Cole may look like an ordinary black cat, but on TikTok, he’s a mystical fur-friend with nearly 60,000 followers and a waitlist of fans eager to see which tarot cards he’ll pull next.
“They are soul protectors, [cats are] soul family,” says his owner, Emily Cook. “I’m just so blessed that he’s here, and I couldn’t be happier with my little buddy.”
But Cole’s journey wasn’t always so magical. Before turning six months old, the rescue cat was returned to the Humane Society twice. Sick and kept in isolation, he wasn’t even on display with the other cats when Cook first walked into the shelter. At the time, she was settling into a new home with her son after a divorce and wanted to adopt a cat. Cole, cautious from his rough start, wasn’t exactly the outgoing type. “Even now, years later,” Cook says, “he’s terrified of people,” ironic for a feline who has since gone viral.
So how did a shy shelter cat turn into TikTok’s favorite fortune-teller?
“I am very interested in tarot and astrology, so I had a deck of cards out, a traditional Rider–Waite deck, and I kept it in a cup holder on my couch,” Cook tells PEOPLE. “[Cole] just decided one day to go in there, and he started grabbing the cards, you know, almost like a litter box shuffle. Then he would grab whatever ones he picked in his little cat mouth and drop [the cards] on the carpet with his teeth. And I was like, ‘What the heck?’”
@mycatdoestarotFor lauyren s 🐈⬛🪄✨♬ original sound – Our Tranquillum House
Intrigued, Cook began rewarding Cole with treats each time he selected a card. Soon, he was pulling them over and over again. “There are times that I don’t wanna play 78 card pickup,” Cook jokes. “But overall, it is super cool, and it’s kind of freaky how accurate he gets sometimes.”
One moment in particular still gives her chills. “Gosh, I do remember one of the first times that it hit me. I was going through some relationship issues and some backstabbing issues,” she recalls. “He had pulled the Seven of Swords, and I think it was The Lovers reverse. It was just like uncanny, and it just kept coming through over and over.”
For context, the Seven of Swords often represents betrayal or deception, while The Lovers reversed can suggest conflict in relationships. For Cook, it was a reading that felt almost too on-the-nose.
And Cole’s uncanny timing doesn’t stop there. Just before her interview with PEOPLE, Cook says, “He began meowing nonstop about five minutes before. He woke up my son, who came out asking what was going on. I told him I had an interview coming up, and he asked if I thought Cole knew, and I’m like, ‘he might.’”
On TikTok, Cole’s followers compare him to a familiar, the animal companions in centuries-old witchcraft lore believed to help channel intuition and magic. And like a true familiar, Cole insists on doing things his way.
@mycatdoestarot For @Kristina ♬ original sound – Our Tranquillum House
“People thinking that I can schedule an appointment with a cat is kinda crazy because he wants to do what he wants to do,” Cook laughs. Instead, she keeps a waitlist of fans, pulling names whenever Cole feels like working.
“I just really wanted to share what he did without trying to make it about [divination] like, Miss Cleo,” Cook adds. Still, it’s hard to deny the magic.
From shelter return to internet stardom, Cole’s story feels like destiny. Or maybe, just maybe, he saw it all in the cards.
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