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This paper looks at recent attention given to feral cats in Australia, particularly focusing on their symbolic status in eco‐nationalist discourses. Australian eco‐nationalism is a specific blend of environmentalist and patriotic sentiments which, in an exaggerated way, positions the feral cat as a rapacious European invader predating on native wild life. This vilification of the cat can be related to much earlier forms of (mainly European) symbolism associating the creature with femininity and evil, which I illustrate by looking at the manner in which the feral cat is opposed to the masculinised Australian wild dog—the dingo. I argue that the recent surfacing of this totemic opposition between 'the howl and the pussycat' is related to an eco‐nationalist sense of place which simultaneously recognises and denies that the human colonisation of Australia was (and is) a form of feral invasion.

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