Nekomata

Legend has it that cats begin to develop unnatural powers as they grow older: eventually, they turn into yōkai. Their tail splits in two, becoming forked, and the cat becomes a nekomata. These monstrous cats are stronger and more intelligent than normal cats. They begin to dance about comically on their hind legs and wrap cloth around their heads as if imitating humans. If they were ever mistreated by their owners, they will remember it and take revenge once they become powerful enough. Nekomata are attracted to death. Their keen noses can smell decomposing flesh from far away. It became important at some point to keep cats away from funerals so they couldn't steal the bodies of the dead to eat or worse, reanimate them. Nekomata can control corpses like marionettes, using their paws and tails to make them walk about. They can also summon spirits of the deceased and may haunt their owners with apparitions of their lost relatives.
Nekomata can take on a human appearance. They like to transform into people and cause mischief. Some of them devour their owners and then transform into them. taking their place as head of the household. Nekomata can even ignite the tips of their two tails for use as torches. They use them to cause fires and burn down homes, or even entire villages. According to superstition, if a cat's tail didn't fork, it wouldn't transform into a yōkai, so, to prevent any risk of long-lived cats becoming nekomata, the custom of cropping kittens' tails short was developed.
On Kaijinzan, the Mountain of Ashes, at some point the witcher/ ronin Geralt visited a cat shrine to ask for help. Later he was aided by a nekomata when he fought Eredin Bréacc Glas in the snow. It wore a juzu, a string of prayer beads used by priests and monks to keep track of how many times they have recited a prayer. If this were an evil cat, it would not be wearing a juzu and so must have come from the shrine. Its fur was also of note: the coloring resembled a maneki neko, a different type of cat spirit which is especially lucky. Maneki neko represent good fortune, long life, and protection from evil. It's probable this cat was a maneki neko before its tail split in two.
==Trivia==
*Nekomata (original form: 猫また, later forms: 猫又, 猫股, 猫胯) are a kind of cat yōkai described in Japanese folklore, classical kaidan, essays, etc. There are two very different types: those that live in the mountains and domestic cats that have grown old and transformed into yōkai.
==References==
Category:Creatures