High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "The Cats of Ulthar" is a short story written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft in June 1920. In the tale, an unnamed narrator relates the story of how a law forbidding the killing of cats came to be in a town called Ulthar. As the narrative goes, the city is home to an old couple who enjoys capturing and killing the townspeople`s cats. When a caravan of wanderers passes through the city, the kitten of an orphan (Menes) traveling with the band disappears. Upon hearing of the couple`s violent acts towards cats, Menes invokes a prayer before leaving town that causes the local felines to swarm the cat-killers` house and devour them. Upon witnessing the end result, the local politicians pass a law forbidding the killing of cats.