Would you Cross the Road if you saw a Black Cat?

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Would you Cross the Road if you saw a Black Cat? Posted On 27 October 2021

Celebrate the beauty of Black Cats this October

Black cats have suffered a bad rep, with superstition and folklore around the world playing a huge part in this. Black cats in rescue centres take on average 7 days longer to be rehomed than their furry friends of other colours. National Black Cat Day was started by Cats Protection in 2011 to try to change this superstition and celebrate the beauty of black cats. Now this day occurs once a year on 27^th October

The hard work of Cats Protection and the yearly Black Cat Day has helped to boost the profile of these gorgeous creatures, but this celebration needs to continue to ensure these deserving creatures in rescue centres find their forever homes. One way to get involved is through social media using the #BlackCatDay. Or, if you think you have the purrfect home to share with a feline companion, visit Cats Protection to find out how to adopt a cat. If adoption is one step too far, why not remember why black cats are so great by celebrating a famous black cat in popular culture? You could watch Salem in ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’, Snowball in ‘The Simpsons’ or Sylvester in ‘Looney Tunes’.

But when did all the bad press begin? The superstition and supposedly ‘bad omen’ status surrounding black cats has been around for a long time. In 1232, a 13^th century Latin church document details Pope Gregory IX first suggesting black cats were associated with Satan. Then, in 1843, Edgar Allen Pope published his story ‘The Black Cat’, detailing a murderer carefully concealing a crime. Jump forward to 1880 and the colour black has become associated with anarchism. The black cat in alert, fighting stance is later adopted as an anarchist symbol. It’s not all bad news for black cats though, attitudes towards them are definitely starting to shift, in fact in 2016, the black cat Gladstone achieved the position of chief Mouser to the Treasury in the United Kingdom.

So, remember, if you’re a fan of the beautiful black cat, shout it from the rooftops, or at least from your social media platform this Black Cat Day.