Black Cat Trivia
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47 free Black Cat trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Black cat trivia questions with answers. Black cat trivia for Halloween parties, Black Cat Day on October 27, or anyone owned by one. The 47 questions start with the animal: why most black cats have gold eyes, why their coats 'rust' in the sun, the only breed that comes exclusively in black, and the gene that decides black over chocolate. Then it gets into the stories: the 1233 papal decree that tied black cats to witchcraft, the Scottish fairy cat with a white chest spot, why sailors wanted a black ship's cat, the Bismarck cat who survived three sinkings, Matthew Flinders' Trim, Poe's Pluto, Karloff and Lugosi, Felix, Salem, Binx, Jiji, Luna and Snowball II, plus Bastet, Egyptian cat mummies and the Black Panther adoption craze. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer has been checked against a reference source, shown under each question once you answer.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Most black cats have eyes of which colour, thanks to their high melanin content?
Golden
Most black cats have golden or yellow irises: the heavy melanin that blackens the coat also pigments the iris, while blue eyes need a lack of pigment.
Q 02Which is the only cat breed that comes exclusively in black?
Bombay
The Bombay, developed in Kentucky in the 1950s, is the one breed whose standard allows no colour but black; its tight, glossy coat is often likened to patent leather.
Q 03A black cat's coat can 'rust' to a reddish-brown shade after too much of what?
Sunlight
Prolonged sunlight bleaches the black pigment eumelanin, so a black cat that basks outdoors can turn a rusty brown at the tips; the colour returns as new fur grows.
Q 04A cat whose dark fur has white roots is known by what name?
Black smoke
A black smoke cat has hairs that are black along most of their length but white or silver at the root, so the pale undercoat shows when the fur parts.
Q 05Which big cat was Nikki Horner's all-black breed, created in Louisville from 1958, meant to resemble in miniature?
A panther
Nikki Horner wanted a 'parlor panther', a house cat with the look of a big jungle panther in miniature; her first attempt failed and the breed reached CFA championship status in 1976.
Q 06In the folklore of Britain and Ireland, a black cat crossing your path is generally a sign of what?
Good luck
In British and Irish folklore a black cat crossing your path brings good luck, the reverse of the usual American reading; Welsh tradition adds that a black cat in the house brings good health.
Q 07Which pope's 1233 decree describing a demonic ritual linked black cats to witchcraft?
Gregory IX
Gregory IX's bull Vox in Rama of 1233, addressed to the archbishop of Mainz, described heretics' rites in which a statue of a black cat came to life and was kissed by the worshippers.
Q 08The Cat sìth of Scottish mythology is a fairy black cat with what distinguishing mark?
A white chest spot
The Cat sith is described as a black cat the size of a dog with a single white spot on its chest; Highland lore held it could steal a soul from a corpse before burial.
Q 09Which London hotel seats Kaspar, a carved black cat, as an extra dinner guest?
The Savoy
The Savoy has seated Kaspar, carved by Basil Ionides in 1927, at any table whose headcount superstition deems unlucky, a custom born of an 1898 dinner after which a guest was shot dead.
Q 10In Japan, black cats are considered auspicious and are associated with which beckoning figurine?
Maneki-neko
Black maneki-neko, the beckoning-cat figurine with one paw raised, are sold in Japan as charms against evil spirits and illness; the figure dates from the Edo period.
Q 11Early US TV stations on which 'unlucky' VHF channel often used a black cat as a mascot?
13
NASA later reworked Shuttle mission numbering to avoid an STS-13; that crew's joke patch showed a black cat and the number 13.
Q 12The arch-backed black 'sab cat' became a symbol of which political movement?
Anarcho-syndicalism
Ralph Chaplin of the IWW said his 'Sab Cat' was meant to symbolise the slow-down as a way of striking on the job.
Q 13Which UK charity designated October 27 as Black Cat Day to encourage adoptions?
Cats Protection
Cats Protection launched National Black Cat Day on October 27, 2011, after finding black cats took longer than others to rehome, partly because they photograph poorly.
Q 21Poe's 'The Black Cat' first appeared in the summer of 1843 in which publication?
The Saturday Evening Post
'The Black Cat' ran in the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia in 1843; its narrator, awaiting execution for walling up his murdered wife, is exposed when the cat howls from inside the wall.
Q 22The 1934 horror film 'The Black Cat' was the first of eight films to pair which two horror stars?
Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi
It was Universal's biggest hit of the year, despite having almost nothing to do with the Poe story it was 'suggested by'.
Q 23Le Chat Noir, often called the first modern cabaret, opened in 1881 in which district of Paris?
Q 14In which month is the US 'Black Cat Appreciation Day', created by Wayne H. Morris?
August
Black Cat Appreciation Day is August 17; Wayne H. Morris started it in 2011 in memory of his sister June, whose beloved black cat was named Sinbad.
Q 15Which 2018 superhero film sparked a fad for adopting dark-coated cats and naming them T'Challa or Shuri?
Black Panther
After Black Panther opened in February 2018, shelters reported adopters taking home black cats and naming them T'Challa, Shuri or Okoye in tribute to the film's characters.
Q 16Which black cat sailed with Matthew Flinders as he mapped Australia and now appears on statues beside him?
Trim
Trim, born at sea in 1797, sailed with Flinders on the Investigator's circumnavigation of Australia; as a kitten he fell overboard, swam back and climbed a rope aboard.
Q 17Ship's cat 'Unsinkable Sam' survived the Bismarck and which two British warships in 1941?
Cossack and Ark Royal
Sam, first called Oscar, was picked up from the Bismarck, then survived the torpedoing of HMS Cossack in October 1941 and of HMS Ark Royal a month later, ending his days in Belfast.
Q 18Which black cat became Chief Mouser of HM Treasury in 2016?
Gladstone
Gladstone, a black cat from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, became the Treasury's Chief Mouser in July 2016, joining Larry at Number 10 and Palmerston at the Foreign Office.
Q 19India, also called Willie, was a black cat who lived in the White House with which president's family?
George W. Bush
India, nicknamed Willie, lived with George W. Bush's family for 18 years, moving from Texas to the White House in 2001 and dying there in January 2009.
Q 20What is the name of the doomed pet in Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story 'The Black Cat'?
Pluto
Pluto is the narrator's beloved black cat; in a drunken rage he cuts out one of its eyes and later hangs it from a tree, the crime that sets the story's horrors in motion.
Montmartre
Le Chat Noir opened in November 1881 on the Boulevard de Rochechouart in Montmartre under Rodolphe Salis, drawing painters and poets; Steinlen's 1896 poster made its black cat famous.
Q 24Marvel's Black Cat, Felicia Hardy, first appeared in 1979 as an adversary of which superhero?
Spider-Man
Felicia Hardy debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979) as a cat burglar like her father, and the Black Cat soon became Spider-Man's on-off love interest.
Q 25In 'Hocus Pocus' (1993), in which year do the Sanderson sisters turn Thackery Binx into an immortal cat?
1693
The sisters curse Thackery Binx in Salem in 1693, the year they are hanged; exactly 300 years later Max Dennison lights the Black Flame Candle and brings them back.
Q 26For how long was Sabrina's Salem Saberhagen sentenced to live as a cat for trying to take over the world?
100 years
Salem Saberhagen, a warlock, was sentenced by the Witches' Council to 100 years as a cat; Nick Bakay voiced him and an animatronic puppet often stood in for the real cats.
Q 27Kiki's talking black cat Jiji appears in a 1989 animated film made by which company?
Studio Ghibli
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), directed by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli, was Japan's highest-grossing domestic film of that year; Jiji's dry voice belongs to Rei Sakuma in Japanese.
Q 28Luna, the talking black cat who tells Usagi she is a Sailor Guardian, has what mark on her forehead?
A crescent
Luna bears a crescent moon on her forehead, the mark of the Moon Kingdom; her counterpart Artemis carries the same mark and guides Sailor Venus.
Q 29Snowball II, the black cat on 'The Simpsons', replaced an original Snowball who had fur of what colour?
White
The original Snowball was white and was killed by a car before the series began; her black successor Snowball II debuted in the 1989 premiere 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire'.
Q 30Bagheera, who mentors Mowgli in 'The Jungle Book', is scientifically what kind of animal?
A melanistic leopard
Bagheera is a melanistic leopard: the excess dark pigment of the Indian jungle's black leopards still leaves faint rosettes visible in strong light; Disney's Baloo just calls him 'Baggy'.