diff --git a/news/is_3661.rst b/news/is_3661.rst
index c0d7041aa..8f860bcb8 100644
--- a/news/is_3661.rst
+++ b/news/is_3661.rst
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
   When multiple interpreters are in PATH, 'py' will choose the first one (usually in the virtual environment),
   but 'py -3' finds the system-wide one, apparently by design.
 
+* For xonsh-cat, avoid parsing and processing first (0'th) argument when invoked directly from OS shell.  
+
 
 **Security:**
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 01ffdd95f..54fbb1342 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ def main():
         "pytest11": ["xonsh = xonsh.pytest_plugin"],
         "console_scripts": [
             "xonsh = xonsh.main:main",
-            "xonsh-cat = xonsh.xorutils.cat",
+            "xonsh-cat = xonsh.xoreutils.cat:cat_main",
         ],
     }
     skw["cmdclass"]["develop"] = xdevelop
diff --git a/xonsh/xoreutils/cat.py b/xonsh/xoreutils/cat.py
index af45554a8..ebff16bfa 100644
--- a/xonsh/xoreutils/cat.py
+++ b/xonsh/xoreutils/cat.py
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def cat_main(args=None):
     from xonsh.main import setup
 
     setup()
-    args = sys.argv if args is None else args
+    args = sys.argv[1:] if args is None else args
     cat(args, sys.stdin, sys.stdout, sys.stderr)