Bob (cat)

Bob the Jagex Cat is an enigmatic black cat and reincarnation of the ancient hero Robert the Strong. He travels the world of Gielinor with his girlfriend Neite, although he generally returns to his human Unferth's house every week. Like all cats, his speech can only be understood through the use of the Amulet of Catspeak.

As Bob likes to wander the world, he has one of the largest wander radius of all NPCs in the game, spawning in his human Unferth's house in Burthorpe every time there is a system update, but after which he is able to wander anywhere that is not restricted by physical boundaries, being able to wander to far away places such as Varrock and Port Sarim. It is possible to locate Bob by using the Amulet of Catspeak after it is enchanted in A Tail of Two Cats which, when operated, will open a menu that looks like a cat's face: Bob can be found in the direction that the white coloured dial is pointing.

Personality
Bob is a quite sadistic and cruel cat, having a particular distaste for dogs, advising people to "preserve nature" by pickling them. He also claims to have banished dogs from the land, although he appears to be boasting, as dogs are still commonplace. Bob also claims to dislike monsters, even claiming to be a member of the Humans Against Monsters cult, despite being a cat. Although supposedly a member of H.A.M, it would seem he does not take it quite as far as some of the other members, even being friends with the ogre hunter Rantz and even the King Black Dragon

He is also quite vain, believing that cats are the most superior creatures in the universe that rule over everything else. He claims to be the true ruler of Gielinor, claiming he only lets Grand High Mage Gower believe he is in charge.

Bob believes himself to be quite adept at combat, claiming to be able kill the player in one hit, and his girlfriend Neite claims that he often spends time hunting noobs in the Wilderness.

Although humans believe that they keep cats as pets, Bob claims that things are the other way around, saying that Unferth is his pet human.

He also hints that he may be Zaros, although he seems to be joking. Azzanadra states Bob isn't Zaros, and that cats shouldn't be believed on that matter.

Love Life
Bob is hinted to have had a relationship with Fluffs in the past, as Fluffs describes the father of her kittens as an adventurous cat who wanders the world. Bob himself confirms this, claiming to be the father of all cats owned by the player.

For some time, he had been pining for a cat known as Neite, a former human priestess of Amascut that had been turned into a cat thousands of years ago. While Neite did reciprocate Bob's feelings towards her, she prided in her knowledge of the family trees of cats. As Bob himself had no recorded ancestors, which worried her, and as she only involved herself with cats who had family or status, she rejected him. After Bob was revealed to be the reincarnation of the human hero Robert the Strong by the Sphinx, Neite and Bob started a relationship together, and Neite began travelling around Gielinor with Bob.

In the care of Gertrude
Bob's origins are unclear. While it is known that he is the reincarnation of Robert the Strong, a legendary hero from the Fourth Age, the exact nature of this reincarnation or how it would take place is unknown.

Where Bob was born is unknown, as is the exact date of his birth, but at some point during the Fifth Age, Gertrude Fairweather, a Varrockian lady who regularly takes care of sick and abandoned animals, found a basket with a kitten inside on her doorstep, and the kittens collar identified the kitten as being named Bob. Gertrude took Bob in, looking after him while he was still a kitten bringing him up as best she could.

Exploring Gielinor
Bob soon learnt to take care of himself however, and Bob left Gertrude, eventually coming into the "care" of a Burthorpian man named Unferth, although Bob believes himself to be caring for Unferth instead. He was attracted to Unferth due to the house he lived in, which was in actuality located above Robert the Strong's ancient library.

As Bob, like most cats, is rather independent, contrary to what some humans think, he began to travel the world, only returning to Unferth once a week in order to take care of him, clean the house, and to eat his food.

On his travels, which had taken him to places as far away as the Feldip Hills and Sophanem, Bob became acquainted and even befriended many notable and influential people, including King Roald Remanis II. According to Bob, they used to chat all the time in the past, apparently about things such as the White Knights of Asgarnia, who Bob believes to be far more complicated than they appear. Bob also met and befriended an ogre hunter known as Rantz on his travels through the Feldip Hills, and speaks highly of his hunting abilities. Finally, Bob also became friends with the ancient king of the black dragons at some point, as according to Bob, the "old king" and he go way back.

Romance with Neite
In year 169 of the Fifth Age, Bob did not return home one week, and his "owner" Unferth became extremely worried about him. Not wanting to leave the house to search for Bob in case he came home, Unferth enlisted the help of an adventurer and their pet cat (who happened to be Bob's son) to aid in searching for him. The adventurer, with the aid of Unferth's friend Hild, was able to create an enchanted amulet of catspeak, and used it to locate Bob.

When the adventurer and their cat found Bob and told him that Unferth had been looking for him, Bob told them that he had fallen in love with a cat from Sophanem named Neite, and that he hadn't returned home because he wanted to be alone. Bob told them that while Neite did have feelings for him, she rejected him as Bob didn't have any family or status. When the adventurer's cat enquired about Bob not knowing who his parents were, Bob informed them that all he knew is that Gertrude found him on her doorstep one day, and being in the care of Gertrude is the furthest back he could remember.

On the cat's suggestion, the adventurer went to talk to Gertrude to see if she knew who Bob's parents were, but Gertrude told them that she knew nothing of them, just repeating what Bob said about finding him on her doorstep. The cat, wondering if this had anything to do with an old legend, asked his human companion to ask Gertrude about Robert the Strong, and Gertrude advised them to speak with Reldo in the Varrock Palace library. When the adventurer asked Reldo about Robert the Strong, Reldo told them that Robert was a legendary hero of Asgarnia from the Fourth Age, who, with his faithful panther Odysseus, fought the Dragonkin, a vicious race of bird-like creatures who created dragons.

The cat, thinking it odd that nobody knew where Bob came from, and suspecting that Bob was in fact Robert the Strong, asked Bob if he was Robert, but Bob just told them he had never heard of Robert before and he knew nothing of Odysseus or the Dragonkin either. The cat, suspecting that the Sphinx of Sophanem may be able to help Bob access his memories of Robert by hypnotising him, went to chat with the Sphinx in Sophanem.

When the pair asked the Sphinx for help, she told them that she had long suspected that Bob's appearance belied his true nature, as he had a mark of power on him, and agreed to help them, and brought the pair into the desert, where the Sphinx summoned Bob. The Sphinx proceeded to hypnotise Bob, and told him to think back to his earliest memories, and Bob was able to recall a memory of Robert, where he and Odysseus stormed a dark tower inhabited by one of the Dragonkin. After a short skirmish, resulting in the death of Odysseus, Robert managed to defeat the Dragonkin, and Bob awoke from his hypnosis.

Upon being told that he was indeed Robert the Strong, the adventurer's cat convinced the Sphinx to summon Neite, and when she was informed that Bob had been Robert the Strong in a past life, the pair began a relationship, and the two love cats decided to travel the world. Bob, charging the adventurer with taking care of Unferth while he was away, took Neite on many adventures, where, among other things, they "borrowed" a magic carpet in Sophanem (and proceeded to get lost), visited Bob's "old friend" the King Black Dragon, and took a cruise on the Fishing Trawler.

After Bob and Neite return from their adventures, Bob returns to Unferth and Bob rewards the adventurer with an Advanced Combat Training Device (a mouse toy) and some Antique lamps. Bob then resumes wandering the world, now accompanied by Neite.

Locating Kethsi
After witnessing an attack on the pirate island of Mos Le'Harmless during a mission for the Temple Knights, the adventurer began investigating them, and found a note from Robert the Strong within the Temple Knight archives reading "To learn the secrets of the dragonkin, the stonetoucher must first take the collar from my reincarnation. On it is the code to the plane of Kethsi and the key to the puzzle one he/she gets there.". When they talked to Bob and asked for his collar, after explaining that with it they would possibly be able to find out more about his history, Bob was happy to give them his collar.

The adventurer found that the Fairy ring code "DIRAKS" was written on the back of the collar, which they then used to access the realm of Kethsi. On Kethsi, the adventurer found a series of items left for them by Robert, including a note from Robert to the adventurer which gave the adventurer instructions to give a necklace from Robert's sweetheart, Ilsinor and note from robert to himself (both of which were also found on Kethsi) to Robert, but 'not as a cat'. When these items were shown to Bob, he was just as clueless about them as the adventurer, although the necklace briefly instigated some jealously from Neite, who thought that Bob was having an affair, before being calmed down after being told the necklace was from Robert the Strong's sweetheart, not Bobs.

Locating the Ilujanka
Shortly after the dawn of the Sixth Age, which began with the death of Guthix at the hands of the Mahjarrat Sliske, the Red dragon scholar Mr. Mordaut found a journal giving details onto the location of the last Dragon rider, Hannibus, whichwas supposedly in Robert the Strong's library. Mr. Mordaut tasked the adventurer with searching for the library, and as such the Adventurer went to find Bob to ask if he knew.

While Bob did not know the location of the library due to possessing no conscious memory of his time as Robert the Strong, he did tell the adventurer that he had always been attracted to Unferth's house, specifically the ground floor, and told them to go and make sure Unferth was keeping it clean. The adventurer then proceeded go and search the house for the library, wrecking the house in the process, before finally finding it and freeing Hannibus from his stone prison inside.

Trivia

 * Bob's conversation with player's cats is most likely a reference to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, where it is revealed that Luke Skywalker is Darth Vader's son, and they have a similar conversation. Furthermore, when Bob says "I am your Father," you can hear the sound of Darth Vader's respirator.
 * Bob is based on a now deceased cat that Mod Mark, RuneScape's lead designer, used to own. Mark has stated that Bob started out as a bug.
 * When speaking to Bob during A Tail of Two Cats, he mentions the line "Love lies not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is the winged Cupid painted blind." This line is a play on the line "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.
 * On the notice board for the 2011 Halloween event, Bob has a message on it which is barely readable. This is ironic, as the information sign nearby said that there were "Absolutely no lost cat messages allowed!". Although just a guess, and probably not going to be confirmed, it appears to say something along these lines: "Lost! A human by the name of Unferth. If found, please return to Burthorpe."
 * Bob was previously able to travel much farther, to places like Varrock, Yanille and the Wilderness. But due to various updates, he was confined to Asgarnia and a small part of Misthalin. With the removal of some border guards with the release of The Bird and the Beast, he can once again visit the majority of Misthalin.
 * Bob's friendship with the King Black Dragon can be considered somewhat ironic, as Robert the Strong slew many Dragonkin, who were the creators of Dragons.

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