I'm moving in approximately 3 months, and after we are all settled in our new surroundings I am planning on adopting a cat. I'd like a black one, simply because I love how they look. I also want a good cat. Yet it is difficult to tell what kind of cat you're getting at first, and I am not very good at reading cat personality. As my evidence will show, a black cat can vary quite a bit.

I offer 3 examples:

 

This is Coco. She lives with my parents and is the cat I've had since I was about 12. She's a luxuriously soft long haired cat. We adopted her from the shelter at the age of 3 after she stuck her paw out of the cage she was in and pawed gently at my mother's leg, as though to say "Take me". She is a very talkative cat, especially first thing in the morning and late at night. She loves to perch on your lap and if you are reading on the floor, she will sit next to you attentively or sprawl across the newspaper. She has only hissed once, and that was when someone accidentally stepped on her tail. When a family member is sick or upset, she does not leave their side. She will groom your arm if you let her. If there is an argument in the house, she rushes in, meowing and everyone forgets what they were arguing about in order to pet and calm her. She came declawed, and loves to kneed your shoulders or leg with what's left of her front paws. She is the best thing that ever happened to our relatively high-strung family.

 

 

This is Smoke. He is my younger sister's cat and lives with her in her apartment. She adopted him from the shelter when he was a new kitten. She said she picked him because he looked and acted the craziest out of the bunch, and crazy was what she was into at that point in her life. He grew from a curious kitten into a monster. He is short haired, and you're lucky if you can get 2 pets in before he decides he's had enough and chomps or claws your fingers. Hard. He climbs on everything including the table and counters, and scratches the furniture. No amount of spray bottles, green apple repellents or time outs will curb his behavior. Even neutering seemed to have no effect. No, he's not hugging that toy. It's his prey. He carries it around by its neck and tries to rip the legs off. If he's hungry and you're asleep, he'll pounce on your face, claws unsheathed, and bite your nose. He's seems to have some sort of kitty autism because he does not seem to understand emotions of others. He rarely meows. The world is his, and if you're in his space, blood will be drawn and you will be the one to move, not him.

 

 

 

This is Catdog. Catdog is a farm cat of my boyfriend's family and, like most country cats, is the product of who knows what mother and who knows what father. He is approximately 5 years old and gets his name from the fact that he thinks he is a dog. When Catdog was little, the farm had nearly 60 cats all lounging around and generally doing nothing. They were not altered, so they bred like rabbits. They just ate and ate and ate. Country life has different rules when it comes to animals, and the family decided that the cats were reaching critical mass and had to go. All 3 of the boys and their father kept a tally chalkboard in the kitchen of how many they had taken with their shotguns. Soon, only Catdog was left. And he has remained. Why? Because Catdog decided that if the humans found him useful, they would spare him. No one avoids work on a farm. Catdog mouses, keeping the barn he lives in free of rodents and often brings his catches to the doorstep as proof of his work. Also on the farm are 3 springer spaniels, who flush geese and ducks and retrieve for the boys when they go hunting. Catdog saw this as a wonderful duty. The family were amazed when he began to accompany them on hunts and drag whole ducks back to the feet of the hunters! Thus the cat who thought he was a dog became known as Catdog. He is very friendly and will eat or drink anything left on a picnic table. There are sprigs of wild catnip that grow around the property, and sometimes on a lazy summer afternoon, he will become intoxicated with catnip and sleep in the sun for hours. He does have claws and if you play with a long stalk of grass, be careful because he is indeed a hunter. However he much rather enjoys purring and rubbing against your leg and the door to the house in hope of a stolen piece of morning bacon.

 

Tell me your cat stories! Have you experienced a horrible cat? A caring one? One that thought it was something other than a cat?