Ablack cat is adomestic cat with black fur. They may be a specificbreed, or a commondomestic cat of no particular breed. Most black cats have goldenirises due to their highmelanin pigment content. Black cats are the subject ofmythology, legend, and superstition. They are often associated withwitches and good or bad luck inEuropean folklore.
TheCat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 22 catbreeds that can come with solid black coats.[1] TheBombay breed is exclusively black.
Any cat whose fur is a single color, including black, is known as a "solid" or "self". A "solid black" cat may be coal black, grayish black, or brownish black. Most solid-colored cats result from a recessive gene that suppresses thetabby pattern. Sometimes the tabby pattern is not completely suppressed; faint markings may appear in certain lights, even on a solid black cat. A cat having black fur with white roots is known as a "black smoke".[2]
Black cats can also "rust" in sunlight, the coat turning a lighter brownish-red shade.[2] Eumelanin, the pigment required to produce the black fur, is somewhat fragile, so the rusting effect can be more pronounced in cats that frequently spend time in the sun. A rarer situation that can also cause rusting is a deficiency of the amino acidtyrosine, which is required to produce eumelanin.[3]
In addition to theBombay, theCat Fanciers' Association allows solid black as a color option in 21 other breeds. The color description for those breeds is:
The exceptions are:
The superstitions surrounding black cats vary from culture to culture, and black cats have positive associations in theCeltic nations and England, where a black cat crossing one's path is considered good luck.[5][6] In 2014, the animal welfare organisationRSPCA stated that "in UK folklore, black cats symbolise good luck".[7]Scottish lore holds that a black cat's arrival at a new home signifies prosperity, whileWelsh lore states that a black cat brings good health:
Cath ddu, mi glywais dd'wedyd,
A fedr swyno hefyd,
A chadw'r teulu lle mae'n byw
O afael pob rhyw glefyd.
A black cat, I've heard it said,
Can also charm,
And keep the family where it lives
From the grip of every kind of sickness.
TheGaels had traditions of feral and sometimes malevolent black cats.[citation needed] InScottish mythology, afairy known as theCat sìth takes the form of a black cat with a white spot on its chest.
Black cats are often a symbol ofHalloween orwitchcraft.
In the present day many Westerners, including Christian clergy, have black cats as pets, and very few people attach superstitions to them anymore.[9][10]
Sailors considering a "ship's cat" would want a black one because it would bring good luck.[11] Sometimes, fishermen's wives would keep black cats at home too, in the hope that they would be able to use their influence to protect their husbands at sea.
In thefolklore of Chiloé of southern Chile, black cats are an important element that is needed whentreasure hunting for the treasure of thecarbunclo.[12][13]
InJapan, black cats are good luck and are associated withManeki-neko.Scottish culture associates black cats with prosperity and the goddessBrigid. InLatvia, black cats on farms mean prosperity and a good harvest. InItaly black cats mean upcoming good luck. InGermany, a black cat walking left to right is good luck.[14] InThailand, black cats are considered auspicious and bring prosperity to their owners. According to theTamra Maew, a guidebook to cats from theAyutthaya period, there are as many as nine breeds of black cats.[15]
In the early days of television in the United States, many stations located onVHF channel 13 used a black cat as a mascot in order to make sport of being located on an "unlucky" channel number.
Since the 1880s, thecolorblack has been associated withanarchism. The black cat, in an alert, fighting stance was later adopted as ananarchist symbol.
More specifically, the black cat—sometimes called the "sab cat" or "sabo-tabby"[16]—is associated withanarcho-syndicalism, a branch of anarchism that focuses onlabor organizing, including the use ofwildcat strikes anddirect action tactics.
According toRalph Chaplin, who is generally credited with creating theInternational Workers of the World's black cat symbol, "My 'Sab Cat' was supposed to symbolize the 'slow down' as a means of 'striking on the job'," although others in the IWW used the symbol much more broadly.[17] In testimony before the court in a 1918 trial ofIndustrial Workers of the World leaders, Chaplin stated that the black cat "was commonly used by the boys as representing the idea ofsabotage. The idea being to frighten the employer by the mention of the namesabotage, or by putting a black cat somewhere around. You know if you saw a black cat go across your path you would think, if you were superstitious, You are going to have a little bad luck. The idea of sabotage is to use a little black cat on the boss."[18]
When theSpace Shuttle program naming system for missions was reworked to avoid a Space Transportation System (STS)-13, some sourced this to superstition andApollo 13.[20] The crew for what would have been STS-13 (which turned out to beSTS-41C) made a humorous mission patch that included a black cat and a number 13.[20] The mission was successful and even landed onFriday the 13th.[20]
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TheUK Government has adopted several cats fromBattersea Dogs & Cats Home asmousers.Gladstone is known as the Chief Mouser ofHM Treasury.[21]India, also known as Willie, was apresidential cat owned byGeorge W. Bush andLaura Bush who lived with them at theWhite House.[22]
Trim sailed withMatthew Flinders as he mapped the coastline of Australia between 1801 and 1803. Trim now accompanies him on several statues in Australia and England.[23]Hodge (fl.c. 1769) was a cat belonging toSamuel Johnson. Most of what is known about Hodge comes fromJames Boswell's biography and a statue of Hodge stands outsideDr Johnson's House.[24]
Oscar the "bionic" cat had his back legs sliced off by a combine harvester whilst sleeping in a field inJersey. He was flown to the UK and received prosthetic limbs in an operation in 2010.[25]
There is a common myth that black cats are the least likely to be adopted from animal shelters. This remains widely debated and studies have resulted in conflicting outcomes.[26][27]
Some shelters suspend or limit adoptions of black cats aroundHalloween[28] for fear they will be tortured, or used as "living decorations" for the holiday and then abandoned.[29][30][31] Despite this, no one has ever documented in the history of humane work any relationship between adopting black cats and cats being killed or injured. When such killings are reported, forensic evidence has pointed to natural predators, such ascoyotes,eagles, orraptors as the likely cause.[30] Limiting or suspending adoptions around Halloween also places more cats of all colors at risk of dying in shelters due to overcrowding.[32]
October 27 has been designated 'Black Cat Day' byCats Protection in theUnited Kingdom,[33] to celebrate the virtues of black cats and to encourage people to adopt an unwanted black cat. Cats Protection's own figures suggest that black cats are more difficult for them to find a new home for than other colors.[33] In 2014, theRSPCA reported that 70% of the abandoned cats in its care were black, saying that though black cats symbolise good luck in UK folklore, one reason for the high percentage of black cats in its care was that black cats tend not to photograph as well.[34]
In the United States, August 17 is "Black Cat Appreciation Day". Wayne H. Morris created the day in honor of his late sister, June, who had a black cat, Sinbad. The day was chosen in memorial of June's passing.[35][36][37]
In 2014Toronto, Canada's largest city, held an event onBlack Friday during which people could adopt a black cat without paying the usual $75 adoption fee, in order to encourage the adoption of black cats.[38] This trend has now spread across the United States, with many shelters offering free adoption of black cats on Black Friday.
With the success of the 2018 African-themedsuperhero film,Black Panther, there was a fad of adopting black domestic cats as pets and naming them after various characters of the film, such asT'Challa andShuri.[39] It has been observed that usually people were not going out of their way to follow this fad, but visited animal shelters to simply adopt a pet under normal circumstances and were inspired by theBlack Panther to adopt a black cat when they see one. Regardless, as much as this was a welcome development for pets that are difficult to get adopted, to reduce the chance of such cats being abandoned when the fad fades, reputable animal shelter personnel took the usual precautions of having potential adopters fill out questionnaires to weed out potentially abusive guardians and have them read literature about the needs and responsibilities of such a pet to dissuade the less conscientious.[40]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)A symbol for "sabotage" (i.e. inefficiency at the point of production by disgruntled workers), usually represented by a black cat with bared teeth. Also called "sab kitty", "sabo-tabby", or "the cat".
There is a common myth that black cats are the least likely to get adopted in animal shelters across the U.S. The data, however, does not bear this out. Black cats come into animal shelters more than any other color and black cats are adopted more than any other color cat!
Animal Services will be hosting a "cat adoption blitz" in honour of Black Friday. The $75 adoption fee will be waived from four different animal shelters across the city, as well as at a number of partner locations. The only cost to adopt a black cat will be a $15 license fee.
