This time, I’m sharing “The Boy Who Drew Cats,” a Japanese folktale about a small temple boy who won’t stop sketching cats—on scraps of paper, in margins, anywhere he can get a bit of ink. The priests think it’s a pointless habit until the temple starts to feel unsettled: food goes missing, something moves through the hall at night, and the cats in the story aren’t always the kind that breathe. It’s a quiet tale about protection, attention, and the way small things can end up standing between you and what comes creeping in after dark.
Feral Folktales is where I step aside from the main show and tell a straight folktale—simple, spoken, and exactly as it’s meant to be heard. These bonus episodes are just a little something extra between the full installments of The Feral Folklorist, which is where you’ll find the deeper dives into history, folklore, magic, hauntings, and the stranger corners of human belief.
A new folktale often appears between the regular podcast releases—just a short story to keep the world of folklore moving.
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