Books SFF Bestiary The Magical, Mystical, Fantastical Cat We’re opening a new chapter of the SFF Bestiary, focused on our favorite feline friends… By Judith Tarr | Published on January 12, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Humans have a thing for companion animals. If it’s alive, breathing, and a human can live with or adjacent to it, swim with it, fly with it, and above all connect with it, someone has probably tried. But logistically and practically, it comes down to the big three: horse, dog, and cat. The horse is not, as a species, amenable to curling up in the house by the fire. That job is more suited to the dog and the cat. I’ll leave the dog for another day; for now, let’s focus on the cat. Here is a small furry predator, around ten pounds (4kg) on the average. It’s a mammal like us. It walks on four paws with retractable claws, and true to its nature and heritage, it has sharp fangs. It has a long tail which it uses for balance and to express opinions. It’s quick and reactive. Its eyes are large, round, and slit-pupiled, and reflect light: eyes that can see well in low light, especially the light of dawn and dusk, when it’s most active. It pings a number of human awwww reflexes. Soft fur, deceptively soft paws, round head and ears that activate the aww cute baby module, little squeaky voice, and the coup de grace: it purrs. Its tropism toward warmth and comfort puts it in a human lap more often than not. It’s small enough to be portable, big enough to be useful as an eliminator of vermin around human habitations (which is probably how it ended up as a companion animal in the first place). It is not, however, harmless. Cats are poised right on the edge between tame and feral. If they’re not socialized to humans as young kittens, the feral takes over. They’re as wild as a fox or a raccoon, and in some ways more dangerous, because humans don’t always realize how effective a cat’s armament is. That little ten-pound fuzzy thing can rip a human to shreds with its claws. It’s fast, furious, and absolutely merciless to anything that tries to hold or trap it. Cat rescues handle ferals with Kevlar gloves. Even a socialized cat has a threshold beyond which a human can’t safely go. Stay on the right side of it and you’ve got a lovely soft purry cuddlebug. Smart humans know what happens if they push their luck. That’s part of the allure. That edge of danger. The sense that you’re sharing your house and your sleeping place with an animal that can seriously hurt you, but chooses not to. Chooses instead to grace you with its presence, its personality, and its purr. Humans are storytellers by nature. We make sense of the world by turning it into narrative. We perceive and create patterns. We construct explanations. We invented science to anchor those explanations to the observed and observable world, but before science was story. In one story, the cat is divine. She’s a goddess; a mystical power. In another, she’s a manifestation of evil. A demon, a creature of the darkness. In yet another, she’s the reason for the existence of the internet, which is, we’re assured, made of cats. Cat magic is old and powerful, but it’s not only fantasy that celebrates the cat. Science fiction has its own lore of the feline, both the original domestic cat and the felinoid alien. Science fiction authors are well known for their affinity with the species, from Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton and C.J. Cherryh to many a more modern talent. It’s an article of faith in the genre that a writer should, if at all possible, have a Writer’s Cat. Or two. Or three. Yes, yes, I know many who have Writers’ Dogs instead or too, and then there’s the SFWA Cavalry of song and story, where the horsefolk are. But cats are a mainstay. I’m starting this chapter of the Bestiary with science fiction because I want to. That’s how a cat does it. A cat makes her own decisions. You can persuade her, but if you try to force her, you’ll need those Kevlar gloves. Because I want to, and because it’s a roaring good story, I’ll be starting with C.J. Cherryh’s The Pride of Chanur. Do join me in the reread (or the read if it’s new to you), and let me know what else, either written or film, you’d like to see. Especially if it’s been published or aired in this century, and better yet, within the past decade. I’d love to know about newer science-fictional cats and their attendant humans.[end-mark] The post The Magical, Mystical, Fantastical Cat appeared first on Reactor.