Powell and the black cat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will cross paths with a black cat on Friday the 13th, posing for a picture with a copper-eyed Bombay male that bears his name.


Colin Powell -- the cat -- will pay a courtesy call on the top U.S. diplomat on Friday August 13 and the two will appear before photographers in the elegant Treaty Room outside the secretary of state's suite of offices at the State Department.


The feline was selected as cat of the year by the Cat Fanciers' Association, which requested, and received, time with the secretary to photograph the two Colin Powells for its 2005 yearbook cover, a State Department official said.


The association, which was founded in 1906 and calls itself the world's largest nonprofit registry of pedigreed cats, said Colin Powell competed against 22,700 other cats and was judged 290 times before winning its highest award.


The cat's owner, Sig Hauck, said he was a "very, very laid back" cat and was called "Wolfman Jack" at first because he had spiky hairs on his forearms but was later formally named Colin Powell "for patriotic reasons."


Asked why Powell would interrupt his day of dealing with foreign potentates for a feline visitor, the U.S. official said: "If you had a cat named after you that won the Cat Fanciers' Association cat of the year -- I mean that doesn't happen every day. This is recognising a cat of outstanding ability."


Friday the 13th and having a black cat cross your path are both thought by some to bring bad luck.