Black Cat Appreciation Day

From Laurie and Gethyn:

The sisters: Alcestis Jerry (named for her noted uncle JAC) and Octavia Sadie.

From James:

This is Mia, a Bombay rescue I’ve had for just over a year. She’s a bundle of energy and wants to play all the time, much to my discomfiture.  I even have to remind her to eat.

“What’s that smell?”

From Beth:

Hillary Rotten Kitten (DemoCAT) thinks of herself as the dark load. (She’s all black but sports lighter fur for a while after a shave.)

From Reese:

Woodford (black cat): Has an affectionate relationship with an 80 lb. d*g.

From Erik, an unnamed rescue cat (Erik calls it “Porch Panther”). Erik sent several photos, but I’ll post only one.

The background. I guess this is my black cat now, as he is now living on my porch and his previous people– not owners, as he is rather feral– left him when they moved. I understand why, as taking a feral cat from the northeast down to Florida is probably not best for the cat, but I ended up being his caretaker as no other arrangement was made.He really is a handsome boy, though he also has a persistent upper respiratory infection, so he has constant sneezing and discharge.

He has become comfortable enough to lay on the chair near me. His sense of betrayal only lasted a day or so after the vet.

In the cool grass in back, where you can see the one white spot he has:

From Irene:

Here is a picture of my black cat, Londo.

My husband was actually on his way to feed our friend’s dogs when he nearly hit Londo as Londo was crossing the road. He picked up Londo, who fit in the palm of my hand, and brought him home. His eyes were covered in goo, which was conjunctivitis. We believed he was probably abandoned either by his mom or another human and accepted we might have a blind cat joining our family. We took Londo to the vet, who cleaned his eyes and gave us some eye drops. The vet estimated he was six to eight weeks old. He’s now four years old. Londo joined our house, which already had one black cat, a flame-point Siamese and a blue-point Siamese. Londo loves to play fetch and follows me everywhere around the house. If we cook bacon, he always steals a slice to eat for himself. He will only sit on my husband’s lap and hates blankets. We suspect this is because I had him wrapped in a blanket to hold him while we gave him his eye drops.

Andrée sends us a photo of the late Zorro:

He’s no longer with us but led an exciting life: mouser (there is a mouse in the thatch), Vermont tree panther, and philosopher.

From Nama:

Attached is a pic of Alice the majestic.

From Jacques:

Well, here is Domino, who doesn’t answer his name, but does along with either “Monsieur chat” or, more frequently “Couillon” (because he was deprived of this important part of his anatomy in his early youth). 17 years old, but still in good shape. I do not know why, where and how he lost his upper right canine. iPhone photo taken by my daughter.

From Susannah:

We love black cats.  This is Mason; he is 7 years old and joined our family 5 years ago.  He is a character and loves playing with the boys, stealing legos and puzzle pieces.  And he also likes to give himself NSFW baths while Jake is on a zoom meeting.

From JC in Taos, New Mexico:

Per your request,  an image of Pilgrim, our beefiest moggy. While not uniformly black, he was a representative of the shelter’s “Black Cat Discount” program in 2010, arriving at our house the day before Thanksgiving in this white-trimmed garb,  hence his name. We had no idea he’d get so large and obstreperous.

Hope the white trim doesn’t disqualify him.

From Don:

Sheba, petite and playful, was a fine cat, shy of strangers but always content with her long life indoors, even in rural Vermont.  She was a shoulder cat, preferring to recline draped across a shoulder rather than to be cradled or curled in a lap.

Happy Black Cat Day!  (Also, as it happens, my birthday).

From Stephen:

She is called Moonlight. I know it doesn’t make sense, but my daughter Charlotte liked the name, associated with a white cat in a children’s story.

From Alister:

From Ursula we have black cat Boris. I allowed two photos because we have him as a kitten and an adult:

From David:

Jasper.  He used to live in Toronto, but has now retired to Nova Scotia.

From a reader who posts as “Quadrival”:

This is my cat George, reclining in his usual elegant posture.

From Tanya:

The attached photo is of our beloved little black kitty, Fledermaus, which means ‘bat’ in German. He was named by our 12-year-old daughter, who takes German in school, and appreciated his resemblance to the caricature of the flying mammal. Fledermaus is a delightfully playful and curious boy, unhampered by his knobby, kinked tail (present at adoption). He’s known for jumping at moving objects on the TV, climbing our window screens, and leaving us dead rodent gifts when he has the chance.

From Elizabeth:

This is Samantha. Photo is from 1998. It’s the only one I have.

From Stephen:

Here is a photo of my black cat Pepper.

From Bruce:

Per your request, here’s a photo, taken in 2020, of three Burmese cats.  Left to right – the late Java Cat (she left us about six months after this was taken), Rommel, and Mothra.

From Jeffrey:

Here’s my favorite animal in the world, Binx!

From Jeremy:

 In honor of black cat appreciation day, I have included pictures of our two black cats, Bella and Baloo. Baloo is sitting in a halloween candy bowl, while Bella is lying nervously on the couch.

From Ruth:

In response to your request for black cat photos, please meet Lizzie. She came to us on Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee ten years ago, so she is named after her. Like all black cats she is also, of course, immensely regal in her own right. She lives in Glossop in the Peak District in England, with her two humans, her brother Pip (named for the late Prince Philip), and three other female cats. She is a lovely softie to us but is an Old Meanie to the other girls, and sulks for exactly nine months when a new cat is introduced to the household.

From reader James in the UK:

This is our cat Hixxy (and his brother Dougal). He is a rescue cat and we appreciate him very much.

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, he started having seizures. Turns out he has a very large brain tumour on the right side of his brain. So large, it is apparently squeezing his brain down and out of his neck. He’s been in surgery today and just an hour ago we heard from the surgeon saying she was very pleased about how the surgery went, as she managed to get the whole tumour out and there was no bleeding at all. We’re now waiting for him to come around. Fingers crossed he pulls through. Relatedly, medical science and its practitioners are fuxxing awesome.

Good luck, Hixxy!

From Lance:

Here is C.K. Dexter Haven (Dexter), our current, lone rescue kitty who has taken charge of the house. Did you know it’s tough to get a good picture of a black cat?

From Heather:

Here is Shadow. She loves her heated bed even in the summer.

From Mike:

Bugsy is a feral cat who adopted our dog (she ate his food and slept with him). She eats bugs and this influenced her name. She likes to pet people by rubbing your legs. Her favorite holiday is Halloween and she greets Trick or Tweeters indiscriminately.

From Paul:

This is Apollo.   He is a 7 year-old rescue cat who is very friendly and gets along great with our greyhound.

From Rachel:

Thank you for the reminder/extension, Professor Ceiling Cat! I’m attaching a photo of my Lloyd. This is from Halloween a couple of years ago. Lloyd is 15, but still spry. He loves treats, snuggles, and interrupting Zoom meetings.

From Erin:

This is Friday. He was adopted on the day after Thanksgiving and is a bundle of mischief, as you can see here.

From Greg:

This is Chester settling in for his first nap of the day right after breakfast #1.

From Charles:

The black cat (Spot) and his brother, the dark tabby (Timmy), with the polydactyl newcomer (Paws).

From Douglas:

Jasper, the black cat.

From Merilee:

From biologist John Losos, a photo of his sister’s black cat, Allie:

From Rik:

This is my Mom’s cat Bella, and she lives in St. Germain, Wisconsin. She must be seven or eight years old by now and she’s always been a mellow little cat. I’m looking forward to visiting her. next week!

From Mike:

Ma’ii is not really black, he has a small white spot on his shoulder and random white hairs elsewhere. He has lost those three white whiskers since this picture was taken. He and his fellow terrorist rule the house of course.

From Peter:

Can a tuxedo cat be an honorary honoree on Black Cat Appreciation Day? This is dear, departed Augustus (Gus to his friends) (1999-2017), who was my loyal companion and best friend, and who has been seen on these pages.

From “J”:

Her name is Pumpkin, and she is among her fellow pumpkins.  She enjoys eating, sleeping, playing, and waking me up at the buttcrack of dawn.

From Joe:

Here is my granddaughter’s black cat, inexplicably named “Ginger”.  Her favorite toys are plastic soda straws.

From Suzanna:

This is my son’s cat, Lance. Adopted as a kitten from a shelter, now about 3 years old but still likes to hang out in places he used to fit as a kitten!

From Janis:

OTHELLO:  Nearly 12 years old now…and 24 lbs of affectionate laziness.  He’s part-Siamese and smart as a whip.  He’s our best cat. (Shhhhhh….don’t tell the others I said that!)

From Lou:

My cat is Martin Brisby (from the “Secret Of NIMH”), his friend is Ricky, who he pays no attention to. Happy Black Cat Day!

From Stephanie, we have Lulu:

I have a cat who is mostly black.  Don’t know if she counts but she does to me!

From Patrick:

This has a messy background, but it’s still one of my favorite pictures of Kiki, who crossed the rainbow bridge last year at the age of 19.

From Kira:

Cat Gitel and her henchdog in Chaos Corridor

From John:

The photo is of “Babs”. She is my daughter’s cat. This photo shows off the typical deep yellow eyes of black cats, which is due to the excess of melanin pigment, which also accounts for the blackness of their fur. I’m sure there is some interesting genetics here, but I just haven’t looked it up.

From Sebastian:

Hope it’s not too late to send in my Perseus. I’ve included a couple different shots to choose from.

I chose one in which Perseus was wearing cat earmuffs.

From Jon:

This is my Lucy, pensive. She very nearly almost entirely black!

From Linda:

The first picture of Billy and Jose is as young adults, and the second is from shortly after we got them, at about ten weeks old.

From Arantxa:

I attach one photo of my dearest black cat named TIZÓN.

From Rico:

This is Clark. He’s 9 yrs old and the youngest of three cats here at home.

From Ginger:

Attached are some photos of my late, beloved twin girls Lucy and Daphne. They were littermates. I rescued them from death row at my local pound in 2002 along with a tuxedo long-hair, Timmy. I hope you can use a few pics.

Daphne died on August 31, 2017, at age 15, probably from thyroid disease. She was a tiny, shy, sneaky little girl, but very sweet and affectionate with a very loud, deep purr. She liked to sit in her carrier.

Lucy died on May 4, 2019, from lymphoma at age 17. A chonker, Lucy was the sweetest, gentlest, most affectionate kitteh EVAH! She was a people kitteh who loved belly rubs and sitting on laps. For some reason, she liked to sit on my bad and face the wall.

Sometimes I had difficulty telling the girls apart. They were very close sisters and spent a lot of time together. I miss them very much.

Little Daphne:

Little Lucy:

And the last submission, from Ricky:

This is Butters from Portland, OR.  She just turned 11 and is extremely vocal. She is an indoor cat but loves to hang out in the backyard most of the day when the weather’s nice.

The deadline for submission has passed. Thanks to all the readers who submitted their Midnight Moggies, and here’s a final tweet from Matthew:

'Hector' Linocut by UK contemporary artist and printmaker Vanessa Lubach #WomensArt #BlackCatAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/StEOpMaJSW

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) August 17, 2022