Friday the 13th may conjure up thoughts of bad luck, from walking under a ladder, breaking mirror, or crossing paths with a black cat, but it doesn’t have to. As nonsensical as all superstitions are, they remain ingrained, with 70% of people being superstitious about something. Let’s give black cats a break.
It’s time to shine a light on black cats in 5 fabulous ways. The only unlucky break surrounds black cats languishing in shelters because of superstitions.
At the root of all Friday the 13th superstitions is the fear of the unknown, the different, the mysterious.
Most people don’t even know the origins surrounding the number 13. Some think it stems from the betrayal of Judas, the 13th disciple of Jesus. But, long before Christianity, Norse mythology had a similar dinner guest, the Norse god Loki.
Hello, that was thousands of years ago. Times change. Now, black cats:
1) Win contests like:
Marten the black cat @peculiarpanther from California who won the Modern Cat Magazine Star Cat contest and will appear in the Spring/Summer issue, out April 17.
2) Kill with cuteness like:
Baby Raven, a fluff nugget currently being fostered by Serena Boleto @veggiedayz and available for adoption in the Philadelphia area mid May.
3) Beat the Friday the 13th odds like:
Clyde, my own mini panther, who wound up returned at age 16 to PAWS, the shelter where he was adopted as a kitten. Luckily the shelter has a return policy to accept surrenders no matter what. Clyde’s odds of being adopted—black, old, and specially abled—were three strikes against him.
He’s now 18 and doing surprisingly well. He happily rules the roost and is coddled 24/7. Clyde shows it’s never too late for second chances, and he advocates for black cat adoption at his blog on Mondays at Cat Wisdom 101. He is a contributing author of the award-winning book Black Cats Tell All: True Tales and Inspiring Images. Watch him make another award announcement in June.
4) Black cats attract clever and creative owners like:
Sara Iyer, who co-hosts the pawsome podcast Purrrcast @thePurrrcast. Oprah even selected it as on of her top three pet podcasts. Sara’s panther muse is the exceptionally clever Samba. Read his exclusive Q & A. at Cat Wisdom 101.
And, speaking of clever, one black cat is so smart he helps train other cats. Meet Jones, the teaching assistant for Julie Posluns of @cat.school
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXxjEbxAkav/
5) Tickle our funnybones like:
Sophie the Model and her brother from another mother, Brad, AKA Bradley Pooper @Sophie_the_model Their hilarious antics dished out twice daily entertain legions of fans.
And maybe the luckiest black cat of all?
Cole of Cole and Marmalade, who is cute, funny, clever, an award winner, who beat the odds from an unfortunate beginning to international Internet fame.
From kitten to cat!
Bonus: Black shelter cats who get adopted this week will feel very lucky indeed.
May we suggest you check out your local shelter or cat cafe? If adopting isn’t possible, kitten season is here and neonatal foster providers are needed everywhere.
by Layla Morgan Wilde
~Layla Morgan Wilde is a cat expert, advocate, author and founder of Cat Wisdom 101. Read Cole’s story and other amazing black cat stories in her award-winning nonprofit book Black Cats Tell All:True Tales And Inspiring Images. Available on Amazon. Follow Layla at @catwisdom101 and her black cat community on Instagram @blackcatsofIG
I love black cats, their fur often shines like black satin, and since I´m not suPURRsticious they also don´t mean bad luck to me, my (c)attitude is: #BlackCatsAreAdorableMiniPanthersNotBadLuck!!! Many of Gizzy, Thori, Angel Sisi´s and my kitty furriends´re black, like Marten Rich, Cole from Cole & Marmalade, Wycleff Frank Big Dude, Tumbelina, Angel Homer Blind Wonder Cat, now also Angel Fubu, Moose The Cleft Palate Kitty and more, our family “only” had one black kitty, a Bombay mix named Mutz, long story, he disappeared at the age of only 4 years in October 1988, only 2 years after we had adopted him from my sister and her then boyfriend who had bottle-raised him after the (then) boyfriend had found him abandoned in their garage, with his lil eyes still closed, so he´d been younger than 10 days, unFURtunately he and my sister had to work longer again then and – in spite of having been neutered – Mutz had started spraying/marking in their whole appartment, so our family adopted him then at the age of 2 in 1986… Probably Mutz became a victim of some occult group that´s been around in our quarter then, like a semi-longhaired black cat (who looked like Cole) and a dark grey cat that I found while searching for Mutz, or better what´s been left of them, no details here, we never found out what happened to Mutz, several advertisments in the newspaper, several calls at the local shelter, my search and requests in the neighbourhood, asking the bus drivers, the dustmen, a mobile baker and people I knew from walking a pup from the neighbourhood didn´t lead to any result!!!