The Demon Cat is the name given to the ghost of a cat which is purported to haunt the government buildings of Washington, D.C. in the United States.
History
The story of the Demon Cat dates back a few hundred years when cats were brought into the basement tunnels of the United States Capitol Building to kill rats and mice. Legend states that the Demon Cat is one of these cats who never left, even after its death. Its home is supposedly the basement crypt of the Capitol Building, which was originally intended as a burial chamber for President George Washington. According to legend, the cat is seen before presidential elections and tragedies in Washington, D.C., allegedly being spotted by White Housesecurity guardson the night before the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln. The cat is described as fully black and the size of an average house cat; but witnesses report that the cat swells to "the size of a giant tiger", 10 feet by 10 feet, when alerted. The cat would then either explode or pounce at the witness, disappearing before it managed to catch its 'victim'. In the 1890s, the cat is said to have inexplicably vanished when some Capitol Hill guards fired their guns at it, and another supposedly died of a heart attack after seeing it.
Explanation
The last official sighting of the alleged ghost was during the final days or aftermath of World War II in the 1940s. The U.S. Capitol Historical Society has stated that around this time, the Capitol Police force was notorious for hiring unqualified relatives and friends of Congressmen as favours, and that these men would frequently be drunk whilst on patrol. It was stated that a security guard was once licked by a cat when he was lying down. Being drunk, the man thought he was still standing at the time and was frightened by the apparently giant cat, thus spawning the 'Demon Cat' legend. As for the rest of the sightings, Steve Livengood, a member of the society said that "eventually the other guards found out that they could get a day off if they saw the demon cat".
