Dear Diary, 

You know I’m obsessed with cats by now, so when I heard about Bakeneko, the cat demon, I honestly got way more excited than scared. My cat is basically a demon already, so what's the difference? Bakeneko literally means "changed cat" or "cat demon." These weren’t your regular cats. Imagine your kitty at home but with the ability to morph into a demon. Okay, actually all cat owners would totally understand that, BUT the Bakeneko could possess humans, make people dance (which, let's be honest, sounds hilarious), and even throw fireballs. Fireballs! It’s like a cat meets Game of Thrones situation. 

Spotting a Bakeneko isn’t easy. They look just like any other cat, but they have a peculiar taste for lapping up oil lamps made from fish fat. Very on-brand for a cat, right? They could even stand on their hind legs and wake up the dead just by jumping on corpses. And here I thought my cat's 3 AM zoomies were bad.

Although, not every cat could become a Bakeneko. They had some pretty strict criteria: must be 13 years old, weigh more than 3.5 kg, and have a long tail. There are also different types of Bakeneko. Some are downright evil, but others, like the Maneki Neko—the cute little waving cats you see at store entrances—bring luck and prosperity. It’s a spectrum, really. But then there’s the Nekomata, which has a tail that splits in two. These guys are serious bad news. People in Japan were so freaked out by these tales that they started cutting off kittens' tails to prevent them from turning into demons, and creating the Japanese Bobtail breed. 

Even in modern times, the Bakeneko hasn’t lost its grip on the imagination. It pops up in manga, anime, and video games—like Kuro in Blue Exorcist and the Nekomata in Final Fantasy and Pokémon. And of course there is an actual festival in Tokyo, the Bakeneko Matsuri, where people dress up as these legendary cats wearing cat ears and kitten paws. It's a whole scene.

But these are just more reasons to love cats, even if they might secretly be plotting to take over our lives.

Xoxo, 

Maria