# Cat
Kittens, housecats, and large cats (all f) are carnivorous domestic animals and can be tamed with tripe, food/cram/K-/C-rations, fortune cookies, edible non-vegan corpses if they are fresh, and some other comestibles.
Eating the corpse of any domestic cat has similar consequences to cannibalism:  it will give you the aggravate monster intrinsic, but it will not decrease your luck.  If cannibalism is allowed for you, you are exempt from this penalty. Regardless of your alignment, Sacrificing a cat corpse is harmless (though sacrificing a pet corpse is not).
The famous "Schrödinger's cat" can sometimes be found in a large box dropped by a quantum mechanic  - either dead or alive. Just as in the thought experiment, its state is determined only the moment you observe it by opening the box.

Contents

1 Types of cat

1.1 Kitten
1.2 Housecat
1.3 Large cat

2 Pet cats
3 Encyclopedia entry

Types of cat
Kitten

f kitten 

Difficulty

3

Attacks

Bite 1d6

f kitten 

Difficulty

3

Attacks

Bite 1d6

Base level

2

Base experience

20

Speed

18

Base AC

6

Base MR

0

Alignment

0 (neutral)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

150

Nutritional value

150

Size

Small

Resistances

None

Resistances conveyed

Intrinsic aggravate monster

A kitten:

 has no hands.

 is an animal.

 is carnivorous.

 can be tamed by feeding.
 wanders randomly.

 can be seen through infravision.

Reference

monst.c#line345

The kitten is one of three possible starting pets, the others being dogs and ponies (for Knights).  They will grow up into housecats after they kill enough monsters.
The kitten and its grown up forms are sometimes better fighters than newly started characters, and can be used to fight for you in the early stages of the game.  Nevertheless, they may be more vulnerable than you against passive attacks, such as acidic monsters or floating eyes.  They are also extremely vulnerable to falling rock traps and rolling boulder traps and many die from these within the first hundred turns of a game.

Housecat

f housecat 

Difficulty

5

Attacks

Bite 1d6

f housecat 

Difficulty

5

Attacks

Bite 1d6

Base level

4

Base experience

44

Speed

16

Base AC

5

Base MR

0

Alignment

0 (neutral)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

200

Nutritional value

200

Size

Small

Resistances

None

Resistances conveyed

Intrinsic aggravate monster

A housecat:

 has no hands.

 is an animal.

 is carnivorous.

 can be tamed by feeding.

 can be seen through infravision.

Reference

monst.c#line351

The housecat is a grown-up kitten and is therefore usually encountered as a early player's pet. They are capable of growing up into large cats.
The housecat has the same attack as the kitten, but is slightly slower, and has a higher monster level. In other aspects it's mostly the same as the kitten. As with their brethren, they are excellent fighters to have as companions to early game characters, but remain vulnerable to passive attacks.

Large cat

f large cat 

Difficulty

7

Attacks

Bite 2d4

f large cat 

Difficulty

7

Attacks

Bite 2d4

Base level

6

Base experience

76

Speed

15

Base AC

4

Base MR

0

Alignment

0 (neutral)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

Yes

Weight

250

Nutritional value

250

Size

Small

Resistances

None

Resistances conveyed

Intrinsic aggravate monster

A large cat:

 has no hands.

 is an animal.

 is carnivorous.

 can be tamed by feeding.

 is strong.

 can be seen through infravision.

Reference

monst.c#line375

The large cat is the final form of a grown-up housecat, and is therefore usually encountered as a player's pet (especially with early game characters, as they are easy to obtain by training a starting kitten). It is strong, therefore pet large cats can apport heavy objects, such as a large box with not too heavy contents.
As with their brethren, they are excellent fighters to have as companions to early game characters, but remain vulnerable to passive attacks.  Eventually, it may be worthwhile to attempt to upgrade your large cat to another monster using a polymorph trap, especially if you have more than one pet.

Pet cats
Cats are one of the most common pets.  Many roles begin the game with one.
Taming wild cats is usually easy, because all sizes of cat are considered domestic animals. Throwing a meaty treat, a safe fresh meat-based corpse, or processed human food at a hostile or peaceful cat will tame it. Throwing any other comestible at a cat will at least render it peaceful, with the exception of cream pies and eggs (which will break on impact).
All meaty treats (tripe rations or meatballs) can be used to train your cat to fetch.
You can #chat with your cat to get an idea of how it is feeling:

it will yowl if it is caught in a trap, confused, fleeing, or tameness is getting low.
if the cat is leashed, and there is a trap next to it, it will whimper without you #chatting to it. This works even if the trap is undetected.
if it will be hungry soon (1000 turns or less), it will mew.
if it is hungry, it will meow.
the rest of the time it will purr.

Pet type

Corpse wt

Can carry unassisted

in uncursed bag of holding

in blessed bag of holding

kitten/little dog
150
51
72
144

housecat/dog
200 / 400
68 / 137
106 / 244
212 / 488

large cat/large dog
250 / 800
1000
1970
3940

Encyclopedia entry

Well-known quadruped domestic animal from the family of
predatory felines (_Felis ochreata domestica_), with a thick,
soft pelt; often kept as a pet.  Various folklores have the
cat associated with magic and the gods of ancient Egypt.
&nbsp;
So Ulthar went to sleep in vain anger; and when the people
awakened at dawn - behold!  Every cat was back at his
accustomed hearth!  Large and small, black, grey, striped,
yellow and white, none was missing.  Very sleek and fat did
the cats appear, and sonorous with purring content.

[ The Cats of Ulthar, by H.P. Lovecraft ] 

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