History Recap / Felidae

Francis questions Isaiah, who tells an odd tale of a "suffering dreamland" where he was born. The Prophet - Claudandus - came among them and took the suffering of the others onto himself, and eventually prayed to God for salvation, destroying the dreamland and freeing the other cats but dying himself. This latter fact was told to Isaiah by Joker, who took Jesaja in and nursed him to health, but left to spread the gospel of Claudandus. When the first dead cat came to Isaiah, he heard the voice of the Prophet, commanding him to be the Guardian of the Dead and watch over the bodies that came to him. Isaiah admits that many cats that came to him were in heat or strangely mutilated, and that many of the females were pregnant - a fact that distresses him. But no bodies have come for a while now, which was why Isaiah had emerged - he was trying to carry on what he thinks of as his God-given task.

The story begins with Francis, a highly intelligent cat, moving into a new neighbourhood in Germany with his good-natured but not-very-bright human owner, Gustav Löbel ("Gus", for short). Francis despises moving, especially as the house they've come to is particularly tumble-down, but Gus, who originally studied as an archaeologist, now makes money by writing pulp romances for magazines, and moving house is his way of solving writer's block. While exploring the house, Francis notes an awful chemical smell coming from the top floor.

He soon discovers something far more horrific - the dead body of another cat in the back garden, throat torn open. At the same time, he meets Bluebeard (Blaubart in the German original), a surly and foul-mouthed Maine Coon with a missing eye and mangled paw. Bluebeard reveals that the dead cat - Sascha - is, in fact, the fourth killed in the last month, and is convinced that a "can-opener" (cat slang for human) is responsible. Francis disagrees with this idea, though, as the wound is clearly a bite mark.

That evening, while Gus entertains his friend Archie, Francis finds evidence that a plaque had been removed from the front of the house, and concludes that his new residence might have been a doctor's office. Francis goes to bed, and has a nightmare of following a light upstairs into a white room, where a faceless man gives him a diamond-studded collar. The collar morphs into an iron manacle around his neck, and the man drags Francis on a chain through the collapsing floorboards and into a hellish, fiery vortex.

That night, Francis is awoken by a racket coming from upstairs. Following the sounds, he is horrified to find cats leaping into an exposed electrical current, the machine operated by a cat who preaches on the subject of "Claudandus". Furthermore, cats that Francis recognises - Kong, the two Hermanns and Bluebeard - are present at the gathering. Francis, however, gives himself away, and the cult members chase him into the attic, where he discovers remnants of what appears to be a laboratory. The chase continues across the rooftops, and Francis barely escapes by falling through a skylight into another house.

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the "Claudandus Sect" has been going for quite a long time, with the preacher cat - Joker - operating as its high priest. He's convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn't so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown whose owner is a parapsychologist named Dr. Ziebold. Pascal has been using his owner's computer to keep a record of the cats in the neighborhood, with the hope that it will help solve the murders.

A horrified Francis runs back to Felicity's home, but is too late. Felicity has been decapitated completely, lying in her own blood, her blind eyes staring up at the skylight. Francis is badly shaken by this murder and swears revenge, but suspects that Felicity was killed because she was a witness, which means that it is very likely that the murderer is watching Francis' every move.

Francis is wracked by another nightmare that night. In it, a gigantic Gregor Johann Mendel emerges from a sea of mangled cat corpses and repeats Pascal's words on the subject of ''felidae'' to Francis. He then proceeds to puppet the corpses like marionettes, making them jump around, all while laughing hysterically:

Upon waking, Francis goes rat-hunting in the basement to clear his mind. During this hunt, he crashes into a VHS linked to a TV set, which turns on and plays a video diary. Francis, curious, watches, and learns that the house ''was'' a laboratory, run by Professor Julius Preterius and his assistants Ziebold and Gray. Preterius was trying to pioneer a revolutionary new tissue-bonding adhesive, using cats as his test subjects. The experiments were repeated failures, as the substance instead acted like acid, eating its way through the cats skulls into their brains, killing them. In desperation, Preterius used a stray cat the lab had adopted as its mascot as a test subject - and found, to his surprise and delight, that the mixture worked. The cat was thereafter named "Claudandus", a Latin word meaning "to be closed".

But the glue only worked for Claudandus - he was a mutant who could absorb the mixture without side effects. Refusing to give up, Preterius performed further experiments on Claudandus, descending into alcoholic insanity as he continued the project long after his funding was cut off and his assistants left him in disgust. In order to keep up his supply of test subjects, Preterius began breeding his animals, which gave him flights of insane fancy about a "super race" of cats. The tape ends with a now-crazed Preterius claiming that Claudandus had spoken to him...

Unfortunately, Kong arrives to resume the earlier confrontation, with the two Hermanns backing him up. The Himalayan boasts that ''he'' is the killer, who took out the others for not showing him proper respect. Francis doesn't buy this motive - Kong is a brute, no doubt, but he hardly seems like a murderer. Even so, a fight starts, which Francis barely escapes despite being outnumbered. Fleeing across the gardens of the neighbourhood, Francis makes another gruesome discovery... a female cat, murdered in the same way, but with her belly ripped open and unborn kittens spilling out.

They also meet the strange cat - an elderly and eccentric Persian named Jesaja. Jesaja protests his innocence, claiming that the bodies are sent by the "Prophet" for him to watch over.

Francis questions Jesaja, who tells an odd tale of a "suffering dreamland" where he was born. The Prophet - Claudandus - came among them and prayed to God for salvation, destroying the dreamland and freeing the other cats but dying himself. This latter fact was told to Jesaja by Joker, who took Jesaja in and nursed him to health, but left to spread the gospel of Claudandus. When the first dead cat came to Jesaja, he heard the voice of the Prophet, commanding him to be the Guardian of the Dead and watch over the bodies that came to him. He admits that many cats that came to him were in heat or strangely mutilated, and that many of the females were pregnant - a fact that distresses him. But no bodies have come for a while now, which was why Jesaja had emerged - he was trying to carry on what he thinks of as his God-given task.

Francis realizes that the murders go much further back than he suspects - as far as the closure of Preterius' lab - and that the only cat who has any idea of whom Claudandus really was is Joker making him the prime suspect. When he gets home, he takes a nap, deliberately invoking a dream to try and sort the clues out in his head. In his latest dream, he is faced with a gold-furred, blue-eyed cat who calls himself Felidae. Felidae implores Francis to join him and many other cats he recognises on a "long and wonderful journey".

The call of a female in heat wakens Francis from his dream, and he follows it outside to investigate. The female in question is of a breed he doesn't recognise, with sandy fur and blazing yellow eyes. After they mate, Francis questions her, but her answers are cryptic and obtuse - she only states that her breed is both "new and old". They mate all day, leaving Francis sore and exhausted, much to the amusement of Bluebeard when he pays Francis a visit later. Bluebeard reveals that many cats like her are appearing around the neighbourhood, being taken up as designer pets, but that he's suspicious of them - this breed is far from domestic. They're wild, independent and, in Bluebeard's opinion, dangerous.

->'''Bluebeard:''' We're being what?

Pascal is, indeed, Claudandus. When Preterius went mad, Claudandus convinced him - by speaking to him - to open his cage, then killed him before setting the other cats free. Ziebold would take him in, and through Ziebold, Claudandus would educate himself on Mendel's theory of genetics, which gave him the idea to breed back ''felidae'' and create a new species that could someday overthrow man. Joker, Claudandus' sole ally, used the cult to disseminate the philosophy of the project while Claudandus handled the breeding program. As it expanded, Claudandus was forced to kill in order to keep the bloodlines of his new ''felidae'' pure, with the bodies handed to Jesaja to keep them hidden.

Knowing that his cancer was terminal and that he only had a short time left, he put Francis, whom he saw as an equal and like-minded individual, on the track of the murders, hoping that he would agree to become his successor and carry on his work once he has passed on. Claudandus also admits to killing Joker, who agreed to die to avoid spilling the whole plan to Francis under pressure, and implies that he brought the nightmares - and the ''felidae'' female - to Francis.

Francis, however, is disgusted by what he hears. He accuses Claudandus of being no different to the humans who tormented him, wanting only to inflict the same torment upon mankind that he'd been subjected to.

->'''Claudandus:''' The horror... so much pain... darknes... Francis... So much... ''darkness''! You look at me now... and all you see, Francis... is evil. [[HeelRealization Yet, once, I was... good...]]

Following the murders, things appeared to have settled back to normal. As Francis meets up with a ''felidae'' female, the species having integrated itself into the neighborhood, Francis speaks to the viewer, imploring them to never stop believing in a world where humans and animals can coexist in peace, but it will take some work to get there.

The story begins with Francis, a highly intelligent cat, moving into a new neighbourhood in Germany with his good-natured but not-very-bright human owner, Gustav Löbel ("Gus", for short). Francis despises moving, especially as the house they've come to is particularly tumble-down, but Gus, who originally studied as an archeologist, now makes money by writing pulp romances for magazines, and moving house is his way of solving writer's block. While exploring the house, Francis notes an awful chemical smell coming from the top floor.

But the glue only worked for Claudandus - he was a mutant who could absorb the mixture without side effects. Refusing to give up, Preterius performed further experiments on Claudandus, descending into alcoholic insanity as he continued the project long after his funding was cut off and his assistants left him in disgust. In order to keep up his supply of test animals, Preterius began breeding his cats, which gave him flights of insane fancy about a "super race" of cats. The tape ends with a now-crazed Preterius claiming that Claudandus had spoken to him...

Francis realizes that the muders go much further back than he suspects - as far as the closure of Preterius' lab - and that the only cat who has any idea of whom Claudandus really was is Joker making him the prime suspect. When he gets home, he takes a nap, deliberately invoking a dream to try and sort the clues out in his head. In his latest dream, he is faced with a gold-furred, blue-eyed cat who calls himself Felidae. Felidae implores Francis to join him and many other cats he recognises on a "long and wonderful journey".

Francis and Bluebeard go back to Joker's house to take another search. Climbing a tree, Francis peers through the skylight and finds Joker dead on the top shelves among the cat statues. But there's no sign of a struggle, and the peaceful attitude of Joker's body shows that he allowed himself to be killed, implying that he died to protect some big secret...

->'''Francis:''' Claudandus... he must be alive!

Francis begins to put the clues together at last. The facless man from his first nightmare was Preterius, whose experiments kickstarted the entire horror. Felicity overheard the killer talking to his would-be victims; far from being a psychopath, he was trying to persuade Sascha, Deep Purple and the rest to not mate with the mysterious females. Said females are modelled on the Egyptian ancestor of cats, containing the desirable traits that would return cats to their original wild, dangerous form. Thinking about the Mendel nightmare, Francis recalls seeing a portrait of Mendel in Ziebold's house - the same Ziebold who worked with Professor Preterius. Francis and Bluebeard head to Ziebold's to finally solve the mystery.

The two cats split up, with Francis searching Ziebold's computer for evidence while Bluebeard searches for Pascal. Bluebeard is attacked from behind and knocked unconscious, while Francis finds a hidden file and guesses the password - Preterius - to access it. What he finds isn't a database on neighbourhood cats, but a breeding record that also lists the muder victims. Francis finally understands the killer's true mission: to ensure that only racially-suitable males mated with the females chosen to re-estabish ''felidae''. Any undesirable male that wouldn't listen to reason...

Pascal is, indeed, Claudandus. When Preterius went mad, Claudandus convinced him - by speaking to him - to open his cage, then killed him before setting the other cats free. Ziebold would take him in, and through Ziebold, Claudandus would educate himself on Mendel's theory of genetics, which gave him the idea to breed back ''felidae'' and create a new species that could someday overthrow man. Joker, Claudandus' sole ally, used the cult to dissemenate the philosophy of the project while Claudandus handled the breeding program. As it expanded, Claudandus was forced to kill in order to keep the bloodlines of his new ''felidae'' pure, with the bodies handed to Jesaja to keep them hidden.

Francis, however, is disgusted by what he hears. He accuses Claudandus of being no different to the humans who tormented him, wanting only to inflict the same suffering he'd been subjected to.

->'''Francis:''' And so, tell me: what's the roll asigned to ''lesser'' animals in your world?!
->'''Claudandus:''' None at all. They're stupid. They're victims of their fate.
->'''Francis:''' And what about the ''good'' men, Pascal or Claudandus or ''felidae'' or [[IHaveManyNames whatever you wanna call yourself-]]

Following the murders, things appeared to have settled back to normal. As Francis meets up with a ''felidae'' female, the species having intergrated itself into the neighborhood, Francis speaks to the viewer, imporing them to never stop believing in a world where humans and animals can coexist.

He soon discovers something far more horrific - the dead body of another cat in the back garden, throat torn open. At the same time, he meets Bluebeard (Blaubart in the German original), a surly and foul-mouthed Maine Coon with a missing eye and mangled paw. Bluebeard is convinced that a “can-opener” (cat slang for human) is responsible, and tht the dead cat - Sascha - is, in fact, the fourth killed in the last month. Francis disagrees with the idea that a human was the murderer, as the wound is clearly a bite mark.

(NOTE: The following recap is based on the English dub of the 1994 animated film.)

(NOTE: The following recap is based on the English dub of the 1994 animated film.)

The story begins with Francis, a highly intelligent cat, moving into a new neighbourhood in Germany with his good-natured but not-very-bright human owner, Gustav Löbel (“Gus”, for short). Francis despises moving, especially as the house they've come to is particularly tumble-down, but Gus, who originally studied as an archeologist, now makes money by writing pulp romances for magazines, and moving house is his way of solving writer's block. While exploring the house, Francis notes an awful chemical smell coming from the top floor of the house.

He soon makes two new discoveries - a mangled Maine Coon named Bluebeard (Blaubart in the German original)… and the dead body of another cat in the back garden, throat torn open. Bluebeard tells him that the cat - Sascha - is the fourth dead body found in the last month. He is convinced that a “can-opener” (cat slang for human) is responsible, but Francis disagrees - the wound is clearly a bite mark. That evening, while Gus entertains his friend Archie, Francis finds evidence that a plaque had been removed from the front of the house, and concludes that his new residence might have been a doctor’s office.

Francis goes to bed, and has a nightmare of following a light upstairs into a white room, where a faceless man gives him a diamond-studded collar. The collar morphs into an iron manacle around his neck, and the man drags Francis on a chain through the collapsing floorboards and into a hellish, fiery vortex.

When Francis awakens that morning, he is visited by Bluebeard, who informs him of another murder - the elderly Deep Purple. Francis has already figured out that all the murdered cats are toms, and asks to see Deep Purple’s corpse. On the way, they are confronted by the local bullies; the giant Himalayan cat Kong and his minions, the Oriental Shorthairs Hermann and Hermann. Bluebeard gets the bigger cat to back down, but Kong warns Francis that he’ll be looking to meet him again soon.

Upon reaching Deep Purple’s body, Francis discovers that the old cat was in heat before he was killed, despite being supposedly too old to be interested in sex. The obvious thing tying the murders together in his mind is sex, as Sascha was also in heat before his death. Francis decides he needs help in cracking the case, so Bluebeard offers to take Francis to meet another ‘genius’ cat the next morning.

That night, Francis is awoken by a racket coming from upstairs. Following the sounds, he is horrified to find cats leaping into an exposed electrical current, while a much larger cat preaches on the subject of “Claudandus”. Furthermore, cats that Francis recognises - Kong, the two Hermanns and Bluebeard - are present at the gathering. Francis, however, gives himself away, and the cult members chase him into the attic, where he discovers remnants of what appears to be a laboratory. The chase continues across the rooftops, and Francis barely escapes by falling through a skylight into another house.

It is in this house that Francis meets Felicity (Felicitas), a blind Russian Blue. Felicity proves a key witness, as she heard the death cries of the victims - but she also heard a voice prior to the murders, of somebody trying to convince the victims of something. She also confesses to having pictures - perhaps memories - in her heads of humans tormenting her, which Francis believes to be the cause of her blindness. Bluebeard arrives, and Francis leaves, promising to meet Felicity again.

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the “Claudandus Sect” has been going for quite a long time, with the high priest cat being named Joker. He’s convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn’t so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown whose owner is a parapsychologist named Dr. Ziebold. Pascal has been using his owner’s computer to keep a record of the cats in the neighborhood, with the hope that it will help solve the murders.

A horrified Francis runs back to Felicity's home, but is too late. Felicity has been decapitated completely, lying in her own blood, her blind eyes staring up at the skylight. Francis is badly shaken by this murder and swears revenge, but suspects that Felicity had to die because she was a witness, which means that it is very likely that the murderer is watching Francis’ every move.

Francis is wracked by another nightmare that night. In it, a gigantic Gregor Johann Mendel emerges from a sea of mangled cat corpses and repeats Pascal’s words on the subject of ''felidae'' back at him. He then proceeds to puppet the corpses like marionettes, making them jump around, all while laughing hysterically:

Upon waking, Francis goes rat-hunting in the basement to clear his mind. During this hunt, he finds a VHS and a TV, which plays a video diary back at him. It transpires that the house ''was'' a laboratory, run by Professor Julius Preterius and his assistants Ziebold and Gray. Working under the company Pharmarox, Preterius was trying to pioneer a revolutionary new tissue-bonding adhesive, using cats as his test subjects. The experiments were repeated failures, as the substance instead acted like acid, eating its way through the cats skulls into their brains, killing them. In desperation, Preterius used a stray cat the lab had adopted as its mascot as a test subject - and found, to his surprise and delight, that the mixture worked.

The cat was thereafter named “Claudandus”, a Latin word meaning “to be closed”. But the glue only worked for Claudandus - he was a mutant who could absorb the mixture without side effects. Refusing to give up, Preterius performed further experiments on Claudandus, descending into alcoholic insanity as he continued the project long after his funding was cut off and his assistants left him in disgust. The tape ends with a now-crazed Preterius claiming that Claudandus had spoken to him…

Kong recognises the body as Solitare, his mate, and weeps over the body. In his grief and anger, he chases after a strange, mutilated cat that he sees running across the garden, assuming them to be the killer. Francis sees the strange cat entering a tunnel and follows, eventually joined by Bluebeard. Together, they find an underground chamber filled with cat skeletons and corpses - but not, as Bluebeard notes, the bodies of previous victims Sascha, Deep Purple or Felicity. They also meet the strange cat - an elderly and eccentric Persian named Jesaja. Jesaja protests his innocence, claiming that the bodies are sent by the “Prophet” for him to watch over.

Francis questions Jesaja, who tells an odd tale of a “suffering dreamland” where he was born. The prophet - Claudandus - came among them and prayed to God for salvation, freeing the other cats but dying himself. Joker took Jesaja in and nursed him to health, but left to spread the gospel of Claudandus. When the first dead cat came to Jesaja, he heard the voice of the Prophet, commanding him to be the Guardian of the Dead and watch over the bodies that came to him. He admits that many cats that came to him were in heat and that many of the females were pregnant. But no bodies have come for a while now, and Jesaja fears that he has been forsaken.

Francis takes a nap when he gets home, deliberately invoking a dream to try and sort the clues out in his head. In his latest dream, he is faced with a gold-furred, blue-eyed cat who calls himself Felidae. Felidae implores Francis to join him and many other cats he recognises on a “long and wonderful journey”.

Upon awakening, Francis hears the call of a female in heat, and follows it outside to investigate. The female in question is of a breed he doesn’t recognise, with sandy fur and blazing yellow eyes. After they mate, Francis questions her, but her answers are cryptic and obtuse - she only states that her breed is both “new and old”. They mate all day, leaving Francis sore and exhausted, much to the amusement of Bluebeard when he pays Francis a visit later. Bluebeard reveals that many cats like her are appearing around the neighbourhood, but that he’s suspicious of them - this breed is far from domestic. They’re wild, independent and, in Bluebeard's opinion, dangerous.

Francis goes to visit Pascal while Bluebeard searches for Joker. Together, Pascal and Francis piece together the idea that the killer, rather than simply getting sloppy, is trying to leave a message to somebody about his work. They also float various theories about the mysterious female that Francis mated with, which Pascal somehow knows about. Bluebeard’s search is unsuccessful, only getting a bad fright when he finds a room full of cat statues, and he comes back to tell Francis and Pascal that Joker has seemingly vanished. They agree to call a conference at Francis’ place with the neighbourhood. On the way home, Bluebeard reveals that Pascal is not only castrated, meaning he’s not somebody the killer is likely to target, but also has cancer and only has half a year to live.

At the conference, Francis and Pascal reveal that the murderer has over four hundred deaths on their hands, and that the killings have ties to the experiments at Preterius’ lab - to which many older cats in the neighbourhood, Bluebeard included, were subjected to. A kitten suddenly interrupts, saying that her grandfather - Joker - told her that Claudandus didn’t die, but fought with “the monster” Preterius and killed him. Pascal rebuffs this, claiming that nobody could have survived those experiments. He offers an alternative explanation - Joker is the killer, who took the name of the prophet for his own and fled when he sensed Francis was catching up to him. The neighborhood cheers, considering the case solved, but Francis isn't sure.

Francis and Bluebeard go back to Joker's house to take another search. Climbing a tree, Francis peers through the skylight and finds Joker's body on the shelves among the cat statues. But Joker hadn't even struggled - he'd allowed himself to be killed, implying that he died to protect some big secret...

Francis begins to put the clues together at last. The facless man from his first nightmare was Preterius. Felicity overheard the killer talking to his would-be victims; far from being a psychopath, he was trying to perseaude Sascha, Deep Purple and the rest to not mate with the mysterious females. The females themselves are modelled on the original Egyptian ancestor of cats: proud, dangerous ''felidae''. Recalling the Mendel nightmare, Francis recalls seeing a portrait of Mendel in Ziebold's house - the same Ziebold who worked with Professor Preterius. Francis and Bluebeard head to Ziebold's to finally solve the mystery.

The two cats split up, with Francis searching Ziebold's computer for evidence while Bluebeard searches for Pascal. Bluebeard is attacked from behind and knocked unconscious, while Francis finds hidden files and guesses the password - Preterius - to access them. What he finds isn't a database on neighbourhood cats, but a breeding record. Francis finally understands the killer's true mission: to ensure that only racially-suitable males mated with the females chosen to re-estabish ''felidae''. Any undesirable male that wouldn't listen to reason...

Pascal is, in truth, Claudandus. When Preterius went mad, Claudandus convinced him - by speaking to him - to open his cage, then killed him before setting the other cats free. Ziebold would take him in, and through Ziebold, Claudandus would educate himself on Mendel's theory of genetics, which gave him the idea to breed back ''felidae'' and create a new species that could someday overthrow man. Joker, Claudandus' sole ally, used the cult to dissemenate the philosophy of the project while Claudandus handled the breeding program. As it expanded, Claudandus was forced to kill in order to keep the bloodlines of his new ''felidae'' pure, with the bodies handed to Jesaja to keep them hidden.

Claudandus also admits to killing Joker, who agreed to die to avoid spilling the whole plan to Francis, and implies that he brought the nightmares - and the ''felidae'' female - to Francis. Knowing that his cancer was terminal and that he only had a short time left, he put Francis, whom he saw as an equal and like-minded individual, on the track of the murders, hoping that he would agree to become his successor and carry on his work once he has passed on.

->'''Francis:''' And what about the ''good'' men, Pascal or Claudandus or ''felidae'' or [[I have many names whatever you wanna call yourself-]]

(NOTE: The following recap is based on the English dub of the 1994 animated film).

The story begins with Francis, a highly intelligent cat, moving into a new neighbourhood in Germany with his bumbling human owner, Gustav Löbel (“Gus”, for short). Francis despises moving, but Gus is a failed archeologist who brings in money by writing pulp romances for magazines, and moving is his way of solving writer’s block. While exploring the house, Francis notes an awful chemical smell coming from the top floor.

Upon reaching Deep Purple’s body, Francis discovers that the old cat was in heat before he was killed, despite being supposedly “beyond such sultry activities”. The obvious thing tying the murders together in his mind is sex, as Sascha was also in heat before his death. Francis decides he needs help in cracking the case, so Bluebeard offers to take Francis to meet another ‘genius’ cat the next morning.

Claudandus also admits to killing Joker, who agreed to die to avoid spilling the whole plan to Francis, and implies that he brought the nightmares - and the ''felidae'' female - to Francis. Aaware that his cancer will soon kill him, he put Francis, whom he saw as an equal and like-minded individual, on the track of the murders, hoping that he would agree to become his successor and carry on his work once he has passed on.

->'''Francis:''' And what about the ''good'' men, Pascal or Claudandus or ''felidae'' or whatever you wanna call yourself-

Resolving to fight Claudandus' scheme, Francis tries to delete the database on the ''felidae'' breeding program. Claudandus attacks, knocking over the computer, and a fire breaks out as the two cats fight fiercely. As the flames roar higher, Francis finally triumphs, clawing open Claudandus' body and fatally disembowelling him. Lying amongst his own entrails, Claudandus speaks [[FinalSpeech for the last time]].

Francis flees the burning building, finding the unconscious Bluebeard and dragging him to safety. As the fire rages on, Francis collapses in the snow.

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the “Claudandus Sect” has been going for quite a long time, with the high priest cat being named Joker. He’s convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn’t so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown whose owner is a parapsychologist named Dr. Ziebold. Pascal has been using his owner’s computer to keep a record of the cats in the neighborhood, with the hope that it will help solve the murders.//

Francis is able to use this database to confirm a suspicion he has - that all five victims, aside from being male and in heat, were European Shorthairs. Pascal suddenly reveals, however, that there has just been a sixth victim. Francis watches as Pascal types the name in…//

Francis is wracked by another nightmare that night. In it, a gigantic Gregor Johann Mendel emerges from a sea of mangled cat corpses and repeats Pascal’s words on the subject of ''felidae'' back at him. He then proceeds to puppet the corpses like marionettes, making them jump around, all while laughing hysterically://

Unfortunately, Kong arrives to resume the earlier confrontation, with the two Hermanns backing him up. The Himalayan boasts that ''he'' is the killer, who took out the others for not showing him proper respect. Francis doesn’t buy this motive - Kong is a brute, no doubt, but he hardly seems like a murderer. Even so, a fight starts, which Francis barely escapes despite being outnumbered. Fleeing across the gardens of the neighbourhood, Francis makes another gruesome discovery… a female cat, murdered in the same way, but with her belly ripped open and unborn kittens spilling out. //

Kong recognises the body as Solitare, his mate, and weeps over the body. In his grief and anger, he chases after a strange, mutilated cat that he sees running across the garden, assuming them to be the killer. Francis sees the strange cat entering a tunnel and follows, eventually joined by Bluebeard. Together, they find an underground chamber filled with cat skeletons and corpses - but not, as Bluebeard notes, the bodies of previous victims Sascha, Deep Purple or Felicity. They also meet the strange cat - an elderly and eccentric Persian named Jesaja. Jesaja protests his innocence, claiming that the bodies are sent by the “Prophet” for him to watch over. //

Francis and Bluebeard go back to Joker's house to take another search. Climbing a tree, Francis peers through the skylight and finds Joker's body on the shelves among the cat statues. But Joker hadn't even struggled - he'd allowed himself to be killed, implying that he died to protect some big secret... //

At Francis' home, the duo ponder the mystery further. A glance into one of Gus' Egyptology books gives Francis a flash of inspiration, and he fetches a G-word dictionary from Gus' shelf. Finding the page on genetics, Francis reads a passage on Gregor Mendel and comes to a shocking conclusion: //

The two cats split up, with Francis searching Ziebold's computer for evidence while Bluebeard searches for Pascal. Bluebeard is attacked from behind and knocked unconscious, while Francis finds hidden files and guesses the password - Preterius - to access them. What he finds isn't a database on neighbourhood cats, but a breeding record. Francis finally understands the killer's true mission: to ensure that only racially-suitable males mated with the females chosen to re-estabish ''felidae''. Any undesirable male that wouldn't listen to reason... //

Francis, however, is disgusted by what he hears. He accuses Claudandus of being no different to the humans who tormented him, wanting only to inflict the same suffering he'd been subjected to. //

Resolving to fight Claudandus' scheme, Francis tries to delete the database on the ''felidae'' breeding program. Claudandus attacks, knocking over the computer, and a fire breaks out as the two cats fight fiercely. As the flames roar higher, Francis finally triumphs, clawing open Claudandus' body and fatally disembowelling him. Lying amongst his own entrails, Claudandus speaks [[FinalSpeech for the last time]]. //

Francis flees the burning building, finding the unconscious Bluebeard and dragging him to safety. As the fire rages on, Francis collapses in the snow.//

Following the murders, things appeared to have settled back to normal. As Francis meets up with a ''felidae'' female, the species having intergrated itself into the neighborhood, Francis speaks to the viewer, imporing them to never stop believing in a world where humans and animals can coexist.//

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the “Claudandus Sect” has been going for quite a long time, with the high priest cat being named Joker. He’s convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn’t so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown whose owner is a parapsychologist named Dr. Ziebold. Pascal has been using his owner’s computer to keep a record of the cats in the neighborhood, with the hope that it will help solve the murders.

Francis is able to use this database to confirm a suspicion he has - that all five victims, aside from being male and in heat, were European Shorthairs. Pascal suddenly reveals, however, that there has just been a sixth victim. Francis watches as Pascal types the name in…

Francis is wracked by another nightmare that night. In it, a gigantic Gregor Johann Mendel emerges from a sea of mangled cat corpses and repeats Pascal’s words on the subject of ''felidae'' back at him. He then proceeds to puppet the corpses like marionettes, making them jump around, all while laughing hysterically:

Unfortunately, Kong arrives to resume the earlier confrontation, with the two Hermanns backing him up. The Himalayan boasts that ''he'' is the killer, who took out the others for not showing him proper respect. Francis doesn’t buy this motive - Kong is a brute, no doubt, but he hardly seems like a murderer. Even so, a fight starts, which Francis barely escapes despite being outnumbered. Fleeing across the gardens of the neighbourhood, Francis makes another gruesome discovery… a female cat, murdered in the same way, but with her belly ripped open and unborn kittens spilling out.

-->'''Francis:''' Oh, my God...!

Kong recognises the body as Solitare, his mate, and weeps over the body. In his grief and anger, he chases after a strange, mutilated cat that he sees running across the garden, assuming them to be the killer. Francis sees the strange cat entering a tunnel and follows, eventually joined by Bluebeard. Together, they find an underground chamber filled with cat skeletons and corpses - but not, as Bluebeard notes, the bodies of previous victims Sascha, Deep Purple or Felicity. They also meet the strange cat - an elderly and eccentric Persian named Jesaja. Jesaja protests his innocence, claiming that the bodies are sent by the “Prophet” for him to watch over.

Francis and Bluebeard go back to Joker's house to take another search. Climbing a tree, Francis peers through the skylight and finds Joker's body on the shelves among the cat statues. But Joker hadn't even struggled - he'd allowed himself to be killed, implying that he died to protect some big secret...

At Francis' home, the duo ponder the mystery further. A glance into one of Gus' Egyptology books gives Francis a flash of inspiration, and he fetches a G-word dictionary from Gus' shelf. Finding the page on genetics, Francis reads a passage on Gregor Mendel and comes to a shocking conclusion:

The two cats split up, with Francis searching Ziebold's computer for evidence while Bluebeard searches for Pascal. Bluebeard is attacked from behind and knocked unconscious, while Francis finds hidden files and guesses the password - Preterius - to access them. What he finds isn't a database on neighbourhood cats, but a breeding record. Francis finally understands the killer's true mission: to ensure that only racially-suitable males mated with the females chosen to re-estabish ''felidae''. Any undesirable male that wouldn't listen to reason...

Francis, however, is disgusted by what he hears. He accuses Claudandus of being no different to the humans who tormented him, wanting only to inflict the same suffering he'd been subjected to.

Resolving to fight Claudandus' scheme, Francis tries to delete the database on the ''felidae'' breeding program. Claudandus attacks, knocking over the computer, and a fire breaks out as the two cats fight fiercely. As the flames roar higher, Francis finally triumphs, clawing open Claudandus' body and fatally disembowelling him. Lying amongst his own entrails, Claudandus speaks [[FinalSpeech for the last time]].

Francis flees the burning building, finding the unconscious Bluebeard and dragging him to safety. As the fire rages on, Francis collapses in the snow.

Following the murders, things appeared to have settled back to normal. As Francis meets up with a ''felidae'' female, the species having intergrated itself into the neighborhood, Francis speaks to the viewer, imporing them to never stop believing in a world where humans and animals can coexist.

The story begins with Francis, a highly intelligent cat, moving into a new neighbourhood in Germany with his bumbling human owner, Gustav Löbel 9“Gus”, for short). Francis despises moving, but Gus is a failed archeologist who brings in money by writing pulp romances for magazines, and moving is his way of solving writer’s block. While exploring the house, Francis notes an awful chemical smell coming from the top floor.

He soon makes two new discoveries - a mangled Maine Coon named Bluebeard (Blaubart in the German original)… and the dead body of another cat in the back garden, throat torn open. Bluebeard tells him that the cat - Sascha - is the fourth dead body found in the last month. He is convinced that a “can-opener” (cat slang for human) is responsible, but Francis disagrees - the wound is clearly a bite mark, not a human tool. That evening, while Gus entertains his friend Archie, Francis finds evidence that a plaque had been removed from the front of the house, and concludes that his new residence might have been a doctor’s office.

When Francis awakens that morning, he is visited by Bluebeard, who informs him of another murder - the elderly Deep Purple. Francis has already figured out that all the murdered cats are toms, and asks to see Deep Purple’s corpse. On the way, they are confronted by the local bullies - the giant Himalayan cat Kong and his minions, the Oriental Shorthairs Hermann and Hermann. Bluebeard gets the bigger cat to back down, but Kong warns Francis that he’ll be looking to meet him again soon.

That night, Francis is awoken by a racket coming from upstairs. Following the sounds, he is horrified to find what seems to be a cult meeting - cats leap into an exposed electrical current, while a much larger cat preaches on the subject of “Claudandus”. Furthermore, cats that Francis recognises - Kong, the two Hermanns and Bluebeard - are present at the gathering. Francis, however, gives himself away, and the cult members chase him into the attic, where he discovers remnants of what appears to be a laboratory. The chase continues across the rooftops, and Francis barely escapes by falling through a skylight into another house.

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the “Sect of Claudandus” has been going for quite a long time, with the high priest cat being named Joker. He’s convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn’t so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown whose owner is a parapsychologist named Dr. Ziebold. Pascal has been using his owner’s computer to keep a record of the cats in the neighborhood, with the hope that it will enable him to track the murder victims.

Francis is able to use this database to confirm a suspicion he has - that all five victims, aside from being male and in heat, were European Shorthairs.

Pascal suddenly reveals, however, that there has just been a sixth victim. Francis watches as Pascal types the name in…

Francis is wracked by another nightmare that night. In it, a gigantic Gregor Johann Mendel emerges from a sea of mangled cat corpses and repeats Pascal’s words on the subject of felidae back at him. He then proceeds to puppet the corpses like marionettes, making them jump around, all while laughing hysterically:

Upon waking, Francis heads into the basement to clear his mind by hunting rats. During this hunt, he finds a VHS and a TV, which plays a video diary back at him. It transpires that the house ''was'' a laboratory, run by Professor Julius Preterius and his assistants Ziebold and Gray. Working under the company Pharmarox, Preterius was trying to pioneer a revolutionary new tissue-bonding adhesive, using cats as his test subjects. The experiments were repeated failures, as the substance instead acted like acid, eating its way through the cats skulls into their brains, killing them. In desperation, Preterius used a stray cat the lab had adopted as its mascot as a test subject - and found, to his surprise and delight, that the mixture worked.

Unfortunately, Kong arrives to resume the earlier confrontation, with the two Hermanns backing him up. The Himalayan boasts that he is the killer, who took out the others for not showing him proper respect. Francis doesn’t buy this motive - Kong is a brute, no doubt, but he hardly seems like a murderer. Even so, a fight starts, which Francis barely escapes despite being outnumbered. Fleeing across the gardens of the neighbourhood, Francis makes another gruesome discovery… a female cat, murdered in the same way, but with her belly ripped open and unborn kittens spilling out.

Kong recognises the body as Solitare, his mate, and is moved to grief, swearing revenge on the murderer. In his anger, he chases after a strange, mutilated cat that he sees running across the garden, assuming that it is the killer. Francis sees the strange cat entering a tunnel and follows, eventually joined by Bluebeard. Together, they find an underground chamber filled with cat skeletons and corpses - but not, as Bluebeard notes, the bodies of previous victims Sascha, Deep Purple or Felicity. They also meet the strange cat - an elderly and eccentric Persian named Jesaja. Jesaja protests his innocence, claiming that the bodies are sent by the “Prophet” for him to watch over.

-->"Perhaps we all need to evolve, to grow a bit. Perhaps we ''all'' need to evolve into... ''felidae''.

-->'''Pascal:''' Evolution has created an astounding number of various creatures. Not one, however, deserves the respect and wonder that ''felidae'' has earned.

-->'''Francis:''' [[WhamLine Felicity?!]]
-->'''Pascal:''' Yes. Felicity, I'm afraid.
-->'''Francis:''' Pascal, no, that can't be true! I just left her an hour ago!

-->'''Mendel:''' Hybrid Plant Experiments! Why is it that the peas in this pod are as alike as peas in a pod?!

Kong recognises the body as Solitare, his mate, and is moved to grief, swearing revenge on the murderer. In his anger, he chases after a strange, mutilated cat that he sees running across the garden, assuming that it is the killer. Francis sees the strange cat entering a tunnel and follows, eventually joined by Bluebeard. Together, they find an underground chamber filled with cat skeletons and corpses - but not, as Bluebeard notes, the bodies of previous victims Sascha, Deep Purple or Felicity. They also meet the strange cat - an elderly Persian named Jesaja. Jesaja protests his innocence, claiming that the bodies are sent by the “Prophet” for him to watch over.
-->'''Bluebeard:''' A real nutcase, if you ask me.

Francis takes a nap that morning, deliberately invoking a dream to try and sort the clues out in his head. In his latest dream, he is faced with a gold-furred, blue-eyed cat who calls himself Felidae. Felidae implores Francis to join him and many other cats he recognises on a “long and wonderful journey”.

-->'''Francis:''' Claudandus... he must be alive!

-->'''Francis:''' We're being bred back to our origins!
-->'''Bluebeard:''' We're being what?

-->'''Pascal:''' Have you solved the puzzle now?
-->'''Francis:''' [[WhamLine Yes, Claudandus.]] There are a couple of pieces still missing, though I'm sure you can fill in the gaps.

Pascal is, in truth, Claudandus. When Preterius went mad, Claudandus convinced him - by speaking to him - to open his cage, then killed him before setting the other cats free. Ziebold would take him in, and through Ziebold, Claudandus would educate himself on Mendel's theory of genetics, which gave him the idea to breed back ''felidae'' and create a new species that could someday overthrow man. Joker, Claudandus' sole ally, used the cult to dissemenate the philosophy of the project while Claudandus handled the breeding program. As it expanded, Claudandus was forced to kill in order to keep the bloodlines of his new ''felidae'' pure, with the bodies handed to Jesaja to keep them hidden. He also admits to killing Joker, who was beginning to crack under the pressure and agreed to die to avoid spilling the whole plan to Francis. But Claudandus is aware that his cancer will soon kill him, and so he put Francis, whom he saw as an equal and like-minded individual, on the track of the murders.
-->'''Claudandus:''' You will become my successor; the ''leader'' of the wonderful, mighty ''felidae''!

-->'''Francis:''' And so, tell me: what's the roll asigned to ''lesser'' animals in your world?!
-->'''Claudandus:''' None at all. They're stupid. They're victims of their fate.
-->'''Francis:''' And what about the ''good'' men, Pascal or Claudandus or ''felidae'' or whatever you wanna call yourself-
-->'''Claudandus:''' [[VillainousBreakdown NO! NO! There aren't any good men, they're all bad! They're all the same!]] Animals are good creatures, and men are... evil animals!

Resolving to fight Claudandus' scheme, Francis tries to delete the database on the ''felidae'' breeding program. Claudandus attacks, knocking over the computer, and a fire breaks out as the two cats fight fiercely. As the flames roar higher, Francis finally triumphs, clawing open Claudandus' body and fatally disembowelling him. Lying amongst his own entrails, Claudandus speaks [[FinalSpeach for the last time]].
-->'''Claudandus:''' The horror... so much pain... darknes... Francis... So much... ''darkness''! You look at me now... and all you see, Francis... is evil. [[HeelRealization Yet, once, I was... good...]]

-->'''Francis:''' He'd lost his innocence... Bluebeard... as man has lost his.

The story begins with Francis, a highly intelligent cat, moving into a new neighbourhood in Germany with his bumbling human owner, Gustav Löbel [“Gus”, for short). Francis despises moving, but Gus is a failed archeologist who brings in money by writing pulp romances for magazines, and who thinks that moving will solve his writer’s block. While exploring the house, Francis notes an awful chemical smell coming from the top floor.

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the “Sect of Claudandus” has been going for quite a long time, with the high priest cat being named Joker. He’s convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn’t so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown who has been using his owner’s computer to keep a record of the murder victims. Francis is able to use this database to confirm a suspicion he has - that all five victims, aside from being male and in heat, were European Shorthairs.

Felicity.

A horrified Francis runs back, but is too late. Felicity has been decapitated completely, lying in her own blood, her blind eyes staring up at the skylight. Francis, badly shaken and distraught, swears revenge on the killer, but suspects that this particular murder happened to prevent Felicity from giving him any further information. Which means that it is very likely that the killer is watching Francis’ every move.

Francis is wracked by another nightmare that night. In it, a gigantic Gregor Johann Mendel emerges from a sea of mangled cat corpses and repeats Pascal’s words on the subject of felidae back at him. He then proceeds to puppet the corpses like marionettes, making them jump around, all while laughing hysterically and screaming about “Experiments with Plant Hybrids!”

Disturbed, Francis heads into the basement to clear his mind by hunting rats. During this hunt, he finds a VHS and a TV, which plays a video diary back at him.

It transpires that the house was indeed a laboratory, run by Professor Julius Preterius and his assistants Ziebold and Gray. Working under the company Pharmarox, Preterius was trying to pioneer a revolutionary new tissue-bonding adhesive, using cats as his test subjects. The experiments were repeated failures, as the substance instead acted like acid, eating its way through the cats skulls into their brains, killing them. In desperation, Preterius used a stray cat the lab had adopted as its mascot as a test subject - and found, to his surprise and delight, that the mixture worked. The cat was thereafter named “Claudandus”, a Latin word meaning “to be closed”.

But the glue only worked for Claudandus - he was a mutant who could absorb the mixture without side effects. Refusing to give up, Preterius performed further experiments on Claudandus, descending into alcoholic insanity as he continued the project long after his funding was cut off and his assistants left him in disgust. The tape ends with a now-crazed Preterius claiming that Claudandus had spoken to him…

Upon awakening, Francis hears the call of a female in heat, and follows it outside to investigate. The female in question is of a breed he doesn’t recognise, with sandy fur and blazing yellow eyes. After they mate, Francis questions her, but her answers are cryptic and obtuse - she only states that her breed is both “new and old”. They mate all day, leaving Francis sore and exhausted, much to the amusement of Bluebeard when he pays Francis a visit later that day. Bluebeard reveals that many cats like her are appearing around the neighbourhood, but that he’s suspicious of them - this breed is far from domestic. They’re wild, independent and, in Bluebeard's opinion, dangerous.

Francis goes to visit Pascal while Bluebeard searches for Joker. Together, Pascal and Francis piece together the idea that the killer, rather than simply getting sloppy, is trying to leave a message to somebody about his work. Bluebeard’s search is unsuccessful, and he comes back to tell Francis and Pascal that Joker has seemingly vanished. They agree to call a conference at Francis’ place with the neighbourhood. On the way home, Bluebeard reveals that Pascal is not only castrated, meaning he’s not somebody the killer is likely to target, but also has cancer and only has half a year to live.

At the conference, Francis and Pascal reveal that the murderer has over four hundred deaths on their hands, and that the killings have ties to the experiments at Preterius’ lab - to which many older cats in the neighbourhood, Bluebeard included, were subjected to. During the conference, a kitten interrupts, claiming that Claudandus didn’t die, but fought with “the monster” Preterius and killed him.

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Kong recognises the body as Solitare, his mate, and is moved to grief, swearing revenge on the murderer. In his anger, he chases after a strange, mutilated Persian that he sees running across the garden, assuming that it is the killer. Francis sees the strange cat entering a tunnel and follows, eventually joined by Bluebeard. Together, they find an underground chamber filled with cat skeletons and corpses - but not, as Bluebeard notes, the bodies of previous victims Sascha, Deep Purple or Felicity.

He soon makes two new discoveries - a mangled Maine Coon named Bluebeard (Blaubart in the German original)… and the dead body of another cat in the back garden, throat torn open. Bluebeard tells him that the cat - Sascha - is the fourth dead body found in the last month. He is convinced that a “can-opener” (cat slang for human) is responsible, but Francis disagrees - the wound is clearly a bite mark, not a human tool. That evening, Francis discovers that his new residence was a former doctor’s office, explaining the chemical smell.

That night, Francis has a nightmare of following a light upstairs to meet a faceless man, who gives him a diamond-studded collar. The collar morphs into an iron one, and the man drags Francis on a chain through the collapsing floorboards and into a hellish, fiery vortex.

When Francis awakens that morning, he is visited by Bluebeard, who informs him of another murder - the elderly Deep Purple. Francis has already figured out that all the murdered cats are toms, and asks to see Deep Purple’s corpse. On the way, they are confronted by the giant Himalayan cat Kong and his minions, the Oriental crossbreeds Hermann and Hermann, with Kong threatening to meet Francis again soon.

The next morning, at breakfast, Bluebeard explains that the “Sect of Claudandus” has been going for quite a long time, with the high priest cat being named Joker. He’s convinced the cult is nothing more than cheap thrills, but Francis isn’t so sure. After breakfast, Bluebeard takes Francis to meet Pascal, an elderly Havana Brown who has been using his owner’s computer to keep a record of the murder victims. Using the database, Francis discovers that all five victims were European Shorthairs - but Pascal sadly reveals that there has been a sixth victim. Francis watches as Pascal types the name in…

A horrified Francis runs back, but is too late. Felicity has been decapitated completely, lying in her own blood, her blind eyes staring with horror up at the skylight. Francis, badly shaken and distraught, swears revenge on the killer, knowing that this particular murder happened to prevent Felicity from talking further. Meaning that it is very likely that the killer is watching Francis’ every move.