Black Cat Appreciation.

As you may know today is National Black Cat Day, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about my own black kitty and give some reasons why you should adopt your own. The beautiful boy in the picture above is Berlioz, my 2 year old domestic short hair. He's named after the black kitten in one of my favourite Disney films; The Aristocats. I adopted him along with one of his brothers, Felix, when he was 9 weeks old from my friend who's cat had kittens. Believe it or not he isn't fully black, when he's in the sunlight he's actually a dark gingery brown and he has random white strands of hair on his belly too.

Felix and Berlioz, about 11 weeks old.

I was drawn to him straight away when my pal sent me a photo of the litter and actually said to her 'I want the all black one cos they're always left in shelters and rarely adopted so I'll definitely take him'. Obviously the situation wasn't the same because he was already in a loving home but black cats are still thought to be unlucky so are usually last to be adopted, if at all.

Berlioz, 12 weeks old

It's actually a fact that black cats take around 22% longer to find a forever home than kitties of other 'more attractive'/unusual colours and the RSPCA did research which showed 70% of cats in their care were either black and white or all black. It's also been shown that black cats have a higher euthanasia rate than those of other colours because they're always left behind in shelters, isn't that just so sad?

Black cats are so common in colour, and they are so easily overlooked for those of other more unusual colours that some stay in shelters for a very long time, I'm talking months to years and through no fault of their own. Berlioz has such a wacky personality and is so full of energy and can sometimes be a little devil but he's also so so loving he never leaves my side (unless he's eating or play fighting with felix). It makes me so sad to think kitties are being left behind all because of the colour of their fur when all they want is a forever home and a loving owner.

If you're thinking of adopting a cat from your local shelter please consider choosing an all black kitty, they're truly wonderful and just as loving as any other and you won't regret it one bit.