I’m going to have to check out the other ones you mentioned.
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August 17, 2016 at 19:54
Woooooop! Really happy for you, that is sooo exciting! I’m also moving into a place that allows pets, so sooner or later I will find my meow as well. :))) Check out the comments as well, people know a lot of cat books! 😀
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August 16, 2016 at 18:28
Cats are well and truly the best and I love it when books have their pets feature in them. I can’t say that I’ve read any of these books but my copy of Nevernight is on it’s way and I am so excited to meet Mister Kindly.
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August 17, 2016 at 19:57
I love the idea of pets and knowing their thoughts. Because of that I’m really excited to see the secret life of pets too! 🙂
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August 16, 2016 at 18:53
Love this! Dinah from Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorites. 🙂
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August 16, 2016 at 18:57
Such an interesting post! 🙂
I hadn’t realized there were so many cats in literature… Also, if you like manga, you would probably like Fruits Basket, which seems similar to Sabriel in the cat department (so, not a real cat but awesome all the same).
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August 17, 2016 at 19:56
Thanks for suggestion, I am going to check it out! 🙂
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August 16, 2016 at 19:02
This was a great post, and very clever. Being a fellow cat lover I very much enjoyed this.
Now I have a question for you, why do you like Umbridge? I’ve never met anyone who does, so I’d really like to know, I’m curious!
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August 17, 2016 at 20:03
Because she was a great character – twisted and actually believing that she did what was best. Meaning Bellatrix for example was evil, she wanted to do bad, but I got the impression of Umbridge that she did what she thought was good. I know that most hate her more than Voldemort and I have never understood that, because she seemed pretty cool to me. 😀 It’s not like I wanted for her to hang around, it’s just – she was an interesting character.
And of course the whole cat thing!
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August 18, 2016 at 17:31
I can give you that, she was definitely a strong character. I just get very infuriated with characters when they just see what what they want to see, and aren’t as opened minded- then again there are people like that right. I didn’t care for her not just because of the way she acted, but what she wore always made me cringe ha! And as much as I love cats, I have to believe that hers were out to do evil.
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August 16, 2016 at 19:11
Love this humorous, thoughtful post – I didn’t even realize there were so many cats in literature! My favorite is definitely Crookshanks, and all the cats from the Warriors series. 🙂
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August 17, 2016 at 20:04
Putting on my list of cat books!
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August 16, 2016 at 23:36
Cats make me sneeze…a lot. So I’ve never been a huge fan. But I really loved your post! In fact, it made me feel like I should go pet a cat and show it some love (even though, as previously mentioned, that would NOT be good for the ol’ allergies). What a fun post!
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August 17, 2016 at 20:05
Haha, just be careful, don’t overdo the petting! 😀
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August 17, 2016 at 00:08
💕🐈💕 I love cats too. I didn’t know there are so many books with cats in them! ☺️
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August 17, 2016 at 04:01
I almost said this list was invalid because Beverly Cleary’s Socks was omitted, but I will accept Crookshanks as an acceptable substitute.
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August 17, 2016 at 20:06
Never heard of that, will check it out, so I can update my cat list after a year or so. 🙂
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August 17, 2016 at 20:14
I love cats!! I’ve only read Harry Potter and agree that Crookshanks is such a great cat 🙂
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August 18, 2016 at 16:16
This is a great post! I love cats so much and this is such a good idea for a post 🙂
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August 19, 2016 at 12:20
I love this!! 🙂
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August 23, 2016 at 13:52
Great list of books featuring cats! I loved Crookshanks 😀 there’s another cat book called A Street Cat Named Bob, its also a film too!
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August 23, 2016 at 15:08
Yes, I have read that one as well. 🙂
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August 24, 2016 at 20:34
I liked Buttercup in Mockingjay, and that Collins made Katniss learning to actually love him be part of her healing arc. But you’ve got some good examples here as well. 🙂
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August 30, 2016 at 08:18
I totally forgot about him! But then again, I feel like I don’t remember the book well enough to remember the cat too! 😦
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September 15, 2016 at 01:19
This is a clever idea. I would like to do a Top 5 Literary Dog List.
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