#notable cats

[lucidpast]

Notable Cats, 1932

Lucky Fishbreath, Tommy Topper, "The Professor"

[redux-iterum]

Founders: Moorlands

(Original title of WindClan)

GRAY WING

“When the holly leaf is eaten by deer, the round leaves grow back bristling. Likewise should the wise leader’s losses grow into strength. The fool leader laments the damaged Clan and never rebuilds.” —Clan Upkeep in Proverbs for a Leader, accredited to Gray Wing

Sometimes considered the Crone’s fifth disciple and the true first leader of WindClan, Gray Wing was considered by many an excellent choice for the Crone’s successor to the Moorland. The epics say he was Clear Sky’s brother, and while he was far less outwardly cruel than him, he still had his fair share of controversies to dispute past his death. For one, his relationships with kittypets were usually rocky, even so far as to suggest an abused kittypet return to her humans and unsavory living conditions. His relationships with Dewdrop and River Ripple were noted to be rather terse.

Despite his opinions on kittypets, he was an affectionate mate and caring father. Unfortunately most of the segments on Gray Wing’s family life are forgotten by the Clans, but snippets of them appear in the standard recitals of the Epic of the Crone's Lands. He had at least one litter he sired himself, but he was also known to be a father figure to multiple other litters. 

As for his leadership position, Gray Wing was remembered as a cunning tactician, utilizing his cats’ skills, pelt colors, the weather, and the terrain in his strategies. Most of the wisdoms about battle tactics in Proverbs for a Leader are accredited to him, much to the embarrassment of ThunderClan. Some cats say that when a cat is named -wing, it’s in reference to Gray Wing, but this is not the case.

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DUSTY

“The fox and badger should bother you no longer, dear old friend. The Untamed One sends her regards, but it is clear that an Untamed like her and we snow-stained cannot get along. Perhaps one day when our Grandmother has swallowed our bones, our kittens' kittens and her kittens' kittens shall frolick under the Eyes of the Crows. Oh how I wish to see that day for myself.” —Dusty, from the Dawn section of the Epic of the Crone’s Lands

Before the Crone’s arrival, cats were divided into two categories: rogues like Brawn and Slash who used their superior strength to enforce their fickle will onto their fellow cats, and the cats they pushed around. However, most scholars propose there was a third category: cats who used their cunning to evade the rogues’ efforts to subdue them. Dusty was one of these in the proposed third category, as few rogues would dare cross a cat who can call on other beasts to defend them.

This cat never featured in the Epic of the First Clan, but the Crone often made passing remarks of asking “the polyglot barn cat” to ask a trespassing badger or fox to leave. The jack's proper arrival to the Clans came after the Crone’s death, whereupon Dusty joined WindClan and eventually became respected enough for Gray Wing to offer deputyship. Back then, every Clan encouraged learning to speak Fang, but as time wore on, only the Moorlanders’ descendants still actively teach it, all thanks to a polyglot jack.

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MOTH FLIGHT

There were many wonders and horrors she saw. A rabbit of starlight and his shadow in the moon. A lamb and a wolf that were neither lamb nor wolf. A bog in the lands where the sun sleeps. The dark. The long dark. The first spark of fire and the last breath of wind. The embrace of our Grandmother. —From the Nightfall section of the Epic of the Crone’s Lands

Considering their history, no one would have anticipated the ancestor of WindClan to produce the cat to discover the Mother. It is uncertain if she was born to the Pilgrims or to a local queen and took on a Pilgrim’s name later in life. What is certain is her strange behavior that led her to wander the moorlands like a stain of moonlight, foregoing hunting in favor of naming every bug that she came across.

Her story says that as a nameless kitten, she followed a strange moth with wings of different colors who whispered poems of the future. The moth protected her from the eyes of sparrowhawks and the noses of foxes, all the way to Highstones. Upon finding the Mother’s Maw, the moth perched on the kitten’s head, urging her to delve into the ancient secrets of the world. Led by her heart and guided by her whiskers, the kitten found the Moonstone, illuminated by the full moon. Exhausted from her journey, she slept there, dreaming of uncountable and indescribable things to the mind of any breathing being, even humans.

When she was found, she was bestowed the name Moth—or Moth Flight, depending on who you ask. Her story from there on out is hazy, though some sections say she and the high quean Daisy Bloom clashed in an issue regarding kittens, separate from the issue involving the creation of Clan Law.

[lauralot89]

Notable Real Life Ginger Cats

I’m compiling a database of every ginger cat in the media. See the master post for all forms of media here.

If I am missing any ginger cats, please comment so it can be added to the list.

Ah Tsai: Prime Minister of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen’s cat

Bilbo: Twitter influencer

Bob: Former street cat

Catmando: Joint leader of Britain's Official Monster Raving Loony Party

Cheddar: Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cat

Dewey Readmore Books: Library cat

Dirt: Nevada railway cat

Fatso: Keyboard cat

Garfield: Sainsbury's cat

George: Chief mouse catcher of Stourbridge Junction Station

Gorb: Just kind of yellow

Hamish McHamish: Cat from St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

Jorts: Buttered sweet potato

Marmalade: YouTuber

Mittens: Wandering cat

Orangey: Actor

Paddles: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's cat

Sissi: Correctly predicted each match of the 2014 Brazil World Cup

Stubbs: Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska

Tsim Tung Brother Cream: Convenience store cat

Milo: My own cat, who inspired me to start this madness

[redux-iterum]

Founders: Woodlands

(Original title of ThunderClan)

BRAWN

    “I am not bright like my brother Ripple, nor am I shrewd like Clear Sky or pure of heart like Dewdrop. I often drive my teacher to fury, but for whatever gods out there that blessed me with my claws and my spirit, I shan’t disappoint them and let them go to waste.”                     —Brawn, the Daybreak section of the Epic of the First Clan

Son of the Storm, Chief of the Wood, and founder of what would become ThunderClan, Brawn could’ve been considered something of a leader to the cats within the Forest, albeit more like a benevolent boss to a band of strays than a true StarClan-blessed leader. Orphaned at a young age, having lost his littermates to a tyrannical seer-like cat, he carved a name for himself with his blood-siblings Ember and Dart and established something resembling order amidst the chaos of those early days before the Crone.

The fact that he agreed to come under her tutelage apparently surprised many; the fact that he remained her faithful disciple and managed to come out of it a great leader shocked all. Upon carving out his territory in the Woodlands, he named his blood-sister Ember his deputy, citing her cunning and cool nature as the best counterbalance to his turbulent demeanor.

His appearance, though forgotten and disputed, was said to fit his epithet “Son of the Storm”, but he was described to be quite handsome and set the bar for ThunderClan beauty standards. In most retellings, he’s said to be dark like the angry storms or red like the sky before then, but regardless of the color of his pelt, he was massive, large-pawed, and had the face of a great cat.

Sadly to the cats of modern ThunderClan, his resting ground is forgotten. Most hope he was laid to rest with his blood-siblings in Hero’s Grove, though most cynical elders bet his body was fed to the buzzards.

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EMBER

    “Hear yourself, Brawn! You mewl like a newborn kit complaining of her mother’s absence! You’re stronger than that and you know it! Now cease your lamenting, for you have myself and Dart by your sides, and we will not see you fail. Gods know I shan’t allow it.”                     —Ember, the Dawn section of the Epic of the First Clan

Noteworthy not just because of her position as the first deputy of ThunderClan—or the Woodlanders, as modern Clan cats call it—Ember’s name became legendary for her ingenuity and empathy. In the aftermath of a pointless battle that ended the lives of many young cats, it was she who heard the grieving queens’ cries and she who established the laws so no queen would have to suffer as they did.

Some say she became a mother herself and that her blood runs in ThunderClan to this day, others say she was too dedicated to her tasks to make time for a litter, and yet others—mostly RiverClan—say she had no interest in rearing kittens of her own, that her empathy for her fellow mollies was what drove her actions. Regardless, she holds up to this day as the greatest deputy the Clans have seen.

Rumors have it she was born as the bastard kitten of a kittypet, but her blood-brothers’ efforts to dispel that rumor leave some to believe it was a sore truth they wished to hide or a noble stand against slander of their blood-sister. Even her appearance is disputed, either as a dark tortoiseshell paired with Brawn’s ginger or a dark gray tortoiseshell to fit her epithet “Storm-Sister”. Her cause of death, sadly, is forgotten.

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DART

    “It was fate that brought us together, my dear blood-siblings, and nothing shall drive us apart. I swear by the stars and the storms that I will do my best to make this forest our home.”                     —Dart, the Dusk section of the Epic of the First Clan

While not having many achievements to his name, Dart’s importance among the founders of ThunderClan cannot be disputed. To leave him out for not holding a position of power would be like to neglect Rokhar for not having one of his eyes in the heavens. Unfortunately, due to his obscurity, his life is swathed in the most mystery of his blood-siblings.

His bond with Brawn is often emphasized in the stories recited in his name, and they’re looked back upon as the greatest friendship the Clans have ever known. With Brawn as the Thunderer, Dart was the Bolt, and his appearance is either dark stormy gray to contrast with Brawn’s bright ginger pelt or white like lightning with his gloamy gray siblings.

For a cat seeped in obscurity, his death is the most well-known of his siblings’. In the Moonrise segment of the Epic of Thunder Forest, it recounts the events of Dart’s death at the teeth of hounds in protecting Brawn’s expecting lover, Brawn and Ember’s great grieving for him, and his burial at the roots of the Great Sycamore.

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OWLSIGHT

    “Hark! Leaders of all Clans! The Forest is no place for barbarous murderers and lying lowlives! We’ve grown past that, and justice should be served for the death of Brawn’s eldest kitten. If you happen upon the tom called Splinter, show him no mercy and bring me his teeth.”                     —Owlsight, the Midday section of the Epic of Thunder Forest

No one expected such a scrawny little cat to become the successor of Brawn of all leaders, but she proved to have made an excellent choice. Before her day, ThunderClan’s battle tactics only benefited those like Brawn and ThunderClan’s typical stock—massive, well-muscled, and undauntable—while smaller, more lithe cats like herself struggled after their peers. She took the teachings of her mentor, Dart, and developed them into hunting and fighting styles more well-suited for the smaller cats of the Clan.

She certainly fit her name, the epics say, taking in the world and scrutinizing it with her large eyes. She was far more calculating than Brawn, more often condemning cats to death, yet she’s remembered as a fair and just leader, even as the first noteworthy ThunderClan cat to recognize and give prayers to Horoa.

Even cats so unlike ThunderClan can do things that are just so ThunderClan.

[redux-iterum]

Founders: The Crone

    “I came from the lands where hedgehogs breathe smoke, where the trees dig their roots into the sky, where hounds are masters and humans their pets. Even in a realm with less sense than this land, the cats there have more sense than the brutes here.”                     —The Crone, the Midnight section of the Epic of the First Clan

To inquire of this mysterious old molly’s origins is to ask the wind from whence he brings his clouds and rain. Regardless of where she came from or what her motives were when she established the Clans, her legacy lives on now, immortalized in the hearts and breaths of the cats amongst the Forest.

Those who knew her in life spoke of a cranky old bat who, despite frequently snapping at her unruly charges, truly loved them and respected them and disciplined them to be their best selves. Her death is said to have been one of moderate pain, having been eaten away by a pain in her gut not satiated by simply eating, but her funeral was a well-attended one. Cats from across the Forest, from far away lands, from the growing Town in the west, all paid their respects.

For such an important figure in Clan history, infuriatingly little is remembered of her, even by non-Clan cats and scholars of claw, talon, and hoof. Her name remained in perpetual enigma and her visage has been forgotten to history. Perhaps she likes the anonymity, deep in her resting place within the Mother’s Heart.

[redux-iterum]

History: Notable Cats Masterlist

Founders (The Crone, Woodlands, Marshlands, Moorlands, Riverlands, Uplands)

Historic (ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan, RiverClan)

Recent Memory (ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan, RiverClan)