National Black Dog Day

National Black Dog Day has been created to raise awareness of dogs that get overlooked by potential adopters due to their colour. So why is it that black dogs (and cats!) spend more time in rescues, and receive less attention, than their more colourful counterparts?

It’s thought to be due to subliminal prejudice linked to folklore, superstition, media portrayals and a bias towards more unique appearances.

Black, as a colour, evokes an emotional response and can bring to mind many different associations such as sophistication, mystery, elegance, rebellion, evil, sadness, death and darkness. The media, who often portray baddies in dark clothing, and hellhounds as black, snarling dogs with fearsome eyes, has intensified the negative subconscious associations. Winston Churchill also used “the black dog” as a metaphor for depression, which doesn’t help!

Black cats, similarly, have been associated with witchcraft, bad omens, death and influencing luck. One of the earliest folklore tales is from the middle ages, about a man and his son who threw stones at a black cat. The injured cat fled into a woman’s house for shelter. Unfortunately for the cat, the woman was already suspected of being a witch, and so, when the woman emerged the next day with a limp, the father and son suspected that the cat must have shapeshifted into her form.

Whether you believe that black cats bring good or bad luck depends widely on where in the world you are:

• Some Italians believe that if a black cat jumps onto the bed of a sick person that means they will die soon.
• In China, they were once thought to bring poverty.
• If a black cat walks right to left in front of you in Germany, there are bad times ahead, but if they walk the opposite way then there are good times ahead.
• The Japanese believe that black cats are lucky and that a woman will find more suitors.
• In the UK it was once believed that if a black cat was at the opening night of a play, that it would be a great success.
• In Europe keeping a black cat on board your ship ensured safe passage, however, if they came aboard and then got off again, it was thought the ship would sink.
• There’s a lovely Welsh folklore rhyme from the 19^th Century suggesting black cats were good luck and guardians of the house:

A black cat, I’ve heard it said,

Can charm all ill away,

And keep the house in which she dwells,

From fever’s deadly sway.

It is such a shame that a black cat’s charm is often overlooked, as they have just as much love to give and have a more even temperament than some other colours (I’m thinking of you, naughty torties!).

In recent times, black animals get overlooked because we live in an age where we like to visually document and share everything, and it can be difficult to get a well-defined photo of a dark animal.  Charities have even provided guides to help combat this issue: https://www.cats.org.uk/cats-blog/secrets-to-taking-photos-of-black-cats

People are often more drawn to unusual colours or markings, and animals that are purely one colour may be considered dull. However there is nothing dull about these cats and dogs, they are just as animated as any other, it can just be a bit harder to read their facial expressions due to the lack of definition.

They say never judge a book by its cover, so why is it ok to judge an animal by their colour? There are so many loving dogs and cats in rescue that deserve a family and home to call their own, they just need a chance for their personality to shine through.