Animal Folklore: Cats

Despite its resemblance to the infamous "mutant cat" hoax below, this 2004 image appears to be perfectly authentic.

Maybe the FBI can help us determine whether this tongue-in-cheek Website constitutes harmless satire or a dangerous incitement to cruelty toward animals.

If not, why do so many people believe they can?

Viral video tells the true, heartwarming tale of the reunion between Christian the Lion and the two men who adopted him as a cub in the 1970s.

Emailed image of a one-eyed kitten named Cyclops who lived only one day before succumbing to a rare medical condition known as "holoprosencephaly."

Actually, we think these photos of a "seriously pissed-off cat" just back from the groomer are real, but the accompanying story is too good to be true.

Emailed photos show an unusually large mountain lion (cougar) allegedly killed between Grantsville and Walker near Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Images circulating via email purport to show common housecats hand-painted in a variety of decorative colors and designs.

Direct from our inbox, the email tale of an 87-pound housecat named "Snowball."  You won't believe the photo!

Cats tend to sprout up like weeds in the folklore of peoples all over the map, and all over time...

Emailed snapshots taken at a zoo show a mother tiger nursing a brood of piglets costumed in tiger skins.

Sarah Hartwell's instructive and entertaining essay on contemporary folklore about cats.

From Cecil Adams of "The Straight Dope," a combined lesson in zoology and critical thinking.

Snapshots taken through the screen door of someone's house reveal a cougar (mountain lion) prowling on the porch at night.

After stealing someone's shopping bag in a department store parking lot, a thief gets the surprise of her life when she opens it up and finds a dead cat inside.

Did you lose a cat? Viral image purports to show a raccoon standing on its hind legs holding a kitten or cat in its paws.