Miss Kitty Fantastico was a kitten adopted by Tara in television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The cat makes her first appearance near the end of the fourth season (episode 20, the Yoko Factor) and continues to appear throughout the end of the fourth season only to be never seen or mentioned again until the end of the series. What if the kitten never left? What if instead of simply disappearing, Miss  Kitty Fantastico took on a new form, the form of a young girl.The two are both young females, and while it seems obvious that the major difference between the two characters is that one is human and the other is a cat, it is also important to remember that Dawn originally is not human. Is it possible that the monks who created Dawn were able to do so with nothing? If energy cannot be created nor destroyed then Dawn’s life had to come from somewhere. Perhaps from the brief life of a kitten.

Dawn is Buffy’s younger sister, but not through natural means. She was created as a device for the protection of a magical key. Though Dawn’s homecoming was referenced to as early as the third season, it isn’t until the beginning of the fifth season that she actually arrives, after Miss Kitty Fantastico’s mysterious, and at the time, unexplained disappearance.

Though Miss Kitty Fantastico was technically Tara’s cat, she found her and kept her in her dorm room, she asks Willow to help her raise her. The two of them discuss getting a cat during the season four episode, New Moon Rising. The kitten is recognized as belonging to both Tara and Willow. After the death of Dawn’s mother and the second death of sister, Willow and Tara become parental figures for Dawn. Even after Buffy is revived, Dawn retains a sort of mother-daughter type relationship with the two witches.

Miss Kitty Fantastico is finally mentioned again during the seventh and final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (episode 21, the End of Days). It is in a reference to a memory that Dawn has regarding her.

“Xander, my crossbow is not out here. I told you, I don’t leave crossbows around all willy-nilly… Not since that time with Miss Kitty Fantastico.”

This implies that Dawn’s carelessness lead to the demise of the cat. It seems that this line was added to fill the hole left by the kitten’s sudden and unexplained disappearance, despite the several year delay. However, since Dawn’s memories before her appearance on the show are artificial, this does not provide a convincing explanation. It does however support that Dawn is the reason for why Miss Kitty Fantastico is no longer present, but not for the reason that the show provides.