Showing posts with label black cat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black cat. Show all posts

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

A Bevy of Black Cats!

I think you'll like this photograph, if you haven't seen it before. It was taken in 1961 at an audition for a suitable black cat for a film staring Vincent Price called, Tales of Terror. Obviously it was a horror film. I believe that this photo is in the public domain and if not I have reproduced it in small scale and claim fair use on the basis that it is educational! Which it is.
Photo by Ralph Crane at Life Magazine

So what is nice about this rare sight? Firstly, all the cats are on leads and they are behaving themselves nicely in a strange place on the street in the company of a great number of other black cats. I don't think I have ever seen so many cats looking pretty calm and organised.

I wonder whether black cats are particularly well behaved. I don't think so. Black cats are more healthy though. It's to do with the underlying reason why they have black fur.


See also black cat pictures.

Monday, 12 March 2012

Cat Photography For All

Good cat photography is not limited to gorgeous show cats and tons of high end equipment.  They do help if you know what you are doing but you can get a very decent shot with average equipment and your moggie. What you can't do without is your photographic eye.

When you have your camera in your hand, the trick is to look at the world photographically. By that I mean you need to really look with an open mind at the shape, form, composition and color of what is before you. In fact you should be able to switch to this mode of looking at short notice as it allows you to spot the unexpected photograph that quickly develops in front of you.

Most of the time our minds are closed to what is in front of us. Alternatively, our mind filters what our eyes see. It is a modified and personalized world.

Open your mind and eyes and you might see a good photograph. About 15 minutes ago I saw this:

Charlie in the sun

I am not saying that it is a world better. It is not. But it both gives pleasure to the photographer, captures a scene from day to day life for the photo album and you can bung it up to Flickr for others to share and discuss.

This is a picture of Charlie. He has three legs. He was coming in from the garden and I walked past him. I had no camera but saw the potential. I quickly got the camera and just before he moved, I captured the image. It was a matter of a spit second. I captured a single image. I knew that I would be lucky to get something because cats move when you don't want them to. They aren't the most cooperative subject.

As it happens I have a decent camera (Canon 7D). Your camera should assist you in capturing a fleeting moment. And good photographs are often fleeting.

The framing for the photograph was created using Picasa on my computer. This is free Google software (Note: the drop shadow around the dark frame is Google Blogger. I am not sure that I like it in this instance).

Here is another picture of a Maine Coon purebred cat that I took in America. His name is Zak:

Ken and Helmi Flick's Maine Coon Cat - ZAK

The key to good casual photography is to (a) have a camera to hand and (b) to use your eyes and be open and ready for the fleeting image that will present itself to you from time to time.

Saturday, 21 January 2012

Three Legged Cat Picture

This is another picture of my three legged cat, Charlie. It is nothing particularly special except that he is very good at reaching up and grabbing objects because he likes to get into the meerkat position.


You can see him raised up onto two legs grabbing some string I am dangling in front of him with his claws nicely out. Love those claws. Of course one reason why the picture looks a bit strange at first glance is because he has no right foreleg. Being a black cat this is not immediately apparent.

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Q & A Black Cats

  • Are black cats bad luck? No - this is pure superstition.
  • Are black cats good luck? No - this is also pure superstition.
  • Are black cats smarter? No - nonsense. Smartness depends on the individual cat not on the colour of the cat.
  • Are black cats mean? No - an idiotic thought. No cat is mean. It is humans who can be mean.
  • Are black cats friendlier? No. Friendliness depends on the individual cat not the cat's colour.
  • Are black cats rare? No. They are quite common.
  • Are black cats witches. No. If you lived in the middle ages (500-1500) you might have thought that. Some people are more enlightened in 2011 and some aren't.
  • Are black cats more healthy? Yes. Research has linked black cats to resistance to disease.
  • Are black cats nice? Yes. All cats are nice. I have a black cat and he is very nice.

Friday, 28 October 2011

Black Cat Pictures

Here are some black cat pictures. Black cats are the least popular cat in terms of coat type. I am referring to an article in Press Publications2 entitled: "Black cats less likely to be adopted at shelters". The black cat is still associated with superstition (see cat superstitions and Black Cats ). Depending on your preferences black cats are either good luck or bad luck or something in between. In the USA it is considered unlucky to cross the path of a black cat. The article says that many shelters (in the USA) ban the release of black cats for adoption during Halloween (coming up in 2011) in case they are adopted for the wrong reasons (as you know black cats are linked to witchcraft). It seems that people choose cats partly on its color, which is unsurprising as a cat's appearance is a major, if not the most important, factor in choosing a cat purebred or not.

Charlie looking handsome

Some rescue centers euthanise black cats on their arrival at the center because the chance of rehoming is very slim. They are considered unattractive by many people. Clearly some people have different ideas in searching for "black cats pictures". And they may be pleased to hear that there is some evidence that suggests that black cats are more healthy. The gene that causes melanism (the black pigment is called melanin) may be able to help protect cats from infection from virus and bacteria1. See also black cat coats and cat genetics.

Three pictures on this page of a black cat are mine, which is self indulgent. The handsome boy above and two below is my three legged cat, Charlie. I also love my other cat a black and white girl. Black cats only bring the luck that you bring to the relationship.

Charlies standing guard over me while I work on the computer in bed

Here is another picture of my black cat:

Charlie hears a noise

The next two black cat pictures are from MAR on Flickr. MAR is a talented Japanese photographer who photographs street life and lots of feral cats in Tokyo. So these two black cat photographs are of feral cats.

Black stray or feral cat photographed by MAR in Toyko


Black stray or feral cat photographed by MAR in Toyko

MAR's pictures are protected by copyright - please respect it. Here is a link to his Flickr photostream. Also you might like to see Stray cat picture with photographs by MAR.

Sources:

1. March, 2003 issue of NewScientist
2. http://www.presspublications.com/from-the-press/
1136-black-cats-less-likely-to-be-adopted-at-shelters



From Black Cats Pictures to Home Page

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Black cat life expectancy

Black cat life expectancy should be good and indeed better than average. This is because the gene that causes the cat to be black also provides a resistance to disease or its presence leads to a greater resistance to disease.

This is somewhat anecdotal and I you will find it difficult to find hard research to support that.

Also, I have to qualify the opening sentence. Black random bred cats will, on average, live longer than black purebred cats. This is because purebred cats are normally bred for appearance not health.

Inbreeding to varying degrees is required to maximise the appearance of a purebred cat. Inbreeding can compromise the cat's immune system which in turn can shorten the cat's life expectancy.

Random bred cats come from a much wider gene pool usually. This ensures better health all other factors being equal.


Michael Avatar

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Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Why are black cats not adopted?

The reasons why black cats are not adopted are because people find the coat plain and boring and the black cat has an association with bad luck and even evil.

The black coat is relatively uninteresting to the average person. Clearly many people like black cats but on average people find other coat types such as tabby and white more interesting. The black coat is too plain to some people. It absorbs light so it is harder to see texture.

Perhaps the biggest reason is that the history of superstition that has been carried forward to the modern day. In many places, the black is considered bad luck. Yet in many other places it is considered the opposite: good luck. That tells you how irrational the idea is. But it is real and it puts some people off adopting a black cat.

Then we have the idea of a witch's familiar and the night and darkness etc. Black cats are associated with the night and therefore with the unknown and evil etc.

The night or darkness makes people nervous. The black cat has this loose connection to the night.

What people don't realize is that the genes that make the cat black also makes the cat more resistant to disease. This last point has not been thoroughly investigated so it is somewhat anecdotal but the research that has been done supports this conclusion. And it applies to wild and domestic cats.

Perhaps this is a factor that would rehabilitate the black cat. However, most people are concerned with the appearance of the cat.

You can read more about black cats and superstition on this page.

Michael Avatar

Why are black cats black?

Black cats are black because of a combination of the genes that the cat has (its genotype). The expression of these genes in the cat's appearance is called the "phenotype".

The black cat has a dominant form of the brown gene. This controls how dark the pigment, eumelanin, is in the hair strands. The dominant "dense" gene dictates that the pigment covers all the hairs of the cat. The agouti gene is mutated to cause the pigment to be throughout the hair strand and not banded as is normal.

What is the percentage of black cats?

Black cats are more likely to be euthanised at cat shelters because they are less popular than other colors. The black cat is 2/3rds more less likely to be adopted than a white cat. Black cats are healthier and the black cat needs to be rehabilitated.

See black cat coats - this expands significantly on the above.

Michael Avatar

What percentage of cats are black?

The wiki.answers page is absurd. And Google.com places it top at the date of this post. Wiki.answers is an appalling website. They say: if there are 75 black cats out of 3000 the percentage is this....well of course, that is straight math. But it does not in any shape or form answer the question.

The truth is we don't know what percentage of cats are black. We know the percentage, very roughly, by observation ourselves. We don't know accurately, however, because there has been no survey or genetic calculations as to probability.

Based on my observations black cats are fairly commonplace. They are not as commonplace as tabby cats, tabby and white cats or probably bicolor cats. I am thinking on a worldwide basis here not just the USA or Europe etc.

On a worldwide basis I would estimate that the percentage of black cats is somewhere between 3 and 10%. I would be happy to be corrected however.

Let's remember that we are talking about domesticated random bred, stray, sem-feral and feral cats here. There are about half a billion of them on the planet. The proportion of purebred cats is miniscule in comparison and can be ignored in answering this question.

Michael Avatar

Friday, 23 September 2011

Black Cat Rehabilitation

The black cat has been out of favor since medieval times! The time of witches and witch's familiars! The church of the time in all its prejudice and ignorance declared the cat evil. And since those days there has been a lot of prejudice against the black cat. The black cat is unlucky or lucky in some places which right away tells us how illogical the whole black cat superstitions are.

You can read more about black cat superstitions and prejudices towards the cat on these pages:
We have Halloween coming up in October. Historically, some black cats get hurt at this time. You can see the connection.

Even at a basic level some people believe the black cat to be unlucky. This as mentioned harks back to medieval times.

Others might simply say that the black has a boring appearance. But that is not really fair. The black cat coat can look incredibly slick and shinny. It certainly looks fantastic on the Bombay cat, a purebred cat that has to be black and no other color.

What is not commonly realised is that the black cat is considered more healthy in general than cats of other coat types and colours.

This is not a fiction. It is rooted in science and critical observation. Wildcats are sometimes melanistic and it has been observed that they are more disease resistant. More work needs to be done but it appears that black cats are disease resistant. This page has a look at the issues.

So, I ask you to rehabilitate the black cat. Bring him and her to favor once again. Treat all black cats the same as other cats. Rescue centers kill more black cats than other types for the reasons as stated - they are less popular. If you are an adult, black cat at a rescue facility you probably have a much higher chance of being killed (euthanised - a euphemism) than all other cats.

Let us reverse that long standing trend. I have a pure black cat called Charlie. He has three legs. He is big and noisy. He likes his food and he lets me know about it. I love him.


Michael Avatar

From Black Cat Rehabilitation to Home Page

Saturday, 17 September 2011

Black Tabby Cat

A black tabby cat doesn't really exist. The word "black" and "tabby" are mutually exclusive. The cat can be one or the other but not both unless the cat is not quite black and the tabby pattern can be seen in ghost form. In which case the cat would not really be black.

Melanistic cats are black and they have ghost tabby patterns, usually spots and/or joined up spots. This is the case with many wild cat species. Although you don't see the word "tabby" used in conjunction with wildcats. It is very much a domestic cat concept.

However, many wild cats are tabby cats. The classic is the tabby coated Scottish wildcat. This cat species looks like a large, grey domestic tabby cat. The wildcat species (a small wild cat) looks like a domestic tabby cat.

There is no trace of a tabby coat in a jet black cat such as the Bombay cat - a purebred cat.

Another type of tabby cat that has black pigmentation in the fur and tabby markings are black smoke coated cats. These cats have coats that give the effect of smoke because there is black pigment (melanin) at the top of the hair strands but lower down the hair is white or pale. This is due to the inhibitor gene.

The black smoke cat is not really black though as you can see the pale undercoat. That is about it on black tabby cats! It all depends on how flexible you want to be on defining what a black cat should be. For me he or she should be evenly black with no markings or patterns. Tabby cats must have a pattern to be a tabby cat. The pattern is spots, stripes or blotches.


Michael Avatar From to Home Page

Friday, 10 December 2010

Black Cat Earrings

Yes, this is a diversion from the serious stuff and in any case black cat earrings are pretty popular judging by some online market research, which is a bit surprising actually because it is said that black cats are the least likely to re-homed from cat shelters. Also black cats are abused sometimes at Halloween and there is a ridiculous connection between black cats and bad luck. Although in some places they indicate good luck - just superstition basically. People also search for ideas on black cat names. I have two black cats incidentally! Well one is all black (Charlie) and the other is B&W.

OK, back to the task at hand; black cat earrings. Here are some for sale:



The first pair (above) perpetuate the unfortunate connection between the black cat and witches (see cat history). I know this is a bit of fun and I like that but I have a slight doubt about it as there is abuse of black cats even today as I said and there are still satanic cults that feature cats and probably black cats etc.

Here are two more from Amazon:





And finally some more from Animal Den a decent online resource:

Black Cat Earrings

Black Cat Earrings

Nothing beats the exceptional look and quality of our Black Cat Earrings. Among the finest made, you will be provided with great satisfaction and long lasting enjoyment. Why not pamper yourself or give a loved one a Black Cat gift to show them how much you care. The Black Cat Earrings will make the perfect gift for any Dog lover. Shop with confidence, because all products come with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. Click over now to see the big selection of Black Cat gifts we offer.




Black Cat Earrings

Black Cat Earrings

Nothing beats the exceptional look and quality of our Black Cat Earrings. Among the finest made, you will be provided with great satisfaction and long lasting enjoyment. Why not pamper yourself or give a loved one a Black Cat gift to show them how much you care. The Black Cat Earrings will make the perfect gift for any Black Cat lover. Shop with confidence, because all products come with a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. Click over now to see the big selection of Black Cat gifts we offer




Well, I think that they are pretty nice black cat earrings but what do I know! Here is picture of a melanistic F4 Savannah cat. She is gorgeous:

F4 Melanistic Savannah cat

Black Cat Earrings -- Associated pages:

Black cat pictures

Black cat cartoon

Black cat coats

Michael Avatar

From to Home Page

Saturday, 2 February 2008

Black Cats

What makes a black cats black and where do they stand in the huge range of cat coat colors? There is a bewildering array of cat coat colors. I thought that I'd do a series of articles on the spectrum of colors all the way from Jet Black to Ice White, starting at black. In addition, the patterns will be discussed as these break up the solid colors.

Black cat in the snow
Black cat in the snow. Picture in the public domain.

A cat's coat is black because the pigmentation in the fur absorbs a substantial amount of light, whereas in a white cat the opposite is the case, the light is reflected.

Cat coat colors are based on genes that produce the colors, black and red and variations of these. The variations are made by modifier genes, which dilute the colors. Examples would be red turning to cream and black turning to blue or chocolate. In addition, there are genes that produce the patterns (Agouti "A" gene) and genes that create white fur, the white spotting gene.

It is the interplay between these genes that determine coat color.

Black cats are called "solids" in the cat fancy. The solid color breeds (also called "selfs" but I don't know why) have colors, black, blue, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon and fawn. The black color is due to the presence of microscopic granules in the hair (black pigment), which absorb the light. In a black cat these granules are called eumelanin or 'melanin' for short. They are spherical in shape.

Black cat
Black cat. Shiny coat. Photo in the public domain.

The Genes

It is thought that the black cat is a very early mutation from the wild cat tabby coat. Robinson's Genetics says that the black coat is a result of a change (mutation I presume) in one of the genes that dictates the agouti background color. This is because the individual hair strands do not have the banding of yellow pigmentation that is produced by the Agouti gene and are instead mainly black throughout. Any color change of the hair is at the base near the skin where it will be grey (smoke like color).

The browning gene dictates the production of eumelanin in black cats. When the gene is dominant the cat is black. There is also the action of the recessive non-Agouti gene (aa) that suppresses the more natural effect of banding on the hair follicles resulting in solid color. In fact, all self-colored cats have the non-agouti gene shown as aa.

Black Maine Coon with some rust. Photo: Ekaterina Sansaverina Gold. Black is one of the basic self-colours.
Black Maine Coon with some rust. Photo: Ekaterina Sansaverina Gold. Black is one of the basic self-colours.

The genes present in black cats are then the non-agouti recessive aa, plus the gene producing black pigmentation B, plus another gene symbolizes by D for dense coloring. A black cat will have these genes present. The non-agouti is always recessive while the alleles of genes B and D can be present as both dominant (BB, DD) or one dominant and one recessive (Bd, Dd).

RELATED: Are black cats friendlier?

Cat breeders will seek a jet black but sometimes a rusty brown tinge is shown. Black Cats showing this phenotype (appearance) would normally be excluded from the breeding program unless there is a pressing reason as to why not. An influence on the density of black coloration is sunlight. Apparently, sunlight and the saliva deposited when grooming combines to oxidize the pigmentation to produce a brown tinge.

You can see a rare black Maine Coon cat by clicking on this lick. If we go up the scale of colors to the next level we would probably have the Black Tortoiseshell coat (Tortie) see the picture right. Tortoiseshell is a mixture of the base colors referred to above, black and red. Both these colors are apparent on the coat. The introduction of the red (or more commonly called orange) breaks up the solid black coat.

Finally, it is thought that as the most natural coat color/pattern is the Tabby (as it is the best in terms of camouflage), possibly the first genetic mutation (affecting a cat's coat) was from that natural state to black.

You can see all the posts on coat colors by clicking on this link.

Photograph bottom tortoiseshell copyright and By Gini~

Part of the information for this post has come from Robinsons Genetics

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