A black cat just crossed my path...

[WilyKit]

I don't need any more signs like this, 2020! I wouldn't have thought twice about this before but I feel all superstitious and spooked now. Funny how things like this suddenly seem to take on so much meaning when your in crisis! 🐈‍⬛

Oh they are beautiful. I miss cats, my last one was run over a few years ago and I was too heartbroken to get another. But maybe it's time. Thanks, beautiful black cat! 🐈‍⬛

Definitely lucky. And I think, a sign that you need a black cat in your life
It will all be ok @WilyKit

If you're getting a cat, do get a black cat. They're so beautiful but for some reason they are apparently the most difficult for rescues to find homes for. I have had two black boys and they are the most affectionate cats in the world.

Plenty of examples of how black cats are supposed to bring luck if you’re one for the superstitions.

Poor wee things got thoroughly caught up in (European & colonial) early-modern human idiocy over witches; & now they’re suffering from not only the dregs of associated negative beliefs, but great eejits not adopting them because they (supposedly) don’t photograph as well. If you’re after adopting a pet ~FoR tHe AeStHeTiC~ you’re not fit to own one to my mind... Cats Protection have been working like mad on National Back Cat Day (27th October) for the last 10 years to try to improve adoption rates for black - & more recently, black & white - cats.

As PPs have said, only possible meaning, beyond your having seen a cat going about its [un]lawful occasions, is that you need to get yourself a black cat. Or two. I’d advocate for two...

(Worrying lack of Cat Tax on this thread I note, incidentally, please allow me to do something about that...)

(To be clear, OP, not calling you an idiot for believing in superstition; ire directed wholly at raging misogyny of the witch trials on flimsy justification of “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” & shifting models of womanhood. Well, with Iceland as the outlier, where they went for a very different model of persecution; but then they also had a very different model of magic & sets of superstitions. Mostly though, raging [internalised] misogyny & EPIC othering with yet more [Professional] Men Claiming Women’s [Traditional] Spaces/Roles. And purity spiralling. We didn’t invent those...

So yes, was referring strictly to historical idiocy. I’ve a propensity for getting surprisingly cross about the past )

@TheBalletCats Proof right there of how well they photograph.

Black cats are lucky, single magpies on the other hand-one for sorrow, 2 for joy....

@draughtycatflap

Black cats are just cats. It is wrong to attribute superstitious nonsense to them. It has a real effect on their well being. Black cats are usually the last in a litter to be picked in cat charities because of human stupidity.

I read fairly recently that it was that they don't photograph very well for social media

I LOVE black cats...at one stage in my life I had 5 living with me and they were so different in looks

@Prokupatuscrakedatus

Depends if it went into your past (left) or into your future (right) or so superstition says (lower Rhine area, so may be different somewhere else)

That's interesting! I never heard that before (and really don't need to add to my list of superstitions).

OP, I count black cats as lucky. I had one on my path today as I went for a run (going to my right!) and also saw 5 magpies all flying together. So I'm going to be exceptionally lucky and win the lottery I think. Or something.

@SantasBritchesSpelleas

If you're getting a cat, do get a black cat. They're so beautiful but for some reason they are apparently the most difficult for rescues to find homes for. I have had two black boys and they are the most affectionate cats in the world.

Same for black dogs.

I also heard it was because they both don't photograph well on social media! (I have a black dog).

@SantasBritchesSpelleas
And those really are just random photos I grabbed from my phone. My black cat is a wee bit camera shy & also has a habit of deciding to smoosh his face into my phone just as I’m taking a picture...

My first childhood cat was a little black cat, she was amazing. Stupid, neurotic, demanding and a thief but affectionate and loving - I still miss her after 30 years.

Still remember her stealing the pork chop right off my grandad's plate, it happened in slow motion and he went apeshit 😅

I want a black cat. I've wanted one for years (partly because we had a lovely one when I was a child, partly because there's so many in cat rescues and partly because they're beautiful as all cats are ) but life keeps giving me tabbies. I take in cats that need rehoming when I hear of one that will be going to a rescue if no-one takes it. 30 years of taking unwanted cats (7 of them) - you'd have thought there would have been one black cat.

Definitely good luck.

It's such a shame that black cats are seen as unlucky. it is an absolutely ridiculous superstition that means black cats are far less likely to be adopted.

I had an absolutely beautiful black cat, who we sadly lost to bladder cancer earlier this year. He was my shadow, he followed me everywhere. He was the sweetest boy, and so affectionate from the first time we visited him at the RSPCA. He had been there for months, due to ridiculous black cat superstition.

Absolutely good luck! (But I love cats so any cat crossing my path would be good luck 🐈‍⬛)

Its good luck not bad our last 3 have been black lost out old boy last year but still have mother and son 😊

Some gorgeous photos by the way. And Tofus I’m so so sorry 😢 what an absolute beauty xx

This has turned into a black cat appreciation thread and I love it, black cats are awesome! Here's my two ebony sisters Dee Dee and Dottie. Lots of nose boops to your kitties

What beautiful cats @TheBalletCats ! I agree, the sign is: adopt! And your boy was gorgeous @tofuschnitzel - so sorry you lost him ❤️

@Kittyninja ❤️❤️

Please stop with this superstitious nonsense about the colour of a cat!
I have a black cat and had another that sadly passed away a few months ago. They were both strays that I adopted and the colour of their fur had no relevance to how gorgeous and loveable they both were.
Black cats are less likely to be adopted because of these superstitions and more likely to be hurt around Halloween time.

I have five black cats.
Very unlucky in the litter tray department. No gold nuggets.

@ThisAintNoPartyThisAintNoDisco

Some gorgeous photos by the way. And Tofus I’m so so sorry 😢 what an absolute beauty xx

Thank you, he was so lovely x

I wish he could have stayed a bit longer.

@tofuschnitzel
I’m so sorry for your loss - he was an absolutely gorgeous cat & to be without such a loving wee soul must be very hard. To have given him a safe & loving home even though it wasn’t for as long as you’d hoped for is a huge thing though - & one of the biggest things we can give the animals we love is a dignified death feeling safe & loved.

@Kittyninja
Dee Dee & Dottie are gorgeous - my ballet cats are littermates, the vet thinks half brothers, as the litter had 3 black kittens, 2 marmalade & my blond boy, who’s darkened into strawberry blond/the sandy sort of ginger. I got them at 8 weeks old, having expected to go through a rescue - a guy near me had minded the unexpected-attic-kittens & their mummy rather than risk aggro with a neighbour over taking their cat to a rescue, but he was massively struggling by 6 weeks... so I ended up with 2 loft!kittens directly rather than via a rescue centre - or rather, I ensured they ended up in a good home. They chose to be indoor cats & they are waited on paw & er paw...

@WilyKit
You realise this thread is now for keeping us updated about getting your black cat[s]/kitten[s], right?
More seriously, I hope that you’re feeling reassured & generally less wobbly than earlier. Did something else happen to make you so worried about the cat? If you’re generally-genuinely finding you’re experiencing much more anxiety than usual it might be worth going to your GP &/or self-referring to IAPT (if you’re in England).