Asians have generally thought highly of cats but not always. In one old folk tale of Japan, a demonic cat is a sort of vampire. He attacks a young woman, sucks out her blood and then takes over her identity. In his new guise he proceeds to gradually suck the lifeblood from the girl’s fiancé, until a servant exposes the cat-woman as an impostor. Incidentally, in Japanese artwork it is very easy to tell real cats from
demon cats: the demon cats have two tails.
