The Cat known as Cattarina

Cats have long been associated with artists, with most of the famous artists in the world having a thing for cats at one point in the span of their respective careers.

Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the short story and author of the first detective story, is known to have had one, one which is even attributed to inspire Poe in authoring a number of essays and stories of the horror vein.

The cat began living with Poe, his wife Virginia and her Maria Clemm sometime between 1839 and 1840. She sported different cute shortened nicknames, from Kate to Callers, but her name was Cattarina.

One would think that Poe could’ve come up with a more… crafty name, but the cat’s moniker isn’t what really made the cat in Poe’s life famous. It was how her being inspired Poe in churning out literary masterpieces which generations and generations would come to hold dear.

With Poe’s reputation for the macabre, the dark and all that is noir, one would wonder just what kind of cat Cattarina was. Poe’s story “The Black Cat” is said to have been incredibly inspired by Cattarina, and the story’s cat, Pluto, is an all-black cat.

Was Cattarina an all black cat?

No. She wasn’t. Cattarina, in fact, was a tortoiseshell, which is typified by a general mixture of orange, black and white fur patches, with some tortoiseshells sporting “tabby patterns” on their coats. Compared to all black cats, tortoiseshells are more “frivolous” and more fun in their appearance, a direct contradiction to Poe’s dark descriptions of scenes and panoramas in his yarns.

It kinda makes one wonder. If Tim Burton did have a cat, would it be all black or would it be a tortoiseshelll?

The Black Cat’s Luck

Though a number of holy men are known to have one at one point in their lives, black cats have long been associated and blamed for a lot of evils in the world.

Popularly considered to be witches’ familiars or companions, different allegations and superstitions have been built around black cats, with some cultures perceiving their presence as ills which have to be necessarily done away with.

But contrary to the general bad luck-and-black cat connection, not all cultures in the world see black cats only as incarnations of evil or bringers of doom and despair. Some cultures are actually known to have accepted black cats as symbols of good luck, a reverse take on the bad luck superstitions which hound black colored felines in most parts of the world.

In Ireland and Great Britain, for example, black cats are generally considered as symbols of good luck, with Scottish households even welcoming the sight of a black cat stumbling into their homes. In Scotland, strange black cats hanging outside porches are welcome sights, considered as symbols of prosperity.

In Italy, hearing a cat sneeze is associated as a sign of good luck, black cats included. In Ireland, killing a cat is believed to bring bad luck for seventeen years, also including black cats. Egyptians believed that the sun’s life giving rays rested in the cat’s eyes during night, a stash, so to speak, for safe keeping.

In Germany, a subject-to-interpretation take over bad or good luck is associated with black cats, dependent on: If a black cat crosses a person’s path from left to right, it’s a sign of good luck. If the path is right to left, it signals bad luck to come.

Pirates of old also have a similar take: If a black cat gets on a boat then walks away from it, the ship is bound for some troubles on its next voyage.

The oldest connection linked to the black cats and bad luck superstition hails from Ancient Egypt, where the goddess Bast, was revered. Represented as a black cat, many avoided black cats in relation to Bast, not necessarily because Bast was a bad goddess, but more for of what Bast is known to do if she were angry.

Today, Animal Shelters based in the United States report that black cats are among the least adopted of felines, perhaps a marker indicating that though we now live in progressive modern times, there are still certain superstitions which haven't totally gone away.

How about you? Would you rather not get a black cat since it's supposed to bring bad luck?