There's a great early SciFi book by George R R Martin called "Tuf Voyaging". In one of the chapters he uses his spaceship "Seed Ship" to create a bunch of alien monsters for a planet that fights it wars through monster arena battles.   He create a large cat like creature called a "cobalcat", it has infared eyes, and psionic abilities.   Has this cat creature turned up in any of his other short stories?   I'm sure I can remember a story about a human manned spaceship that crashes? or lands on an alien planet. While there they come across one of these cats that tricks them into thinking its harmless and benign. But eventually kills them once they take off with it on the ship? I think thats how it goes. I'm a bit murky on the details. Any help would be great. Thanks.
Plot Summary/Details  A human spacecraft lands on an alien world.  I'm not sure if they are exploring, or touched down for repairs. The world is a foreboding place, and home to a vicious predator that somewhat resembles a panther, or other big terrestrial cat. The creature is quite cunning, and ambushes several crewmen when they are scouting the planet or doing some other activity that would have them isolated and away from the ship. It sticks in my mind the creature is very strong, and able to bite through the heavy spacesuits the men wear with ease.  The creature has an unusual nutritional requirement of some sort. As such, it doesn't eat its victims, but somehow drains them of a particular element or chemical substance. I can't remember what it is, though I think it had something to do with the skeletal structure of the men. Calcium, maybe?  I have only very general recollections of how the story ends/is resolved. The humans become aware of the threat, and I believe they ultimately slay the beast. I can't recall anything more specific than that, unfortunately.  Timeframe of Publication  This one is old, I'm sure of that. I can remember the writing style and some of the descriptions being very "old school" - spacemen, rocketship, that sort of thing. Almost like something you'd see in an old sci-fi movie serial, to use a film analogy. If I had to guess, I'd say 1950's at the latest.
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