Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home? Violet has vanished again.
Take your eyes off her for a second and she’s darted behind a table or started to climb up the sofa.
Her brother, Viking, is sleeping peacefully, but Victor, the third little bundle of fluff, is having none of it. He pounces on Viking’s legs, beseeching him to come and play.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
Pick me! Marley found himself taken to Blue Cross Lewknor, Oxon, because he bullied by other cats in his old home.
Now he’s a confident and friendly little chap, who loves to explore.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
This charming scene is being played out at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in London.
Where these three 12-week-old kittens, with their gorgeous olive eyes, sleek black coats (Violet less so, perhaps.
She looks as if she’s plugged herself into an electric socket) and inquisitive natures are waiting to be rehomed.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
Except they’ll wait. And they’ll wait. For despite their tender age, these innocent creatures already committed what equates to a cardinal sin when it comes to finding a new home: they’ve been born with black fur.
Sadly, people just don’t want black cats — no matter how cute.
The RSPCA revealed this week that 70 per cent of more than 1,000 cats in care in Britain black, or black and white.
The problem has got so bad it’s been dubbed ‘Black Cat Syndrome’.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
Fluffy stuff: Brothers Matty (left) and Rupert (right), now 15 weeks old, left behind at the Guilford branch of Cats Protection.
While their tortoiseshell sister and ginger brother have gone to new homes
The charity claims that black cats’ diminishing popularity is down to our modern obsession with photographing our lives.
And putting the snaps on social networking sites — the ‘selfie’ phenomenon.
It seems black cats don’t photograph well, so would-be pet owners are opting for more photogenic colours.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
While this may be something of an overstatement, our preoccupation with image certainly behind the worrying trend that is seeing so many black cats abandoned.
The problem for black cats is that they’re a bit too plain compared to the many other interesting colours available.
Says Steve Crow, chairman of the governing council of the Cat Fancy, the UK’s premier cat registration body. ‘Black cats are seen as just too dull.’
Consequently, animal shelters get potential adopters refusing even to look at them.
Others dump them, complaining they ‘don’t match the furniture’, they’ve ‘just’ discovered they’re not allowed to keep animals in their home or that they’ll ‘frighten the children’.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
But those cats are the lucky ones. Other black cats throw off balconies or shot with air rifles.
Earlier week, nine black kittens found dumped near a football stadium in Oxfordshire starving, soaking wet and crawling with fleas.
Two since died.
At Battersea, black cats spend longer at the shelter — 34 days compared to the average 25 — while they wait for a new home.
‘About one in five people who come in say: “I don’t want to see any black cats,” ’ says Lindsey Quinlan, head of the centre’s cattery.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
‘It’s frustrating, because it shouldn’t be about what a cat looks like. What really matters is the chemistry it has with the owner.’
Cats Protection, the UK’s biggest cat charity, has even launched National Black Cat Day in an attempt to convince people that sleek black felines can be as cute as other varieties.
Staff at Battersea believe Violet, Viking and Victor, who brought in last week.
Would already found their ‘for ever homes’ if they’d been a different colour.
Their mother had five kittens: one tabby, one ginger and the three black ones. ‘The owner tried to sell them online: two went, but the black ones didn’t, so she brought them to us,’ says Lindsey.
‘That’s quite common. Black kittens the least desirable — you can’t give them away.’
The most sought-after colour at Battersea grey, followed by tabby or ginger.
While cattery staff keep a ‘look-out list’ of what types of feline adopters searching for, black cats rarely requested.
‘They tell us a black cat would look too much like their neighbour’s pet,’ says Lindsey.
‘One person said, “I’m worried I’ll trip over it in the night,” and people still bring up the superstition that black cats are unlucky.’
Of course, black cats didn’t always have an image problem.
The Ancient Egyptians adored the species, and sailors traditionally venerated black cats because they thought to bring good luck to the ship.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
No one knows how many black cats there in Britain or what percentage of the cat population.
They make up — but they certainly over-represented in animal shelters.
The Blue Cross, which runs four animal hospitals and 12 rehoming centres across the country, has seen a 65 per cent rise in the number of black cats needing new homes in recent years.
In 2007, 540 brought through their doors, while last year it was 895.
Already this year they’ve helped 506.
They, too, blame our modern obsession with looks and creating attention-grabbing photographs for social media.
‘Black cats have always been trickier to photograph, and this may have made them less popular with the selfie generation,’ says Mandy Jones, head of rehoming services.
As with Battersea, so Blue Cross’s darker charges spend a lot longer waiting for a home: on average, 40 per cent longer.
Esme, 13, has spent even longer than that — a staggering 300 days in a Cumbria shelter. If she were a different colour, it would have been nearer 35 days.
Lovely 17-year-old Molly has been languishing at the Lewknor centre in Oxfordshire, for two months, ever since her owner died.
Of course, she is elderly, too — something which also counts against her.
Some cats don’t just spend months waiting for a new home, but years.
Brother and sister Kai and Esme timid strays when they brought into the Celia Hammond centre outside Hastings, East Sussex, as six-month-olds.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
Now, four years on, they’ve blossomed into delightful, playful creatures to adopted together, but no one wants them because of their dark colour.
The prejudice against black cats is particularly silly, says Hayley Plows, who works for the RSPCA in London.
Because they often make far more affectionate pets than other colours, so potential homers are missing out.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
‘So many times, our black cats overlooked purely because of their colour.
Even when they’ve done everything they can to win over the adopter,’ she says.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
‘Black cats, in our experience, are often the ones that have been the worst sufferers of abuse and neglect.
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
Yet some of the nicest cats here have had the hardest start in life.’
The RSPCA’s roll call of abused black cats is as heart-breaking as it is long.
There’s 15-week-old Molly and Polly, best friends left starving in a cat carrier in a bush in Central London; ten-week-old Dappy and Dora,
Who were throw off a third-floor balcony together.
And nine-month-old Helga, who found minus an eye — possibly because of an air gun pellet.
Meanwhile, 14-week-old Natalie abandoned in a park in a box.
‘She loves her tummy stroked and under her chin, too,’ says a member of staff. ‘She just loves to fussed over.’
Sadly, a charming personality not enough to win over potential owners who have decided they definitely don’t want a black cat for aesthetic reasons.
All deserve the chance of a better life — if only someone would give them a chance.
Purdy (right) is a serene, nine-year-old cat who just longs to live with a young family.
Unlike many cats, she loves being with children. She’s been patiently waiting at Battersea for three weeks
Explore black kittens white cats; can you give any of them a home?
