"Black cat or white cat: If it can catch mice, it's a good cat.”

When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, ‘tis near Halloween. ~Author Unknown I am not particularly fond of Halloween, but not for the usual reason. I am a huge fan of black cats. I have two myself; one named Mystery and the other Frosty (oxymoron, get it? It's funny.). So Halloween brings fear in my household for my poor kitty cats. Because some ignorant, supersticious people of the world (some) still fear black cats. Both of my beautiful, furry pleasantries are rescue babies and both from around Halloween. Mystery was frozen, literally...just because she was black, and it was Halloween. She has zero feeling in her rear extremities, you could cut off her feet and she wouldn't flinch. Frosty was born around Halloween time, and thrown out because he was black. Come on people, prejudice against a cat? Really? So anyway....I keep my cats inside and under a close eye around this time of year. I do partake in the disease that is fall though. I am slowly getting into the decorating side of things and orange everything. Pumpkin flavored eye drops seem to be the only thing that hasn't hit the shelves yet. It's fun, fall in general is a fun time of year. The kids really enjoy it. With festivals, crafts, pumpkins, decorations and amazing food, it makes an everlasting happy memory for most children and adults. (Unless you're a black cat) So the origin of the fear of black cats....(I kind of took a side note about fall, my bad) Back in Europe, in the Mid Century, cats were not really kept as pets, but rather pest control. Those that kept them as pets were considered witches, and we all know how people feel about witches. So, for the most part, they all were basically barn cats, and served their purpose well. If you google artwork and paintings from the 1350 time frame, you can see how people viewed life and how they were driven(by fear no less) by dark, evil and demonic ideas. Because of this, black cats were seen as evil. Why? Because they're black, and black is associated with evil. So the obvious idea to conjure up is, duh, black cats are evil. Solution? Kill them! Kill them all! Not just the black ones, but all of them, because they could birth black ones. Shortly following the mass exorcism of....well....cats apparently, Europe saw a huge population increase in rats. So much so that it also brought diseases. You may have heard of "The Black Plague"? Yeah about that, you see, with no more pest control (cats), the rats (which populate at about ummm....up to five litters a year and can have up to about 14 babies per litter) never reached a top out. The plague is thought to be spread by rat fleas found on BLACK rats and killing anywhere from 75 to 200 million people at it's peak. This is a ridiculously large number of people killed by....ignorance (personal opinion). The people automatically feared the black cat after such horrific circumstances, seeing as they killed them all, the cats are cursing them from the grave. Never seeing the corrilation between the giant burn pile of cat carcases and the influx in rat population. So thousands of years later, stories have spread, grown, twisted (kind of like the game of telephone you play as a child) and ended up still that black cats are bad luck, evil and you will certainly die if one crosses your path. Can we lay this myth to rest yet? Rats...and rat fleas....that's what's evil, talk about a possible evil and deadly animal. Run, run for your life. Happy Halloween to all!