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Convenient Decoy Cat: Difference between revisions
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A small animal -- almost always a cat, but it can also be a mouse, squirrel, raccoon, bird, etc. -- appears just next to him and distracts the bad guys, who then '''[[The Guards Must Be Crazy|completely dismiss]]''' the spot where the hero was, and move on. Hurray! Our heroes are saved!
Not to be confused with [[Cat Scare]] (used in suspense or horror movies). Related to [[It's Probably Nothing]] and [[Nobody Here But Us Birds]]. Subtrope of [[Escape Tropes|escape trope]]. Can overlap with [[Blind Alley]].
{{examples}}
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* In ''[[Ninja Scroll]]'', when a group of ninja fail to kill their target (who turns out to be an undead monster), the team leader uses a cat as a [[Ninja Log]] to avoid some projectiles and escape.
* In the first episode of ''[[Toumei Shoujo Ea]]'' the boy and the invisible girl are hiding from [[The Men in Black]] in a pile of very clean garbage bags. [[The Men in Black]] pass the pile by, then turn back and fire! But it's only a kitten.
* Subverted in ''[[Genesis Climber Mospeada]]'' and it's ''[[Robotech]]: New Generation'' counterpart. Yellow, Ray and Mint are in Carnegie Hall hiding from an Inbit sentry when a cat runs by and stops the sentry believing the noise it heard was just a cat. Turns out the cat was actually a performance by a boy named George who appeared to help the heroes.
* Another variation in the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode "Pierrot Le Fou", where Tongpu has Spike cornered, ready to finish him off, when suddenly a cat meows at him from a fire escape. Tongpu, who is deathly afraid of cats, turns his full attention to it and tries to shoot it, allowing Spike time to throw something [[Stuff Blowing Up|big and explosive]] at him.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Dr. No]]''. [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]], Honey Rider and Quarrel are hiding underwater in a river with Dr. No's guards searching for them using German Shepherds. The dogs are clearly [[They Have the Scent|on the protagonists' scent]] ("They're onto something!"), the guards draw nearer and then...a flock of birds bursts out of cover, the guards figure that they're what the dogs were after, and leave.
* Inverted in ''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'', where the cat benefits the villains: the luggage inspection dogs detect the snakes, but the handlers think they're just barking at a hissing cat and move on. [[Fridge Brilliance|Come to think of it,]] the bad guys may have planted that cat there for that purpose.
* In the 1959 film adaptation of ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank]]'', one scene has a pair of Gestapo officers searching the residence where the refugees are hiding because someone else broke in. The refugees' cat ends up knocking a plate from a table and arouses suspicion, but then resolves it as well by meowing, causing the officers to think that the cat is the only living thing around.
* The scene in ''[[Predator]]'' when Dutch gets covered with mud, making the predator unable to detect him in infrared. The predator still closes in on him, then gets distracted by a rat.
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[[Category:Chase Scene]]
[[Category:Convenient Decoy Cat]]
[[Category:This Index Meows]]
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