The Black Cat Mystique…

"Mommy, am I a bad-luck cat?"
“Mommy,” McDuff asked me the other day, “am I really a bad-luck cat?”
“No, darling,” I answered immediately. “That’s just an old-wives’ tale. See a long time ago; when men went out to sea, their wives had nothing to do. So they sat around making up silly notions….

McDuff gets the scoop from Mommy about black cats.
“Now I can only imagine how this black cat tale began,” I continued, hyperbolizing just a teeny bit. “I don’t know for certain, but I’ll bet my haw it was probably devised by some woman who, as she was admiring a beautiful black kitty like you, wasn’t looking where she was walking, and fell down a well. Now some of the other wives must have observed what happened, and blamed it on the cat. So, put that idea out of your head. You’re not bad luck.”
“In fact, if you have a moment, I’ll tell you some really good things about being a black cat,” and with that, McDuff sat down, little yellow eyes wide open.

McDuff wasn't bothered enough by the "black cat mystique" not to eat.
“In some countries, like Scotland (so Wikipedia tells us), if a strange black cat lands on your porch, it’s a sign of upcoming prosperity. What’s more in Britain and Daddy and Mommy’s beautiful, Ireland, black cats are considered good, not bad, luck….especially if you let one in your house.
“Black cats have an easier time hunting at night, McDuff, because they blend in with the dark. And some scientists believe black cats may have genes that resisted deadly infections years ago, which led to their being so many of you.”

McDuff says, "I always knew black cats were way kewl."
By this time, McDuff was off to the kitchen for a snack. So I think he was mollified. Obviously, I did stretch the truth a bit. I didn’t want to scare him by telling him the bad parts….how some people think black cats are associated with evil, witches, and the devil. I mean, I’ve been called a “witch” before, but no one could call my McDuff anything but an angel.
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