Cat ghost story

[jaygon]

This may be a difficult one to identify as the story was told to me orally by a teacher at school. He told us many Ghost Stories, which ranged from local ghost stories to international urban legends to published material and adaptations he made himself as is the case with oral storytelling.

Most of his other stories, I have been able to track and/or identify as local legends, published stories or international urban myths. This story, however, seems nowhere to be found.

This story resembled somewhat the story of Poe's 'The Black Cat'. (a tale he also told us) The title of the story as it was told to us was 'The Ginger Cat'.

The central character encounters a homeless man whom he somewhat befriends over time but this man eventually pesters the central character (I don't remember the exact details, it may have been to do with the homeless man discovering the stealing of money or some sort of foul play on the part of the central character) until he murders the homeless man ; the homeless man then returns in the guise of the ginger cat and...in the end... is the undoing of the narrator, similar to poe's tale.

The central character initially does not suspect any links between the ginger-haired homeless man he murdered and the appearance of the ginger cat.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[jaygon]

I have just come across a story called The Yellow Cat by Michael Joseph. This has a strong resemblance to the story I remember but does not have the homeless man aspect.

Has anybody come across this story?

[Dr Strange]

Apr 29, 2014 10:36:25 GMT jaygon said:

I have just come across a story called The Yellow Cat by Michael Joseph. This has a strong resemblance to the story I remember but does not have the homeless man aspect.

Has anybody come across this story?

It's in the Third Pan Book of Horror Stories, so you can bet that there are people here who know it very well.

[jaygon]

I wonder if the story I was told at school was a variation of this story? It is possible, although the missing element of the murdered homeless man would be quite a large plot hole.

Having just read The Yellow Cat story, some of its elements are very very familiar : It has the familar element of the main narrator who had essentially been a pauper and a gambler but who makes his fortune through the luck of the cat. Both the drowning of the cat in the canal and the narrator's demise at the end of the tale by drowning in the same canal(at the hands of the cat) are identically.

I wonder if there were other stories with similar motifs. This story is not itself unlike Poe's Black Cat tale.

[jaygon]

I notice from a quick Google search that Michael Joseph wrote many many stories (and anthologies) about Cats

[glampunk]

There are certainly enough of them about. I didn't know Michael Joseph had any more of them up his sleeve, but, As the title suggests, Michel Parry culled his first anthology Beware Of the Cat from feline horror stories with plenty of material to spare. I'm not sure if any of the special guests were ginger. Andd then, of course, there's the novelization of The Uncanny.

[jaygon]

The cat of course may not have been ginger in the original tale. (He Was Yellow in Michael Joseph's tale)The Ginger element may have been changed orally. Yes, there seems to be a lot of Cat tales about....I'm hoping somebody here might recognise the story. I wonder would there be any merit in trying to contact an expert in this field, perhaps somebody who has compiled an encyclopedia into such paranormal stories? Any suggestions?

[jaygon]

I thought about perhaps contacting Mike Ashley of The Supernatural Index but I can't seem to find a contact for him online, a fan site , blog etc.

Does anybody know where I might contact him?

[dem bones]

May 1, 2014 8:55:34 GMT jaygon said:

I thought about perhaps contacting Mike Ashley of The Supernatural Index but I can't seem to find a contact for him online, a fan site , blog etc.

Does anybody know where I might contact him?

I'm not sure that Mr. Ashley is much of an internet presence, but you might like to drop him a line via his publisher, Robinson, for whom he's compiled several anthologies?

While i'm here, and in case you weren't aware of it, another collection you might be interested in;

Claire Necker - Supernatural cats;: An anthology (Doubleday, 1972; Warner, 1974)

Margo Herr

Cordwainer Smith - The Game Of Rat And Dragon
James White - The Conspirators
Fritz Leiber - Space-time For Springers
Cleve Cartmill -The Green Cat
Ruthven Todd - Space Cat
Traditional - The Cat Who Became A Queen
Jean de la Fontaine - The Cat Changed Into A Woman
Comtesse d'Aulnoy - The White Cat
Ann Chadwick - Smith
S. Fowler Wright - The Better Choice
Claire Necker - Release From Life
Traditional - Puss in Books
Traditional - The Troll Cat
Traditional - The King Of The Cats
Stephen Vincent Benét - The King Of The Cats
Saki - Tobermory
John Pudney - Kitty, Kitty, Kitty
Henry Slesar - My father, The Cat
Arthur Stanley Riggs - The Cat That Was Fey
Algernon Blackwood - The Attic
Gerald Heard - The Cat, "I Am"
Walter de la Mare - Broomsticks
Elizabeth Coatsworth - The Bad Kittens
Traditional - The Haunted Mill
Dorothy L. Sayers - The Cyprian Cat
Traditional - A Demon Cat Of Old Japan
Traditional - The Demon Cat Of Connemara
August Derleth - Balu
Lewis Padgett - Compliments Of The Author
J.D. Corrothers - De black Cat Crossed His Luck
Elinor Mordaunt - The Yellow Cat
Anonymous - "True" tales of avenging cats: China and Ireland
Edgar Allan Poe - The Black Cat
H.P. Lovecraft - The Cats Of Ulthar
Bram Stoker - The Squaw
M.R. James - The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral
Anonymous - Two Grateful Cats: Japan and Ireland
Traditional - The Man Who Married His Nightmare
L. Ron Hubbard - He Didn't Like Cats
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - The White Cat Of Drumgunniol
Anonymous - A Real Cat-Ghost Story
Trafitional - Two Tales of Haunted Houses
Denys Val Baker - Cat Without A Name
Spencer Holst - The Language Of Cats
Lael J. Littke - A Feline Felony

Also, the deadly kitten in the title story of the Richard Davis' collection, The Female of the Species is ginger, though i'm not sure it is the one you are looking for .....

[jaygon]

Thank you for the info.....so many Cat stories.....this will be harder than I thought!!!!!