Black Cat Myths & More

Is there nothing more mysterious or beautiful than a black cat? We think so but black cats are the least likely to be adopted from shelters because of unfortunate and persistent myths. Our guest post by Stacey Pullian explores the good and bad myths in The Myth of the Infamous Black Cat.

It’s no myth! Cat Wisdom 101 is a finalist for a Pettie Award for Best Cat Blog.

The black cat has endured a great deal of fuss from human beings, who, across cultures and time, have often placed great significance on the natural color variation. It’s really no surprise that such a striking animal—the crescent eyes gleaming out of an inky shroud—draws our attention. Herman Melville devoted an entire chapter in Moby-Dick to “The Whiteness of the Whale,” marveling at the special terror a blank-white beast—like a polar bear, white shark, or, of course, a pale-form sperm whale—could inspire. There’s something about the starkness of a uniformly black or white animal that arrests the eye and, sometimes, triggers our mystical-leaning nerve.

Many cultures associate black cats with bad luck. There’s the widespread superstition—alive and well today in the U.S. and elsewhere—that a black cat darting across your path is akin to breaking a mirror or ducking under a ladder: a harbinger of misfortune. In parts of Europe, black cats were linked with witches and dark magic, a connection that not only sparked real persecution but also lives on, more innocuously, in modern Halloween iconography. The cartoon witch is rarely complete without her glowing-eyed, ebony “familiar,” alongside the broomstick and pointy hat.

In England, Scotland, and Ireland, black cats are often counted as good luck. That said, they may weigh more heavily on the public consciousness in the form of elusive, possibly apocryphal large felines free-roaming in more desolate parts of Britain. The “Beast of Exmoor” is only the most famous—or infamous—of the bunch. Reports of sightings often describe black-colored big cats along the lines of melanistic leopards, popularly called “black panthers.” While many observations may simply be the result of overactive imaginations or mistaken identity—particularly without a scale reference, a black housecat crossing a distant field can appear much larger than it actually is—the possibility of big cats on the loose (if not reproducing in the wild) isn’t so far-fetched: Plenty of leopards, pumas, and other species are maintained in captivity—legally or not—by exotic animal-keepers, and periodic escapes are a reality.

Despite the countless horror movies and Halloween cartoons,

black cats are certainly not universally associated with bad magic and misfortune. In places as geographically disparate as Great Britain and Japan, they may symbolize the opposite, and be cherished for it.

A seminal goddess worship of the Ancient Egyptians, Bastet or Bast, flourished and people kept the animals to curry favor from her. Bastet and other feline deities like the lioness goddess Sekhmet were held in high esteem, and honored in great, rowdy, often-drunken celebrations.

As with many superstitions, breaking down the specifics of portents can be a delicate endeavor: In many corners of the world, a black cat approaching you—as opposed to furtively crossing your path, and thus spelling trouble—is taken as a sign of good fortune. And the image of a defensively agitated black cat, as conceived by Ralph Chaplin for the Industrial Workers of the World, has also long been associated with workers’ rights.

Debunking persistent negative stereotypes about black cats isn’t just an academic exercise. Perhaps partly because of their supernatural reputation—as well as the fact they don’t always visually stand out in shadowy cages, especially against more flashily hued and patterned comrades—these animals are sometimes passed up at adoption shelters. A glossy, midnight-coated cat has no knowledge of our complicated symbolic and mythological associations with its genetically determined fur color; it’s unaware that, to some, its presence alone suggests impending tragedy and, to others, bountiful luck.

It certainly doesn’t deserve abandonment or the cold shoulder. Black cats may have more than just irrational human hysteria to worry about: Because they’re more conspicuous than their striped and spotted cousins—in daylight, anyhow—free-roaming individuals may be more vulnerable to predation from coyotes, owls, hawks, or wild felines.

Why not celebrate the inky beauty of the black cat—kith and kin to the melanistic leopard or jaguar, and a symbol not of evil but of beauty?