Did you know that black kittens and cats are the most difficult to adopt out? In the month of October, many shelters and rescue groups will not show them. Most other cultures in the world view them as good luck. Ours, however, takes the opposite stand making these beauties undesirable or targets for cruelty. This makes no sense to me, as they are just as loving and catlike as any other feline. In fact I find them beautiful.

Black hair is often an indication of Siamese blood. The ones I’ve had the pleasure of sharing a home with have had the lithe body, one-person-bonding, and meow of this breed, so I’m quite convinced that it is true. There are of course, stocky Siamese and this is also true of their black brethren.

The hair of most cats is matte and does not reflect light. There is nothing more beautiful than a short-haired black cat sitting in the sun; the coat shines like no other and begs to be stroked. In the dark, they are shadows on ink, disappearing into the background. Even in broad daylight, they are hard to see unless they are against a contrasting color.

Dodo (now deceased) used to hang out on my black rug by the front door, a rug with a contrasting eye-shaped pattern dispersed across it. I would walk around the house calling him over and over again, only to finally notice that he had been staring at me from that rug the whole time. I can only imagine what he’d been thinking as he watched me search. If cats have a sense of humor, I’m sure he was ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) inside.

Hiding in plain sight is what cats do best. Any feline will find a place to sit or curl up in that is similar to its own coloring. This is nature’s perfect camouflage and is exhibited in many others species in the wild. For this reason, when I make up a bed for a new kitten in my care, I line it with a towel that best matches its coat to make it more welcoming.

Cats can also see some colors the way a color-blind human can. They are, however, not color-blind in the politically correct sense. I observe many litters of kittens playing together, and am always shocked to see playmates and sleeping partners are often those with matching coats. Sometimes this goes so far as to leave a single unmatched kitten out of the mix on a regular basis. While there is no aggression between kittens of different coloring and markings, and they will all play and sleep together, there appears to be some shunning going on.

One particular litter was made up of Siamese, tabbies and a single black kitten. This poor little guy was often left to play by himself, and even though he was blind in one eye and the other was crossed (from his Siamese heritage), he was a mighty hunter of bugs. He was the last to be adopted having three strikes against him (black, half-blind and cross-eyed), but he did find a loving forever home of his own.

If you are in the market for a kitten this summer, why not consider a black one or two. For some reason, Mother Nature has blessed our county with an overflow of black and tuxedo (black and white) this year. We have many in waiting, and so do the shelters and other rescue groups. The other colors are snapped up first, and these sweet babies are left behind. They deserve loving homes, too!