Cactus Cat

Also Known As: given the joke Latin names Cactifelinus inebrius by William T. Cox in 1910 and Felis spinobiblulosus by Henry H. Tryon in 1939
Region/Culture: North America
Mythos: Urban Legends & Contemporary Folklore, Cryptids
Primary Type/Nature: Monsters and Beasts
Mythical Attributes: The Cactus Cat wears thorns in place of fur and carries a blade of bone on each foreleg, which it uses to cut open giant cacti so that the sap can ferment.
Role in Mythos: It is one of the desert animals in the American tall-tale family known as fearsome critters, a comic beast that explains strange screaming in the night and gashes at the foot of a cactus.
Relation to Humans: In the first printed account it ignores people entirely and is known only by the noise it makes when drunk. A later account has thirsty men trailing it to steal its drink, and says it sometimes beat them to death with its spiny tail.

Somewhere in the Arizona desert, long after midnight, something is yowling. It does not sound hurt. It sounds pleased with itself. Under the yowl runs a second noise, dry and steady, like two knives being drawn across each other, and in the cold night air both of them carry for miles. The men who told this story said there was no mistaking it. A cactus cat had been drinking again.

The animal belongs to the tall tales of American working men, the loggers, surveyors and forest rangers who traded accounts of impossible wildlife around the camp stove. It reached print in 1910, when the forester William T. Cox gave it a page in his small book Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, among the handful of desert and mountain beasts that the full title promises. Cox set it in the cactus country between Prescott and Tucson, and added that it had been reported far to the south as well, from the lower Yaqui valley in Mexico and from Yucatan. No older telling has turned up. As far as anyone can show, the cactus cat begins on that page.

It is built like a cat and dressed like the plants it lives among. Thorns cover it where fur should be, and on the ears they stand especially long and stiff. The tail does not taper. It forks into branches, as a cactus does, with more thorny hair scattered along them. The strangest part is the forelegs. Just above each front paw the bone pushes out into a sharp blade, and those two blades are the tools of the animal’s trade. Neither of the early books says how big it is. Later writers settled on something about the size and shape of a bobcat, which seems fair for a creature nobody has measured.

The cat works at night. It walks up to a giant cactus, sets itself, and drags a foreleg across the foot of the trunk, leaving a deep slanting cut. Sap beads in the wound and begins to run. The cat does not taste it. It pads on to the next cactus and cuts that one too, and then the next, bending its path a little each time until the line of wounded plants closes into a ring.

Then it waits. The round takes several nights, and by the time the cat is back at the first cactus the sap has sat in the desert warmth and soured into strong drink. Cox calls the result mescal. Henry H. Tryon, who retold the story in Fearsome Critters in 1939, calls it pulque, and he measures the circuit at exactly eighty chains, which in surveyor’s measure is one mile. In real life both drinks come from agave and neither from a giant cactus, a point that troubled nobody in camp. On the second lap the cat stops at every cut and drinks.

What follows is the part people heard. Full of fermented sap, the cat wanders off across the desert in high spirits, rubbing its bony forelegs together and howling as it goes. That rasp and that howl are the whole of its fame in the first account. Cox reports no attack, no victim and no hunter. His cactus cat is a noisy drunk and nothing worse.

Tryon gave it teeth, or rather a tail. In his telling, thirsty men in Mexico learned the cat’s habits, followed it on its first round, and helped themselves to the sap before the rightful owner came back for it. Now and then the cat caught one of them at it. It flogged the thief to death with its spiny tail, and the body, when found, looked like nothing more than a very bad case of prickly heat. Old hands in the district knew the marks for what they were.

No tale explains where the cactus cat came from. There is no first one, no curse and no creator. Cox presented it the way a field guide presents a real species, complete with a mock Latin name supplied by George B. Sudworth: Cactifelinus inebrius, more or less the drunken cactus cat. Tryon swapped that for Felis spinobiblulosus and added that the animal had once been common across the Southwest, through Pueblo and Navajo country and down into Old Mexico. That last detail needs care. Neither book cites a Pueblo, Navajo or Mexican tradition, and none is known. The cactus cat is a settler’s joke about the desert. It is a joke, and it was always meant as one.

Its strengths are the ones a cactus has, plus a few a cactus would envy. The thorn coat makes it a poor thing to grab. The forearm blades go through the tough hide of a giant cactus in one stroke. The branched tail works as a flail, and in Tryon’s version it is a deadly one. Beyond the weapons there is method, which is rarer in monsters. The cat plans a route, makes its cuts in order, and has the patience to walk away from every one of them until the time is right.

Its weakness is the drink. Everything it does is in service of that second lap, and the habit makes it easy to predict, since a ring of slashed cacti is a map of exactly where it will be in a few nights. Anyone willing to walk the circle can rob it. Once it has drunk, it gives away its position to the whole desert with the noise it makes. It also depends entirely on the giant cactus, and by 1939 Tryon was already describing the animal as practically extinct. He does not say what happened to it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Cactus Cat?

The Cactus Cat is a thorn-covered desert cat from American tall tales, one of the comic animals known as fearsome critters. It slashes giant cacti with bony blades on its forelegs, lets the sap ferment, and comes back to drink it. It first appeared in print in William T. Cox’s 1910 book Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods.

Where does the Cactus Cat live?

The Cactus Cat lives in the cactus country of the American Southwest, especially between Prescott and Tucson in Arizona. Cox also reported it from the lower Yaqui valley in Mexico and from Yucatan. Henry H. Tryon’s 1939 version adds Pueblo and Navajo country and Old Mexico.

What does the Cactus Cat look like?

The Cactus Cat is shaped like a cat but covered in thorny hair, with extra long stiff spines on its ears. Its tail forks into branches like a cactus, and it has a sharp blade of bone above each front paw. The early books give no size, and later writers compare it to a bobcat.

Is the Cactus Cat dangerous to people?

In the 1910 account the Cactus Cat is not dangerous and is known only for the noise it makes when drunk. In Henry H. Tryon’s 1939 account, men who followed the Cactus Cat to steal its fermented sap were sometimes beaten to death with its spiny tail. The marks were said to look like severe prickly heat.

Is the Cactus Cat a Native American legend?

No. The Cactus Cat is a tall tale told by American loggers, foresters and other outdoor workers, and no older telling than Cox’s 1910 book has been found. Tryon placed the animal in Pueblo and Navajo country, but neither book cites a Pueblo, Navajo or Mexican tradition about it.