Credit: COURTESY OF MERCURIA PRESS AND CHIN MUSIC PRESS

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COURTESY OF MERCURIA PRESS AND CHIN MUSIC PRESS

Like many millennials, I gave up on the idea of having kids a long time ago. That could changeโ€”but in the meantime, I’m mothering a cat. I haven’t lost any of my love for felines during my tenure as a cat mom, but as sweet they may be, there’s still no denying that the cute little shits are absolutely capable of going from adorable to demonic in the swipe of a paw.

Whether the little monster in your life takes a devilish glee in pawing fragile valuables to a shattered demise on the floor, yowling at banshee-like decibels because you missed their feeding time by one minute, or committing some other kind of feline debauchery, you should know about Zack Davisson’s story hour with Seattle Meowtropolitan and Atlas Obscura. At the very least, it will make you grateful that you don’t have a kaibyลโ€”a “strange cat,” in a very forgiving translationโ€”on your hands.

Davisson’s latest book, Kaibyล: The Supernatural Cats of Japan, is the first in a series about Japan’s mystical menagerie of paranormal critters.