Black Cat Appreciation Day

[vilakins]

Apparently it was Black Cat Appreciation Day yesterday (17th) in the US. They're adopted last there (my Sebastian, shown here, was at the Lonely Miaow months after his sibs, but that may have been shyness) and are five times more likely to be put to sleep at shelters in the US because of this, but why? Stupid superstition? [Edit: yes, apparently,

Comments

[snowgrouse]

HIS WEE FACE. <3

And it's funny; I could think of a lot of people who'd want to adopt black cats exactly because of what they're associated with. Also, I could be happy with a house full of black cats because I mostly wear black clothes. The fur wouldn't be nearly as much of a nuisance as it is with Noki, whose every single hair goes from pure white at the root to black at the tip so it shows up on *everything*.

[vilakins]

When I decided I wanted another cat, I definitely had a black one in mind. I've always liked and admired them and they seem to have very sweet natures. Sebastian is an absolute darling I could spend hours in bed cuddling him if I could (I did this morning). When I wake up in the night, he's either right there between our pillows or further down the bed and immediately comes up when he sees I'm awake and I go back to sleep smooching him with his happy purring in my ear. [loves]

And I know what a beautiful and loving cat Noki is!

[snowgrouse]

Eeee, Noki does the same. The moment I wake up, she hops in next to me and curls under my arm and purrs and purrs and purrs. Every morning starts with snuggles:3

[katriona_s]

Ohhh, he is cute! You know, I have lived with with rabbit or finch all my life therefore never been a cat-lover. Still I found he is very sweet :)

[vilakins]

He is just lovely, so cuddly and friendly. I don't want to get up in the morning with him snuggled up to me, purring happily.

[jhall1]

That last photo is brilliant. Sebastian is obviously a natural poser - maybe even a bit of a poseur. :)

[vilakins]

Ha! I couldn't believe it: such good composition! ;-) I took that through the kitchen window because if I'd gone outside, he'd have run to me.

[vilakins]

I've briefly had two other blacks, a stray who turned up, and a rescue from a garage where a woman was keeping her unwanted gift) and would have kept them if our other cats at the time had accepted them, but I found good homes for both. My sister and one of Greg's had black cats who were utterly lovely, so when I decided on a third, I thought it would be, well, third time lucky, and they all get on very well.

So now I have a sepia, a B&W (Ashley's fur is, if you look closely), and a black, all monochromes! Before that it was grey Claudia and dark-brown Tessa who was sometimes taken for black (see icon).

[ultrapsychobrat]

Absolutely nothing! I LOVE black cats. People are really silly to assign a superstition to any animal.

These are all precious photos.

[vilakins]

They are bloody stupid, and apparently it's a US cultural thing. The appreciation site I went to made me cry; shelters had photos of black cats with captions like "Others get homes; why do I have to die?". I just hadn't realised how deep that prejudice went. And there was me thinking it was a celebration day, not one that was badly needed.

He's a precious cat, very much loved. He just ran past in pursuit of Jasmin, who can actually run faster but stays just in front to prolong the fun.

[ultrapsychobrat]

There are many uneducated people in the US, you know, and whole areas of the country that take pride in their lack of education (one of the reasons our politics are so screwed up). A very unfortunate side effect of that is to believe stupid things.

[vilakins]

The bible belt and the more southern states, I'd assume; a real worry. I'm delighted that a friend who lives in the latter has at least one black cat (I think more) among her many rescues.

I remember a lovely American I met in Israel saying the education system was very inward-looking and that she only learned about European history (e.g. the French Revolution) when she went to university/college and studied history. It doesn't seem to be getting much better going by Texas's revision of their syllabus.