I've read it a few times and I always processed it as "Le Chateau Fat" ("The fat castle"), which I guess also kinda works. I guess it is mostly because my french is so rusty I forgot (or maybe never learned?) what chaton meant.
Only model Pontifex considers a possibly conscious being. Obsessed with jumping in boxes with Cesium and some poison though, even escaped the litter box during testing, probably an alignment issue…