of Pan" as recorded by Plutarch and interpreted by Augustine of Hippo as a shift in World Ages. China Miéville takes the idea of a king of the cats from this story and Robert Irwin's "Father of Cats" from The Arabian Nightmare for his 1998 novel King Rat. American author P. T. Cooper's 2012 middle-grade children's novel, The King of the Cats, starts off with a retelling of the original legend but then picks up where the legend left off. The novel tells of the death of Tom Tildrum and the crowning of his successor, Jack Tigerstripes, who is told by a feline oracle on his coronation day that he is destined to be captured by a human and to end his life in exile. The resulting 217-page adventure is reminiscent of a Disney-style talking-animal story such as The Lion King. The title track of American rock band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists' 2003 EP Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead was inspired by a County Cork version of "The King of the Cats", with the title referring to the cats' names in the story, and mention in the song of the story's setting, the graveyard at Inchigeelagh. Kim Newman's novella Vampire Romance (2012) has a group of vampire elders gathering after the downfall of Count Dracula to decide which one of them will become the next "King of the Cats"; the story explicitly refers to the Tom Tildrum folk tale. This legend is referenced in the manga/anime, The Ancient Magus' Bride (chapters 4–7/episodes 4–5): A cat, named Molly, is the current King of the Cats, and the first King is called "Tim" Also in other manga/anime, Aria the Natural by Kozue Amano, Cait Sith was featured as one of the characters. He was depicted as anthropomorphic fat black cat and rules over the Cats' Kingdom in Neo-Venezia, often involved mainly in more supranatural arcs. The story is referenced in the videogame Ni No Kuni where the kingdom of Ding Dong Dell is ruled by an anthropomorphic cat named King Tom Tildrum XIV. His counterpart in the human world is a housecat named Timmy Toldrum. See also Cultural depictions of cats Cat Sìth, a cat from Scottish and Irish mythologies that was black with a white spot on its chest Notes References Further reading Briggs, Katherine M., A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language 2 Vols., Bloomington: Indiana University