black cat superstitions

When we think of Halloween, visions of ghosts, goblins, jack o' lanterns, cob webs, zombies, and witches and their cat companions swirl in our heads and haunt us in our sleep (or at Knott's Scary Farm like the other night!).

We can all thank Halloween lore and religious persecution for leading people to be overly superstitious of black cats. Take this tale from British feline lore for example:

In Lincolnshire in the 1560s, a father and his son were frightened one moonless night when a small creature darted across their path into a crawl space. Hurling stones into the opening, they saw an injured black cat scurry out and limp into the adjacent home of a woman suspected by the town of being a witch. Next day, the father and son encountered the woman on the street. Her face was bruised, her arm bandaged. And she now walked with a limp. From that day on in Lincolnshire, all black cats were suspected of being witches in night disguise. The lore persisted. The notion of witches transforming themselves into black cats in order to prowl streets unobserved became a central belief in America during the Salem witch hunts. Thus, an animal once looked on with approbation became a creature dreaded and despised. 

Read more black cat superstitions here.

Dreaded and despised??! Eek! Does this little guy resemble anything having to do with evil?....

Yeah, I thought not. Rasta does not have an evil bone in his body! In fact, three words to describe Rasta would be skittish (he's extremely terrified of the sound of tin foil), intelligent (he can open doors), and spacey (he does a good job at leaving food residue all over his face post meal time). Even though Rasta is the farthest thing from evil, we still gotta protect the little bugger from psychos and potential harm on and around Halloween!