cat³ n Newly-born seal; pup; WHITE-COAT. Also attrib ~ harp [see HARP]; ~ hood [see HOOD]; ~ seal.
   1842 JUKES i, 292 Stuwitz made ... several interesting observations today on both old and young ... as also on the still-born young, which the men call cats, and of which we found several lying on the ice. 1846 TOCQUE 190 These 'cats' are highly prized by the seal-hunters, as the skin when dressed makes excellent caps for them to wear while engaged in this perilous and dangerous voyage. 1866 WILSON 275 Sometimes these young 'whitecoats,' when weakly, will be found frozen in the ice, when the hunters call them 'cats.' 1874 WHITE MS Journal 19 Mar Several sailing and steam vessels around us shooting old and taking cat seals. Shot old [seals] 1170 young cats 940. 1879 ibid May Cat harps £ 68/1/10. 1882 ibid May 5 cat hoods 3/19. 1896 J A Folklore ix, 34 When the pelt, that is the skin and fat together, does not weigh more than twenty-five pounds, [the seal] is called a cat. [1929] 1933 GREENLEAF (ed) 247 "Sealing Cruise of the Lone Flier": We motored until three o'clock, and then we struck the fat, / Herbert Legge picked up a seal, Claude Hawkins got a cat. T 141/65-65² [He] had a stuffed seal, just a cat cut out o' the old ones in the fall.

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