# How did cats get associated with the number 9? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578 "2005-09-01T13:33:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Giant\_Spongess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@Giant\_Spongess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giant_Spongess)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578/1 "2005-09-01T13:33:59Z")
Cats have nine lives, cat-o-nine-tails, etc. Isn’t there a mythical cat with nine tails? What’s the deal? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578/2 "2005-09-01T13:43:56Z")
Good question, & sharp wits to ask it. I don’t know, but I’ll bump the thread. BTW–“3” is considered “mystical”, & 9 is 3X3. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578/3 "2005-09-01T14:33:41Z")
My guess would be that the reason the whip called a “cat-o-nine-tails” has nine strands is because it’s made by braiding strands of rope or leather, and braiding is usually done in groups of three? Braid together three braids of three strands each, leave the ends of all the strands loose for flogging purposes, and you’ve got a nine-tailed whip. Why it’s called a “cat”, though, and whether the nine strands of the whip have any relation to the proverbial nine lives of the domestic cat, beats me. ---
**Author:** ![Pixisis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@Pixisis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixisis)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578/4 "2005-09-01T14:36:48Z")
[http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/nine.html](http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/nine.html) > [@](#): > > A phrase in a book written during the Dark Ages gave rise to the superstition that cats have nine lives. English author and satirist William Baldwin wrote in his Beware the Cat, “It is permitted for a witch to take her cat’s body nine times.” not sure how accurate this is … . ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578/5 "2005-09-01T14:44:19Z")
Oh. Just saw a reference to the “cat-o-nine-tails” claiming it was called a “cat” because of the “scratches” it left on the back of the victim. And the “nine lives” tradition is explained [here](http://www.sniksnak.com/facts2.html) thusly: > [@](#): > > The phrase […] is obviously based on the fact that the cat is unusually resilient, but that does not explain the nine lives. The answer is to be found in early religious beliefs, where a “trinity of trinities” was thought to be especially lucky, and therefore ideally suited for the “lucky” cat. Absent any other evidence, I’m going with these two explanations, and with the hypothesis (_contra_ the OP) that there is no systematic identification of cats with the number nine. The apparent similarity of the “cat-o-nine-tails” and the “cat with nine lives” is just a coincidence. That’s my guess, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-cats-get-associated-with-the-number-9/319578/6 "2005-09-01T16:15:07Z")
Don’t know the answer, but I thought I’d let you know that Brazilian cats have been cheated: they only have seven lives. It would be interesting to find out why this discrepency exists, even though both cultures speak of multiple cat lives.