Coming out of my apartment Saturday, I saw a black cat. Some people would say that was a bad sign, but I disagree. You see, I know this cat. He lives in one of the other apartments in the building. His name is Lukey (I think that’s how it’s spelled) and he is friendly without being pushy.
I had seen Lukey around the building for a while, but didn’t want to get friendly in case it attached itself to me. He had a collar and seemed well-fed, so I was pretty sure he belonged to someone in the building.
A couple of weeks after I first saw him, I saw one of the other tenants walking her dog. I asked her if she knew anything about the black cat, and she told me Lukey lived in her apartment.
I checked with her, and she told me Lukey was safe to pet, but not to rub his belly or else he might take a nip at me.
Later that day, I saw Lukey again so I went over to him and started patting him and rubbing his head. Of course, he enjoyed this, but immediately rolled onto his back and showed me his belly.
I recognized that he was setting a trap for me to pet his belly, so I didn’t do it.
I’ve seen him a few more times, and he always enjoys being petted, and always tries to trick me into a belly-rub.
I mention this because seeing him Saturday got me thinking about a discussion I had with a friend some years ago. She was fairly superstitious, so I started imaging black-cat scenarios and asking her if they were bad luck or not.
Like if we were walking along the road and I saw a black cat cross our path and she didn’t, was it still bad luck since I didn’t believe in it? Or if she saw the black cat cross our path and I didn’t, would it still be bad luck for me?
I’ve always kind of wondered as well: Does the cat have to be totally black to be bad luck? Suppose it has a few white patches? Is it still bad luck? Or if it is about half-and-half, do you get half the bad luck you normally would?
What if the cat crosses your path, then turns around and goes back? Does that cancel out, is the bad luck doubled?
It’s things like this that keep me up nights, wondering why nothing in my years at school prepared me for questions like this.