The Demon Cat: A Spooky Tale

Not all Capitol hauntings are related to people who worked there in the hallowed halls of Congress’s home. One haunting has its beginnings in the city’s rodent problem in the nineteenth century. This is perhaps unsurprising for a city built near so many rivers. What were the politicians to do, but use the universal solution to a rodent problem? A century ago cats were used in the building to curb the rodent population. In time, all but one disappeared, were adopted, or died off.

Whatever the case may be, a black cat has been seen around the capitol for over a century running loose in the basement and prowling in the halls of Congress… This cat it has known to surprise the guards and the capitol police as they make their rounds. The cat has been given the nickname DC, short for “Demon Cat”. .

A creepy detail, of some versions of the story, warns that while the Demon Cat may first appear as a small and helpless looking kitten, it grows in size and menace the closer one moves toward it which foretells misfortune just before national tragedies or changes in presidential administration.

One of the first appearances of the infamous Demon Cat in the United States Capitol may have been to foretell the death of John Quincy Adams. It also appeared before the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the October 1929 stock market crash, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The Demon Cat is only ghost in the country that has a professional sports team named after it! The DC Demoncats, a woman’s professional rolling skating team, is named after the supernatural cat.

During the summer, the cat has not only been seen in the halls, but has repeatedly appeared in Washington’s Tomb at Mount Vernon. Even ghosts go away for the summer! What will be the next event that the Demon Cat will foretell?

© 2017 by Dr. Philip Ernest Schoenberg