With Halloween right around the corner; I wanted to share with you the happy ending to our ‘Halloweenie’ story.
Many years ago, a client found a pure black, domestic shorthaired, female cat, soaking wet and freezing cold the day after Halloween and brought her to our hospital for care. She was probably the unsuspecting victim of some cruel pranksters who thought it might be fun to try and drown a black cat on Halloween.
Black cats have been the subject of superstition for hundreds of years. Historians believe the superstition started in Germany during the middle ages when it was believed that when a black cat crossed your path it was a sign of imminent death along with ravens and black crows that usually descended to feed on carcasses. As the superstition spread throughout Europe, cats were widely persecuted and it is believed that their declining numbers led to a rise in the mouse and rat population which brought on the bubonic plague that killed millions of people. Many people throughout Europe also believed that so called ‘witches’ could transform themselves into black cats to carry out their evil doings. When early European settlers came to the Americas, they brought their superstitions with them which ultimately led to the Salem Witch trials and the further associations of Witches owning black cats that we are all familiar with. To this day many Humane Societies and cat rescue groups will not adopt out black cats in the month of October because there are still people; believe it or not, that would cause harm to a black cat on Halloween.
For our black cat, she came in with a body core temperature of 33.9 C (normal is around 38.0). We gently warmed her up in a warm water bath and gave her sort of a “spa” treatment. The next day she started eating well and soon was ready for adoption. As with most of our rescues she ended up with one of our fabulous veterinary technicians who gave her a forever home and named her ‘Halloweenie’.
