I’m sure you are all familiar with the various superstitions that surround black cats (and black animals of all kinds for that matter) originating deep in the mists of time when our ancestors (bless them) were a bit more gullible.
We all know now that those superstitions are nonsense but our enlightenment has still not made things much easier for the poor maligned black cat.
Did you know that black cats have the lowest adoption rates and highest euthanasia rates than any other colour cat? It’s true!
People, we CAN NOT let this stand!
We’ve got to enlighten the masses!
Black cats are awesome, lovable, beautiful, and intelligent creatures…in fact it is my opinion that no home should be without one!
So without further ado, let me tell you the top 10 reasons why your next kitty should be an adopted black cat from an animal shelter near you!
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- You can always find your black cat in the snow.
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2. Black goes with everything!
Model and Actress Paulina Porizkova...she looks great in black..er.. cat :O)
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3. Black cats look like little panthers. Their regal breeding is very apparent.
Black panther
vs.
black kitten
See…you can barely tell them apart!
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4. A black cat will match any décor. You won’t have to redecorate our house to coordinate with your cat.
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5. Black is Beautiful.
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6. Bad luck? When you love a black cat, luck is on his side!
One black cat? …very lucky!
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Four black cats? You do the math!
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7. Black cats have more fun. You only thought blondes had more fun.
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8. Black cats are loving. Look, they know their reputation…scary. They’ve seen illustrations…skinny cats with nasty long teeth and frizzed out black tails, so they go overboard to be as affectionate and loving as any fluffy white, pink-nosed bunny kitty ever could be.
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9. Love knows no colour! Your black cat doesn’t care what colour YOUR hair is!
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10. And the number 1 reason to adopt a black cat is:
Black cats are the least likely to get adopted.
Well there you have it, so what are you waiting for? Run, don’t walk…ok you can drive…down to your local shelter and find your purrfect new black friend!
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This post was inspired by a pamplet that I got from Stevens County Care Care Clinic, the wonderful organisation which offers monthly low-cost cat spay/neuter clinics in Stevens Country, Wa. Here’s a link to their website, check them out! Really good people!
A short time after I lost my beloved Siamese, I decided to get a new kitten, and went to the shelter. Well, the only kitten they had (it was just after Halloween a year ago) was this little black thing, so I adopted him. I’m pretty sure he was feral, because he was found wandering along a street, and too young (maybe 4 or 5 weeks) to be separated from his mother. So I took him, and he’s still a work in progress — at first, I couldn’t even touch him without his biting and scratching, and now I can pet him freely, and we are working on being held. I have exactly NO regrets about adopting this little hobo — and he has a forever home. I wish all feral kittens, of any color, could be neutered and adopted — they’re harder to work with than kittens from pet or pedigreed mothers, who have been handled from birth, but very worth it!
Wonderful story Natalie! It does sound like he was feral. When we find young kittens in our feral cat work, we bring them into the shelter, or preferably, we place them into foster homes, and work to tame them so they are adoptable and don’t have to rough it on the streets like the other ferals do. It is challenging work but very rewarding! We are always looking for those special people who will foster these wild kittens and tame them.
I love black cats! When I first moved out on my own, I didn’t have any cats for a long time. I traveled too much and was never home. However… on one of my trips, the friend I was visiting was away for the day, I was bored and hungry, so went down to get something to eat. I wound up deciding to get junk food at the supermarket. On the way in were two boys and a box… I should have kept right on walking! LOL! Inside were three kittens – an orange and white, a gray polydactyl tabby and a black ball of fur. No, no, noooooo! I live in NY! (this was California) and ran inside. Well, I couldn’t just leave them, so decided to take them all if they were still there when I got out. A young woman was taking the orange and white one and I took the tabby and black ones. The one I named Casey, the black one, is to this day, nine years later, my baby. Gorgeous long haired girl.
About 4 years later, I got into rescue, when the Port Authority at JFK airport where I work started rounding up all the cats. That in itself is a VERY long story, but it got me involved with a couple of rescue groups. From there I found out about a feral colony near where I lived. I wound up becoming their primary caretaker, fixing the new arrivals and getting out over 30 cats and kittens that were either born or dumped there over the next few years. Many of them were black. And let me tell you, some of the most awesome cats EVER. There was a tuxedo mama that I tried to get before she gave birth, but… I got her babies when they were already five months old and they were the best! One was all black and adored by his new mama. No socializing needed for any of the three. One of them had an injured eye that needed removing and he took it in stride. His new mama adores him too. I kept the third one.
I didn’t ge her until she was almost a year old and pregnant. 
One of her babies was all black and looked like a teddy bear. So I named him Teddy. Adopted with one of his sisters.
Several other black cats were rescued over the years and all were wonderful. About 3 months ago 3 black kittens showed up, about 4 months old and I was able to just pick them up and put them in carriers. They were the most loveable cats ever. We’ve adopted out the two girls and the boy is waiting for his forever home. A day or two later a fourth kitten showed up, but I couldn’t get near her. She would run around crying for food, but when I got close, would hiss, growl and swat the plate of food out of my hand! Wouldn’t go in a trap either. Well, just the other day, I brought a nearly empty bag of food over to the fence where I was going to pour it onto plates. I put it down and she walked all the way in! I figured if she did that, she just might go into the carrier I had in the car. And she did! On the way home she actually rubbed up against the bars of the carrier and let me pet her! I put her in a cage in my large bathroom and she rubbed up and down along the door. I opened the cage to put in food and she came out, rubbed against me and curled up on my lap. Got her fixed and vetted yesterday. She’ll be up for adoption soon!
Thank you so much for sharing Norma! Those kitties are very lucky to have a guardian angel like you, to care for them. It sounds like you have the magic touch of a natural kitty tamer
Keep up the fantastic work! It is so needed and so rewarding!
Oh! and two of my favorite black cat rescues from my colony were Cole and Purrito. Cole didn’t even want to eat when he first showed up, he just wanted me to pet him and would rub around my legs, tripping me up constantly! Just picked him up and put him in a carrier.
Purrito was a little thing that would hang back and sit all alone inside the fence, not being allowed to eat until the others were done. He finally started coming out and sitting under the bush near where I would feed. I’d put down a plate of food for him and he wouldn’t move, so I tried petting him and he let me! I’d scratch under his chin and could feel him purring so wound up picking him up and into a carrier he went! He had the cutest little purring chirp ever, thus the name.
The sad thing is that they sat at the Petco I volunteered a for NINE MONTHS without one single application for either of them!
Cole would curl up on my lap and purr and greet customers to no avail. Purrito would chirp and do a cute little dance in his cage too. Finally one day they both got wonderful applications a few days apart. Woo hoo! lol!
Oh, I can imagine how heartbreaking it must have been to see those poor babies sitting in their cages day, after day, after day. We know exactly how that feels! But then someone special comes along and all of a sudden, their lives are changed forever!