Black cat personalities are as different from cat to cat as they are from breed to breed (or no breed). A lot of people look at a black cat and don’t see beyond the color. This is bad for both those looking for a loving cat as well as the black cats, who stand a 50% greater chance of euthanasia because no one wants them. Many potential adopters can’t see past the color to the individual cat. Others are superstitious.
Since this is October, Halloween for us in the states, I’d like to tell the readers about our black cats.
We have three black cats in our home. Each is a different breed. Or should I say mixed breed in our case. And each has different personality traits.
First I’d like to say I had a black cat named Peeper many years ago. She was your typical short haired muscular black cat. Very intelligent, curious and very sneaky. She wore a red reflector tag on her collar so we could spot her at night and get her inside. Peeper would tuck her head into her chest and close her eyes to prevent us from seeing the reflector tag. Peeper was also very vocal.
Sealy reminds me a lot of Peeper. Especially in the vocalization. He meows quite loud when he wants something. Usually it means he wants a pack of his food. Once he reaches his ideal weight, he’ll be a muscular cat.
Peeper was never sick a day in her life. She got in a cat fight once and had to have a few stitches, but her health was great. Sealy hasn’t been sick either. He was injured, but as far as upper respiratory infections go, he’s been healthy. I did an article months ago about black cats being healthier and how their good health can be attributed to the same genes that make them black.
Our cat Midnight is very delicate. Her mother was a Maine Coon mix. She looks more like an Angora with the long hair and slim build. She has very long legs for a cat. She’s very loving and likes to be the center of attention. Midnight loves to try and pull the glasses off of Laura’s face.
Midnight had a case of full blown distemper within days of arriving in our home. The was during the outbreak that caused the shelter to euthanize over 100 kittens under the age of 4 months to get the illness under control. Midnight lost all of her brothers and sisters to the distemper. It was only through giving sub-q fluids, antibiotics and KMC kitten milk that she survived. The vet didn’t hold out much hope for her to pull through.
Statistics show that 90% of young kittens who have distemper die from it. Even with vet care. The care she received to pull her through is one reason she’s so spoiled now. Whenever we have a sick cat and have to give the KMC kitten formula, Midnight has to have a taste. We’ve pulled several sick cats through using the KMC, but Pedialyte seems to be the liquid of choice for sick cats. It’s just been easier to get the replacement formula into them using a syringe.
I can’t write an article about our black cats without telling the story of our Cassie. Cassie came to us in January 2011 as a very sick kitten. She had been found roaming near the interstate a week after a blizzard dumped over a foot of snow and ice on the area. We named him Casper because none of our other cats were curious about him. It was only after we had made an appointment for neutering that we learned Casper was a girl. The shelter had listed her as a boy and we never checked on our own. One night she turned her butt up in my face, and we had to make a call to the clinic to be sure they had time to do a spay instead of a neuter.
Cassie is a long haired solid black cat. She’s probably not a Maine Coon, but we’re not certain. Cassie spent her first few months living in a box on our feeding bar. Whenever she would wander away from her box, she thought if she could run back to her box should a cat chase her, that cat couldn’t enter her private sanctuary. You can imagine her surprise the first time Mandy chased her back into the box and followed her in. They soon started taking naps together.
Cassie is our quiet black cat. She lives privacy. She has hiding places and she also loves to lay on the cat tree in Laura’s room and look out the window. Cassie isn’t one for playing. She’d rather just lay around and watch the other cats. Sometimes she’ll come over and enjoy a little petting. It has to be on her terms. Cassie has turned into a very large cat, considering her shelter name was Scrawny. We have to watch Cassie when she eats, because she will lay across the food bowl and has even napped in that position. We have several feeding areas set up in case the cats can’t get to the bowl Cassie’s coveting.
You may not be able to adopt a black cat this month, as many shelters close black cat adoptions due to so many are tortured and killed as Halloween approaches.
We chose each of our black cats by the personality we could see waiting to be unleashed with a lot of love. I’d like to ask the readers with black cats why you chose that particular cat. I’m sure to get some sweet feedback on this one.
Elisa
I chose Cassie when I saw her picture on the euthanasia list. She looked at me like “mama come get me.” So I did. She lives mostly in Lauras room, which is very quiet.
Midnight lives in the living room and she was very depressed when Laura went to visit her dad. Midnight has to go along on the next trip. Laura worked very hard to get her over the distemper and Midnight is very spoiled.
I rescued Sealy because he looked like he had given up and I knew he wouldn’t be kept long at the shelter because of his injury. He’s shy but underneath he’s very curious. He’s just taking his time getting adjusted. We had agreed to just foster him but we fell in love with him that first weekend so we decided to adopt. I’ve never had a seriously injured cat before and he’s taught me a lot about not giving up. Sealy never gave up. He says as long as he has food he doesn’t care he only has one ear.
23 pounds is a big black cat. Mine is 16 pounds and he’s pretty large but he is missing on leg, which must weigh about a pound. That makes him 17 lbs!
I love black cats. My 23-pounder, MacDuff is the love of my life, along with my other two cats, one a white mix and one a tuxedo. Yay black cats.
I chose my black cat Lilly because she had less chance of being adopted and because she had been there the longest and I felt sorry for her. She is a great kitty. She was always very playful and still is. She loves kittens. She gets on well with all the cats she’s been with but she needs an adjustment period of a couple weeks. She is very friendly and outgoing and everybody seems to like her even if they not be particularly into cats. She gets bored outside if there are no people around or dogs. She seeks action in that sense. She has always been very healthy and eaten well but not too much and not too little. She loves water. She is extremely vocal, it’s very sweet when she gets fed up with waiting and wants to play now. She has been through alot in that she has moved to a different country. She has been on a train. In cars. She handles everything very well. She is such a great kitty and she has made me like black cats just because she is black and so great 🙂
Hi Elisa, I didn’t choose my black cat. I just had to adopt him. You’re right. The coat color of a cat does not dictate the character of the cat. That said some people believe that calico cats have a certain type of character. And some people think that red cats (ginger) have a certain type of character too. It is confusing.
Sometimes I think the coat color can have an affect on personality. The trouble with black cats is that they still have to live with the legacy of centuries of superstition that still exists. The last witches where tried over 300 years ago but people still think the black cat is a witches familiar!
Amongst the wild cat species black is the only color other than their usual color/pattern that some individual cats become. It is due to a genetic mutation. The black serval in Africa is not that uncommon. There must be a good reason for this and it is probably because of health benefits.
My black cats are totally different guys. Cisco is sleek and shiny and playful and aggressively affectionate. I could swear he teleports. Pancho looks very Maine Coon, is big, fluffy, laid back, and a little more diffident but also very sweet and affectionate. His most distinguishing personality trait is that he’s the original curious cat. If anything new is going on in the house, Pancho is all over it. He is more food oriented than Cisco, for whom food is something you do to give you the energy to play and purr some more. For Pancho food is the goal of the day, though pets and cuddles and naps and some play are always fun too.