This article is about pet cats. For information about cats in general, see Cat (race).
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The Cat was the first pet ever released. In order to obtain a pet cat, a player must complete Gertrude's Cat and get a kitten from Gertrude. Their first kitten is free, and each kitten after that is 100 coins, but players cannot own more than one kitten at a time. If players have an activated Ring of charos, obtained during the Garden of Tranquillity quest, they are able to charm Gertrude into allowing them to choose their own colour. Otherwise, players will be given a cat of a random colour.
Like all pets, a kitten needs to be fed. If its hunger reaches 100%, it will run away in search of food. Any raw or cooked fish can be used to feed a kitten. Additionally, players can feed their kitten a bucket of milk.
Unlike other pets, however, a kitten also needs attention in the form of being interacted with, or else they will get lonely and run away. Feeding a kitten is not enough, if you do not interact with your kitten, it WILL run away. When a kitten is about to run away due to loneliness, players will receive a message in their chat box alerting them.
A player strokes his cat.
Players can interact with their kitten or cat in a number of ways, via right-clicking the cat and selecting Interact-with. Stroking a cat requires no items. However, if players wish to play with their kitten, they must use a ball of wool on it. This will not use up the ball of wool, which will stay in the player's inventory. A kitten can also catch rats via the Chase-vermin option, but has a very low success rate. Players can also shoo away their kitten from the Interact-with menu using the Shoo-away option.
After two and a half hours of following the player, their kitten will grow into an adult cat, which no longer needs food or attention. A great way to let it grow is take it out and catch fish with a harpoon. If the player only wants swordfish, they can let their cat enjoy all the tuna it wants, leaving themself with the swordfish along with some attention. Players are still able to interact with it as an adult cat, and its success rate at catching rats improves drastically. Players can also sell their cat to civilians in West Ardougne in exchange for 100 death runes. This amount increases to 200 death runes if the player has completed the easy tasks in the Ardougne diary. Players do not need to be wearing their Ardougne cloak in order to get the bonus runes.
Even as an adult, a cat will continue to grow, eventually becoming an overgrown cat. Once overgrown, a cat cannot catch rats anymore, but it can still be sold in West Ardougne. Players can also turn their overgrown cat into a wily cat if they have completed Ratcatchers. Despite being limited to one kitten or cat at a time, there is almost no limit to the amount of overgrown cats that a player can own, although the number of wily or lazy cats owned is limited to one. Players cannot get a new kitten from Gertrude until their cat becomes overgrown.
If a kitten or cat catches 100 rats, Gertrude will award the player with a cat training medal, which is one of the medium tasks in the Varrock diary. In addition, cats in all stages of growth can be used in the Rat Pits minigame. They are also required for a number of quests, like Icthlarin's Little Helper and its sequels, Smoking Kills, and A Tail of Two Cats. A cat of any kind, including a kitten, is required to begin Do No Evil, as it is needed to speak to the Sphinx.
The summoning interface is used to find information out about one's own cat while it is out, such as its hunger percentage and its percentage until fully grown. The higher the hunger percent, the hungrier your kitten is.
When talking to one's cat, the player may say "What's new kitty?", which may be a reference to the song "What's New Pussycat?".
When trying to use an alchemy spell on a kitten or a cat, a player will get the message "You can't do that to a defenceless kitten!" or "You can't do that to a defenceless cat!", respectively.
A cat can be put into a cat basket inside a player-owned house. To do this, the player has to click their cat, in any stage of growth, and use it on the cat basket.
There is a glitch where, if one's cat is playing with string and the player gives it another ball of wool, the string moves separately from the cat.
If you ask an adult cat "How old are you now?" it will reply, "I'm not too old, and not too young, in fact I think I'm just right," which is a reference to Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
A cat being killedThere is currently a bug where, if you try to pick up someone else's kitten the message will say "That's not your cat." instead of "That's not your kitten." However, the interact option on a kitten you do not own produces the correct message.
There is a bug where, if you view the interface of a named cat followed by a cat not yet named, the named cat's name will still show.
During the mindspike glitch, it was proven that cats have 100 life points, and will attack back if they are attacked by players.
When a pet cat is killed, a soul will appear and fly into the sky.
When shooing away your cat, you can attempt to pick it up in the brief seconds it remains before it disappears. Doing so gives the message "This is not your cat".
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