History Main / AllWitchesHaveCats

* A line in the "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" from Lloyd-Webber's ''{{Cats}}'' goes "Can you ride on a broomstick, to places far distant?" referring to cats being associated with witches

In medieval European superstition, it was thought that one way to identify if someone was a witch was if they owned a cat. This cat was believed to be some form of demon or evil spirit in disguise, acting as the witch's {{Familiar}} and aiding her in her spells. These days witches and cats don't have such bad reputations, but their association with each other persists. If a show has a witch, there is an extremely good chance that witch has a cat. Sometimes simply owning a cat is used as a hint or foreshadowing that a woman living alone might have a secret magical nature.

** This is a bit like a Jewish person having a cat named "Auschwitz"...

* One of the witches in Shakespeare's Theatre/{{Macbeth}} has a cat named Graymalkin
* A line in the "Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats" from Lloyd-Webber's {{Cats}} goes "Can you ride on a broomstick, to places far distant?" referring to cats being associated with witches

In European superstition, it was thought that one way to identify if someone was a witch was if they owned a cat. This cat was believed to be some form of demon or evil spirit in disguise, acting as the witch's {{Familiar}} and aiding her in her spells. These days witches and cats don't have such bad reputations, but their association with each other persists. If a show has a witch, there is an extremely good chance that witch has a cat. Sometimes simply owning a cat is used as a hint or foreshadowing that a woman living alone might have a secret magical nature.

* One of the witches in Shakespeare's {{Macbeth}} has a cat named Graymalkin

* In ''HarryPotter'' a cat is one of the animals which wizarding students can bring as a pet to Hogwarts. In this case the cats are merely pets, not familiars. A Witch and teacher, professor [=McGonagall=], can ''turn into'' a cat. Both Hermione and Umbridge own cats, the latter of whom doubles as a CrazyCatLady. There was also a CrazyCatLady who lived near the Dursleys who turned out to be a Squib.

In superstition, it was thought that one way to identify if someone was a witch was if they owned a cat. This cat was believed to be some form of demon or evil spirit in disguise, acting as the witch's {{Familiar}} and aiding her in her spells. These days witches and cats don't have such bad reputations, but their association with each other persists. If a show has a witch, there is an extremely good chance that witch has a cat. Sometimes simply owning a cat is used as a hint or foreshadowing that a woman living alone might have a secret magical nature.

!!!Examples:

* In the ''WheelOfTime'' series, it is noted that female channelers known as Aes Sedai tend to attract cats. They're not familiars or magical in any way (although some promote the myth to increase their air of mystery), it's just one of those odd things that happens. Once male channelers start showing up, the same thing happens with dogs.

* ''SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' owns a black cat named Salem, who used to be a warlock.

* Inverted in ''HocusPocus''. The witch sisters transform one of the protagonists, Binx, into a black cat ForTheEvulz. By the time of the main narrative, he's their sworn enemy.

* In ''HocusPocus'', the witch sisters transform one of the protagonists, Binx, into a black cat.

* In ''HocusPocus'', the witch sisters transform one of the protagonists, Banks, into a black cat.

* In ''HarryPotter'' a cat is one of the animals which wizarding students can bring as a pet to Hogwarts. In this case the cats are merely pets, not familiars. A Witch and teacher, professor McGonagall, can ''turn into'' a cat. Both Hermione and Umbridge own cats, the latter of whom doubles as a CrazyCatLady. There was also a CrazyCatLady who lived near the Dursleys who turned out to be a Squib

* In the ''ArciaChronicles'', Gerika keeps pet lynxes before and after she gains powers, but goes to ordinary cats when she pretends to be a swamp witch while healing Alexander in book five (which is lampshaded). She can also possess her cats and use them as conduits for her power (which probably explains it).

And doesn't that make [[LamePun purrfect]] sense? Everyone knows that CatsAreMagic, not to mention [[CatsAreSuperior the best]], so of ''course'' any witch worth her broomstick would be owned by one, if not a whole clowder of cats. In fact it's not uncommon for a witch to have a such a soft spot for her feline friends that she doubles as a CrazyCatLady, owning a dozen or more. Such witches are usually considered quirky and tend to be of the good variety, the same if a witch owns cats with coat colors outside the stereotypical black. The cat is the most common {{Familiar}} for a witch by far, though sometimes the association is so strong that it's not that the witch ''owns'' a cat, but she ''is''a cat!

[[caption-width-right:350:"Why witches hang out with black cats."]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whitecat_848.jpg
[[caption-width:350:"Why witches hang out with black cats."]]

* The [[InsistentTerminology sorcerologist]] Tessa from ''VideoGame/RedEarth'' owns four cats, two of whom (Al and Ivan) actually aid her in battle from time to time. [[SubvertedTrope The catch is that]] Tessa owns several other pets, such as a bird (Hato), a frog (Kaeru), and a dragon spirit [[LivingWeapon which doubles as]] [[BadassCape her cape]] (Manot).