Cats are pets that can follow the player. In order to obtain a pet cat, a player must complete the Gertrude's Cat quest and get a kitten from Gertrude. Their first kitten is free, and each kitten after that is 100 coins, but players cannot own more than one kitten at a time. If players have an activated ring of charos, obtained during the Creature of Fenkenstrain quest and then activated during the Garden of Tranquility quest, they are able to charm Gertrude into allowing them to choose their own colour. Otherwise, players will be given a kitten of a random colour. Any colour of kitten can be turned into a generic Hellkitten by chasing the hell-rats in Evil Dave's basement, or morphed back into its original colour by feeding it a bucket of milk.
Kittens may be spoken to with a Catspeak amulet. The responses are noticeably more child-like than grown cats, and Hell-kittens' responses are more devilish. The kitten's responses are chosen from a random list of phrases, unless they are very hungry or lonely, in which case their dialogue will reflect this. After Icthlarin's Little Helper, an extra dialogue option is added which allows the player to review some events of the quest.
Kittens are raised by some players, especially Ironmen, to sell to Civilians in West Ardougne for death runes - 100 normally, 200 with the Easy Ardougne Diary completed. You cannot sell kittens to Civilians, they must be raised to the Cat form. The maintenance for a kitten is comparatively minimal for the latter reward, offering low-level players and Ironmen an easy source of death runes outside of the Barrows or having to buy them.
Caring for your cat[]
Unlike other pets, kittens grow and will need to be fed and interacted with while out in the world (not in item form in the bank or inventory). They take three hours to grow, and during this time they will run away if too much time passes without being fed or interacted with. This will happen if 30 minutes pass without giving the kitten food, or a similar amount of time (it seems to have some random variation) for lack of interaction. Players will receive two warnings in the form of a dialogue before this happens—one stating that the kitten is hungry or wants attention and another afterwards stating that it is very hungry or is lonely. An update to Oldschool Runescape added a message to the chat box for these warnings should the player miss them, and another update in early August 2017 coloured the text red. This same update added a right-click "Kitten" option on Gertrude to buy one without needing to go through any dialogue. Text above the kitten can also indicate its status; a long "Meeeooowww!" will mean it is very hungry, for example, while the same drawn out meow but with a "..." indicates it is feeling lonely.
Any raw or cooked fish that is not exclusively caught from Barbarian fishing can be used to feed a kitten. Fish from Barbarian fishing may be gutted with a knife, and the resulting caviar or roe may be fed to the kitten. Players could use either the cheapest available fish (such as mackerel) or the now-stackable raw karambwanji for extended trips.
Players can interact with their kitten or cat in a number of ways, via right-clicking the cat and selecting Interact-with. Stroking a cat requires no items. However, if players wish to play with their kitten, they must use a ball of wool on it. This will not use up the ball of wool, which will stay in the player's inventory. A kitten can also catch rats via the Chase-vermin option, but has a success rate of 10%. Players can also shoo away their kitten from the Interact-with menu using the Shoo-away option.
Growing[]
After three hours of following the player, their kitten will grow into an adult cat, which no longer needs food or attention. A great way to let it grow is to feed it raw karambwanji, the stackable bait used for fishing raw karambwan. They act as raw fish and a stackable food source for your kitten.
Overgrown cats are obtained after a further 2-3 hours of having your Cat following you. If you allow your cat to become overgrown, you will be able to take a new kitten from Gertrude, saving trips to West Ardougne if deemed tedious.
Players can sell their regular, overgrown, wily and lazy cats to civilians in West Ardougne west of the man hole for 100 death runes (20,300). This increases to 200 death runes (40,600) with the easy Ardougne achievement diary reward. Hellcats do not need to be transformed back to normal cats before being traded in. The location can be quickly reached with a West Ardougne teleport, or freely reached with the Rat Pits minigame teleport (requires completion of Ratcatchers), spirit trees, or Ardougne cloak.
Quests[]
- Gertrude's Cat
- Icthlarin's Little Helper
- Ratcatchers
- A Tail of Two Cats
- Recipe for Disaster (Evil Dave section)
See also[]
Boss pets |
Baby Mole • Prince black dragon • Corporeal Critter • Dark Core • Jal-Nib-Rek • Kalphite Princess • Lil' Zik • Skotos • Snakeling • TzRek-Jad • TzRek-Zuk • Vorki |
Skilling pets |
Baby chinchompa • Beaver • Giant squirrel • Heron • Rift guardian • Rock Golem • Rocky • Tangleroot |
Other pets |
Bloodhound • Cat (Wily cat) (Hellcat) • Chompy chick • Fish • Herbi • Penance Pet • Phoenix • Rock • Toy cat |