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Hello, I'm Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Will you be an angel for a helpless animal?

Marplet sen Tenko was sitting in a window of the Skyrrman smoking a long-stemmed pipe. His big tiger-tom, Fang, crouched beside him on the sill. As Jame crossed the square, both the innkeeper and the cat watched her with almost the same expression, calculating, self-confident, and faintly amused. Neither would relish a quick kill, she realized with sudden insight.

In an evil contrast to how much Heroes Love Dogs, Diabolical Masterminds are cat people. If they don't have a face, they will usually have a pet cat, usually some shade of white or black, sitting on their desk or in their lap, that they stroke as they describe their Evil Plan.

Why do bad guys like cats? Maybe because Cats Are Meanthey kill birds and mice, just so they can offer you the corpse. Cats are lap-sized and perfect to pet while scheming. Or maybe it's because Cats Are Superior and believe they are entitled to be worshiped and revered by humans, or deserve to Take Over the World themselves. Dogs are faithful and loyal, but cats are fickle with a superiority complex. Villains and cats just fit. It's the perfect accessory for a Card-Carrying Villain, especially the Crazy Cat Lady type.

The Big Bad's Right-Hand Cat will have varying degrees of a personality depending on the context of the series. Some will display sentient facial expressions and even an evil laugh, showing a morality in sync with their master's. Some just sit and look pretty - as stoic as ever, yawning and purring like any other ordinary pet. Even in animation, the cat will probably never speak, but it will almost always have a name.

This may stem from the tradition that All Witches Have Cats and often use cats as their familiars. Sometimes prone to the cat being a Morality Pet or biting back and run a Heelā€“Face Door-Slam if the Big Bad doesn't dispose it.

In more-modern settings, this kind of villain will be probably part of an Animal Wrongs Group.

See Kindhearted Cat Lover for heroic examples when a character's fondness for cats shows they're a good person, or at least not all bad.

Cardinal Richelieu was a famous cat-lover (he owned 14 cats at the time of his death) — and got a Historical Villain Upgrade since Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. Some adaptations picture him petting a white cat while scheming, making Richelieu the likely Trope Maker.

Pirate captains will have a Pirate Parrot instead, while Rich Bitches have spoiled lap dogs. See also Feather Boa Constrictor.

Please note that Right-Hand Cat at its core refers to passive evil pets, feline or otherwise. If the pet is also an active fighter, it belongs in Right-Hand Attack Dog, even if it is a cat.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In the manga of Death Note, Teru Mikami has one.
  • In Dragon Ball, the Big Bad Red has one in the anime, presumably to increase his Diabolical Mastermind credentials (although his is purplish rather than white). It does not appear in the original manga, however.
  • Parodied in a Fullmetal Alchemist Omake. In a picture of members of the cast as members of organized crime, Al is "Da Boss", and has an Adulr cat which is referred to as "demon henchbeast".
  • Schrƶdinger from Hellsing is a Cat Folk version of this to the Major right down to sitting at his side and apparently angling for head scratches.
  • Djibril pets his black cat in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.
  • Subverted in Now and Then, Here and There. King Hamdo starts out with one, but he kills it before it shows up on screen. You do see it after its death.
  • Keto from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS has a black cat that spies on Ririka. Kanou later seems to own it after becoming Brainwashed and Crazy however it disappears after he is cured. Ririka herself has a dog.
  • In Ouran High School Host Club, Umehito Nekozawa, president of Ouran's Black Magic Club, always wears a cat puppet named Beelzenef, making it a literal right-hand cat. Nekozawa is a lot nicer than his obsession with black magic and creepy subjects would lead you to initially believe, though.
  • In Peacemaker Kurogane, after going crazy and gay, Suzu is depicted as having a fondness for cats.
  • Giovanni with his Persian, from PokĆ©mon: The Series. For a while, the Team Rocket trio's Meowth from the same series had it as his overriding goal to become a Right-Hand Cat for Giovanni, though lately he seems to have decided he'd rather stay with Jessie and James. For another definition of "right hand", Giovanni also had Mewtwo, for a short time.
  • Referenced in School-Live!. When the girls are discussing the source of the Zombie Apocalypse, one of them theorizes a Big Bad could be behind it all. Yuki draws an Obviously Evil man with a cigar and a pet cat.
  • In Urusei Yatsura, the principal of Tomobiki high is sometimes seen petting a white cat while plotting against the students. He's hardly a villain (more of a Cloudcuckoolander), but the parody is obvious.
  • Toyed with in Shaman King, where Ren's villainous giant of a father is shown petting a fully-grown panda in his lap.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman:
    • During The Silver Age of Comic Books, Catwoman owned a pet cat named Hecate that she often employed in her schemes. Hecate even helped to spring her from prison once.
    • Catwoman's Spear Counterpart Catman is ofen accompanied by a big cat: usually either a tiger or a pair of panthers.
  • Pizzazz has a cat in the IDW Jem and the Holograms (IDW) comics. She's not really much of a "villain" but is one of the antagonists. She even has pajamas with cats on them.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1: Nazi agent Red Panzer has a pet cat which he strokes while brooding and thinking up plots.

    Comic Strips 
  • Dick Tracy: The cat called Kitty Square had the odd trait of smoking cigars. At different times, he belonged to two different villains: Matty Square and subsequently Mr. Bribery. Bribery attempted to break Kitty of the smoking habit, and when he that failed, he attempted to drown Kitty in the city reservoir. Bribery tied a heavy steam iron to Kitty's collar and prepared to toss it into the deep water. Kitty slipped out of the collar and attacked Bribery. For some reason, this endeared Kitty to Bribery, who took Kitty home and continued to light the cat's cigars.

    Films — Animation 
  • Cinderella:
    • Lady Tremaine has a cat named Lucifer. He is intelligent enough to understand that Cinderella is unfairly put-upon with the chores, and mean enough to complicate them at one point.
    • Cinderella III: A Twist in Time actually has Lady Tremaine carrying Lucifer and stroking him, Blofeld-style.
  • Junkman in the The Incredible Crash Dummies (a 1993 half-hour CG movie) has the Hubcat.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • And Then There Were None: In the 1945 film adaptation, Judge Warwick, who turns out to be the evil mastermind behind the murders, holds and strokes a house cat while explaining his scheme to one of the survivors.
  • In Army of Frankensteins, Big Bad Captain Walton is introduced sitting his tent stroking the grey cat on his lap. He later uses the cat to test the Frankenstein serum.
  • Austin Powers
    • Dr. Evil, a parody of Blofeld, with Mr. Bigglesworth. Starts as a Persian, becomes a Sphinx cat after the cryogenic revival.
    • Mini-Me, in turn, has a Mini-Bigglesworth (a Sphinx kitten).
  • Come and See: The Nazi death squad commander watches the slaughter impassively from his car while a loris sits on his shoulder and nuzzles his neck. The ostentatiousness of the pet makes him even more despicable.
  • In the 1937 Dick Tracy film serial, Moloch is often seen stroking a black cat.
  • The Egyptian (1954) explains why this may be a trope among villains. The amoral and manipulative courtesan Nefer is holding a cat which she uses to warn the protagonist of the perils of falling for her (he doesn't listen).
    Nefer: There is a reason why the goddess of love takes the form of a cat.
    Sinuhe: When I look at you I cannot think of cats or gods...
    Nefer: Look, Sinuhe. A cat's paws are soft, but they hide claws. A cat takes pleasure in tormenting its victim. Not until the creature is nearly dead will it show pity... and put an end to it.
  • In Enter the Dragon, Han, trying to recruit Roper into joining his organization, carries a fluffy white cat. To test Roper's resolve, Han sets the cat down in the business area of a guillotine and offers to let Roper pull the chain. Roper declines.
  • In The Godfather, the title character is seen stroking a cat in the opening scene, as a kind of Pet the Dog moment, establishing him as both a deadly gangster and a devoted and loving family man. This was not in the book or script; Marlon Brando just made friends with a cat that was wandering around the set and they decided to Throw It In!. Humorously, the cat was "villainous" for the production as well—it purred so loudly during Brando's opening speech that his dialogue had to be redubbed.
  • In the infamous Going Overboard, Noriega has a Cute Kitten. The last you see of it is when it gets killed along with a suicidal Noriega by a grenade.
  • In the 2007 film version of Hairspray, Velma von Tussle gets a fluffy white Persian to stroke in one scene.
  • Auntie in the Japanese horror film Hausu has Shiro, a white Persian, who the heroines discover provides Auntie with her immortality and magic abilities. It turns out Auntie lied and even killing Shiro won't stop her. Not to mention, Shiro is immortal, too.
  • James Bond:
    • Ernst Stavro Blofeld, as pictured above. His ever-present fluffy white Persian is probably the Trope Codifier, being responsible for most, if not all, of the parodies and references listed on this page. This is actually due to his face being hidden from the audience in the first few movies, so there was greater focus on his pet that you'd normally have, to give the camera something to look at.
    • A Funny Background Event shows that while the base in You Only Live Twice is being attacked, the cat is dead scared and trying to escape Blofeld's grasp!note 
    • It goes one step further in the opener to For Your Eyes Only — when Bond gains control of the helicopter and comes after the Blofeld expy, his cat promptly runs off!
    • There was a Bond comic strip for a while, where Blofeld's daughter was running SPECTRE. She also had a cat, albeit a black one (probably drawing on another trope).
    • Diamonds Are Forever plays with this a little, when Bond confronts Blofeld and his Body Double. Unsure of which is which, Bond kicks the white Persian in the room and shoots the one it jumps to for safety. Sadly, it doesn't work, as there's more than one cat too.
      Blofeld: Right idea, Mr. Bond...
      Bond: But wrong pussy.
    • Sanchez in Licence to Kill has a Right Hand....iguana. Same general idea only reptilian.
    • In Spectre, Franz Oberhauser has a white cat hanging around his torture chamber. It's an early hint that he's actually this continuity's Blofeld.
  • In the kung fu film Kid From Kwangtung, the main villain owns a black cat, which he strokes in numerous scenes while watching his minions kill off Redshirts, in a rather obvious nod to Blofeld. When the villain get into fights though, the black cat somehow remains in his hands without being scared off.
  • In Lady on a Train, the sinister Mr. Saunders, who is one of the conspirators in Josiah Waring's murder, carries a white cat around with him. At one point, while sneaking around the nightclub, Nikki hears meowing from behind her and knows she's been discovered.
  • Night of the Demon: Satanic cult leader Karswell has a pet gray cat called Graymalkin.
  • In Erich von Stroheim's 1929 silent film Queen Kelly, the wicked and beautiful Queen Regina owns a white Persian cat that she often strokes, sometimes when nude.
  • In the Japanese Ninja movie Shinobi no Mono, Oda Nobunaga is shown petting cats in several scenes. Notably, Roald Dahl saw the film while writing the script for You Only Live Twice, so while the (unseen) Blofield stroked a pet cat in earlier Bond movies, this film might have been an inspiration for his iconic representation doing it in You Only Live Twice.
  • In Theatre of Death (also known as Blood Fiend), the cruel and demanding director Philippe Darvas (played by Christopher Lee) only shows affection towards his pet Siamese cat Seraphina.
  • The Three Musketeers:
  • Twisted Pair, the villainous Koos carries around a small bowl of diamonds that he strokes as if it were an example of this trope.
  • Youth of the Beast: Nomoto, the boss of a brutal Yakuza gang, has a cat he's always carrying around and snuggling with. In his first scene he throws a knife at Jo with one arm while holding the cat with another.

    Literature 
  • Etienne Galant, the Big Bad in The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr, is seen stroking a white Persian. The book was published in 1932.
  • In Changes, Harry Dresden's fairy godmother the Leanansidhe, who takes pleasure at someone upgrading her from "Spooky death Sidhe lady" to "Spooky, crazy death Sidhe lady," is waiting for Harry in his home with his cat Mister on her lap. She also swivels his chair around, despite it not meant to have that function.
  • One of the earliest examples of this trope would be Victorian Era supervillain Dr. Nikola, who was always accompanied by a huge, black cat named Appolyon, which would sit on his shoulder instead of the later lap version of this trope.
  • In Raymond Chandler's short story "Finger Man", the corrupt politico (and Big Bad of the story) Frank Dorr has a large, black Persian cat on his desk, which he pets and plays with throughout his conversation with the Hardboiled Detective protagonist. The cat actually plays a role in the plot besides just characterizing the villain: when negotiations go south, the detective grabs the cat and throws it at Frank Dorr, then grabs Frank's gun during the resulting confusion.
  • In Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" an escaped convict called the Misfit murders an entire family, who is stranded by an isolated road after an accident, and afterwards picks up and strokes their pet cat (that had caused the accident).
  • Tuttan-Rha's undead pet cat, Cleopatra, from the Goosebumps HorrorLand novel Who's Your Mummy? The main character, Abby, unintentionally causing her to disintegrate by spraying her with water is how she discovers Rha's weakness.
  • She doesn't hold her cats in her hand, but Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, probably the second most sadistic person in the series behind Voldemort himself, is seemingly addicted to cats. Her office is lined with plates and pictures depicting cats. As well, her Patronus was in the shape of a Persian cat, and it paced in front of her during the courtroom scene in Deathly Hallows to protect her from the dementors; Word of God states that "she [likes] anything decorated with kittens (though found the real thing inconveniently messy)." Averted in the case of Professor McGonagall, a good character in the same series, who also has a cat Patronus and can transform into a cat (an ordinary tabby rather than something fluffy and expensive). In between the two is Argus Filch, the Jerkass caretaker at Hogwarts, with his unpleasantly scrawny and dust-colored Mrs. Norris. His genuine love and affection for her (to the point of being driven to tears when she was nearly killed) is one of his few redeeming traits. Hermione Granger herself also has a pet cat, the very intelligent Crookshanks.
  • In Yulia Latynina's Inhuman, when Mehmed Lee "Eat-Alive" Trastamara (an incredibly old, infamous man, the right-hand of the Evil Overlord that founded the empire, the inventor of many nasty viruses, as well as a brainwashing symbiont, and the great-grandfather of the Villain Protagonist who comes to him for advice) finally appears in the flesh, he is sitting in a chair with a big white and red cat resting in his lap. Despite being both ancient and retired, "Eat-Alive" still has a hand in almost everything that happens in the Human Empire and more, to the extent of eventually organising a successful coup d'etat and establishing himself as the most adroit and savvy opponent of the alien conspiracy. Let's just say, he earned that cat.
  • Subverted in Reginald Hill's Joe Sixsmith series, where loving cats is a sign of virtue. Sixsmith has a much-beloved pet cat who goes everywhere with him and enjoys a good snack of beer and crisps at the pub; he later discovers that one of the friendlier police inspectors has multiple Persians.
  • Nick Velvet: In "The Theft of the Mafia Cat", Nick is hired to steal the right-hand cat of a Mafia don.
  • In the Emberverse, The Chessmaster Sandra Arminger pets her Persians as an aid to concentrating on her schemes.
  • In 1956, even before Blofeld made it cool, back in the original book of The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil had a white Persian cat, as opposed to the heroic dog-loving Dearlys. When they actually met the cat, Pongo and Perdita Missis found she was actually nice (we had already learned of Cruella's drowning of her kittens — as if that woman needed extra Kick the Dog credentials). She then joined the dogs in wrecking Cruella's private fur collection.
  • In an early version of Tolkien's Legendarium, Morgoth, the first dark lord, had a right hand cat name Tevildo the lord of cats. He was massive in size and commanded other giant cats. While he would be cut from the "final" version of the stories, Tevildo is notable for being considered the original version of Sauron.
  • Discussed in The Unadulterated Cat. The Right Hand Cat is not a Real Cat, because there are no unwanted animal bits hiding underneath the laser table.
  • The Perfect Run: Ryan's teleporting cat, EugĆØne-Henry (named after EugĆØne Wigner & Henry Stapp - proponents of the Wigner's Friend Interpretation of the famous Schrƶdinger's Cat Thought-Experiment) is a white cat very much in vein of Blofeld's white Persian cat. During his play-acting as President Evil of the villainous Meta-Gang, he is constantly making Blofeld-esque references to how every villain overlord needs such a Right-Hand Cat.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Conan: Conan O'Brien's impression of an NBC executive involves talking in an "evil" voice and miming petting a cat in his arms.
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry David and his business manager/friend Jeff Greene reference this trope and the Trope Codifier himself at the tail end of a conversation where they're scheming to get someone to play in their golf tournament. Jeff just happens to be stroking a white, very fluffy throw cushion:
    Larry: Hey, nice pillow. Yeah, um— you look like Blofeld.
    Jeff: [busts out laughing] I look like I've got a kitty and we're making evil plans!
  • In an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen a chef's lobster is taken away and replaced by fish sticks, smoked mussels, and blackened tilapia for a sushi roll challenge. Alton pretends to pet the lobster like he's a Bond villain and says "Excellent."
    • In a Halloween episode he dresses up like a parody of Blofeld, complete with a stuffed cat that he can pet in evil mastermind fashion.
  • Played for Laughs in the Glee episode "Dynamic Duets" with Hunter Corrington, the Warblers' new captain, who is presented petting a white cat.
  • Mick of Kamen Rider Double is the pet cat of The Don/Big Bad Ryubee Sonozaki. He also doubles as one of the high ranking goons: the Smilodon Dopant.
  • While she wasn't a villain per se, Mrs. Pynchon, the (cold and typically unlikable) newspaper publisher (and everyone's boss) in the TV series Lou Grant, has a cat who resides on her desk at her office.
  • Hal from Malcolm in the Middle references this trope when he is pondering what he can do since he has the loyalty of a dozen dim-witted bodybuilders.
    Hal: Lois, please stop me if you see me laughing in front of an earth globe while stroking a white cat.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Secret Agent Super Dragon" had Dr. Forrester explaining the film's Big Bad was uninteresting because he lacked a pet.
  • Referenced in the finale of The Shadow Line:
    Gatehouse: People don't do bad things just because they want to stroke a white cat.
  • Star Trek: The Original Series used this a few times.
    • "Catspaw": Korob has a pet black cat. Since he's dressed (and acts) like a wizard, Spock assumes that the cat is his familiar. Later on, the cat changes into the form of a beautiful woman, and it turns out that she's really the episode's Big Bad.
    • "Assignment Earth": Gary Seven has a black cat named Isis that appears to be intelligent. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Isis is actually a beautiful humanoid female who can take cat form (or vice-versa).
  • Titans (2018): Lampshaded in Season 3 when Jason Todd becomes a Big Bad Wannabe. When he wires Hank to a bomb and demands a ransom in gold bars hijacked from a Gotham bank, instead of the money being wired to a Swiss Bank Account, Hank sarcastically wonders if he's stroking a white cat as well.
  • Another non-villainous example: Cee Lo Green strokes a white cat in this fashion during Season 2 of The Voice.
  • Non-villainous example: King Ezekiel from season 7 of The Walking Dead (2010) has a right-hand tiger named Shiva. He used to be the zookeeper who cleaned out the tiger cage, and he saved Shiva's life during the zombie apocalypse.
  • The Will & Grace episode "Bully Wooley" has Karen Walker confronting Scott Wooley/Jeff Goldblum (right after he drank cat pee thinking it was champagne) in the climax while stroking a white Persian.
  • Malcolm in the Middle mentions this trope in an episode where Hal befriends a group of very strong, but not too bright bodybuilders who admire him for his smarts and would gladly do anything he asks. He starts to wonder what to do with all this "power" and asks Lois to stop him if he ever starts laughing while looking at a world globe and stroking a cat.

    Music Videos 

    Pinballs 
  • For Austin Powers, Dr. Evil is shown holding Mr. Bigglesworth on the playfield. Also, a small, easy-to-miss plastic model of Mr. Bigglesworth is screwed to the inside of the cabinet, near the upper-right corner.

    Puppet Shows 
  • In the extended version of The Muppets' Villain Song "Let's Talk About Me", Corrupt Corporate Executive Tex Richman gets a little sidetracked from boasting about how great it is to be him when he mentions gold-plating his gold, which leads him to:
    I even got a guy to gold-plate my cat
    I don't regret much, but I do regret that
    If I could start all over, I'd do it all the same
    Except I wouldn't gold-plate little Twinkles again!
  • Spitting Image. A spoof of the Spycatcher scandal "The Spy Who Lived In Australia" has Margaret Thatcher stroking the requisite Persian cat, plus she had a giant fish tank with Norman Tebbit swimming around in it as Jaws!

    Radio 

    Tabletop Games 
  • The cover to the Paranoia splatbook "High Programmers" has a High Programmer petting a cat with one eye.
  • Warhammer's Vampire Queen Neferata has a ghostly cat familiar called Bastet, and her vampiric descendents - the Lahmian Sisterhood - also tend to go in for cats in a big way.
  • Intentionally invoked on this forum as a suggestion for a good use for a template that creates an undead made from a taxidermied skin that can pass for a living creature to all but the most keen-eyed of observers... until they look into its eyes and see the inside of its scalp, or it deflates and slithers away.

    Theatre 

    Video Games 
  • Parn is a black cat owned by the Crooked Man in Cursery: The Crooked Man. Parn can actually take on a human form thanks to the curse on him and his master and serves to create obstacles for the player. It's revealed that he was a stray cat adopted by the Crooked Man's fiancee before her death.
  • In Final Fantasy XIV, Quickthinx Allthoughts, the leader of the Goblin Illuminati responsible for summoning Alexander, is almost always accompanied by his black courel kitten, Shanoa. Even when he's battling the Warriors of Light, he allows Shanoa to roam around the battlefield for morale support. In fact, one of the most important mechanics of the battle is preventing said morale boost from reaching Quickthinx (via destroying the floating heart which personifies it).
  • In LEGO DC Super-Villains, Lex Luthor is at one point seen stroking a cat in his lap.
  • In Puyo Puyo, Accord carries a black cat puppet called Popoi.
  • World of Warcraft:
    • Kel'thuzad, The Dragon of the Lich King, has a cat named Mr. Bigglesworth after Dr. Evil's cat in his dungeon. If it is killed, Kel'thuzad gets quite upset with the players and threatens to send the Scourge to hunt them down. Notably, it's one of the few times you can hear Kel'Thuzad being genuinely angry.
      Kel'thuzad: NO! A curse upon you, interlopers! The armies of the Lich King will hunt you down! You will NOT escape your fate!
    • If you collect the specified vanity pets you can get Mr. Bigglesworth as a pet for yourself! For pet battles he is classified as an undead creature, but with a mix of undead, elemental and beastly attacks.

    Visual Novels 
  • The Big Bad of the Japan-only sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations has an unusual one. First a pig appears, then a squirrel jumps on the pig, and finally a cat jumps on the squirrel. The villain then leans on the cat in a Slouch of Villainy, also doubling as a nod to The Bremen Town Musicians, a story well-known in Japan. (This is because the villain is an animal tamer.)

    Webcomics 
  • In The Brick Testament, the evil pharaoh of Egypt in Exodus is portrayed with a pet cat (see page 2).
  • But I'm a Cat Person's Ann Walker has a tiger. Well, a shapeshifting Being that she usually keeps in tiger form. (In contrast, the house cat Being is owned by a protagonist, and, back when she was owned by a crazy cult leader, was almost always kept in human form.)
  • Dr. Nonami. Dr. Mechano has Destroyer, an adorable little kitty who he insists is a vicious killing machine.
  • In Homestuck, Her Imperious Condescension appears to have control over a cat. Which happens to be the First Guardian, and therefore has the powers of Becquerel. It is unknown if G Cat is planning anything, if he is being manipulated, or if he is a willing servant of the Condesce.
  • Fidelia Lapointe of Never Satisfied has Duchess, her ocelot familiar. Even though familiars are independent people from their magicians, Lapointe treats Duchess like a cross between a pet and a stuffed animal, setting a teacup on her head or clenching her fist in anger while petting her.
  • In Overlord of Ravenfell, Razin maintains cuddling kitties is perfectly acceptable for an Overlord. Since cats are evil, so are the cuddles.
  • According to Sev Trek this is the reason Blofeld's mooks aren't allowed to see his face.
    "It's not a pleasant sight. I'm allergic to cats."

    Web Original 

    Websites 

    Western Animation 
  • Catwoman didn't start with one, but Batman: The Animated Series provided her with Isis, proving this trope fits on her pretty well.
  • Bob's Burgers: Discussed in "Burger Wars", where Louise describes their landlord Mr Fischoder as "One white cat away from being a super-villain."
  • Mildly parodied in Danny Phantom, to the point of Running Gag status. In several episodes of the first two seasons, Danny encourages his arch enemy, Vlad, to get a cat, to which he usually gives an emphatic "No!", but lo and behold, the second episode of the third season had him sitting in his study, petting — what else — a white cat, named after Danny's mother, Maddie.
  • The title character in Dan Vs. adopted a cat named Mr. Mumbles and sometimes brings her along with him to participate in his attempts to get revenge on whoever he feels has wronged him.
  • Roger, the bully from Doug, has a Right-Hand Cat called Stinky, whereas Doug has a reliable, intelligent dog called Porkchop. One episode gives him A Day in the Limelight when Roger makes Doug look after him while Roger's away. He trashes the house, and eats pizza and ice cream, and is generally nasty. Then, he gets sick and Doug freaks out, thinking that this is because he let the cat get its own way, and worries about what Roger will do... turns out, he was neither sick nor a "he". She was pregnant.
  • DuckTales: In the James Bond parody episode "Double-O-Duck", Dr. Nogood has a Right-Hand Persian cat.
  • Freakazoid!:
    • One-shot villain Dr. Mystico had a white, menacing cat.
    • Freakazoid himself had Mr. Chubbikins used this way in during the spoof of The Godfather in the beginning of "The Freakazoid".
  • The sky pirate villain of the Goldie Gold and Action Jack episode "Pirate of the Airways" had a white cat that he kept in the Parrot Pet Position.
  • In Gravedale High, the ill-tempered Headmistress Crone owned a green cat named Clawford.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): Parodied in the third season finale, where suave, wealthy mastermind Lex Luthor hijacks some screens to give Ivy a villainous spiel while petting and cuddling... a hairless, goofy-looking chihuahua.
  • Skeletor with Panthor, from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983). Though this was somewhat reversed in that it was the cat who carried Skeletor, rather than the other way around. Also downplayed in that the hero also has a cat companion.
  • Inspector Gadget: Dr. Claw has Mad Cat, his constantly laughing cat that endures all the abuse that happens when his master suddenly pounds the table, rubs his fur a little too hard, or simply smack because he's in the way or did something Claw doesn't like.
    Claw: Why are you laughing? I'm the one who did all the work!
  • Kidd Video has the Big Bad Master Blaster, a mix of a Music industry Corrupt Corporate Executive and a James Bond Villain. His cats, the Copycats, are both his pets and his minions.
  • The M.A.S.K. episode "In Dutch" has Miles Mayhem conspire with a nameless villain who carries around a white cat.
  • Panthea, the Big Bad of the first season of Mia and Me, has a pet cat named Ziggo that she is very fond of. During the second season, Ziggo can be seen wandering Panthea's castle and the area surrounding it when Mia and her friends have to revisit those places.
  • Daedalus from The Mighty Hercules has his pet cat Dido. Despite how over-the-top villainous he is, he is surprisingly kind to it.
  • Ahuizotl in Daring Do, from the episodes "Read It and Weep" and "Daring Don't" of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, has a white kitten. It's worth pointing out that this cat is every bit as aggressive and dangerous as the panthers and tigers it appears alongside with, though.
  • Xayide the Big Bad in The Neverending Story animated series has a pet lizard-cat.
  • Baudelaire, Max Madison's cat in Phantom 2040.
  • Katrina Stoneheart,the main villain of Pound Puppies (1980s), has a Siamese cat pet named Catgut, who in the original 1985 television special belonged to the pound's owner Mr. Bigelow.
  • Even Angelica, the Devil in Plain Sight on Rugrats, has a pet cat named Fluffy.
  • Geraldine has one in the Totally Spies! episode "Return of Geraldine".
  • Ravage from Transformers is usually this to the Decepticons.
  • Sky Marshal Wade's tame pet lion in Voltron Force. After he's arrested, it's taken away to be rehabilitated by the Lion Riders.

Subversions and Playing with the trope

    Anime & Manga 
  • Tailmon (Gatomon in the dub) of Digimon Adventure started off as Vamdemon's (a.k.a. Myotismon) Right-Hand Cat (though, being a Digimon, she could talk and fight), but it later turned out that she was the missing partner of the eighth Chosen Child.
  • What the fat cat in FLCL actually was is unclear, but Haruko spends a remarkable amount of time and attention on it. Apparently, she was using it to communicate with her boss. For those unfamiliar with FLCL, don't even try to work out how said communication is supposed to in any way work.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers:
    • Russia has a cat — the only animal that doesn't flee from him — but oddly enough, he is never depicted stroking it (though he does pet him with apparently genuine affection), and whether he's actually evil is up for debate.
    • Not to mention, he's not the only cat-owning nation-tan. Japan is seen feeding his own cat Tama/Japaneko, and it's implied that most if not all the other Nekotalia cats belong to their corresponding nations.
  • In Medabots, the Right-Hand Cat contains the soul of the Big Bad; the human body is just a robotic shell.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: According to early production notes, Kaworu Nagisa was originally supposed to have a cat. It only serves to make the manga's infamous scene of him snapping a kitten's neck to spare it from starvation (because Shinji wouldn't adopt it, that jerk) even Harsher in Hindsight.
  • The anime Now and Then, Here and There has the resident psychotic leader pet a cat in the first episode he appears in. And then break its neck when getting his first but not last on-screen psychotic episode.
  • Played with in The Prince of Tennis, where the main character is an antisocial and skittish kid who is very attached to his pet cat, Karupin. He may not pet him Ć  la Blofeld, but likes to have the feline sleeping in his bed.
  • Double Subversion in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: the fact that Daitokouji-sensei had a pet cat could have been a clue he was The Mole, until he was further revealed to be a Double Agent. And after his Redemption Equals Death, the cat takes over his job.

    Comic Books 
  • Bomb Queen's eponymous supervillainess/Evil Overlord has a black cat named Ashe who, in the most recent volume, has been revealed as an ancient demon who's been using Bomb Queen and her city.
  • Green Lantern: Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lantern Corps has an interesting use of the trope in his fellow Red Lantern Dex-Starr, who is a cat from Earth who earned a Red Lantern Ring thanks to his backstory, so he's pretty inteligent for a normal housecat, and as such, is not a pet, but an equal member of the corps. Despite this, Atrocitus seems pretty fond of him and is not uncommon to find him petting the cat and calling him a good kitty. Also adding to the subversion, is that the Red Lanterns aren't really bad guys as much as really, REALLY violent anti-heroes.
  • Transmetropolitan:
    • Gary "The Smiler" Callahan at one point notes that he wants a cat so he can keep and stroke it like a bond villain. This happens at the opening of a Motive Rant where he's revealed to be a misanthropic monster who wants to fuck over America for his own entertainment, making its connection to this trope even stronger.
    • Spider, meanwhile, has a cat... A three-eyed, two-mouthed, chain-smoking mutant cat who loves urinating at Spider when he's having a bad day. Spider does, at one point, treat her as a right-hand cat during "Spider's Trash", but otherwise she serves more as a walking Pet the Dog moment for the otherwise Jerkass Spider.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • Bolt: Dr. Calico, the villain of the Show Within a Show, has two cats. The feline actors who play them love to torment Bolt (who thinks the show is real) by going to his trailer and making threats in character. After Bolt is lost, he mistakes stray alley cat Mittens for one of the Right-Hand Cats and tries to get her to take him back.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In The Cannonball Run 2, Mob boss Don Canneloni is seen stroking a cat. Then he looks down... and says (quietly and with no special tone), "This cat is dead. Bring me another cat." The mooks do.
  • Inverted in Cats & Dogs where the villains of the film are cats who just happen to be led by a white Persian. The leader Persian Cat invokes this trope to interact with humans, using a comatose man in a wheelchair. The human's mouth has a bandana or something around it, so the cat makes others think the human is talking, so as not to freak everybody out with a talking cat.
  • In Disenchanted Giselle's wish for a "fairy tale life" has the side effect of turning her from a Princess Classic and Good Stepmother into a Wicked Stepmother so it also turns her cute animal sidekick, Pip the chipmunk, into an evil cat much like Lucifer from Cinderella.
  • In Licence to Kill, James Bond is stopped by armed men and led to a man who is stroking a cat. Turns out M was getting bored waiting for him and a cat happened to wander in. They were at Hemingway House in Key West, Florida, which is famous for its population of polydactyl cats.
  • Inverted in The Spirit. The Octopus sacrifices a white Persian cat just to demonstrate to his Arch-Enemy, the Spirit, the drawbacks of his potion. As the Spirit points out, that's reason enough to kill him.
  • In the comedy They Call Me Bruce?, the Boss of Bosses rings up the West Coast mafia to express his disapproval about the FBI busting their drug operations. While he's talking the Boss is stroking a white Persian cat, and suddenly plunges his hand into a fish tank and takes out a goldfish...which he then eats himself.

    Literature 
  • In the book 1633 (in which an American town is transported to 17th-c. Europe), the people of Grantville send Cardinal Richelieu a Siamese cat as a "diplomatic offering". He takes it and strokes it in exactly the way described here. (Persians evidently were introduced in Europe in 1620 according to T.O.W., so one of them wouldn't have been quite as impressive a gift, though a modern Persian's appearance is evidently very different-looking to those times'.)
  • Discworld:
    • Parodied in the series, when Lord Vetinari, a Magnificent Bastard dictator who began as a sort of Blofeld spoof, had an old terrier called Wuffles, even though other characters and the narrator had him pegged as the "white-cat-stroking type".
    • In the Time Travel Prequel Night Watch, the young Vetinari's aunt has a Right-Hand Cat, but it's a borderline-feral and rather flatulent moggy, which Vetinari feels isn't really appropriate. He even thinks it should be a long-haired white cat.
    • Evil Harry Dread, a wannabe-dark lord from The Last Hero, had intended to play this trope straight, but found out he's allergic to cats. The closest he could come was a fluffy white hamster in a diamante treadmill.
  • Gregor Brastov in Kim Newman's alternate-history vampire novel Dracula Cha-Cha-Cha (a.k.a. Judgment of Tears) is a Blofeldish cat-stroking archvillain who turns out to be just a puppet manipulated by the real archvillain — his cat. Hamish Bond should have remembered that some vampires have Voluntary Shapeshifting.
  • Inverted in The Dresden Files. The protagonist Harry Dresden lives with a gigantic grey cat named "Mister," whom he (Harry) rescued from a dumpster as a kitten.
  • A rare heroic example: Honor Harrington and her treecat Nimitz. Though he's usually perched on her shoulders, which are covered with reinforced pads.
  • Completely averted in Tamora Pierce's fantasy novel Wolf-Speaker (book 2 of The Immortals). The villain HATES cats.
  • Billingford in The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross has a classic Right-Hand Cat as part of his Bond-based destiny trap, which eventually turns out to be posessed by the Eldritch Abomination he's working for.
  • Subverted in The King in Yellow. Evil psychopath Mr. Wilde has a cat. At the end, it tears out his throat, thus foiling Hildred Castaigne's evil scheme. To express his annoyance, Hildred kills the cat. So the Right-Hand Cat made the Heroic Sacrifice to save the day.
  • In The Malloreon saga by David Eddings, Kal Zakath has a cat that serves more as an opportunity for quiet humor than a villainous icon; the (seemingly) ruthless and cold-hearted emperor of all Mallorea frequently attempts to pawn off newborn kittens to heads of state, the main characters, and whoever else seems likely to claim a cat. Of course, the frequent Pet the "Dog" moments only foreshadowed Kal Zakath's eventual Heelā€“Face Turn from not-quite-villain antagonist to ally of Belgarion. Even if he did make one of his primary reasons for turning face. "You know, Garion, I've just realized that you're functionally omnipotent. So how's about I just give up and make peace before you eventually kill me?"
  • In Moon Over Soho, Peter imagines the faceless man with a Right-Hand Cat Girl sitting on his lap and chatting on the phone.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Subverted in La Femme Nikita when a villain is shown holding a white Right-Hand Cat, before demonstrating nerve gas on him for buyers.
  • Subverted in Game of Thrones as Tommen Baratheon — who loves cats and has a cat as pet named Sir Pounce — becomes King. Whether he would be as cruel as most other kings in the setting, we won't know as he kills himself in season six. Also averted with his older brother, predecessor and probably one of the cruelest characters on the series: Joffrey, as he actually hated cats and found pleasure torturing them.
  • Parodied in Happy Endings, when Jane (once again cast in a loveable villain mode) is shown sitting ominously in a chair while petting the neighbours' white cat. She goes from standing in front of Brad and Dave, no cat in sight, to sitting behind them in a chair, stroking the pet-all without them noticing. Brad questions where she got the cat, and she says she told him earlier they were watching a friend's cat-tied into the episode's theme of Gaslighting.
  • House, in one episode of season 4, deals with Death Cat. To confuse his team, he puts it on his lap, plays with a cigar, and says, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die." More than one Bond fan has noted that this was said by Goldfinger, not Blofeld, though he gets Blofeld's mannerisms pretty well.
  • In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring Secret Agent Super Dragon, Dr. Forrester notes the chief reason the Big Bad of the Bond-like film was forgettable was that he had no cat or pet of any kind.
  • Police Squad!:
    • The TV comedy has fun with this one in a few episodes, including one scene where a man is stroking a white cat until someone enters his office, at which point he casually puts the cat away in a desk drawer. He has a puppy in another desk drawer, not to mention a flock of doves in his filing cabinet.
    • The Boss is first shown via a Blofeld-style lap-cam pointing at his cat, until he gets tired of this and leans down to speak directly into the camera.
  • Scrubs:
    • After having sworn revenge against Dr. Cox and then overheard something that would aid him in said revenge, the Janitor turns around in a swivel chair, stroking the nonexistent Leonard.
      Janitor: So, you don't want to know the ending of something. I can relate to that.
      Dr. Cox: What is that in your lap?
      Janitor: Leonard. Half-kitten, half-monkey.
    • Dr. Cox also makes use of this trope when confronting a pediatric physician in his office full of toys (sorry, collectibles), by stroking a plush white Persian cat.
  • In the SCTV parody of The Godfather, Guy Cabellero attempts to do this ala Marlon Brando. The cat, however, is less than cooperative.
  • The Dirty Harry parody Sledge Hammer! has one episode where a crime boss is always seen with a cat and ends up throwing the cat out of the window when he is upset. It is not surprising when Sledge kicks him out the window at the end of the episode (and even more ironically, the cat lands safely on the crime boss' chair).
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • In the episode "Catspaw", the villain Korob has a black cat, who turns to be another shapeshifter, Sylvia, who later turns into a giant black cat.
    • Gary Seven with Isis in the episode "Assignment Earth" is initially thought to be a villain, but this is Subverted at the episode's end when Gary Seven is revealed to be trying to save the human race from a nuclear war, and Isis is revealed to be a shapeshifter.
  • The "Spy Car" episode of Ultimate Car Buildoff gives us co-host Lou Santiago playing the part of a foreign spymaster with, get this, a bobcat.

    Theatre 
  • In a version of The Pink Wasp and Yellow Jacket, the villain has a cat that he would periodically forget he was holding and accidentally throw into the air. At one point, Yellow Jacket, played as a Asian stereotype, picks up the cat and tries to eat it.
  • Creepily subverted in the play Woyzeck (as well as the opera and rock opera based thereon). Although the Doctor has a pet cat, he throws it out the window just to see whether it lands on its feet.

    Video Games 
  • Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts has Piddles, a cat given to Gruntilda by the Lord of Games... who she boots 12 feet in the air after meeting. Needless to say, Piddles hates her mistress with a passion and gleefully takes the opportunity to be a Bad Boss to her in the epilogue.
  • In Dangeresque 3, the Cheat is used as one of these.
  • Video game inversion: General Viggo from Fur Fighters is an anthro cat who pets a mini-human.
  • In Ghost Trick, Sissel was this to Yomiel for ten long years, as well as being his only friend since the Temsik incident. Although Yomiel isn't really evil, just driven crazy from solitude.
  • Similar to his comic appearance, Atrocitus in Injustice 2 is assisted in battle by his fellow Red Lantern Dex-Starr, with his special mechanic used to temporaly summon and command various attacks. But, like the above mention, Dex-Starr is not a pet, but another member of the Red Lantern corps, and as such, smarter than the average cat from Earth.
  • An inverted example, since those involved are good guys: Telma the barmaid, in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, has one of these in Louise. Unbeknownst to her human, Louise considers herself an active part of the Resistance movement that Telma herself helps to run, and even assists Link when he's in wolf form.
  • Parodied in LEGO City Undercover, where Ellie finds it hard to believe that Villain with Good Publicity Forrest Blackwell is evil until she realizes that his last TV appearance had him stroking a cat the entire time.
  • In Luigi's Mansion 3, Polterkitty initially fills the typical role of "the villain's pet cat" for Hellen Gravely, but she eventually decides to go out and actively cause trouble for Luigi herself by stealing elevator buttons from him several times. She'll also turn into a panther-like monster when cornered.
  • With her talents at summoning chimerae and piloting a Humongous Mecha, Perrault of Lunar Knights is not only the Right-Hand Cat of The Dragon, but also his Battle Butler.
  • Averted in Street Fighter. Cammy is shown to have a great love of cats, but she's an ex-Tyke Bomb Action Girl who is firmly in the side of good after her Brainwashed and Crazy stint is over.
  • The Talos Principle: Only seen on the cover art, unless you find the right easter egg.
  • Twisted Wonderland
    • Mozus Trein is not a bad person, just a Stern Teacher, but he's based on Lady Tremaine from Disney's Cinderella, so he's often accompanied by his perpetually frowning cat Lucius, even in class.
    • Fellow Honest, eventually revealed as the Arc Villain of the Playful Land event, is accompanied by the Cat Boy Gidel who's complicit in his wrongdoing.

    Visual Novels 
  • Nikolai Stirling in Queen of Thieves, the criminal mastermind known as the "Thief Lord," has a pet Russian Blue cat named Elizabeth. Early in his first season, the heroine accurately deduces that he likes Elizabeth because she's capable of surprising him, and because she's elegant and aloof like he is.
  • Played with in Umineko: When They Cry: Bernkastel (a Cat Girl to boot) has a seemingly infinite number of cat minions that she can use. But it's later revealed that she is herself the pet cat of Featherine. A very snarky cat.

    Webcomics 
  • Parodied in El Goonish Shive when Ellen holds Brownie and laughs maniacally while stroking her. The title of the strip notes that cats make good props referring to their use in this trope.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Lord Shojo pretends to consult his cat, "Mr. Scruffy", as part of his pretense of senility. An inversion in any case, since Shojo is a good guy. Of course, Mr. Scruffy now appears to have become a genuine Right-Hand Cat to the Heroic Comedic Sociopath Belkar.
  • In Scandinavia and the World, any of the characters (notably, Russia) can appear stroking a white cat while in "evil mastermind" mode.
  • Sunstone: While cat-sitting the troublesome Mr. Bonkers, Ally tries to get some use out of her and invoke this image to enhance her powerful and seductive presence for her date. Of course Mr. Bonkers reacts to this by almost instantly bounding off in search of something interesting, ruining the effect.

    Websites 
  • In the SCP Foundation story "The High Court with the Magic Army", a new member of the O5 Council remarks to a colleague, "It's like you want to live up to your reputation of Omniscient Council of Possible Supervillains. I'm surprised we don't get cats to pet and mustaches to twirl." The other O5 replies that she used to have a pet cat, but she gave it up when she joined the Council, presumably either because she would be too busy to care for it or because having a pet was seen as a security risk.

    Web Videos 
  • Goldentusk's video for the James Bond Theme Song parodies plenty James Bond tropes, including the Right-Hand Cat.
  • In the Joueur du Grenier videos, the CEO of Mauvais Jeux Inc. (a Card-Carrying Villain) is often seen stroking a (plush) white cat.
  • Referenced in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series; Ishizu tries to tell Marik that he's not really evil, because evil people do things like stroke cats while sitting in revolving chairs. Shortly thereafter, Marik tells his henchman to drive to Wal-Mart so he can purchase a revolving chair and a kitten.

    Western Animation 
  • Subverted in the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers Five-Episode Pilot, wherein Fat Cat debuts as Chlordane's Right-Hand Cat, only to become a villain in his own right for the rest of the series (while Chlordane is never heard from again). Even during the pilot, after helping Chlordane steal a ruby, Fat Cat steals the ruby from Chlordane for his own purposes, making sure to return it before its absence is noticed.
  • Twisted around in Earthworm Jim with Bob the Killer Goldfish, who has a massive cat (known only as "#4") that acts as his bodyguard. This is the only reason why anyone takes a freakin' goldfish seriously.
  • In The Fairly OddParents! episode where Timmy wished that life was an action movie, Jorgen turns villain complete with pet cat, who he accidentally abuses so much it does a Heelā€“Face Turn.
  • Played straight at first when Peter meets The Don in an episode of Family Guy. However, when Peter meets him again, it looks like he's petting a cat, but the camera cuts to behind him, and he's really grating cheese.
  • In the Futurama episode "That Darn Katz!", a grumpy professor named Katz, who rejects Amy's proposal for harnessing the Earth's rotation for energy, has a white cat in his lap. It is later revealed that Katz was really a puppet operated by the cat, who (like all cats, as it turns out) is actually an intelligent alien who wants to use Amy's device to stop Earth's rotation and transfer it to his homeworld.
  • Josie and the Pussycats has Sebastian the cat as the Team Pet. Sebastian is usually handled by Alexandra Cabot, the Token Evil Teammate. His fur is a black-and-white mix. Sebastian isn't really evil, just snickering and subversive, much like Alexandra.
  • Subverted in The Powerpuff Girls (1998). The girls once defeated an archetypal faceless villain who stole a valuable jewel to power a laser, and took his pet cat home afterwards. The cat was actually the villain all along and hypnotized The Professor into almost finishing the mass brainwashing project.
  • Parodied a couple of times on The Simpsons:
    • In "When Flanders Failed", Homer goes to see Mr. Burns in his office and finds the old man stroking a cat on his lap.
    • In "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie", Bart holds the family cat, Snowball II, in his arms while roasting a 007 action figure in the microwave: "Stick around, Mr. Bond. Things are really starting... to cook."
  • Superman: Doomsday: Having come Back from the Dead, Superman is revealed to be Not Himself when he commits a Vigilante Execution. He then rescues a Persian cat stuck up a tree, then gives a slow and frightening lecture to its owner, a very scared old lady, while caressing the kitty. During the lecture, you ask yourself if he's gonna kill the old lady, the cat, both of them or none. Finally, he just asks her to be more cautious, but when the police turn up to arrest him, cue Beware the Superman.
  • Parodied in the Total Drama Action episode "Dial M for Merger". As a parody of spy movies, Chris introduces the challenge wearing an eyepatch and petting a white cat. Afterwards, the cat attacks him.

Non-Cat Examples

    Anime & Manga 
  • Hellsing: Played with in the manga and OVA with the Major and Schrƶdinger, a Cat Folk subordinate fond of sitting on the floor next to his superior's chair with his head at convenient scratching height.
  • Release the Spyce: Kurara Tendou, the Big Bad, gets her nickname "Sparrow Woman" by keeping a pet sparrow named Chichi.

    Comic Books 
  • Lucifer: The demonic Lord Arux has an advisor, Praxspoor, also a demon, who chooses to take the form of a panther-size black cat because he finds it helpful to be underestimated.
  • The Thrawn Trilogy: The comic book version often depicts Grand Admiral Thrawn cradling and stroking a ysalamiri, a nearly vegetative lizard creature, like it's a cat, when in the books he carries one in a nutrient frame strapped to his back or connected to his command chair. Ysalamiri negate the powers of his psychotic Dark Jedi ally, and occasionally he reaches up and strokes it to remind C'baoth that he can't be choked, electrocuted, or charmed, but he doesn't carry one around in his arms or on his lap. You can't really do that with ysalamiri. Plus, they smell. Still, the depiction is universal enough that it's practically an extension of his Iconic Outfit.
  • Watchmen: Adrian Veidt has Bubastis, some kind of bright-red mutant lynx-thing. Until he disintegrated it.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • In Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, the villain Sulfurix pets a small wild boar sow (who accidentally brought a message to him) the first time he confronts the heroes.
  • In Despicable Me, Gru has a bizarre-looking mongrel dog named Kyle. Hilariously, a bio-scan in Despicable Me 2 is unable to even recognize Kyle as a dog. (SPECIES: UNKNOWN)
  • Heavy Metal film. The Big Bad of the "Taarna" segment has a Right-Hand Rat: a giant rat-like creature with a nasty snarl. He pets it while it sits next to him.
  • Early on in Megamind, the title villain uses one of his Brain-bots for this purpose.
  • In Twice Upon a Time, Synonamess Botch has a pet armadillo named Ratatooie.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • In the sequel to Cats & Dogs, Revenge of Kitty Galore, villainess Kitty Galore (who's herself a cat, of course) has a white mouse as right-hand pet, whom she calls Scrumptious. The poor thing is treated pretty much as a Chew Toy and is in a state of near panic for the whole movie.
  • Dirty Work (1998): The villain holds his tiny dog a lot. The protagonists speculate that their relationship is not entirely platonic.
  • In A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, the villain, Hugh J. Magnate, has an evil bunny rabbit who even giggles evilly. It lures Tootie into a trap.
  • The Fifth Element: Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg has a bizarre little alien creature that rests on his shoulders at his corporate office (and laughs at him when he chokes on a cherry).
  • He doesn't actually have a cat, but Mola Ram, the villain from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is briefly shown holding his helmet and stroking it like a cat.
  • In Iron Man 2, the only thing Ivan Vanko shows any affection for whatsoever other than his now deceased father is his pet cockatoo Irina. Granted this doesn't stop him from killing the bird before his final confrontation with Stark, however...
  • The Big Bad from Kiss of the Dragon has a pet turtle that he keeps in a drawer in his desk.
  • James Bond:
    • Licence to Kill Big Bad Franz Sanchez is sometimes seen with an iguana. It even has a little diamond necklace, which might be a call back to the one Blofeld's cat had in Diamonds Are Forever.
    • Parodied in No Time to Die. Big Bad Lyustifer Safin kidnaps Madeline Swann and her 5 year-old daughter Mathilde and brings them to his island. When Bond arrives at the island to rescue them and destroy the nanobots inside, he meets Safin who is sitting on his chair with Mathilde right next to him while stroking her hair Blofeld-style.
  • Rurouni Kenshin Big Bad drug lord Takeda Kanryu has a right-hand white rabbit.
  • Spoofed in Spice World, where Roger Moore strokes a series of increasingly ludicrous pets as he plays the Spice Girls' corporate boss.
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: The Klingon Villain Kruge has a pet "Monster Dog" on board his Bird of Prey, which is said to be a cross between a lizard and a timber wolf.
  • Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars has Salacious Crumb, a mischievous "Kowakian monkey-lizard" which officiates as jester in the crime lord's court.

    Literature 
  • In the Captain Future novels by Allen Steele, Ul Quorn discovered a shapeshifting alien creature called Oog that gets adopted by the Futuremen for a while. In The Guns of Pluto the Futuremen are captured by Ul Quorn who takes back Oog for himself. While he's stroking Oog on his lap, Ul Quorn complains that he used to be able to get Oog to shapeshift into a white Persian cat, but it doesn't seem to want to anymore. Captain Future then sends a telepathic command to Oog to shapeshift into a porcupine, making the Big Bad shout in pain and distract everyone at a crucial moment.
  • In Goblin Moon and The Gnome's Engine, the Duchess keeps a tiny indigo-furred ape which she pampers and pets. Was Once a Man is implied, which makes it much creepier.
  • Behemoth, from The Master and Margarita, is a demon in the entourage of Woland who appears in the shape of a man-sized, bipedal black cat.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Hannah Montana: When Miley goes to ask Jackson for help in solving her Credit Card Plot, Jackson puts on a robe and pets a stuffed cat while gloating in a British accent just to tease her. Miley is not amused.
  • How I Met Your Mother: In another Blofeld parody, when Barney set out to sabotage Ted's relationship with his new crush, Zoe, Ted came home to find Barney who turned around in his chair with a rabbit in his lap to reveal his "evil" plan.
  • In M.I. High, the evil Grand Master has a Right-Hand Bunny named General Flopsy.
  • Spoofed in the "Secret Service Dentists" sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus: "I'm glad you could all come to my little party. And Flopsy's glad, too. Aren't you Flopsy?" When the villain doesn't get a response, he shoots Flopsy and says "That'll teach you to play hard to get. Well, poor Flopsy's dead, and he never called me mother." Although Flopsy was a rabbit, not a cat, it still sorta works.
  • In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 spoofing of Stranded in Space, Joel and the bots dress up as a Big Bad and his thugs, and Joel clutches and caresses a Right Hand Turtle in a tiny goldfish bowl.
  • El Ecoloco, a garbage-themed villain in Odisea Burbujas in some episodes has a talking giant microbe as pet.
  • Red Dwarf: Parodied in the opening scene of "Stoke Me a Clipper", in which Ace Rimmer's evil Nazi opponent is first shown via a lap-level view of his hand stroking his pet crocodile, Snappy.
  • In Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, one of the recurring villains has a right-hand koala.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise: In the Mirror Universe story "In a Mirror, Darkly", Captain Archer's dog Porthos has changed from an adorable beagle to a snarling rottweiler.
  • The Big Bad of VR Troopers, Grimlord, has one in his real-world Karl Ziktor identity: a lizard named Juliet.
  • WandaVision's Big Bad Agatha Harkness has a pet rabbit named Senior Scratchy. It's strongly implied to be a witch's Familiar, though this reveal stayed in a deleted scene.

    Tabletop Games 
  • In the Red Steel setting for Dungeons & Dragons 2nd ed., there were several humanoid animal PC races. So the monster book had a tamable primate that looked like a little human (or dwarf, elf, etc., dependent on breed), to enable the evil cat person to have a Right-Hand Human.
  • In a surprisingly not-over-the-top example from Warhammer 40,000, select special characters have pets that accompany them onto the battlefield. Inquisitor Torquemada and Space Wolves' Njal Stormcalle both have android eagles. The Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart has his Hamadrya, a demonic Familiar, and some Chaos Sorcerors also take them as well. These are actually reasonably logical in the setting.

    Video Games 
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. Romanov is shown stroking a baby turtle which he calls Sam, in mockery of Uncle Sam and the US "Duck and Cover" policy.
  • K. Rool has a Right-Hand Klaptrap (a small bitey crocodile) for the cutscenes of Donkey Kong 64, in a manner very reminiscent of Dr. Claw, no less.
  • DUSK-12 has the Mad Scientist responsible for your predicament and mutation owning a pet cat. In the opening FMV it appears the cat is just a stray animal in the bio-lab, but after completing the game, reaching the final stage, the same cat appears in the hands of said scientist with him petting it while monologuing.
  • President Evil Rufus Shinra in Final Fantasy VII had (very briefly) a panther named Dark Nation. Very briefly because it only shows up in the battle where you first meet Rufus, where Cloud promptly kills it.
  • In Gunman Chronicles The General's first introduction post Faceā€“Heel Turn features him stroking a xenome larva in a fairly blatant homage to this trope. Subverted in that he throws it on the ground and squashes it with his foot, moments later, to emphasize a point.
  • Rugal Bernstein and his pet panther Rodem in The King of Fighters. His kids, Adelheid and Rose, have a little black kitten who is apparently the offspring of Rodem. Also included is Zero with Glaugan (a black lion) from 2001.
  • To an extent, Chen of Touhou Project. A cat youkai at the service of Yukari Yakumo.

    Web Animation 
  • Homestar Runner: from the Dangeresque films, Baron Darin Diamonocle (played by Bubs) is a parody of the Blofeld-style supervillain. He uses The Cheat as his cat-substitute.

    Webcomics 
  • In Niels, Niels has spent way too much time at home due to a work-related "accident", so when Agent 300 comes to check up on him, he prepares to have a little fun. Of course, Niels doesn't have any pets, so he uses Kiddo instead.
    Kiddo: Woof!
    Agent 300: He's supposed to be a dog?
    Niels: Mayyyyyybe...
    Kiddo: Oink oink!
  • Oglaf: In the strip Doctor Hexagon, a queen bee is stroking a smaller, white-furred insect while exposing her evil plan to the beekeeper.
  • In Umlaut House 2, ASCII is briefly seen with a robotic cat (he's an android) during his supervillain phase.

    Web Videos 
  • TFS at the Table: Lott Fineday of the Grand Design Pirates is a tabaxi, a species of cat-like humanoids. When he calls the heroes to meet him, he is sat in a high-backed chair stroking a puppy.

    Western Animation 
  • All Hail King Julien has the evil fanaloka Karl and his pet hissing cockroach Chauncey. It can even purr when he pets it.
  • In Beast Wars, Megatron's Right-Hand Cat is his... actual hand. In two of the three forms he uses over the series (So Last Season at work), his beast-mode head is his robot-mode arm. He actually pets it at times, and at one point, when he's "asleep", the head-hand is looking around on its own. Near the end of the series, he turns from the monitor he's watching, the head-hand turns toward it, and tracks back and forth as things happen onscreen. He also has his rubber ducky.
  • The Boondocks: Deborah Leevil (a parody of Austin Powers' Dr. Evil, which is in turn a parody of James Bond's Blofeld), the evil head of CEO of BET, holds a dog like other villains hold cats. It appears to be dead, which gives you an idea of her mental state.
  • The Big Boss of C.O.P.S. has Scratch, a vicious pet weasel, in case subtlety isn't your thing. A cybernetic weasel.
  • A mad scientist on Courage the Cowardly Dog had a right-hand rat named Rat. Rat mostly carried out errands for his manic-depressive master, but would also allow himself to be held and stroked if the morose scientist needed comforting.
  • In Danger Mouse, Baron Silas Greenback's Right-Hand Cat is a furry caterpillar named Nero.
  • In Dragons: Riders of Berk, recurrent antagonist Mildew has a pet sheep that seems to be the only living thing he loves, even more than all his dead wives. He's also often seen petting her or carrying her. The sheep also seems to agree with him in his hatred of dragons and help him willingly in all his schemes.
  • In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Mandy has her pet dog Saliva, who's about the only creature (human, supernatural, or otherwise) that she openly loves. She takes great pleasure in forcing Grim to pamper Saliva or, given that he's a walking skeleton, let the dog bury him in the backyard.
  • Parodied in an episode of Invader Zim titled "Voting of the Doomed". The shadowy figure of the Principal is seen stroking a beaver, which itself strokes a little green... thingy (it drops it and starts to cry).
  • A few Kim Possible villains have toyed with the concept of the Right-Hand Cat:
    • Gemini, the most straightforwardly "Bondish" villain on the show, has a yappy pet Chihuahua named Pepe.
    • Camille Leon, who is a parody of Paris Hilton as a shapeshifting villainess, has a Sphinx cat named Debutante, who lives in her designer handbag.
    • Ron Stoppable, when he is changed into a villain in "Bad Boy", takes to stroking a confused Rufus in a Blofeld-esque manner during a hand-wringing rant.
  • Like Daedalus (see above), The Sea Witch Wilhemine from The Mighty Hercules has a pet bird named Elvira.
  • In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Sparkle's Seven", Princess Luna at one point strikes the classic evil overlord pose while stroking a goose. The geese, part of the castle's security system, have been shown to be very ill-tempered, and the one in Luna's lap, while calmed, is giving the rest of the room the evil eye. This is all Played for Laughs, of course, as Luna is a Friendly Rival.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • Suzy Johnson (Jeremy's Devil in Plain Sight sister) has a Right-Hand Poodle whom she has trained to attack Candace.
    • Also, in "Spa Day", Dr. Doofensmirtz adopts a stray kitten he dubs "Mr. Fluffypants", but the mischievous feline proves to be more trouble than he's worth when he accidentally sets off several of Dr. Doofensmirtz's old evil inventions.
  • An episode of The Powerpuff Girls (1998) has Mojo Jojo becoming a mob boss and the girls finding him sitting in the mayor's chair, with a little boy sitting on his lap while stroking his head in this manner. Mojo is using said boy as a way to intimidate the girls, who they believe has "cooties" that would kill them.
  • ReBoot:
    • Hexadecimal, as an insane anthropomorphism of a computer virus, somewhat inexplicably, has a small round cute thing with a feline face called Scuzzy (as in a pun on "SCSI") as a pet. In one episode, Bob and Mike the TV find to their horror and sorrow that Scuzzy also doubles as Hexadecimal's Right-Hand Attack Dog: one that can grow impossibly large, move very fast, has very sharp teeth, and can clone itself as necessary.
    • Her male counterpart, Megabyte, has Nibbles, a slug-like creature that was formerly sentient but reduced to that form after losing a game. Nibbles used to be, in a sense, Megabyte's father. Nibbles is the Null of Doctor Matrix, the father of Enzo and Dot, and the designer of the Gateway Command.
  • One episode of Sabrina: The Animated Series has Sabrina accidentally turn the world into a James Bond-style movie with her crush Harvey as the lead. Salem the cat ends up as the villain and has, of all things, a pet human that he holds on his lap and strokes on the head.
  • In Sheep in the Big City, the season one finale "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream" parodies the trope of villains stroking cats by having Sheep rub the belly of a baby in his lap when he's revealed to be the real villain.
  • When he's not off spying for his master, Hordak, or engaging in some other form of mischief, Imp from She-Ra: Princess of Power fills this role. This has been taken further with his She-Ra and the Princesses of Power update, who is effectively silent so far and has spent 95% of his screen time hanging over his master. Hordak even gives the little guy an affectionate head rub in the fourth episode.
  • The Simpsons: In the episode "Duffless," Lisa makes an unwitting Bart the subject of her science fair project, in which she attempts to prove he's dumber than a hamster. After discovering, and hiding, the report, he does this routine with the hamster as he explains to her that she'll have to decipher a series of clues to find it (only to be quickly undercut when she finds it before he can finish explaining).
  • All the recurring villains other than Gargamel in The Smurfs have a pet that is not a cat; Hogatha has a vulture, Chlorhydris has a toucan and Balthazar has a raven.
  • Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) has a pet robotic bird named Cluck.

 
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Wicked Stepmother's Pets

Giselle realises her wish for a "Fairytale Life" has backfired and is turning her into a Wicked Stepmother, and Pip her chipmunk animal sidekick soon changes too..

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