Cat Annoyance

"Don't you hiss at Prince!" The neighborhood cat, known as the Cat Annoyance, was a stray cat who was adopted by Ove after almost freezing to death in the snow. The cat was known to frequently attack the Blond Weed's dog and liked being around Ove.

Biography
The cat first appears on the street in the Resident's Association. Ove does not want it to be there and tries to shoo it away. Later, Ove hears Blond Weed yelling in the street and goes outside to discover her throwing rocks at the cat, who apparently scratched Weed's dog, Prince. Weed stops when Ove threatens to harm Prince the next time he urinates on Ove's paving stones. After a long snowstorm not long after, Ove (with Parvaneh with him in the film adaptation) discover the cat in the snow, almost dead from the cold. Jimmy arrives while Ove is fetching a blanket and uses his chest and stomach to smother the cat. She quickly warms up, but soon has to switch to the blanket when Jimmy starts experiencing the symptoms of cat hair allergies and has to be rushed to the hospital. Parvaneh then forces Ove to take in the cat, stating that she would herself but that she couldn't because her daughters were also allergic. After the snow incident, the cat stayed with Ove and kept him company in Sonja's absence. The cat also insisted in going with Ove wherever he went, including places that had to be driven to. Since Jimmy and Parvaneh's children were allergic to cats, it is unknown what happened to her after Ove's death.

Appearance
The Cat Annoyance is portrayed as a female ragdoll cat in the film adaptation. The cat's gender and breed in the novel version is unknown, though its image at Ove's feet on the cover suggests it is a breed of tabby.

Personality
The cat is selective with sociality, choosing to be friendly to people like Ove, Parvaneh, and Jimmy, but aggressive toward people like Blond Weed and Prince. It is also very stubborn and dislikes obeying others' orders, preferring to make its own decisions on what to do and what not to do.

Trivia

 * Ove put newspapers in the passenger seat of his car, so as to not get cat hair on the seat when she rode in the car with him.
 * She is one of two cats mentioned in the story, the other being Sonja's childhood cat Ernest.
 * She is also one of three animals in general, the others being Ernest and Prince (Blond Weed's chihuahua). Sonja was said to have liked cats, which was why Ove decided to keep the Cat Annoyance.