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When my old cat died, I decided
to pick one out of the Humane Society. They had named the first
cat I saw ?Batman?, and I fell in love with him on sight.
But when I brought him home,
I discovered he didn?t quite have the courage of the comic book
hero. I made some mistakes which resulted in a month long struggle
to coax him out of his hiding place to join the family.
I renamed him Bear, and he
is wonderful cat, but my guests seem a little uncomfortable when
he comes into the room. After all, he is completely black.
He is a black cat and some
people are afraid of Black Cats?
The Black Cat in History
Historically, black cats have
been associated with omens, bad luck and, well...evil.
The poor unfortunate kitties
have been used in rituals, and were supposedly the "familiars"
of witches. Anarchism has used the symbol of the black cat, as
has Wicca, the modern day expression of Witchcraft. Superstition
has associated bad luck with having a black cat cross your path.
All-in-all, the black cat has
been getting some really bad press for centuries, and all of
that is not easily overcome in just a few short lines of this
article.
Scaredy Cat
A very highly sensitive cat,
our new black Bear was far more scared of us than we were of
him, and we made a number of mistakes in the first hour of his
introduction that practically destroyed our chances for introducing
him to our home.
The process of first finding
Bear where he had hidden in the house and gradually coaxing him
out of his hiding place to join the family was long and agonizing.
It took over a month, and I had almost despaired that we would
ever acclimate him.
Patience won out, though?
Superstition Dispelled
Since then, Bear has been rolling
around on my lap enjoying his daily pettings, sleeping in my
bed, yowling at the females he sees from his perch in the kitchen
window and just generally bringing a lot of joy to our lives.
He is here to dispel the notion
that a black cat means bad luck. He is one of the sweetest cats
you"ll ever meet, and there"s absolutely *nothing*
scary about him. And I can tell you for a fact that no bad luck
is connected with Bear. He"s crossed my path innumerable
times, and so far I haven"t experienced anything one might
think of as "bad luck".
I have to say, though, that
on Halloween night he seems to be scared of his own black shadow.
But I try to keep him calmed down and happy to be where he is...in
my lap purring as loud as he can!
Copyright 2006 John Young
John Young is a writer and cat lover who has
owned one cat or another ever since he was four (or, maybe they
owned him). His book "Your New Cat"s First 24 Hours",
http://www.yourcatsecrets.com
, is written for new and veteran cat owners who want to smoothly
introduce a new cat to their household and care for her thereafter.
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