Cats in folklore

thumb|Maneki-neko with motorized arm beckons customers to buy lottery tickets in Tokyo, Japan

domestic cat with black fur

Benedictine abbess and saint (626-659)

thumb|Bergstutz or Stollwurm In the folklore of the Alpine region of south-central Europe, the (), , or is a lizard-like creature, essentially a sort of dragon (see Germanic dragon), often described as having the face of a cat, with a serpent-like body which may be slender or stubby, with four short legs or two forelegs and no hindlegs, the latter a trait shared with many lindworms. Stories of essentially the same creature also exist in the folklore of South Sweden.

Islam's attitude towards cats

huge cat in Icelandic folklore

conjectural musical instrument

The ' (, plural ), in Irish ' (), is a fairy creature from Celtic mythology, said to resemble a large black cat with a white spot on its chest that walks on its hind legs. Legend has it that the spectral cat haunts the Scottish Highlands. The legends surrounding this creature are more common in Scottish folklore, but a few occur in Irish. Some common folklore suggested that the was not a fairy, but a witch that could transform into a cat nine times.

mythical creature

ghost of a cat purported to haunt Washington, D.C

The '''''' (lit. 'Festival of the Cats' or 'Cat Parade') is a parade in Ypres, Belgium, devoted to the cat. It has been running regularly since 1955 and is usually held triennially on the second Sunday of May. The parade commemorates an Ypres tradition from the Middle Ages in which cats were allegedly thrown from the belfry tower of the Cloth Hall to the town square below.

nightmare creature originating in German folklore

reports of large non-native feline sightings in Britain

English folklore concerning the rise of Richard Whittington in 14th-century London

fable by Aesop

witches' familiar and milk thief in Scandinavian folklore

symbol of the Vietnamese zodiac

monstrous cat in Welsh legend

In Mexican folklore, the onza is a legendary cat species.

British folk tale

thumb|'' illustration from the Chinese encyclopedia Gujin Tushu Jicheng The '''' (), also called () or (), is a legendary creature mentioned in old Chinese literature.

supposed animal killer in the United Kingdom

mythological animal

A Matagot is a spirit in French folklore that tends to take the form of a black cat. While many Matagots are evil in nature, some can be helpful to humans. If a "wealth-bringing" Matagot is allowed to eat and drink first at every meal, it will give its owner a solid gold coin each morning.

is an abridged version of a Swahili fairy tale titled "Sultan Majnun" (Sultani Majinuni), collected by Edward Steere (1828–1882)

thumb|An artist's impression of a cabbit. A cabbit is a fictional hybrid between a cat and a rabbit. They have appeared in fiction and fantasy stories and have also been dubiously claimed to have been observed in the wild. Most if not all observations are attributable to either misidentified Manx cats or outright hoaxes.