As
Lister explained to
Ace Rimmer about the guy with the broken leg and nice suit, "he doesn't have a name. We just call him
Cat." The Cat is the suave sophisticated creature with the pointed teeth and stylish (and usually attention-grabbing) clothes. He was born and raised on the
Red Dwarf, a member of a civilization of cat people who evolved from
Dave's pet cat. He typically refers to the other crew members as
monkeys, he tends to
yowl quite a bit and spin around. He sprays everything he can find (modern cats carry around their scent in sprayer bottles). He plays with string as all cats do, and his favorite song was a damaged tape of
Robert Hardy reads
Tess of the d'Urbervilles. His favorite things are
sex (which being the last surviving cat-person is kind of difficult),
sleeping (he has to take enough naps he won't have enough energy for his main
snooze), and
eating (usually immediately after singing a song, "
I'm gonna eat you little chickie" or "
I'm gonna eat you little fishie"). He is completely
self-centered as all cats are and thinks he is the most beautiful creature in existence. In fact, he is so self-centered that when the crew met a pleasure-
gelf that would appear to every person as the object they most greatly desire, Cat met himself.
Cat is played by
Danny John-Jules, and is the real-life uncle of Baby Lister seen in
OUROBOROS. In the
American Pilot version, cat was played by
Hinton Battle in the first version and
Terry Ferrell in the second version (the pilot didn't pass, so there is no American version of Red Dwarf -- sorry).
Note: I didn't realize there was a node called
The Cat, but it makes sense. The Cat is referred to in Red Dwarf as both "Cat" and "The Cat". Typically, if they are speaking to him, they call him Cat. If they are talking about him, they call him The Cat. Anyway, check out
The Cat for some more info on him.