For some reason, in works of fiction featuring a cast of dogs, writers often include a cat as part of the team.
In those settings where Cats Are Mean, this is done to avoid implying that a race of pets is Always Chaotic Evil (and avoiding the risk of alienating cat-lovers among the viewing audience), turning said cat into the Token Enemy Minority. But in those settings where there's no Animal Jingoism and cats can be good or bad equally as often as the dogs, this is generally a way to show some "ethnic" variety and maintain a broader appeal for all animal lovers. As they often think they are superior, the cat is likely The Lancer of the team, representing the counterbalance to the canine leader.
If this was given Character Development, a cat will develop some puppy-like traits and act much closer to their dog friends. In Real Life, the puppy cat
is a term describing it.
Contrast with Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines, Female Feline, Male Mutt and Cat/Dog Dichotomy. Often goes with Canines Primary, Felines Secondary.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Beastars: Legosi and all of his roommates at Cherryton are different canine species, except for Miguno, who is a spotted hyena. Hyenas are not canids and are not even caniforms, they are feliforms, meaning that they are more related to cats than to dogs. It is unclear if this is a mistake by the author, or if he was put with canines because hyenas have more in more in common with canines than with other species despite not being related to them.
Comic Books
- In Beasts of Burden, the main characters initially consist of five dogs (Ace, Jack, Pugsley, Rex, and Whitey) and a cat (The Orphan). All six of them join the Wise Dog Society. Lampshaded in "Sacrifice", when they introduce themselves to Hellboy (a known cat lover) as junior apprentices of the Wise Dog Society:
Comic Strips
- Inverted in Garfield, in which the dog Odie usually accompanies Garfield and his chiefly feline crew — mostly Nermal and Arlene, but also various other cat characters from different media — as the Only Sane Man and the dim-witted comic relief.
Fan Works
- The Bolt Chronicles: Applies to Mittens and her circle of dog friends in “The Survivor.”
Films — Animation
- Sergeant Tibbs in 101 Dalmatians. In a movie with literally hundreds of dogs, he's the cat that helps them against Cruella.
- Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw has two cats as part of the titular group: Hairball and Charlamange.
- Oliver & Company is an abnormal example in that the cat is the main character, while the dogs are either supporting protagonists or villains.
- In The Secret Life of Pets, Chloe is the only cat among the large group of dogs that go on the rescue mission to save Max and Duke. There are also two birds: Tiberius (a hawk) and Sweetpea (a parakeet).
- In the sequel, Pop is seen teaching his own class of puppies and one of his students is a Siamese kitten. Hu the tiger also becomes a temporary member of his class.
- Roadside Romeo: Mini is a cat in a gang otherwise made up entirely of dogs.
Films — Live-Action
- In 101 Dalmatians (1996), a tabby cat probably based on Sergeant Tibbs from the original animated movie makes a cameo.
- Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is about two dogs and a cat traveling long distances in the wild to be back to their family. In the sequel, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, they spend most of the movie with a group of stray city dogs, and once again Sassy is the only cat.
- The Marmaduke character Carlos is Marmaduke's (a Great Dane) best friend and the only cat among a group of dogs.
Literature
- In Flawed Dogs, the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits team of dogs includes a cat who disguises herself as a dog.
- In The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the Dalmatians' rescue mission is aided by dogs of all types, and also two cats: Lieutenant Tib, a friend of the Old English Sheepdog called Colonel who helps break the puppies out of Cruella de Vil's clutches; and Cruella's own Persian cat, who helps them take revenge on Cruella.
- This is inverted in The Last Dogs, where a Chihuahua named Buddha lives in a Crazy Cat Lady's house and thinks he's a cat. The cat leader, Raoul, seems to accept this and even tells the visiting dogs that Buddha prefers to be called a cat instead of a dog. However, Buddha hasn't really gotten used to eating mice all the time and is seen eating regular dog food. It's subverted when Max and his friends are ready to leave the house of cats. A kitten marches behind them, wanting to join them on their adventure, but the other cats call her back to them.
- Dogs of the Drowned City has Fuzz, a declawed Maine Coon cat who speaks dog language (in a You No Take Candle way). Shep is against this at first, but his wounded pride is enough to make him accept the cat into his pack. Things go okay for a while, but then Shep's roommate Blaze accuses Fuzz of leading cats to steal the dogs' food, and Shep is pressured into letting the dogs chase Fuzz out. He does apologize and lets Fuzz back into the pack, though.
Western Animation
- Sergeant Tibbs is a feline character among dogs in 101 Dalmatians: The Series.
- Miss Kitty, the only feline and only female member of Bugsy Vile's gang in Dog City. Also the only regular cat character in the cartoon section (until the introduction of "Yves and Steven" in Season 3). Her counterpart in Eliot's world, Ms. Fluffé, is the only non-dog Muppet to appear in the series at all.
- Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds has a villainous example. Like the heroes, most of the main villains are dogs, but Milady is a cat - and a pretty devious one at that.
- Hanna-Barbera's Foofur is based around a gang of six dogs and a cat known as the Troop, under the guidance of the eponymous Foofur. The Lancer and Foofur's best friend is the Karate Kat Fencer,
- Krypto the Superdog has Streaky the supercat teaming up with the rest of heroic characters, including Krypto himself, Ace the Bat-Hound, and the other superhero dogs.
- The PAW Patrol, initially an exclusively canine team, introduced a cat named Wild Cat to their ranks in Season 7. Wild Cat is a popular motorcyclist and lowkey celebrity who joined the PAW Patrol to help deal with a mean biker gang called the Ruff-Ruff Pack.
- Tuffy the cat in Pound Puppies (1980s).
