Cat
A cat was a type of predatory and typically small, feline mammal coming in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. Cats could be found on a variety of planets, and were commonly domesticated as pets. (NA: Human Nature) At least some cats were capable of psychic communication with Time Lords, as the Doctor has spoken to several.
Cat variants
Earth cats
There were many species of cats found on Earth, including 'common' house cats, tigers and the sabre-toothed tigers. The cats of Earth went extinct some time before the year 2157 (NA: Lucifer Rising), with tigers dying out before 2148 (NA: St Anthony's Fire). The Tenth Doctor once claimed that the cats on Earth weren't native to the planet but were in fact aliens, and that rather than the rather prosaic names humans tend to give them, their actual names were much grander like "Great Hunter Grimalkin Greycoat Lionheart". Donna, however, believed he was pulling her leg. (IDW: Autopia)
Gallifreyan cats
Cats could also be found on Gallifrey. (NA: Human Nature) One of the Presidents of Gallifrey had a pet cat. The cat was eaten by a mouse that had been enlarged by the Rani during an experiment. (DW: The Mark of the Rani)
Cheetah World's cats
The kitlings and the Cheetah people were two species of cat-like creatures found on the Cheetah World. Both were known to travel off-world. While visiting Earth, the kitlings were easily mistaken for terrestrial cats. (DW: Survival)
Anubian cats
A species called the Glomb, which was identical to a cat, was native to Anubis. (K9TV: Curse of Anubis)
Sapient cats
Several sapient species were cat-like in appearance.
Cats and the Doctor
The Doctor's relationship with cats has varied.
First Doctor
- A cat tried to attack the Doctor and his companions when they had been shrunk down to a small size. (DW: Planet of Giants)
Fourth Doctor
- The Doctor used the story of Puss in Boots to befuddle a P-series Genesis III. He claimed the computer was unable to comprehend a talking cat. (DWAN: Inter-Galactic Cat)
Fifth Doctor
- The Doctor found a cat while searching for a Kaled mutant on Earth. (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks)
- Erimem brought a stray cat named Antranak onto the Doctor's TARDIS, (BFA: The Eye of the Scorpion) which the Doctor disdained. (BFA: No Place Like Home, Nekromanteia)
Sixth Doctor
- This Doctor usually wore a coat with one of several cat brooches on its left lapel, and occasionally had a variable number of cat-shaped patches sewn into its lining. He sometimes touched his cat brooch for luck. (DW: Attack of the Cybermen) One of his cat badges seemed to change its expression to match the Doctor's mood. (WC: Real Time)
- Whilst fighting off a transformation into an Androgum in 20th century Spain, the Doctor noticed a stray cat and was tempted to eat it. (DW: The Two Doctors)
Seventh Doctor
- The Doctor was given a pet cat named Wolsey by Joan Redfern. (NA: Human Nature)
Eighth Doctor
- The Doctor gave Wolsey to Bernice Summerfield. (NA: The Dying Days)
- The Doctor enjoyed playing with and talking to Carolyn McConnell's pet cat Mina. (EDA: Vampire Science)
- The Doctor was given a tabby cat by Donna. (EDA: Legacy of the Daleks)
- When the Eighth Doctor was infected by Zagreus, among the avatars manifested by the Doctor's TARDIS to aid him was a Cheshire Cat straight out of Alice in Wonderland. (BFA: Zagreus)
- The Doctor once met a cat who had been given the power of thought by the Bestiary of Legendary and Magical Creatures. (ST: Phoenix)
Ninth Doctor
- The Doctor picked up and began talking to a cat he found in 1941 London. (DW: The Empty Child)
Tenth Doctor
- Upon encountering a cat, the Doctor declared he was not a cat person after his recent experiences with the Sisters of Plenitude. Chloe Webber later drew the cat, trapping it in a picture for the Isolus to play with; along with the Doctor and all the other people and things in Chloe's drawings, it was restored by Rose Tyler. (DW: Fear Her)
- Despite this, the Doctor seemed to have no qualms with petting the kittens of Thomas and Valerie Brannigan. (DW: Gridlock)
- The Doctor and Rose encountered a cat called Mitzi, a test subject which had been sent into Hyperspace and ended up ruling the planet Photris. After freeing the humans on Photris from Mitzi's control, the Doctor and Rose took Mitzi to the Powell Estate where she would be found and adopted by a younger Rose and Jackie Tyler. (DWS: The Cat Came Back)
- The Hervoken used the Necris to force cats to attack the Doctor. (NSA: Forever Autumn)
Eleventh Doctor
- The materialisation of the TARDIS in 1890 France scared away a cat which had been resting in the alley. (DW: Vincent and the Doctor)
- The Doctor psychically conversed with a housecat in order to glean more information about what was going on in 79B Aickman Road. (DW: The Lodger) Amy Pond stroked the same housecat. (DW: The Big Bang)
- The Doctor mentioned "a basket of kittens" as one of the things people could think about to avoid experiencing fear which would attract the Minotaur. (DW: The God Complex)
Other cats
- Frobisher took on a job to find a domestic cat of unknown variant. (BFA: The Maltese Penguin)
- Jasper was a sapient cartoon cat, manifested from the mind of a young girl on the Crooked World. (EDA: The Crooked World)
- Amy Pond's favourite childhood cat was called "Biggles." (DW: The Girl Who Waited)
Behind the scenes
- The non-canon video game Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror portrayed the Sixth Doctor travelling with a robot cat called Splinx.
