Why are black cats difficult to home?

[Ripeberry]

I would love a black kitten and I've noticed that lots of cat's homes say that black cats are hardly ever adopted.

Surely people aren't that vain or superstitious (sp?) about it?

You let your husband wear your cat to posh dinner parties?

does she like other cats, fruit? we used to have two. smoky was our blue and cream persian. but he got cancer and died.

he didn't like being groomed, though.

problematic for persians.

My mum is very superstitious and she has a black cat. She adores him, every-one else thinks he is evil and is secretly plotting to take over the world!

But it is funny watching her dance about the kitchen when he comes flying through the window so that she doesn't 'cross paths with him'

Mine is black and white, which works well, as not matter whether I wear dark or light colours I am always covered in noticeable cat hair , so it solves any wardrobe issues cat ownership brings

Shiny, there was me thinking that a black cat might be the way to go next time, so at least I can wear all black and not look like mad-cat-lady covered in hair? :o Thought possibly the tuxes are the subconscious reason I've been wearing a lot of grey recently, neither the black nor the white hair shows up TOO badly on that ...

I like black cats cant understand why people wouldnt want to have them x

We have a tabby boy and a beautiful sleek gorgeous little jet black girl with not a white hair on her. Her mum was a tiny fluffy black (run over last year).

Our black cat is soooo elegant, with long legs and a small lithe body, but she is so CLUMSY. I never saw a cat fall off a sleeping bag until we had her. You can guarantee that wherever she walks chaos and mayhem will follow. She is hilarious and has us jumping up and down calling "No, don't walk there. Please don't walk there" at regular intervals.

Can't imagine why people would reject them.

We currently have black cat no 2 - Licorice. I always think that out of the 7 cats we've had during our 12 years of living in the same house, the black ones have been the nicest, both personality and looks. We used to have a black male BEHEMOTH live next door too. Silky, plush, daft as a brush but hated our cats. :-(

All the black cats I've known have been excellent hunters too. Licorice brought a mouse in last night, the cow!! But they are like wraiths once it goes the slightest bit dark. Our cream tabby boy, OTOH, is a rubbish hunter.

I can't but think that for some people there's even a bit of subconscious racism. My grandad commented - jokingly he said - that we'd got a black cat when I showed him a picture once and he was VERY racist.

Don't understand the prejudice - colour doesn't tell you anything about the cat's personality, does it? And I was always told black cats were lucky, not unlucky.

Interesting idea about photography though, maybe that's part of the problem.

We've had two black cats and next door has a black cat too (next door cat used to belong to a different set of neighbours but when they moved, he refused to go with them and eventually old neighbours gave in and other neighbours too him in. It's true about some cats being more attached to their territory than their humans!

The lucky/unlucky business used to be influenced by where you are from. Historically, certain Northern areas of the UK thought that black cats were lucky (somewhere approx modern day S Yorkshire and North) while the rest of the island thought black cats were unlucky. Then the idea of the witches' familiar really took off and black cats were often tortured. Nowadays in the USA, it depends on where you live as to whether a black cat is good or not.

How strange. I've only just seen this thread, but brought up this very point on thread below. Maybe because it's just because they're plainer, and often look a bit scruffy and faded?

Disclaimer: I love my black cat and he is the nicest, softest, most huggable cat with the best tail and gentle paws.

here

I didn't know this. I would probably always choose a black cat over other colours.

Meow - thanks for explaining. I grew up in Yorkshire so makes sense that black cats are lucky in my view. Poor old moggies, didn't realise they suffered from prejudice amongst Southerners. Yet another reason why the North is superior...

Btw, this is clearly a thread made for you!

are they? hjad never heard this# lots around here

I have a black rescue cat and a black rescue dog. When I rehomed the cat, dog and even the rabbit was told that all theses animals in black are difficult to rehome.

StewieGriffinsMom,

Both the black cats we've had have looked v v v dark chocolate brown in the sun - it's one of the things I love about black fur - it's not uniform at all.

You can see tabby markings on my the black parts of my tux boys in bright sunlight - their mother was a tabby.

If you are a cat coat colour nerd this is a really interesting wiki article.

It's way above my little head, but I get the impression all cats are secretly tabbies/torties on the side (even if they are pretending to be black)....

We have a scary vet as well.

She notoriously nags all her clients about having blobby pets and puts them (beasts not owners) on diets until their ribs appear.

It is however well known that she keeps a couple of lardarse cats which clearly get fed on demand and hugely spoiled.

We have a black cat and it never occurred to me not to....

Actually have had a few (have homed a fair few, usually temporarily at least in the npast)

In some areas black cat = unlucky, it was lucky where I grew up

Strange world where a dark feline crossing your path is good or bad depending on your postcode!

(Am not Northern though- was OSmerset where I grew up)

We adopted 2 back kittens from the RSPCA. We were told they're hard to rehome - unlucky apparently, although I always thought they were lucky.

I have a lovely fluffy persian black cat from the RSPCA - I wanted a fluffy cat and there she was. She's friendly and full of personality. There are 3 other (short-haired) black cats in my square & all the neighbours love them (except the guy with the gravel lawn that kind of looks like a litter tray ha ha!!).