Somebody on DeviantART remarked on the differences between pop culture werewolves and folklore werewolves. Based on what I’ve read, actually at some point or another (and even today in other places) both lycanthropy and vampirism/cannibalism/rabies were forms of witchcraft and thus were counted as such.
There’s an essay on Wuli witchcraft, which takes place in Cameroon where the wizard would turn into a dog (a domesticated wolf) and drink its victim’s blood though that’s one of the guises it takes on in addition to a leopard and owl. Among the Baka Pygmies, there’s a folktale where the first wizard was apparently a rabid dog.
That rabid dogs were sometimes thought to be bewitched in both contemporary Cameroon and Early Modern France (its future coloniser). A Ghanaian wizard used his dogs to attack a footballer (I’m not making this up) and there’s also mention of dogs being used in occult practises and rituals in Cameroon.
In fact both wolves and dogs were both guises taken by either sorcerers or demons. So it’s not just cats but also their canine counterparts and according to a few sources, dogs actually outnumbered cats in Scottish and English witchcraft reports. Dogs were also connected to vampirism and probably still is especially when it comes to the aswang, a vampire that turns into such.
Besides I recall somewhere in Armenia where dogs and vampirism/vampires are strongly linked. Then there’s also the belief in the Devil turning into a black dog though it would’ve been stronger before. And the Devil prefigures in ‘black masses’ as a dog with witches turning into the same. Elizabeth Bathory wasn’t just accused of vampirism but also lycanthropy and witchcraft.
So it all goes back to what I’m saying and that cats are far from the only witchcraft animals around.
fynm 