Black pets less likely to be adopted

I think someone thinks too hard....

I rescued my black lab cross, Kelsey, from the pound in 1998 when she was about 1½ years old. She is totally black and even has black spots on her tongue. I did not consider her colour when I chose her. I considered that she was a large, confused animal that needed a loving home.

She has given us much joy for the past 10 years. I have trained her to trust again and even children can take food out of her mouth.

Our cat probably doesn't count in the black category since she is black and white we rescued Rikki in 1989. She is almost 20 years old and still looks like a kitten.

Nah, not thinking too hard. Just curious.

Was wondering if it might be something to do with superstition, especially with cats.

Or maybe some practical consideration that I hadn't thought of. Though I have no clue what that would be!

Actually, there might be something to people not wanting to adopt black cats. I run a homeless cat shelter and the black cats are always the last ones to find a home.

You can't go by me 'cause I had 2 black cats. I was lucky as they both lived long (19.5 and 17 yrs) happy lives.

All of my favorite family dogs have been black. It was not planned that way. I just happened to connect with those particular animals.

It could have something to do with black colour of the critters, mushy. Some phobic folk have a thing about black cats ... which is more about their superstitions, I think, than the cat.

But you've ruined a long-held theory for me. I always thought that (potential cat owners) avoided tabbies. Because they are so "common". As a result, I've often gone out of my way to adopt tabbies. Like the last time I went to the cat shelter for a new cat. I specifically asked for (at least a year old) tabby, but no such critter available!
I ended up with a 3 year old tuxedo cat, because the shelter worker sized me up & figured I'd go with an older, unwanted cat, when others wouldn't. She was absolutely correct! And now I have one of the best cats you could hope for!

But an unwanted black cat? Yes, next time, if one is looking for a home. They are positively exquisite critters! Just like all the other cats!

I love black cats, but I never did have one. Only because some other adorable fluffy face caught my attention first.

I suppose it might be true, superstition being sorta rampant.

I didn't have cats in my childhood, or even in my twenties, being raised with my mother who hated cats. When my hub and I moved in together, he brought his cats... love at first sight for me, no, I mean the cats, except that they made me sneeze. I proceeded to sneeze for many more years. But, the first one, a very cool black momma cat, was named Cinque, after a certain local to hub, um, person of notariety, who took the name from a leader of a slave rebellion. How could I have not liked cats when I had her in my life? Oh, and her son, the siamese look-alike, a kitten when we first met, which we named 'spackle'. Too much information, I know. But hey, I miss them even now.

Funny when I went to adopt my first pet (on my own), I went to this "no kill" shelter. The only kittens they had left were two black ones. I loved the idea of an all black kitten so I had no problem adopting one. After a while I felt bad that she was all alone during the day so 6 months later I went back and adopted an all white kitten - thought it would be cool to have a black and a white cat.

I'm going to notify the Reverend Jesse Catson about this outrage...perhaps Reverend Farracat as well...

Hmm, so it just might be true. Simply an odd thing, isn't it.

No, never too much information when it is about people's pets.

Msolga, I used to figure it was the tabbies who would be the 'last' choice too. Because of how common they are.

At the end of the day, it's pretty obvious that if someone loves an animal, fur is the last thing they are looking at. Thanks for the stories, everyone.

Humph!

It's OBvious, isn't it? It's a RACE-shul thang! They all tryin to keep the BLACK cats down, man!!!! DAY-yum!!! Can't y'all SEE?!?!?!?



My two boys, George and Joe are both beautiful long haired domestic black cats. And I wouldn't trade 'em fer just about anything...

Now why didn't that occur to me before, snood?

Of course!

Harrumpf! The shelter worker sized you up and figured you were going home with a cat that day.

Well, I had turned up there with my cat cage & a determined attitude, roger!
When it became clear that the one year old-plus tabby Id hoped to find didn't exist that day, well, she went to work on me about this wonderful, slightly older cat (now Ms Poppy) ... "Pick her up, she's very affectionate! Isn't she beautiful!" ... etc, etc, etc ..
... THEN she told me about her houseful of all the unwanted critters from the shelter - an ancient dog, a cat which had lost it's hair, another with no teeth, numerous other cats, birds, etc .... to save them from the worst.
It was heart wrenching. At that point I thought" "What the heck! Give me the tuxedo cat! Just stop the wretched stories!"

"Pick her up, she's very affectionate!

Boy, did she have you pegged.

She sure did, roger .... but then, she was a desperate woman. (I don't know how people cope, working in those places. )

And hey, I ended up with Ms Poppy! Happy ending!

buttons
My first house my wife had me paint the inside white. Everything white. Before we painted, we had ordered white carpet. Before the carpet was installed, we ordered white furniture. When it was all said and done, we couldn't find her cat, snowball. Hence, cat number two was black.