Ode to the Black Cat

Yesterday was National Cat Day and tomorrow is Halloween so I see it fitting that on this day, sandwiched between the two, that I shall pay my respects to the black cat.

I never believed in superstitions and always felt sorry for black cats because people often hate then due to the possibility of them causing bad luck when they cross your path. I also own a black cat and she crosses my path all the time and so far nothing, if anything my luck has increased.

Another thing that prompted this posting was a recent interview actor Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon on AMC's The Walking Dead) did with USMagazine.com. He revealed 25 facts people/fans didn't know about him, and all are interesting but my particular favourite, and the one I can relate to, is number 17:

"17. My best friend is my cat."

 
 

And his cat is a black cat, and really adorable. I'm pretty sure if I ever met the guy I wouldn't talk about walkers or crossbows or even a pair of saints, I would talk about his cat.

But there are other famous black cats out there as well that we can't forget about.

Luna from Sailor Moon



Thackery Binx from Hocus Pocus
 


The Cat from Coraline
 


Salem from Sabrina, The Teenage Witch



Exotica from Cats
 



Black Cat from Marvel Comics



 
Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service 
 

In fact, Jiji was the reason my family got a black cat in the first place. We've always had at least one pet cat in the house, never more than two, and after our last one went missing we had a long period without a cat. When we finally decided to get another one my parents and I went to the local animal shelter and got to look at the different cats they had for adoption. Going in, my mum and I knew we wanted a black cat and when we voiced this to the worker she was surprised and explained how those were the ones never adopted, because of superstition.



The shelter had three black cats for adoption, I don't really remember the first one, the second one was a big male that immediately loved my dad so that one was the one we were going to get by that point, but we still wanted to see the third one. As we were walking to the holding room we walked passed the glass that had the final black cat in it but all we could see were these golden green eyes from inside a carpeted cat house following our every movement. Once inside the worker struggled to coax the cat out but once she did we saw this fairly small cat who was nervous and hesitant but still checked us out and immediately I started to bond with it.

My mum and I knew we had to have this cat, and we knew that if we ever got a black cat we would name it Jiji, but since this cat was a girl we changed the spelling to Gigi and we got her a red collar, just like the red bow the stuffed animal cat wears in the film. She has happily been living with us for almost four years now.



Black cats are not bad luck, they are sleek and elegant, adorable and creepy. The only problem you have to watch out for is black blankets on the sofa and walking around in the dark. My cat likes to play ninja and curl up into the black blankets we have on our sofa, she has been lightly sat on occasionally because we did not see her- we've gotten in the habit of checking before sitting. Additionally, she likes to follow me around the house, which is cute but I don't always turn lights on so sometimes she will be right in front of me and I'll walk right into her, I've gotten use to shuffling my way along in case she was there.



Also, they are really good at playing hide and seek, even better than the Pevensie's.























So not all black cats are bad, I'm sure there are the occasional cranky ones, but that applies to cats just in general. As far as the ones I know of, and own, they are just like any more cats. Only more awesome because when they stretch by arching their backs, it is a lot cooler than when other cats do it. She is our permanent Halloween decoration!




-Charlotte

And now some more pictures!