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! 🐈‍⬛

What?? A BLACK cat! Too bad. Everyone knows that!

If it was a WHITE cat, on the other hand, perfect. Then get ready to win the lottery or receive a message from an angel.

I have three black cats, they cross my path and trip me up constantly

Here are the two youngest.

Adopted this five year old beauty in June, and she’s been wonderful for my lockdown mental health. Black cats are so loving and affectionate.

Thank you, @TheBalletCats, that is so kind of you to say.

It's lovely to see so many photos of wonderful black cats.

They can be unlucky if you need to do any ironing.

Thanks @TheBalletCats - I did think that! I broached the subject with my husband last night I feel very silly for overthinking the superstition in the moment but have been very cheered up by all the lovely cats on this thread! I think it's just that the world has become very small at the moment, yet with these big overhanging scary things. I'm in the same boat as everyone: job under threat, small kids to manage at the same time, not seen family for ages, some health stuff with my partner. When your world gets smaller there's less escape from these things somehow and everything takes on a significance it otherwise wouldn't. In short, I have become a bit doolally

@vanillandhoney
What a beautiful pair they are!

@Toilenstripes
That is an exceptionally contented-looking cat, which is so lovely to see in a relatively new adoptee who’s old enough to have learned caution & not so old they’re likely to Just Go With It. I’ve been shielding since the start of March like some kind of shielding hipster, yes & my cats absolutely make being stuck inside less grim. (They’re also very proud of themselves for FINALLY having trained me to stay indoors; my trips to the hospital being treated with an air of quiet resignation at my foolish wilfulness...)

@tofuschnitzel
You’re welcome. I wish there were something I could say that would actually make things better somehow - but I think it really matters grief for pets be acknowledged as real & (though I’m not fond of this usage of the word I can’t think of a better descriptor) valid. I’m not someone who’s had the luck not to know what some people would call “real” loss or grief - I just don’t think going around playing some kind of Top Trumps is helpful; & both sides need to be sensitive: however much you [as in one] loved your guinea pig, telling someone whose father has just died you know exactly how they feel is crass; but equally nobody should tell you “it was just a guinea pig, go & get another”. Full widows weeds for the hamster might mean one needs to examine what else is going on to prompt quite such a depth of feeling; but for a nation that talk up the animal lover thing (not sure if you’re in the UK, so observation may not be applicable) the British can be crashingly awful at allowing for that including grief at the death of them. (I don’t think people who grieve less are heartless or anything to be clear - everyone deals with death & grieves differently. There’s no moral high ground anywhere on the spectrum, it’s just people feeling & dealing differently. And that all got a bit long, sorry... )

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats
What is this ironing of which you speak? I’m always quite impressed by the division of labour between my cats when it comes to snuggling up on my clean laundry any chance they get: if it’s a light wash my black cat will be all over it; a dark one & my blond cat is on it. In both cases very much literally.

As further Cat Tax, I attach BalletKitten photos. People do still stop & admire them if they chance to see them perched on the sitting room windowsills (currently a rarity as I’m at home so they’ve no need to watch for me & they’re no longer as diverted by The World) but as kittens they’d attract actual crowds & people would take photos...

@WilyKit
I’m so sorry, I took so long writing my post that I cross-posted with you

Excellent news that you’re already moving on The Great Black Feline Adoption. Also excellent that this thread has helped... right things even a wee bit? You’re absolutely right that everyone’s having to deal with lots of things they wouldn’t usually & that does bring with it a feeling you’ve just to get on with it Because Everyone Is/It’s The Same For Everyone. But it’s still ok to ask for help, whether that’s coming on here or asking for more formal help. Or looking into one of the apps that are available now - I think the NHS even recommends some. Because things do stack up; & this time last year, if a friend had said to you that they were worrying about losing their job + they were feeling isolated because they could only see their family over Zoom + their partner wasn’t well + they were having childcare issues... that would’ve seemed Big, wouldn’t it? Just because suddenly it’s everyone it doesn’t lessen the mental/emotional impact of it - & people are feeling they can’t talk/complain about it because it’s so usual now; & because people are so quick to jump in with the fact that other people have lost family & businesses & homes, in that weird Top Trumps of “Kicking[s] Given By The Donkey Of Destiny”. I’m never sure what that’s meant to achieve, really - the Worst Off person isn’t exactly going to thank anyone for said display; & it’s rare, I fear that people self-absorbed enough to actually need the reminder people are dying so their diamond shoes pinching slightly is not a priority just now will actually gain any perspective - nor are they generally the people who get piled on.

I hope 2021 opens things back up for everyone & just starts to make things That Much Easier.

I hope you do get a lovely black cat :)

It is funny isn't it how we get more superstitious at times of crisis? I do it in early pregnancy (history of miscarriages) and when someone dies I start seeing things everywhere and get convinced that the person has "pointed me to notice it" or something. My mum's very spiritual so I suppose I go back to that old comforting thing even though I don't think much of it most of the time.

This reminds me of the same thing as well:

(It's a song "Laughing with" by Regina Spektor)

Black cats are the best! My Lucy loves to sun herself in the afternoons from the comfort of the sofa! She is about 14 years old now and I’ve had her 11 years, she came from a shelter having been dumped pregnant outside a vets surgery 😔 she had 5 kittens but then spent 2 and a half years in the shelter while all the kittens and other cats were adopted. I went with the intention of getting a kitten but spotted her and when I heard her story I could not leave her there any longer. She has been my best friend ever since 🖤🐈 🖤

@TheBalletCats thank you! I have a third one but he's fat and grumpy and doesn't appreciate me taking his photo

Black cats are amazing. This is my boy who I rescued as a kitten. No one wanted him because he is pure black so they were going to drown him.

@BerryPieandCustard
Lucy looks very regal there my father’s last cat was an older cat when she came to live with my stepmother & him, having been through more than one home & more than one rescue centre, reaching them with no teeth & no tail, but still the very sweetest nature. Current!cat is a tiny black & white girl, who they took from a family friend who’d rescued the dogs with whom said feline used to live. It was claimed by the original owner that the animals were inseparable, but the dogs were bullying what seemed to be a young kitten mercilessly. She turned out to simply be undersized, partly because the dogs would steal her food & partly because she’d obviously had at least one litter of kittens as soon as she physically could. She is the same age as my cats - perhaps even a wee bit older - & though she’s a healthier size than she was (& her neighbourhood Top Cat, plus scourge of the local frog population) my two are heaps bigger despite their not being “big” cats. Am so glad that your Lucy-cat found such a nice home with you: she was obviously waiting for Her Human to come along & recognise how awesome she is. Apologies for your lateness presumably accepted in the form of treats, snuggles & Favoured Toys

@vanillandhoney
As someone who hates having her photo taken, I am absolutely with Cat 3... (see, this photo of me I quite like... might need More Cat though... )

@Sideorderofchips
What a handsome boy! Am so glad you were able to rescue him. People who hurt animals want the same doing to them, frankly... When I was wee my granny had a black cat called Blue - Blue because when he arrived at her home as a tiny kitten he’d a blue sheen on his fur from the building-site oil drum my uncle (as a student in the 1970s) had managed to save him from. Rest of the litter & mummy cat were gone before my uncle got there, but he heard a mewling as he was cycling by & went to investigate, leading him to discover the tiny surviving kitten, who he tucked up in his bicycle basket & took to granny’s. My granny had always been a dog person, but had never owned one since she’d to have her beloved dog put down at the start of WW2 and the absolute shite I’ve seen talked about people that did that courtesy of xenophobic shit-stirring is enraging, yes but she absolutely treasured that cat. Despite his propensity for shredding her tights. He must have been about 20 when he died...
It genuinely scares me to think people could still think of drowning unwanted animals. Ugh. Boo humans. (On a species level. See this thread for lots of lovely individual ones, obviously.)

@TheBalletCats it’s one of her favourite positions to sit, my daughter call’s her Queen Lucy when she does it!

@TheBalletCats here's one of him I found from several months ago - I probably manage to get two photos of him a year

Thank you. Yes he is a handsome boy and he knows its.

@BerryPieandCustard
Your daughter is right...

@vanillandhoney
He is ADORABLE. Even giving you such a stern/old-fashioned look there.

@Sideorderofchips
Nothing wrong with a cat knowing they’re Cute On Legs...

My cats are currently curled up in one of their habitual snugglebundles at the foot of my bed: I just caught a wee yawn...

Mine says he photographs just FINE thank you

@QueenPawPaws is he demanding food or telling you off?

LOVE all these photos of gorgeous black cats!

@vanillandhoney shouting at me because I forgot to put salmon oil on his food

My black cat crosses my path multiple times a day, and sits on me, and comes to bed with me and generally cant be apart from me. We found him dumped by the bins. I think he is good luck.

[quote QueenPawPaws]@vanillandhoney shouting at me because I forgot to put salmon oil on his food [/quote]
Bad human slave