The Marlinspike Hall Cat is a Siamese cat that lives on the grounds, presumably as the pet of Captain Haddock.
After Haddock purchases Marlinspike Hall, the cat is first encountered within the Hall in The Seven Crystal Balls, and is frequently bullied by Snowy until The Castafiore Emerald, where the pair seemingly bond out of necessity to cope with the loud guests. They are seen amicably sitting side-by-side at the end of The Calculus Affair, as they watch Jolyon Wagg and his family leave.
The cat is then frequently seen with Snowy from that point onward, and the pair are apparently friends, though the cat stays at Marlinspike Hall while Snowy journeys the world with Tintin.
Although the cat's name is never revealed, the Captain does indicate that it does indeed belong to him. Near the end of Explorers On the Moon, he ruefully describes a pleasant dream he was having before being awoken: "I was just dreaming that I was by my fireside in Marlinspike with my cat on my knee..."
The cat is also seen in Tintin and the Picaros, first being petted by Tintin as it sits in his lap, then at various times with Snowy, until the latter leaves with Tintin for South America.
Other adaptation[]
The cat appears in The Adventures of Tintin, the movie. Instead of being at Marlinspike Hall, the cat instead appears as a stray in the urban apartment owned by Mrs. Finch. The cat is first seen outside of Tintin's apartment behind one of the windows. When Snowy brings Tintin the magnifying glass he has been trying to find, he turns around, only to see the giant face of a Siamese cat (enlarged by the magnifying glass). Snowy immediately chases after the cat which then jumps up to a red chair then flips and clings onto the chandelier, avoiding Tintin's grasp. While on the chandelier, the cat spins around for a moment, then falls down, landing on Tintin's face. The cat then climbs on the drapes to the upper part of a shelf and starts running on it, knocking over a vase and other things on its way, including one of the models of The Unicorn. The cat then leaves through a window. Without this scene, Tintin never would have known about the parchment in the model, never would have met Captain Haddock and subsequently never would have found out about the secret of the Unicorn.
The second time the cat appears in the movie was after the ransacking of Tintin's apartment by a thief. The Thompsons pay a little visit to help Tintin find the culprit. After they discuss it, the Thompsons leave, but not before one of them trips over the cat and falls down the stair.
The third and final appearance of the cat in the film was after Tintin stops the Thompsons from leaving to show the bloody newspaper. The cat was inside the building seemingly walking to the front door exit, until Snowy blocked the way.
Trivia[]
The cat was based on Hergé's own Siamese, Thaïke. He did many pencil studies of Thaïke in his sketchbooks. Thaïke is also portrayed as part of Tom Frantzen's statue of Hergé, crouched on his shoulders, outside the Hergé Museum.