Cactus cat

The cactus cat is a legendary "fearsome critter" of the American Southwest.

For the song "Cactus Cat", see Look Blue Go Purple.

The cactus cat was generally described being a bobcat-like creature, covered in hair-like thorns, with particularly long spines extending from the legs and its armored, branching tail.^[1] The creature was said to use its spines to slash cacti at night, allowing juice to run from the plants. On later nights, the creature was said to return to drink the now fermented juice.^[2]It was said that the Catus Cat had camouflage to better fit the desert it lived in. Though it is hard to pinpoint where exactly it originated due to the fact that this story was passed down orally and could have easily been lost in translation over time. According to this site Cactus Cat: The Spiny Feline of the Desert, the only thing we can really know is what it looked like, and it may have originated in Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas. ^[3]

Though there is evidence that it an indigenous story that was passed down due to the connections to the land where they had primarily resided. It may have been a story that even miners and cowboys told to one another as just an intriguing tale. ^[4]

It is supposed to represent the spirit of the desert itself. All the harsh conditions that the desert is known for is said to be in or rather is the cat. There is little that is known about it in the first place, but what is known is that it was only a representation of the desert and all that lives within it.