Cat

Cat
Friendly
Current:	Varies
Creature type
Species:	Felis catus
Book appearances
Living:	All books

Cats are small, furry, carnivorous mammals featured in the Warriors series.

Description

Notice: The following content describes cats from the perspective of the Warriors books. Thus, only some or none of this content may be factual information. For more accurate descriptions of cats, please refer to external sources.

Cats are small, furry quadrupeds. They possess flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, retractable front claws, non-retractable hind claws, and powerful haunches for jumping. Built for hunting small prey, felines have an innate sense of balance aided by their long tails, excellent night vision, and heightened senses, including a keen sense of smell and hearing. While all cats possess these skills, certain groups specialize in different traits: ThunderClan cats are known for their stealth in the undergrowth, ShadowClan cats are the masters of the night, RiverClan cats specialize in swimming, WindClan cats are the swiftest, and SkyClan cats have powerful haunches to help them leap into the trees.

Feral cats, such as those depicted in the series, are cats born in the wild as opposed to cats that are lost or released, which are referred to as stray cats. These cats are much more aggressive than their domesticated counterparts; housecats living near the Clans often spread stories of how Clan cats eat live prey and sharpen their claws on bones. Despite feral cats being solitary hunters, cats in the series are socialized animals, living in hierarchical groups and they have a variety of methods of communicating between each other such as purring, hissing, growling, and snarling. Cats also communicate through their body language, by the twitches of their tail, whiskers, ears, widening or narrowing of their eyes, and bristling fur. Only cats are able to understand cat speak, with the exception of Midnight the badger.

Cats come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and pelt-lengths. They typically have long tails, round eyes, large ears, round muzzles, small noses, and long whiskers. Their fur is typically thick and sleek, though can either be short or long-furred. Cats frequently spend their time grooming themselves and each other to upkeep their pelts. Housecats are usually softer and plumper than wild cats. After visiting the Cutter, housecats will have narrow faces compared to the broad ones of adult wild cats. Their pelt colors range from various shades of black, gray, brown, ginger, and white. Tabbies can have a variety of stripe patterns, including tiger and mackerel. Some cats have more than one color on their pelt, most often paired with white, such as tabby-and-white, black-and-white, and tortoiseshell-and-white. Pure white cats with blue eyes are susceptible to being deaf.

Cats come in subsets of males and females, referred to as toms and she-cats in the series. In the books, she-cats can have up to four kittens, called kits, in one litter, though they can have litters of just one kit. A she-cat's pregnancy typically lasts two moons, and the kits nurse on their mother's milk until they are roughly two moons old. The care of the kits often falls to their mothers, but at times fathers may step in an assist in the nursery. In the series, kits can open their eyes, walk, and talk at least a day after birth. Their eyes are also not blue at birth but instead they have their adult eye color. Younger cats have smaller proportions than their adult counterparts, with kits having stubby legs and short tails. Around six moons old, wild young cats will have narrow foreheads, then grow into their adult bodies by a year of age, with fuller pelts and stronger muscles. Toms typically have wider heads and broader shoulders compared to she-cats.

In the series, cats use unique terms to describe the world around them; cats use the changing of the leaves to describe the passing of the seasons, and the position of the sun and moon to describe the passing of time during the day. They also describe distances by comparing them to the sizes of other animals, such as mice, rabbits, and foxes, and parts of their own body, such as their paws, claws, whiskers, muzzles, and tails.

Using their strong sense of smell, cats can easily identify each other and foreign cats. Clan cats mark their territory with their own scent by either spraying or rubbing up against branches or the ground. Cats are also skillful hunters, catching a wide variety of birds, small mammals, fish, amphibians, and rabbits. The cats in the series share the forest with other animals, including but not limited to badgers, foxes, and snakes, all of which pose a threat to them. Wild cats are also threatened by the impacts of Twolegs, including their dogs, their monsters that travel on the Thunderpaths, and the destruction of their homes through fire or disforestation for Twoleg developments. However, some cats enjoy living with their Twolegs, preferring it over the life of a wild cat.

Defined groups

In Warriors, cats are divided into different known groups:

• Clan cats, felines residing in one of the five warrior Clans.
  • Unofficial Clans include WarriorClan and BloodClan.
• Kittypets, cats owned by Twolegs.
• Rogues and loners, non-Clan cats who live on their own (rogues are generally known as more aggressive than the loners).
• Tribe cats who live in the mountains.
• The Ancients, cats that belonged to a group that once resided by the lake.
• Cats of the Park, cats that live in a park and are fed by Twolegs.
• Guardian cats, cats that take in sick or injured cats and care for each other, who live in an urban area.
• The Sisters, a group of mostly she-cats who don't settle permanently and have their own customs and practices.

Warriors inspiration

"I grew up on a farm and love all animals, including cats, but most especially dogs and horses. This comes in very handy when I need to send cats to a sticky end; I'd have a lot more trouble killing off a dog or a horse! I love being one of the Erins, and frequently dream of being a cat running through a forest when I am coming up with the new storylines. Teaming up with Kate and Cherith on the Warriors books is an unconventional way of working, but we love writing the books together and it means we can produce them much faster than a single writer could. We each have our favorite characters and ideas for what could happen next, which means the stories have three times as much energy and passion!"

See also

• Warrior
• Cat names
• Mates

External links

• Cat

Translations

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