50 Fun Facts About Black Cat

Most black cats have eyes of which colour, thanks to their high melanin content?

The Bombay breed standard goes further and demands copper-gold eyes; green is a fault.

Which is the only cat breed that comes exclusively in black?

The Cat Fanciers' Association allows solid black as an option in 21 other breeds, but this one is black and nothing else.

A black cat's coat can 'rust' to a reddish-brown shade after too much of what?

The black pigment eumelanin is fragile, and a shortage of the amino acid tyrosine can cause the same effect.

A cat whose dark fur has white roots is known by what name?

Faint tabby markings can also show through on a solid black cat in certain light, because the tabby pattern is only suppressed, not erased.

Which big cat was Nikki Horner's all-black breed, created in Louisville from 1958, meant to resemble in miniature?

She crossed sable Burmese with black American Shorthairs; her first attempt failed and the second succeeded in 1965.

In the folklore of Britain and Ireland, a black cat crossing your path is generally a sign of what?

The RSPCA confirmed in 2014 that in UK folklore black cats symbolise good luck, and Welsh lore says one brings good health.

Which pope's 1233 decree describing a demonic ritual linked black cats to witchcraft?

Vox in Rama claimed heretics' meetings ended with a statue of a black cat coming to life and walking backwards with its tail erect.

The Cat sìth of Scottish mythology is a fairy black cat with what distinguishing mark?

It is said to be as big as a dog and to walk on its hind legs when it thinks no human is watching.

Sailors traditionally preferred a black ship's cat. Why?

Fishermen's wives sometimes kept a black cat at home too, hoping its influence would protect their husbands at sea.

In Japan, black cats are considered auspicious and are associated with which beckoning figurine?

Latvia, Italy and Thailand also count black cats as lucky, and in Germany one walking left to right is a good sign.

Early US TV stations on which 'unlucky' VHF channel often used a black cat as a mascot?

NASA later reworked Shuttle mission numbering to avoid an STS-13; that crew's joke patch showed a black cat and the number 13.

The arch-backed black 'sab cat' became a symbol of which political movement?

Ralph Chaplin of the IWW said his 'Sab Cat' was meant to symbolise the slow-down as a way of striking on the job.

Which UK charity designated October 27 as Black Cat Day to encourage adoptions?

In 2014 the RSPCA reported that 70% of the abandoned cats in its care were black, partly because black cats do not photograph as well.

In which month is the US 'Black Cat Appreciation Day', created by Wayne H. Morris?

Wayne H. Morris created it in memory of his late sister June, who had a black cat named Sinbad.

Which 2018 superhero film sparked a fad for adopting dark-coated cats and naming them T'Challa or Shuri?

Shelter staff noticed adopters were mostly regular visitors who simply picked a black cat once the film put the idea in their heads.

Which black cat sailed with Matthew Flinders as he mapped Australia and now appears on statues beside him?

As a kitten he fell overboard, swam back and climbed a rope aboard, which is what won the crew over.

Ship's cat 'Unsinkable Sam' survived the Bismarck and which two British warships in 1941?

A Reuters wire reported he was found floating on a plank after Ark Royal went down, though there is no firm evidence linking him to the Bismarck.

Which black cat became Chief Mouser of HM Treasury in 2016?

Adopted from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in 2016, he joined Downing Street's Larry and the Foreign Office's Palmerston; the government has adopted several mousers from Battersea.

India, also called Willie, was a black cat who lived in the White House with which president's family?

She was one of the last presidential cats; the Bushes' dogs Barney and Miss Beazley got most of the press.

What is the name of the doomed pet in Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story 'The Black Cat'?

The narrator gouges out its eye, hangs it, and is later haunted by a second one-eyed black cat with a white patch shaped like a gallows.

Poe's 'The Black Cat' first appeared in the summer of 1843 in which publication?

The narrator is awaiting execution after walling up his murdered wife, and the cat gives him away.

The 1934 horror film 'The Black Cat' was the first of eight films to pair which two horror stars?

It was Universal's biggest hit of the year, despite having almost nothing to do with the Poe story it was 'suggested by'.

Felix the Cat, the black cartoon cat created in 1919, holds what distinction in American animation?

He was created by Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan in the silent era, and his refusal to move to sound let Mickey Mouse eclipse him.

Le Chat Noir, often called the first modern cabaret, opened in 1881 in which district of Paris?

Its famous 1896 poster by Théophile Steinlen is still one of the most reproduced images in the world.

Marvel's Black Cat, Felicia Hardy, first appeared in 1979 as an adversary of which superhero?

She is the daughter of a famous cat burglar and later becomes his on-off love interest.

In 'Hocus Pocus' (1993), in which year do the Sanderson sisters turn Thackery Binx into an immortal cat?

Three centuries later Max Dennison lights the Black-Flame Candle and brings the witches back.

For how long was Sabrina's Salem Saberhagen sentenced to live as a cat for trying to take over the world?

In the sitcom he was voiced by Nick Bakay and often played by an animatronic puppet rather than one of the four real cats.

Kiki's talking black cat Jiji appears in a 1989 animated film made by which company?

It was Ghibli's first film to be a hit on initial release, taking ¥4.3 billion in Japan; Kiki leaves home at 13 as all young witches must.

Luna, the talking black cat who tells Usagi she is a Sailor Guardian, has what mark on her forehead?

Her white counterpart Artemis is also able to speak and secretly guides Sailor Venus.

Snowball II, the black cat on 'The Simpsons', replaced an original Snowball who had fur of what colour?

She has appeared since the series premiere but has had almost no storylines of her own.

Bagheera, who mentors Mowgli in 'The Jungle Book', is scientifically what kind of animal?

The word bagheera is Hindi for panther or leopard; in the Disney film Baloo just calls him 'Baggy'.

Melanism in leopards, producing black panthers, is inherited as what kind of trait?

In jaguars it is the other way round: a dominant allele, confirmed in 2003 from a 116-animal captive pedigree.

Scotland's Kellas cat proved in 1984 to be a hybrid of the domestic cat and what?

A gamekeeper's snare produced the first specimen; the National Museum of Scotland went on to examine eight of them.

The Egyptian goddess Bastet, later a cat, was originally worshipped as what animal?

She and the warrior goddess Sekhmet came to be seen as two aspects of the same deity, Bastet the gentler one.

Herodotus called the annual festival of Bastet in which Egyptian city the largest in the country?

He wrote in the mid-5th century BC that several hundred thousand pilgrims attended.

The first known mummified cat, dated to about 1350 BC, is thought to have been the pet of which Egyptian prince?

Mummifying animals took off after 664 BC, when cat mummies became votive offerings to Bastet.

Sylvester, the black-and-white Looney Tunes cat forever chasing Tweety, debuted in which 1945 cartoon?

Three of his cartoons won Academy Awards, more than any other Looney Tunes star.

What is Sylvester the cat's trademark exclamation?

It is said to be a minced oath of 'Suffering Savior', and Daffy Duck borrows it now and then.

Which gene variant does a cat need to produce black eumelanin rather than chocolate or cinnamon?

The gene codes for the enzyme TYRP1; chocolate and cinnamon are its two recessive variants.

A solid black cat gets its single colour mostly from a gene that suppresses which coat pattern?

In some lights the stripes are not fully hidden and faint ghost markings show through.

What has forensic evidence usually pointed to when black cats are found killed around Halloween?

Coyotes, eagles and other raptors are the usual culprits, and no documented link between Halloween adoptions and harm has ever been found.

Which Canadian city held a 2014 Black Friday event where black cats could be adopted without the usual $75 fee?

Many American shelters now waive black cat fees on Black Friday.

How many breeds does the Cat Fanciers' Association recognise as able to have solid black coats?

Only one of them, the Bombay, comes exclusively in black; the others allow black as one colour option.

Which two breeds were crossed in the US to create the Bombay?

The goal was a cat of mostly Burmese type with a sleek jet-black coat, nicknamed 'the patent leather kid with the new penny eyes'.

Which eye colour is not allowed under the Bombay breed standard?

The large round eyes must always be copper-coloured, ranging from bright orange to warm gold.

A deficiency of which amino acid can cause a black cat's coat to 'rust' to a reddish shade?

The amino acid is needed to make eumelanin, the fragile black pigment that also fades with too much sunshine.

In German folklore, a black cat brings good luck if it walks in which direction across your path?

In Latvia black farm cats promise a good harvest, and in Thailand they are said to bring prosperity to their owners.

In Chilote folklore of southern Chile, a black cat is needed when hunting for whose treasure?

The carbunclo is a legendary creature whose treasure hunters must be armed with a black cat, among other things.

How does the second cat in Poe's story differ from Pluto in appearance?

It is otherwise Pluto's double, down to the missing eye, and its howl from behind the cellar wall gives the narrator away.

Which other Poe story is 'The Black Cat' most often paired with as a study of guilt?

In both stories a murderer hides his crime, believes himself safe, and then breaks down and gives himself away.