Cat

Cats are object pets that can follow the player. In order to obtain a pet cat, a player must complete Gertrude's Cat to get a kitten from Gertrude. Their first kitten is free. Each kitten after that costs 100 coins, although players cannot own more than one kitten at a time. If players have an activated ring of charos, obtained during the Garden of Tranquillity quest, then they are able to charm Gertrude into allowing them to choose what colour kitten they receive while purchasing a kitten. Otherwise, players get a kitten of a random colour.

If a kitten or cat catches 100 rats, Gertrude awards the player with a cat training medal, which is a medium task in the Varrock Tasks set. In addition, cats in all stages of growth can be used in the Rat Pits minigame.

A clockwork cat is a separate item, which can be made on a Crafting table 4 in the workshop of a player-owned house or can be bought from other players.

Growth and care
Cats have several growth stages. Players can use the summoning interface to find information about their pet cat while it is following them, such as its hunger and its growth.


 * Kitten
 * A pet kitten needs food. If its hunger reaches 100%, it runs away in search of food. Any raw fish, cooked fish, or a bucket of milk can be used to feed a kitten. Additionally, players can feed their kitten at a pet feeder in a player-owned house. When a kitten gets hungry, players receive a series of messages in their chat box alerting them.
 * Unlike other pets, kittens also need attention. Players must periodically "interact" with a kitten, otherwise it gets lonely and runs away. Stroking a cat requires no items. However, if players wish to play with their kitten, they must use a ball of wool on it, which does not consume the ball of wool, or equip a toy mouse and select the "Play" option. A kitten can also catch rats via the Chase-vermin option, but has a success rate of 15%. When a kitten is about to run away due to loneliness, players receive a message in their chat box alerting them.
 * Players may own only one kitten at a time. Kittens cannot be stored in a menagerie of a player-owned house.
 * Players can also dismiss their kitten from the Interact-with menu using the Shoo-away option.


 * Cat
 * After two and a half hours of following a player, a kitten grows into an adult cat, which no longer needs food or attention. Players are still able to interact with adult cats. The cat's success rate at catching rats increases to 50%.
 * Players can sell their cat to civilians in West Ardougne in exchange for 100 death runes. This amount increases to 200 death runes if the player has completed the easy task set from the Ardougne Tasks. Players do not need to be wearing their Ardougne cloak in order to get the bonus runes.
 * Players may own more than one cat at a time by storing them in a menagerie in a player-owned house and getting a new kitten from Gertrude.


 * Overgrown cat
 * A cat eventually becomes an overgrown cat. which cannot catch rats any more, but can still be sold in West Ardougne.
 * Players can turn their overgrown cat into a wily cat in Port Sarim, if they have completed the Ratcatchers quest.
 * Once a cat becomes overgrown, players may obtain a new kitten from Gertrude without storing the overgrown cat in a menagerie.
 * There is no limit to the number of overgrown cats which players may own at a time. Overgrown cats of the same colour stack in the bank.


 * Wily cat (requires Ratcatchers quest)
 * Wily cats do not need attention, but if they don't get it, they become unfriendly when players attempt to interact with them.
 * Wily cats have the highest success rate of catching rats. They can also catch Kalphite Larvae and butterflies, although no experience is awarded for it.
 * Wily cats which have not caught any rats for a random amount of time become lazy cats, independent of how much players interact with them.
 * Players may own only one wily or lazy cat at a time.


 * Lazy cat
 * Lazy cats catch rats with the same success rate as a normal adult cat.
 * Lazy cats can be re-trained back into wily cats by interacting with them (stroking, using a ball of wool or toy mouse, or chasing rats).
 * Players may own only one wily or lazy cat at a time.

Quests
A cat of any kind, including a kitten, is required for a number of quests, including Icthlarin's Little Helper and its sequels, Smoking Kills, A Tail of Two Cats, and Do No Evil. Ratchatchers requires a kitten or a normal adult cat only. Overgrown cats do not work for Ratchatchers, since they cannot catch rats.

A pet kitten or cat is also required for the Freeing Evil Dave sub-quest of Recipe for Disaster, one of the rewards of which is the ability to turn a kitten or cat into a hellcat. Hellcats (and their variants) can also be used for quests which require cats.

Another special cat variant, the purple cat, is unlocked via the purple cat miniquest, which is available after completing Swept Away. Purple cats (and their variants) can also be used for quests which require cats.

Trivia

 * When talking to one's cat, the player may say "What's new kitty?", which may be a reference to the song "".
 * When trying to use an alchemy spell on a kitten or a cat, a player will get the message "You can't do that to a defenceless kitten!" or "You can't do that to a defenceless cat!", respectively.
 * A cat can be put into a cat basket inside a player-owned house. To do this, the player has to click their cat, in any stage of growth, and use it on the cat basket.
 * There is a glitch where, if one's cat is playing with string and the player gives it another ball of wool, the string moves separately from the cat.
 * If you ask an adult cat "How old are you now?" it will reply, "I'm not too old, and not too young, in fact I think I'm just right," which is a reference to Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
 * Cat death.gif is currently a bug where, if you try to pick up someone else's kitten the message will say "That's not your cat." instead of "That's not your kitten." However, the interact option on a kitten you do not own produces the correct message.
 * It is not currently possible to name each cat you own, naming a cat gives the name to all owned cats.
 * During the mindspike glitch, it was proven that cats have 120 life points, and will attack back if they are attacked by players.
 * When a pet cat is killed, a soul will appear and fly into the sky.
 * When shooing away your cat, you can attempt to pick it up in the brief seconds it remains before it disappears. Doing so gives the message "This is not your cat".
 * There was bug upon the release of RuneScape 3 which was when wearing the ring of charos (a) and speaking to Gertrude and picking the option to (charm) the menu pops up blank and empty, this prevented you from choosing your own coloured cat. This also prevented the completion of the Varrock medium tasks, and has been fixed.
 * Pet kittens, Pet cats and Pet rocks are the few pets in RuneScape to have the word "Pet" in their names.