A cat following you has no single meaning in recorded folklore. Surviving accounts connect the behavior with good luck, money, marriage prospects, and the fortunes of a household, but the interpretations change from one record to another. Even two beliefs collected in the same part of the United States give opposite meanings when a cat follows someone home.
When a Black Cat Follows You
One clear good-luck belief appears in the Irish Schools’ Collection. A record from Lisdowney, County Kilkenny, states that a black cat following a person was regarded as lucky. The material was collected by Josie Carroll from James Dunne of Ballyphilip and preserved by the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin.[1]
This is a local recorded belief rather than a rule for Irish folklore as a whole. It is also different from the better-known superstition about a black cat crossing someone’s path. In this Kilkenny record, the important action is that the cat follows the person.
A Cat Following You Could Mean Money
Harry Middleton Hyatt’s 1935 collection Folk-Lore from Adams County, Illinois preserves another interpretation. One entry says that when a person meets a cat while walking and the animal begins to follow, the person will obtain some money.[2]
The belief makes the encounter itself important: a person is already walking, meets the cat, and then gains a feline companion. The expected outcome is material luck rather than a general promise of good fortune.
What If a Cat Follows You Home?
Following someone all the way home produced especially mixed interpretations. Hyatt’s Adams County collection records one belief that a cat following a person home indicates good luck. The very next recorded belief says that bad luck may be expected if a cat follows someone home.[2]
Folklore meaning: a cat following you home cannot be assigned one fixed traditional interpretation. Opposite beliefs were recorded within the same regional collection.
That contradiction is useful because it shows how folk beliefs often existed as local sayings rather than as a single agreed system. Two families or informants living in the same general area could preserve different meanings for almost the same event.
Following You Everywhere and Marriage Folklore
An Irish manuscript collected in Mohill, County Leitrim, in 1938 gives a very different interpretation. The record associates a cat following a person wherever they go with remaining unmarried. The manuscript was collected by Hugh McKiernan, with Edward Gallagher named as the informant.[3]
This record does not describe a brief meeting with a stray cat or a cat accompanying someone home. The wording concerns a cat that continually follows a person. That difference in circumstance may help explain why its meaning is unrelated to the luck and money beliefs found elsewhere.
A Cat Following During a Move
Another variation appears in Sidney Oldall Addy’s 1895 collection of traditions from parts of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire. The recorded custom warned against deliberately taking a cat when moving to another house, but treated the situation differently if the cat followed of its own accord. In that case, the spontaneous following was considered acceptable rather than unlucky.[4]
Here the belief depends less on the cat simply walking behind someone and more on how the animal arrives at the new home. Voluntary following and deliberately carrying the cat were treated as different actions.
Does the Cat’s Color Change the Meaning?
Color matters in some records, but not in all of them. The Kilkenny belief specifically names a black cat, while the Adams County beliefs about a cat following someone or following them home do not require a particular color. The Leitrim marriage-related record also refers simply to a cat.
For that reason, a claim that every black, white, orange, gray, or calico cat carries a particular meaning when it follows someone would go beyond the surviving evidence. In documented folklore, place and circumstance can matter as much as coat color.
Why a Cat May Actually Follow Someone
Folklore meanings and ordinary cat behavior answer different questions. A cat may follow a familiar person because it wants food or attention, is curious about where the person is going, enjoys staying close, or has learned a daily routine. Veterinary guidance also notes that following behavior is common in cats and is usually normal.[5]
An unfamiliar outdoor cat may likewise approach or follow a person without the encounter having any traditional omen attached to it. The folklore interpretation depends on the particular tradition being considered; the animal’s behavior has its own everyday explanations.
Sources and Records
- ↑1 National Folklore Collection, UCD, “Pishrogues,” The Schools’ Collection,
- ↑2a ↑2b Harry Middleton Hyatt, Folk-Lore from Adams County, Illinois,
- ↑3 National Folklore Collection, UCD, Main Manuscript Collection, CBÉ 0559 (Part 004),
- ↑4 Sidney Oldall Addy, Household Tales with Other Traditional Remains,
- ↑5 Hannah Hart, DVM, “Why Does My Cat Follow Me Everywhere?”,
Documented Locations
Countries: Canada
These labels identify where a version has been documented. They do not mean that everyone in the country, region, or community shares the belief.