Feral Paws Rescue

........Saving Feral Cats (TNR)


Welcome To Our Page On The Black Cat: Superstition and Beliefs

     Feral Paws Rescue deals with many black cats rescued from Avenal State Prison. Infact we have a huge request for adpotions of our black cats!  Black cats  that are adpoted from Feral Paws Rescued are checked out very carefully prior to adpotion into their new loving home.  To insure they are going into a safe home. We don't adpoted out any of our black cats/kittens from September 28 thru November 24 to insure they remain safe. They are just as loving and sweet as any other color of cat. People just mistake them as to the old superstition and beliefs of black cat stories over the years.

   But if you do own a black cat during the month of October keep your black cat safe and inside if possible. For their are alot of sick people that will harm them during the month of October. That is why black cats are NOT allowed to be adopted during the month of October from most all animal agency's! 

Black Cats

Do black cats mean good luck or bad luck? Black Cat information

about the myths and superstitions surrounding Black cats.

Do you believe it is a sign of ill fortune when black cats cross your path?

 Or do you conclude the cat has dispensed a run of good luck, by passing in front of you?

Other Interesting Cats Black Cat Crossing Your Path


Whether you believe black cats to be good or bad luck could depend on where

 it is in the world that you live, and even within different countries, differing beliefs exist,

and superstitions concerning black cats.

If you live in the United States, or most European countries, a black cat passing in

 front of you will make you believe bad luck is foreseeable.

If you live in the United Kingdom, or in Japan, the idea of a black cat crossing your

path is considered to bring good fortune.

Live in Germany and you will probably believe that black cats crossing your path from

right to left, is a bad omen. But from left to right, and the cat is granting favourable times for you.

Other Interesting Cats Black Cat

Italians believe if a black cat lies on a sick persons bed, death will follow.

In China there are those that believe black cats to be harbingers of famine and poverty.

Latvian farmers, that find black cats in their grain silos, dance with joy. They

 believe these felines to be the spirit of Rungis, a god of harvests. Crossing

 the path of a black cat, as opposed to it crossing yours, is generally thought

of as inviting the very worst of luck.

In Scotland folks believe finding back cats sitting in their porch is a sure sign

of riches, and happiness to come.

Remember black cats are the same as any felines - lovable, affectionate creatures,

and when cared for, give years of companionship.


Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat"

"The Black Cat," which first appeared in the United States Saturday Post (The Saturday Evening Post) on August 19, 1843, serves as a reminder for all of us. The capacity for violence and horror lies within each of us, no matter how docile and humane our dispositions might appear.
- By Martha Womack

Illustration is copyright © 1997 Christoffer Nilsson

Printed publishing rights retained by the author, copyright pending. Internet publishing rights granted by the author to Christoffer Nilsson for use exclusively in Qrisse's Poe Pages. Any for-profit use of this material is expressly forbidden. Educational users and researchers must use proper documentation procedures, crediting both the publisher, Christoffer Nilsson and the author, Martha Womack.

Summary of the story

Black Cat Illustration

"For the most wild yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not--and very surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die, and today I would unburden my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world...a series of mere household events....[T]hese events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed me....[P]erhaps...some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own...will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects."
Tomorrow the narrator will be executed for the brutal murder of his wife. As he awaits his own death, he finds it necessary to record the events which seduced him into murder and informed the police of his crime.
From infancy, the narrator had been noted for his "docility and humanity of... disposition." His tenderness of heart made him "...the jest of [his] companions. [He] was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by [his] parents with a great variety of pets." He married at an early age, and like the narrator, his wife had a similar love for animals. They had "birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. Pluto, the cat, was "a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree." As the narrator remembers Pluto, he also remembers something that his wife once said about all black cats being witches in disguise according to "some ancient popular notion." He never really believed she was serious about this point, and he is not quite sure why he remembers it now.
Out of all the pets, Pluto was his favorite. He "alone fed him, and he attended [him] wherever he went about the house. It was even with great difficulty that [he] could prevent [the cat] from following [him] through the streets." Their friendship lasted for several years until the man's temperament began to change. He grew, "day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others." He cursed at his wife, and eventually he "offered her personal violence." His pets began to feel the change in his disposition--a change brought about by the "Fiend Intemperance [lack of control in consuming alcohol]."
"One night, returning home, much intoxicated...[he] fancied that the cat avoided [his] presence." He grabbed Pluto, who out of fear, "inflicted a slight wound upon [his owner's] hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed [the man]." He took a penknife from his waistcoat pocket, "and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!" When morning came, the narrator saw what he had done to the poor creature on the previous night. "The socket of the lost eye presented...a frightful appearance...." The narrator unable to deal with the results of his own actions, "soon drown in wine all memory of the deed."
"In the meantime, the cat slowly recovered. He went about the house as usual, but as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at [the narrator's] approach." At first the man was somewhat grieved by the cat's actions; however, this feeling turned into irritation. "And then came, as if to [his] final and irrevocable overthrow the spirit of PERVERSENESS.
"One morning, in cold blood, [the narrator] slipped a noose about [Pluto's] neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;--hung it with the tears streaming from [his] eyes, and with the bitterest remorse of [his] heart;--hung it because he knew that [the cat] had loved [him], and because [he] felt it had given [him] no reason of offence;--hung it because [he] knew that in so doing [he] was committing a sin--a deadly sin that would so jeopardize [his] immortal soul as to place it--if such a thing were possible--even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God."
"On the night of the day on which this most cruel deed was done, [the narrator] was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire....The whole house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that [his] wife, a servant, and [himself], made [their] escape....[His] entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and [he] resigned himself thenceforward to despair."
"On the day succeeding the fire, [he] visited the ruins. The walls with one exception had fallen in. This exception was found in a compartment wall...against which had rested the head of [his] bed....About this wall a dense crowd were collected, and many persons seemed to be examining a particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention....[U]pon the white surface...as if graven in bas-relief...[was] the figure of a gigantic cat...[with] a rope about [its] neck."
"When [the narrator] first beheld this apparition...[his] wonder and terror were extreme.... [Then he remembered that] the cat...had been hung in a garden adjacent to the house. Upon the alarm of fire, this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd--by someone of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown, through an open window, into [his] chamber...with the view of arousing [the narrator] from sleep. The falling of the other walls had compressed the victim of [the man's cruel deed] into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the lime...with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass...[had created the hideous image in the wall]."
For months, the man could not forget the gigantic image of the cat in the wall. It was during this time that he actually began to regret the loss of his cat Pluto, and he began to look for a similar pet to take the cat's place. "One night as [the narrator sat in a tavern in a drunken stupor], [his] attention was suddenly drawn to some black object, [sitting on a large container] of gin or of rum...." He approached this object, and touched it. He was surprised to discover that "it was a black cat--a very large one--fully as large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one. Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast." The cat responded by purring loudly, and the narrator talked to the owner of the tavern about purchasing the cat; however, "this person made no claim to it--knew nothing of it--had never seen it before."
When the man left the tavern, the cat accompanied him home. "When it reached the house it domesticated itself at once, and became immediately a great favorite with [his] wife. Much to the narrator's surprise, he "...soon found a dislike to [the cat] arising within [him]." As time passed these feelings turned to hatred of the cat. He began to avoid it out of a sense "of shame, and the remembrance of [his] former deed of cruelty....What added to [his] hatred of the beast, was the discovery, on the morning after [he] brought it home, that, like Pluto, it had also been deprived of one of its eyes. This circumstance, however, only endeared it to [his] wife...."
The more that the narrator avoided the cat, the more it seemed to follow him. "Whenever [he] sat, [the cat] would crouch beneath [his] chair, or spring upon [his] knees, covering [him] with its loathsome caresses. If [he] arose to walk it would get between [his] feet and thus nearly throw [him] down. or fastening its long and sharp claws in [his clothing], clamber, in this manner, to [his] breast." The man longed to destroy the cat, but refrained from doing so "partly by a memory of [his] former crime, but chiefly...by an absolute dread of the beast. This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil--and yet [the man] was at a loss how otherwise to define it...."
More than once his wife had called his attention to the splotch of white on this cat's chest "...which constituted the sole visible difference between the strange beast and the one [he] had destroyed." Slowly, over a period of time, this indefinite splotch of white began to take the shape of an object that terrified the narrator. This ghastly shape was that "of the GALLOWS!--oh, mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime--of Agony and of Death!"
"...[N]either by day nor by night ...[could the narrator find] the blessing of rest any more." During the day, the cat would never leave the man's side, and at night, he would wake up "...from dreams of unutterable fear to find the hot breath of the thing upon [his] face, and its vast weight--an incarnate nightmare that [he] had no power to shake off--incumbent eternally upon [his] heart!
"Beneath the pressure of torments such as these the feeble remnant of the good within [him] succumbed. Evil thoughts became [his] sole intimates--the darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of [his] usual temper increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind...."
"One day [his wife] accompanied [him], upon some household errand, into the cellar of the old building which [their] poverty compelled [them] to inhabit. The cat followed [the narrator] down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing [him] headlong, exasperated [him] to madness. Uplifting an axe, and forgetting in [his] wrath the childish dread which had hitherto stayed [his] hand, [the narrator] aimed a blow at the animal, which, of course, would have proved instantly fatal if it had descended as [he] had wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of [his] wife. Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, [the narrator] withdrew [his] arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan."
The next step was to conceal the body. Many thoughts passed through the man's mind. He thought about cutting the corpse into small pieces, and destroying them by fire. Maybe he could dig a grave for the body in the cellar floor; or possibly, he could cast the corpse into the well in the yard. The narrator even thought about packing his wife's body into a box as if it were merchandise, and getting a porter to remove it from the house. Finally, after much deliberation, the narrator knew that he had found the perfect solution. He would "...wall [the body] up in the cellar, as the monks of the Middle Ages [were] recorded to have walled up their victims."
The cellar was well-adapted for a purpose such as this. "Its walls were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered throughout with a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up and made to resemble the rest of the cellar." The narrator knew that he "...could readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the corpse, and wall the whole up as before, so that no eye could detect anything suspicious."
"By means of a crowbar [the narrator] easily dislodged the bricks, and...carefully deposited the body against the inner wall...." He then "...relaid the whole structure as it originally stood." Afterwards, he "...prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old, and with this [he] very carefully went over the new brick-work....The wall did not present the slightest appearance of having been disturbed." The narrator cleaned up the mess with "the minutest care."
His next step was to look for the cat. The man had "firmly resolved to put it to death." However, the cat must have been frightened by the man's previous actions, and it was now nowhere to be found. "It did not make its appearance during the night; and thus for one night, at least since its introduction into the house, [the narrator] soundly and tranquilly slept; [yes], slept even with the burden of murder upon [his] soul."
Three days passed, and still there was no sight of the cat. A few inquiries had been made about the narrator's wife, but he had easily answered those. "Even a search had been instituted--but of course nothing was to be discovered. Upon the fourth day...the police came, very unexpectedly, into the house, and proceeded again to make rigorous investigation of the premises....They left no nook or corner unexplored....[F]or the third or fourth time, they descended into the cellar....The police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart. [The narrator] burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of [his] guiltlessness."
"Gentlemen," [the narrator said], as the party ascended the steps, "I delight to have allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health and a little more courtesy. By the bye, gentlemen, this--this is a very well-constructed house...I may say an excellently well-constructed house. These walls--are you going, gentlemen?--these walls are solidly put together...." At this point, the narrator "...rapped heavily with a cane which [he] held in [his] hand, upon that very portion of the brickwork behind which stood the corpse of [his wife]....No sooner had the reverberation of [his] blows sunk into silence, than [he] was answered by a voice from within the tomb!--by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream...a howl--a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph...."
"Swooning, [the narrator] staggered to the opposite [side of the cellar]." The police began tearing down the wall. There before all, stood "...the corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore....Upon its head...sat the [cat], the hideous beast whose craft had seduced [the man] into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned [him] to the hangman. [He] had walled the monster up within the tomb."

Setting

As the story begins, the narrator is in jail awaiting his execution, which will occur on the following day, for the brutal murder of his wife. At that point, the rest of the story is told in flashback, as the narrator pens "...the most wild, yet homely narrative...[whose] events have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed [him]."

Characters

Although several characters are mentioned in this story, the true focus lies upon the nameless narrator, who is known for his "...docility and humanity of ...disposition. His tenderness of heart...[made him] the jest of [his] companions." He was especially fond of animals, and he was pleased to find a similar fondness for pets in his wife. They had many pets including "...birds, gold fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat." The cat was a large, beautiful animal who was entirely black. Pluto, as he was called, was the narrator's favorite pet. He alone fed him, and Pluto followed the narrator wherever he went. Occasionally, his wife would refer to an old superstitious belief that "...all black cats [were] witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point...."

Point of View

Poe writes this story from the perspective of the narrator, a man whose "...temperament and character [are transformed] through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance [alcohol]." Telling the story from the first person point of view (a perspective that Poe used quite frequently), intensifies the effect of moral shock and horror. Once again, the reader is invited (as was the case in both "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Cask of Amontillado") to delve into the inner workings of the dark side of the mind.

Style and Interpretation

"'The Black Cat' is one of the most powerful of Poe's stories, and the horror stops short of the wavering line of disgust" (Quinn 395). Poe constructed this story in such a way that the events of the tale remain somewhat ambiguous. As the narrator begins to recount the occurrences that "...have terrified--have tortured--have destroyed [him]," he reminds the reader that maybe "...some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than [his] own," will perceive "...nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects."
As the narrator begins to tell his story (flashback), the reader discovers that the man's personality had undergone a drastic transformation which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol and the perverse side of his nature, which the alcohol seemed to evoke. The reader also discovers (with the introduction of Pluto into the story) that the narrator is superstitious, as he recounts that his wife made "...frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, [that] all black cats [are] witches in disguise." Even though the narrator denies this (much as the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" denies that he or she is insane), the reader becomes increasingly aware of his superstitious belief as the story progresses.
Superstition (as well as the popular notion to which the man's wife refers) has it that Satan and witches assume the form of black cats. For those who believe, they are symbols of bad luck, death, sorcery, witchcraft, and the spirits of the dead. Appropriately, the narrator calls his cat, Pluto, who in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld (symbolism).
As in other Poe stories ( "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Gold Bug"), biting and mutilation appear. The narrator of "The Black Cat" first becomes annoyed when Pluto "inflicted a slight wound upon [the] hand with his teeth." After he is bitten by the cat, the narrator cuts out its eye. Poe relates "eyes" and "teeth" in their single capacity to take in or to incorporate objects. This dread of being consumed often leads the narrator to destroy who or what he fears (Silverman 207).
Poe's pronounced use of foreshadowing leads the reader from one event to the next ("one night," "one morning," "on the night of the day," etc.). Within the first few paragraphs of the story, the narrator foreshadows that he will violently harm his wife ("At length, I even offered her personal violence."). However, are the events of the story, as the narrator suggests, based upon "...an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effect," or are they indeed caused by the supernatural? By using, three main events in this story (the apparition of the first cat upon the burned wall, the appearance of the gallowslike pattern upon the chest of the second cat, and the discovery of the second cat behind the cellar wall), a convincing case can be presented for both sides.
While making a case for the logical as well as the supernatural, one must remember the state of mind of the narrator. All events are described for the reader by an alcoholic who has a distorted view of reality. The narrator goes to great lengths to scientifically explain the apparition of the cat in the wall; however, the chain of events that he re-creates in his mind are so highly coincidental that an explanation relying on the supernatural may be easier to accept.
Once again, the reader wonders if the narrator's perceptions can be believed as he describes the gallowslike pattern upon the chest of the second cat. Maybe what he sees is just a hallucination of a tormented mind. The markings of an adult cat surely would not change that much, unless maybe the pattern was not part of the animal's fur, but only a substance on its surface which, with time, could wear off and disappear (a substance such as plaster?). Afterall, the second cat is also missing an eye. Poe is very careful to avoid stating if it is the same eye of which Pluto was deprived. Are there really two cats in this story, or did Pluto (possibly "a witch in disguise") survive, and return for retribution.
Of all the incidents, the discovery of the cat (first or second) behind the cellar wall is the easiest to believe. The cat was frightened by the man, and logically, sought shelter. What is somewhat strange is the fact that the police searched the cellar several times, and not one time did the cat make a sound. It was not until the narrator rapped heavily with a cane upon the wall, that the cat responded. Was it a series of natural causes and effects, or was it what the narrator described? "Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb."

Theme

"The Black Cat" is Poe's second psychological study of domestic violence and guilt (the first being "The Tell-Tale Heart"); however, this story does not deal with premeditated murder. The reader is told that the narrator appears to be a happily married man, who has always been exceedingly kind and gentle. He attributes his downfall to the "Fiend Intemperance" and "the spirit of perverseness." Perverseness, he believes, is "...one of the primitive impulses of the human heart." "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?" Perverseness provides the rationale for otherwise unjustifiable acts, such as killing the first cat or rapping with his cane upon the plastered-up wall behind which stood his wife's corpse "...already greatly decayed and clotted with gore."
We might argue that what the narrator calls "perverseness" is actually conscience. Guilt about his alcoholism seems to the narrator the "perverseness" which causes him to maim and kill the first cat. Guilt about those actions indirectly leads to the murder of his wife who had shown him the gallows on the second cat's breast. The disclosure of the crime, as in "The Tell-Tale Heart," is caused by a warped sense of triumph and the conscience of the murderer.
What makes this story different from "The Tell-Tale Heart" is that Poe has added a new element to aid in evoking the dark side of the narrator, and that is the supernatural. Now the story has an added twist as the narrator hopes that the reader, like himself, will be convinced that these events were not "...an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects." [See Style and Interpretation]

Martha Womack

The Black Cat Legend

Black cats have carried many opposing meaning throughout history.  Depending upon your line of work or the country you live in, black cats can be lucky or unlucky.  Halloween brings these beliefs to light more than any other time of the year.

Some of the legends handed down over time follow.  Later we'll take a look at a 7 year old black cat and find out what black cats are really like.

The Legend:

If a black cat crosses your path, you will have GOOD luck.  Yes, that's right some believe that this event bring GOOD luck.  Variations to this belief say that you must politely greet the cat OR stroke the cat 3 times to bring the good luck.

If a black cat crosses your path, you will have bad luck.  This is a very common unproven belief in America.

King Charles I of England owned a black cat, whom he valued very much.  He treasured the cat so much that he had his guards watch over it 24 hours a day.  As luck would have it, the day after the cat died from an illness, the king was arrested.

Some believe black cats are witches in disguise.

Others believe black cats are witches familiars.  (Beings that aid witches in performing their craft.)

Fisherman's wives kept black cats while their husbands went away to sea.  They believed that the black cats would prevent danger from occurring to their husbands.  These black cats were considered so valuable that they were often stolen.

As a sailor walked up a pier, any cat running ahead of him could bring him luck.  If any cat crossed his path, it would mean bad luck.

Sailors kept cats on board ships to bring them luck.

If the ship cat approached a sailor, it meant good luck.  If the cat approached halfway and went away, bad luck would surely follow.

If a cat was thrown overboard, a storm would rise and very bad luck would follow.

Various cat parts were also though to be good medicine for a wide range of illnesses.

Some believed that black cats carried demons.

Some believe that  black cats have special powers and abilities.

In Australia and Britain, black cats are though to be lucky.

Another belief states:  A bride will have a happy married life if a black cat sneezes near her on her wedding day.

All cats were thought to be sacred in ancient Egypt.

Back in ancient days, the Druids thought black cats were human beings.  These humans in cat form were being punished for evil deeds.

Some believed that black cats could fly on a broom stick.

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The Truth:

Mark Levin produced an experiment to test the theory that black cats cause bad luck, which can be found at http://www.liii.com/~nyask/cat-report2.html.   In his experiment, there was no proof that black cats cause bad luck.

Personally after living with a black cat, who was rescued, for 7 years, I can honestly say I have not had what you would call bad luck.  And I'm sure my path is crossed at least 20 times a day!  People make their own luck, good or bad.  Luck is the result of the actions you choose.

People harm black cats around Halloween time.  Because of the legend surrounding black cats, most animal facilities take measures to prevent cruelty.  Black cats are not adoptable in the weeks before or after Halloween.   Many black cats have a very hard time finding a loving home because of these legends.

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There are a few other beliefs people have regarding cats that put them in grave danger.  One belief is that cats can be set free and they will fend for themselves.  Cats turned away from their homes must turn feral (wild) or starve.  Most will starve.  The ones that do become wild have a very hard life.

I'm sure you've all seen cartoons and movies where a basket of kittens is abandoned on someone's doorstep.  This occurs all too often.  In fact, when I visited the zoo, a carrier full of kittens had been left that morning in front of the gate.  People even stop in a parking lot or on the side of the road to dump cats and dogs off.  These stories are very sad, but very true.

Meet a Real Black Cat:

wpe1.gif (269092 bytes)Fairway Junior was a wee tyke of four weeks old, when he was found all alone in the middle of a golf course.  The closest house was 2 miles away and there was no people or cats to be found anywhere close by.

Junior was picked up and brought home.  Upon arrival, he screamed for a meal and ate nearly all of a small can of cat food.

We've lived with him ever since.  He likes visitors in his home and will politely greet most people.  He really likes men, but is friendly to some women and most children.  There are certain times of the day when he demands a head scratch.  He plays quite a bit with his younger adopted brother cat, but sleeps many hours of the day and night.

He has no special powers and brings no particular luck, but he is a very loving, loyal cat.

The Black Cat Legend

 

The Black Cat: Superstition and Beliefs

     Back arched, fur on end, eyes glowing, lip curled, hissing, claws drawn, ready to pounce on the first thing to cross its path: The black cat throuout history has been blamed for most of the wrongs of the  world, from blasphemy to the plague.
  Even today, black cats conjure up images of witchcraft and magic tales. Edgar Allan Poe wrote about one and Hollywood has made movies about them.  There is even a TV sitcom, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch," which features a very sarcastic "talking" black cat named Salem.
        For thousands of years, black cats have been regarded as mysterious creatures with supernatural powers and were associated with witches and even death. It was believed that witches could change into cats; in fact, it is believed they could make that change nine times. Some believe this to be the origin of the belief that cats have nine lives. 
  There are many superstitions associated with cats, partly because the cat has lived alongside humans for thousands of years. Superstitions centering around the black cat are some of the most well-known and popular superstitions today. 
Will you worry the next time a black cat crosses your path? 
     It may depend on where you live in the world.  In Britain and Japan, having a black cat cross your path, is considered good luck, whereas if you live in the USA or several European countries, it is bad luck to have a black cat walk by.

Here are a few cat superstitions from various countries.
A strange black cat on your porch brings prosperity. - Scottish superstition
A cat sneezing is a good omen for everyone who hears it. - Italian superstition
It is bad luck to see a white cat at night. - American superstition
Dreaming of white cat means good luck. - American superstition
In the Netherlands, cats were not allowed in rooms where private family discussions were going on. 
The Dutch believed that cats would definitely spread gossips around the town.
In Egypt, it was once believed that the life-giving rays of the sun 
were kept in a  cat's eyes at night for safekeeping.
To kill a cat brings seventeen years of bad luck  -Irish superstition

     Today in America, during the month of October, we see silhouettes of black cats clinging to window panes anxiously waiting for the 31st, when hordes of little goblins, witches and ghosts make their way from house to house, party to party collecting treats. 
     Halloween is a fun time!  It is a time that reconfirms our social bond with the people of the neighborhood who we rarely, if ever, see the rest of the year. As we watch the wildly and someitmes very imaginative costumes parading from door to door, a fond reminder of what we once did ourselves, keep in mind that pets often find these strange sights frightening experience.  The Humane Society recommends keeping all pets confined indoors in a room away from any Halloween excitement and keep the Halloween candy out of your pet’s reach. Just like table scraps, candy can make some pets quite sick. 
     Today, the domestic cat (house cat) is second only to the dog in popularity as a house pet. No one knows exactly how many domestic cats there are in the United States, but researchers estimate that more than 30 million are owned as pets.
      These numbers do not include the millions of feral cats ('wild' offspring of domestic cats and are primarily the result of pet owners' abandonment or failure to spay and neuter) that suffer sickness, exposure, starvation and death on the streets of our nation's cities and towns, and in the fields and forests of the countryside as they attempt to survive on their own. 
   

http://www.thecatgallery.com/black_cats.html

black and white party cat


Do Black Cats Cause Bad Luck?
Mark Levin

What is superstition? According to The Little Oxford Dictionary, superstition is "belief in the existence or power of the supernatural; irrational fear of the unknown; a religion or practice based on such tendencies; widely held but wrong idea." Let us examine that definition in depth. First, there is "belief in the existence or power of the supernatural". This means that there is believed to be some force that can influence the events on the Earth. Second, there is "irrational fear of the unknown." This has been endemic to the human race since the early days when a cave man did not know if that cave was safe to enter or if he would be attacked by a bear. Third, "a religion or practice based on such tendencies." This is the belief that a charm or talisman, such as throwing salt or hanging a horseshoe over the doorway, can affect the aforementioned supernatural force. Finally, there is a "widely held but wrong idea." This is a belief that is believed only because everyone else believes. It may be wrong, it may be preposterous, but all the other people think it is right and you believe it too.

Why do people believe in something that can be scientifically proven wrong? They may want a simple explanation for a coincidence. For example, a woman plants a tree in her yard and the weather is warm for the rest of the month. She reasons that planting trees causes warm weather. That is a simple, obvious conclusion. A weatherman will give a long, confusing explanation such as "Various meteorological factors caused displacement of the cold front." The woman will believe her own explanation because it is simple and easily understood. Once one person believes this conclusion, others will believe too. Perhaps the woman will be gossiping with some friends, and she mentions her tree superstition. They tell others and soon the whole town believes that trees cause warm weather.

Some examples of common, everyday superstition include the belief that the number 13 is unlucky, that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck, and that a black cat crossing your path can affect your luck. Belief that black cats affect your luck goes far back in time. One king of England, Charles I, owned a black cat. His fear of losing it was so great that he had it guarded. The day after it fell ill and died, he was arrested (Radford 1949, 40). Black cats were often witches in disguise or witches' familiars (Potter 1983, 29). There were also many cat charms relating to ships and the sea. Fishermen's wives would keep a black cat at home to prevent disaster at sea, consequently the cats became very valuable and were often stolen. If a cat ran ahead of a sailor to the pier that would bring good luck, but if the cat crossed his path it means bad luck. For luck, cats were often kept on board ships. If a sailor was approached by the ship's cat it meant good luck, but if the cat only came halfway and went away again it meant bad luck. The worst possible cat-related act, guaranteed to raise a storm and bring bad luck of all sorts, was to throw the cat overboard (Radford 1949, 40). Cat superstitions were also common in medicine. Fur and blood drawn from various parts of the cat's anatomy cured everything from shingles to St. Anthony's Fire (Radford 1949, 40).

All of these superstitions today boil down to "Black cats cause bad luck." A cat crossing your path will adversely affect your luck. This can easily be verified or dis-proven with only a person, a cat, and a situation that can be affected by luck.


I performed an experiment to test a black cat's effect on luck. Two people tried their luck at guessing computer-generated random numbers. Their paths were then crossed by a cat and then they guessed more numbers. To ensure that the luck effects were only caused by black cats, their paths were also crossed by a white cat.

The source of random numbers was a random number generator that I wrote in True Basic 2.6, a BASIC programming language for Macintosh computers. The random number, between 0 and 1, is calculated by factors including the date and time. The program's main loop appears below.

The first line of the program states that the program runs 50 times, to simulate 50 coin tosses. The computer requests that the user enter "h" or "t", as in "tails" or "heads" in a coin toss. Then a random number between 0 and 1 is picked. If the number is greater than one half (.5) then it counts as tails. If the number is less than one half it counts as tails. The computer compares the user's guess to its random choice. If the user was right then the computer adds 1 to its tally of correct scores. After 50 coin tosses the computer prints out the final percentage correct. Each person was tested 5 times and the results averaged, to minimize statistical errors.

The situation of the actual path-cross was a hallway with 2 doorways on opposite sides. As the subject walked down the hallway the cat ran out of one doorway and into the other.

The above diagram is a floor plan (not available) of the area in which the test subject encountered a cat. The human began on the left. As he walked down the hall, the cat was released in alcove A. The cat walked or ran across the human's path. The cat then proceeded into alcove B across the hall. The human continued to the computer room C. The subject then ran the luck program. The program was run 5 times immediately. The results were entered into a series of charts. Luck For Subject Alone is a chart of the subject's luck when his path was not crossed by any cats. Luck for White Cat is a chart of when the subject's path was crossed by a white cat. Luck for Black Cat is a graph of the subject's luck when his path was crossed by a black cat.

The lower line in each chart is the lowest percentage that a subject received. The upper line is the highest percentage that the subject received. The center line is the actual percentage of coin flips correct.

The first subject, according to "Luck for Subject Alone", scored between 56% and 44% for all his tries. The percentages are near the upper range for all tries but the last. 1 out of 5 tries is at the lower range. The average of his tries was 52%: slightly above the statistical prediction of 50%. When his path was crossed by a white cat, his luck first decreased to 36%. This is a great drop taken by itself, but all the other 4 were near or at the top. The average percentage for a white cat was 49.2%, 2.8% below the subject's average and .8% below the statistical prediction. However, 3 out of 5 tries are not outside the original range. They are within the subject's average percentage range, but they are only slight drops from the statistical average of 50%. The subject's luck was decreased according to a random factor, not according to the cat's path-crossing.


These results appear to agree with the superstition, even for the wrong cat color. I ran the test a second time to see if the white cat's results could be repeated. This time the results (see "Luck for second white cat crossing") were different. The subject's luck started out high, at 56%. Then it peaked at 58%. It then dropped to the lowest point, 40%, and went up through 48% and 50%. These percentages are higher than the drop observed earlier. The drop to 36% can now be seen as a random error, not related in any way to the white cat. If the cat truly was capable of decreasing luck, the subject's luck would have repeated the decline.

The black cat, surprisingly, caused less of a drop than the white cat. The black cat lowered the minimum percentage to 40%. The luck average was 47.2%. This range is still within the percentage range of the unaffected luck. The luck has not descended out of the average range of the subject.

The luck of the second subject was slightly different. His percentages were 40-52%, averaging 46.8%. When his path was crossed by a white cat, his success rate became 40-60%, averaging 49.6%. The white cat caused a gain in luck! The black cat caused an expansion in luck, to 36-56%. Both results go directly against the old superstition. If black cats are unlucky, then why did the subject's luck increase? One possibility is the corollary superstition that a black cat running away from you is bad luck whereas a black cat approaching you is good. But neither applies here. The cats crossed the subject's path at nearly a right angle. The cat did not move towards the subject or away from him. Secondly, the subject's luck range did not simple shift upward, it expanded. The minimum was lowered and the maximum was raised.The possibility for bad luck was there, but so was the possibility for good luck. This remains unexplained by the superstition.

In conclusion, neither cat produced a drastic change in the subject's luck. True, the subject's luck declined slightly, but the change was not great enough to leave the subject's average luck range. There are several objections that believers could raise. It could be said that the cat affects not guessing power but fortune and misfortune in real-life situations. I own a black cat, and although she has crossed my path hundreds of times, I see no degradation in my schoolwork or social life. It could be said that the computer's brain is somehow beyond the cat's influence. I see no difference between an object that could land on one of 2 sides and a stream of electrons that could end in one of 2 states. Another argument is that the stakes must be raised so that there is a disadvantage to losing. This implies the existence of a malevolent being, manifested in cats, whose reason for existence is to deny people fortune. But that is ridiculous. The idea that black cats cause bad luck is false. Cats do not affect the luck of anyone whose path has been crossed.


 Alfred
after reading the above editorial



Alfred Says: Ho Hummm I already knew all that.....


Black Cats
Superstitions and Myths About The Black Cat


Black Cats have been associated with deities, witches and magic
for centuries. Cats have been worshipped, condemned,
persecuted, have been thought of as having powers,
as being the omens of bad luck and being also a good
luck charm.


Part of the "mystery" surrounding the black cat comes
from the traditional interpretation of the color black.

Black is the color of the night, and of "evil." Black
can also be a color of elegance or class (such as a
black-tie only event, and black evening gowns.) Black
can also represent ideas such as power, sexuality,
sophistication, formality, wealth, mystery, fear, evil,
unhappiness, depth, style, sadness, remorse, anger, and
mourning.

Black can also represent a lack of color or emptiness.
It can also mean sorrow or mourning, in the Christian
tradition of wearing black to funerals. Used by itself,
black can represent bad luck or misfortune. Black also
is the color of black magic.





Here are some of the various superstitions, beliefs,
and historical (fact or not) info about black cats:


* If a black cat crosses your path, you will have GOOD luck.

* Variations to this belief say that you must politely
greet the cat OR stroke the cat 3 times to bring the good luck.

* If a black cat crosses your path, you will have bad luck.

* You can ward off the adversity by reversing your trail
by 12 steps.

(All depends on your point of view and the country you live
in which you may happen to believe)


* King Charles the first of England owned a black cat.
He believed this cat to be lucky and was so afraid of losing
it he had it guarded day and night. Coincidentally the cat
died the very day before Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary
troops came and arrested the king. Shortly after, King Charles
was taken to the scaffold and beheaded.

* Thought to have nine lives, so aligned with the symbolism
of nine, a lucky number

* The witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth calls her cat
Grimalkin

* Some believe black cats are witches in disguise.





* Others believe black cats are witches familiars.
(Beings that aid witches in performing their craft.)

* Fisherman's wives kept black cats while their husbands
went away to sea. They believed that the black cats would
prevent danger from occurring to their husbands. These
black cats were considered so valuable that they were
often stolen

* Some believe that black cats carried demons.

* Some believe that black cats have special powers
and abilities




* Stroking the tail of a black cat will cure a sty in the eye

* To meet a black cat at midnight is to meet Satan, himself.

* Thirteen cats in a theater are bad luck.


* The "blackberry" cats are often born at the end of the
blackberry season, which according to legend is the time
of the year in which Satan was thrown out of heaven,
landing on a blackberry bush which he then defiled with
his urine and spittle.


* In the Ozark Mountains of Tennessee and Arkansas, a
girl not knowing what to answer to a marriage proposal
would take three hairs from a cat's tail and put them
in a folded piece of paper, which she placed under her
doorstep. She would answer according to whether the
hairs formed an "N" or a "Y".







* A cat on a grave meant that the buried person's soul
was in the possession of the Devil, and if two cats
were fighting on a grave, this signified the Devil and
the defunct person's Guardian Angel fighting for his/her soul.

* In the early 16th century, a visitor to an English
home would always kiss the family cat. In Ireland, however,
a black cat passing in front of you by moonlight foretells
death by an epidemic.


* Black cats became a Halloween symbol as it was believed
spirits could return in the body of an animal and black
cats were certainly the one of the most ominous. Witches
used the black cat for her spirit companion and the cat
went from there.

* Pope Gregory IX denounced black cats as Satanic in
his 1233 Papal Bull 'Vox in Rama' and this launched the
extermination of many cats, and subsequently thousands
of cats were burned alive in the cause of searching out
the devil. Tales of these witches' cats turning into mice,
dogs, bats and all sorts of creatures flourished during
the Middle Ages.

(which incidentally lead to a plague of rats, which decimated
the food supplies, carried disease, and played a role in
The Great Plagues)


* In the late 19th Century, folklorist Charles G. Leland
wrote about groups of women around Italy, known as streghe
ie. witches, who still worshipped the goddess Diana,
deity of the moon, and in this Italian tradition Leland
was writing about, was known as 'the Queen of witches'.
Her brother, who in classical mythology was Apollo, is
here called Lucifer, which though not without
references to Christian concepts, means 'light-bearer'.
In trying to trick Lucifer to conceive a son with her,
Diana takes the shape of a cat.






* The Celts believed that cats were magically humans
once. To kill a cat brings complete misfortune, while
to tread upon its tail is also considerate unfortunate,
but in a less degree.

* If a black cat suddenly abandons the house of its
masters, there will be a great disaster in that house soon.


* Seeing a black cat in your dream could represents bad
luck or a warming of something unfavorable may take
place in your life.

(If you see a white cat in your dream means you feel
great affection for someone. Seeing several cats in your
dream means that your partner is unfaithful. Dreaming of
a two colored cat means your feelings are passionate).

* Norse mythology tells of the witch Freya who had a
chariot pulled by black cats, who often transformed
themselves into black horses. These changelings were
very fast and said to be possessed of the devil.


* Followers of the goddess Diana also considered the cat
sacred because she once assumed the form of a cat, and cats
were under her special protection.




* Cats are traditionally associated with witches, and it is
generally assumed today that witches' familiars were (and are)
always cats. However, during the Burning Times any small
animal that was kept in the house was suspect.

* It was also firmly believed that witches could take
the shape of cats, and accusers sometimes claimed that
they were followed or tormented by witches in the shape
of cats.

* In 1718 William Montgomery of Caithness alleged that
hordes of black (and other color) cats gathered outside
his house nightly and talked in human language; he
claimed to have killed two of them and wounded another
one night and awoken the next morning to hear that two old
women had been found dead in their beds and another badly
injured.


* In Britain and Australia black cats are considered
lucky, and in some places white cats are correspondingly
unlucky. In many parts of Europe and in the United
States, however, it is the black cat who is ill-omened.


* An old saying about black cats is that 'Whenever the
cat of the house is black, the lasses of lovers shall
have no lack'.


* To meet a black cat is usually fortunate, especially
if it crosses one's path. In some districts the luck is
only considered released if the cat is politely greeted,
or stroked three times.

* Sometimes it is considered unlucky if the cat runs
away from the person, or turns back on its own tracks.





* To meet a white cat is bad luck, except in those
countries where white cats are the luck-bringers.

* If a black cat comes into a house or onto a ship,
it is considered a very lucky sign, and the cat
should never be chased away in case it takes the luck
of the house with it.

* Seamen avoid the word 'cat' while at sea, but to
have a cat on board is lucky, especially if it is a
completely black cat with no white hairs.

* To throw the cat overboard raises an immediate violent
storm; no sailor would do such a thing to the ship's cat,
and in fact cats are rarely left on an abandoned ship
but are generally rescued with the sailors.

* If a sailor's wife kept a black cat, her husband would
always return safely from the sea; this sometimes led
to black cats being stolen.

* The tail of a black cat was believed to cure a stye
if stroked over the afflicted eye.




In Egypt:

* The Egyptian goddess Bast was both lion-headed and
cat-headed and attended by cats and therefore cats were
sacred and revered in Egypt.

* Killing a cat in Egypt was a heinous crime, punishable
by death.

* When a household cat died mourning rites were performed
for it.

* Cats were often found in temples and were ritually fed;
stray cats were treated with honor and fed, and
the household cat was allowed to share the family's food.

* Cat amulets were produced and elaborate cat-sized sarcophagi
crafted for cats who had died, who were often embalmed
as humans were.





One of the most famous Black Cats
Who really is a witch(well, warlock)

Salem Saberhagen



DO BLACK CATS CAUSE BAD LUCK?

by Mark Levin



What is superstition? According to The Little Oxford Dictionary, superstition is  
"belief in the existence or power of the supernatural; irrational fear of the 
unknown;  a religion or practice based on such tendencies; widely held but wrong 
idea." Let us examine that definition in depth. First, there is "belief in the 
existence or power of  the supernatural". This means that there is believed to 
be some force that can   influence the events on the Earth. Second, there is 
"irrational fear of the unknown." This has been endemic to the human race since 
the early days when a cave man did not know if that cave was safe to enter or if 
he would be attacked by a bear. Third, "a religion or practice based on such 
tendencies." This is the belief that a charm or  talisman, such as throwing salt 
or hanging a horseshoe over the doorway, can affect the aforementioned 
supernatural force. Finally, there is a "widely held but wrong idea." This is a 
belief  that is believed only because everyone else believes. It may
be wrong, it may be preposterous, but all the other people think it is right and 
you believe it too.

Why do people believe in something that can be scientifically proven wrong? They  
may want a simple explanation for a coincidence. For example, a woman plants a 
tree in her yard and the weather is warm for the rest of  the month. She reasons   
that planting trees causes warm weather. That is a simple, obvious conclusion. A 
weatherman will give a long, confusing explanation such as "Various 
meteorological factors caused displacement of the cold front." The woman will 
believe her own explanation because it is simple and easily understood. Once one 
person believes this conclusion, others will believe too. Perhaps the woman will 
be gossiping with some friends, and she mentions her tree superstition. They 
tell others and soon the whole town believes that trees cause warm weather.

Some examples of common, everyday superstition include the belief that the 
number 13 is unlucky, that walking under a ladder will bring bad luck, and that 
a black cat crossing your path can affect your luck. Belief that black cats 
affect your luck goes far back in time. One king of England, Charles I, owned a 
black cat. His fear of losing it was so great that he had it guarded. The day 
after it fell ill and died, he was arrested (Radford 1949, 40).  Black cats were 
often witches in disguise or  witches' familiars (Potter 1983, 29).  There were 
also many cat charms relating to ships and the sea. Fishermen's wives would keep 
a black cat at home to prevent disaster at sea, consequently the cats became 
very valuable and were often stolen. If a cat ran ahead of a sailor to the pier 
that would bring good luck, but if the cat crossed his path it means bad luck. 
For luck, cats were often kept on board ships. If a sailor was approached by the 
ship's cat it meant good luck, but if the cat only came halfway and went away 
again it meant bad luck. The worst possible cat-related act, guaranteed to raise 
a storm and bring bad luck of all sorts, was to throw the cat overboard (Radford 
1949, 40).  Cat superstitions were also common in medicine. Fur and blood drawn 
from various parts of the cat's anatomy cured everything from shingles to St. 
Anthony's Fire (Radford 1949, 40).

All of these superstitions today boil down to "Black cats cause bad luck." A cat 
crossing your path will adversely affect your luck. This can easily be verified 
or disproved with only a person, a cat, and a situation that can be affected by 
luck.

I performed an experiment to test a black cat's effect on luck. Two people tried 
their luck at guessing computer-generated random numbers. Their paths were then 
crossed by a cat and then they guessed more numbers. To ensure that the luck 
effects were only caused by black cats, their paths were also crossed by a white 
cat.

The source of random numbers was a random number generator that I wrote in True
Basic 2.6, a BASIC programming language for Macintosh computers. The random
number, between 0 and 1, is calculated by factors including the date and time. 
The program's main loop appears below.

The first line of the program states that the program runs 50 times, to simulate 
50 coin tosses. The computer requests that the user enter "h" or "t", as in 
"tails" or "heads" in a coin toss. Then a random number between 0 and 1 is 
picked. If the number is greater than one half (.5) then it counts as tails. If 
the number is less than one half it counts as tails. The computer compares the 
user's guess to its random choice. If the user was right then the computer adds 
1 to its tally of correct scores. After 50 coin tosses the computer prints out 
the final percentage correct. Each person was tested 5 times and the results 
averaged, to minimize statistical errors.

The situation of the actual path-cross was a hallway with 2 doorways on opposite 
sides. As the subject walked down the hallway the cat ran out of one doorway and 
into the other.

The above diagram is a floor plan of the area in which the test subject 
encountered a cat. The human began on the left. As he walked down the hall, the 
cat was released in alcove A. The cat walked or ran across the human's path. The 
cat then proceeded into alcove B across the hall. The human continued to the 
computer room C. The subject then ran the luck program. The program was run 5 
times immediately. The results were entered into a series of charts. Luck For 
Subject Alone is a chart of the subject's luck when his path was not crossed by 
any cats. Luck for White Cat is a chart of when the subject's path was crossed 
by a white cat. Luck for Black Cat is a graph of the subject's luck when his 
path was crossed by a black cat.

The lower line in each chart is the lowest percentage that a subject received. 
The upper line is the highest percentage that the subject received. The center 
line is the actual percentage of coin flips correct.

The first subject, according to "Luck for Subject Alone", scored between 56% and 
44% for all his tries. The percentages are near the upper range for all tries 
but the last. 1 out of 5 tries is at the lower range. The average of his tries 
was 52%: slightly above the statistical prediction of 50%. When his path was 
crossed by a white cat, his luck first decreased to 36%. This is a great drop 
taken by itself, but all the other 4 were near or at the top. The average 
percentage for a white cat was 49.2%, 2.8% below the subject's average and .8% 
below the statistical prediction. However, 3 out of 5 tries are not outside the 
original range. They are within the subject's average percentage range, but they 
are only slight drops from the statistical average of 50%. The subject's luck 
was decreased according to a random factor, not according to the cat's path-
crossing.

These are the cats used in the experiment.

These results appear to agree with the superstition, even for the wrong cat 
color.  I  ran the test a second time to see if the white cat's results could be 
repeated. This time the results (see "Luck for second white cat crossing") were 
different. The subject's luck started out high, at 56%. Then it peaked at 58%. 
It then dropped  to the lowest point, 40%, and went up through 48% and 50%. 
These percentages are higher than the drop observed earlier. The drop to 36% can 
now be seen as a random error, not related in any way to the white cat. If the 
cat truly was capable of decreasing luck, the subject's luck would have repeated 
the decline.

The black cat, surprisingly, caused less of a drop than the white cat. The black 
cat  lowered the minimum percentage to 40%. The luck average was 47.2%. This 
range is still within the percentage range of the unaffected luck. The luck has 
not descended out of the average range of the subject.

The luck of the second subject was slightly different. His percentages were 40-
52%, averaging 46.8%. When his path was crossed by a white cat, his success rate 
became 40-60%, averaging 49.6%. The white cat caused a gain  in luck! The black 
cat caused an expansion in luck, to 36-56%. Both results go directly against the 
old superstition. If black cats are unlucky, then why did the subject's luck 
increase?    One possibility is the corollary superstition that a black cat 
running away from you is bad luck whereas a black cat approaching you is good. 
But neither applies here. The cats crossed the subject's path at nearly a right 
angle. The cat did not move towards the subject or away from him. Secondly, the 
subject's luck range did not simple shift upward, it expanded. The minimum was 
lowered and the maximum was raised. The possibility for bad luck was there, but 
so was the possibility for good luck. This remains unexplained by the 
superstition.

In conclusion, neither cat produced a drastic change in the subject's luck. 
True, the subject's luck declined slightly, but the change was not great enough 
to leave the subject's average luck range. There are several objections that 
believers could raise. It could be said that the cat affects not guessing power 
but fortune and misfortune in real-life situations. I own a black cat, and 
although she has crossed my path hundreds of times, I see no degradation in my 
schoolwork or social life. It could be said that the computer's brain is somehow 
beyond the cat's influence. I see no difference between an object that could 
land on one of 2 sides and a stream of electrons that could end in one of 2 
states. Another argument is that the stakes must be raised so that there is a 
disadvantage to losing. This implies the existence of a malevolent being, 
manifested in cats, whose reason for existence is to deny people fortune. But 
that is ridiculous. The idea that black cats cause bad luck is false. Cats do 
not affect the luck of anyone whose path has been crossed.