Josef is a tomcat that appears in Felipolis. He's the leader of a politicized group of communist cat named the "International Proletarian Union".
Appearance[]
He's a very old, large and fat cat with sapphire eyes and a ruined reddish-brown fur. His whole body is covered by scars and his tail is kinked, and due his age Josef has only a few remaining teeth.
Actions in Felipolis[]
Josef and his comrades, a band of mangy strays that follows the communist ideal, reach Domino's villa with the plan to obtain the inheritance of the she-cat to finance themselves and a general revolutionary movement.
At first Josef appears to be hostile toward Francis, calling him a "bourgeois cat" and meeting the critical irony of the detective. However, later Josef appears to be more friendly: he makes a speech about his plans for the money and despite criticism from an openly-aristocratic cats such as Sumra, Josef seems inclined to consider all the other cats as "comrades" even if they don't share his ideas.
Despite his age, Josef is the only one, along with Herlz, to save Francis and drag him out from a pool full of huge Koi fishes. Later, Josef leads his comrades into an even more dangerous and important mission and saves Francis when he's almost beaten to death by the human Marc Forster. The cats of the Proletarian Union come back to the villa to rescue Francis and bring him to his friends.
Francis is grateful for this, and dispatches Bluebeard to warn the Union to stay away from the villa to not further risk their lives. Francis's friend comes too late and finds the dead body of Josef and some others of his comrades, while the rest of the Union has left.
Fate and Legacy[]
It's revealed that the assassins, Clint and Smith&Wesson of the Felipolis, killed Josef. After their subsequent attempt to kill Francis fails, they commits suicide to not reveal the plans of their leader. Francis believes to see the spirit of the old cat after the death of the killers.
It's unknown if the Proletarian Union's survivors that fled elected a new leader or if they simply disbanded as group.
Name Meaning[]
Josef is named as clear reference to the Soviet dictator Josif Stalin. However, Francis realizes that the old cat is very different from his human counterpart: Francis even assumes that the agenda of Josef wasn't a true "world revolution" lead by cats, but, more realistically, his personal intent was giving a hope through political faith for the more disadvantaged stray cats.