SOURCE: "The White Cat of Drumgunniol"(All the Year Round, April 1870) by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

DESCRIPTION: "The white cat was sitting in its old place, on the dead man's breast, but this time it crept quietly down the side of the bed, and disappeared under it..." ("The White Cat of Drumgunniol" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu)

NOTES: The White Cat of Drumgunniol is a death portent. Anyone in a certain family who sees it knows they will die soon. The cat is large and has large, shining eyes. The cat itself is not hostile and will even rub up against the leg of its next victim. In one case the white cat returned to sit on the head of a particularly evil man after he died. When chased it would disappear under the bed, but would return once the body was left alone. Only burying the body stopped it from returning. The White Cat has also been seen keeping company with the ghost of Ellen Coleman, a woman killed by a broken heart. The White Cat is similar as the death portent The Black Dog which J. K. Rowling called The Grim.

HISTORY: The fact that the cat is white and supernatural suggests to me that this traditional Irish portent is descended from earlier beliefs about the Sidhe (or faeries) who were said to have faery animals such as cats, dogs, horses, all white in color. In a Christian era these tales become ghost stories. Stephen King would many years later write "Cat from hell" about a hit man who is hired to kill a demon cat. It was filmed in Tales From the Darkside (1989). King's cat takes its tradition from tales like le Fanu's.

Cat burrows through his victim in Tales From the Darkside