One of my earliest memories of when I was growing up was of my Grandparents cat. He was a big fluffy black cat by the name of Dusty. Being a boy he was not the type of cat to sit on your knee being fussed over, but I loved him to bits. He was just such a beautiful cat and he did come and sit next to me on a day when I had hurt my knee and was in a lot of pain, his show of sympathy meant a lot of me!
Because I have such good memories of a black cat I found it quite sad to learn that once they find themselves in rehoming centres black cats tend to take twice as long to be rehomed than other cats and make up a quarter of the number of cats waiting to be rehomed
There are some adopters who will actively seek out a black cat but these are in the minority as some people still believe the old wives tale that black cats are unlucky. People also tend to associate black cats with witches
In the fifteenth century women who practised healing and and magic kept "familiars" usually black cats that many people wrongly believed were demonic spirits that could shape shift into the form of a cat. Consequently these beautiful animals were often tortured and killed in witch trials along with their owners. Sometimes just owning a black cat was seen as sufficient evidence to accuse an innocent person of practising devil worship and witchcraft
Sadly many people use these old superstitions to persecute black cats even today. A lot of people believe that some misfortune will befall them if they associate themselves with a black cat
I hope that by adding this page to my site it will help people to realise that these ancient superstitions have no place in the twentyfirst century so that this nonsense will be put to one side for good and just maybe there will not be so many abandoned black cats in animal shelters in the future!
