use v5.12;
use warnings;
use Data::Dump qw/pp dd/;

my $txt = <<'___';
cat
dog
cat
mouse
eel
cat
housecat
catamaran
fish
___


say 'm-pos:', pos($txt) while $txt =~ m/cat/g;


my $cnt=1;

while ($txt =~ s(cat)($cnt)x) {
    say "s-pos:", pos($txt) // "undefined";
    $cnt++;
}

say $txt;