SPOOKY CATS
My sweet fur baby Marigold is frisky in the slightly chillier air we’ve experienced of late. This is her month. October is the month for cats, all kinds, and especially black ones. How could it not be when ebony furred felines are iconic images of our exciting October holiday? Halloween, when the veils are thin between the world as we know it and the parallel world of ghosts and other phenomena, drifts into burnished autumn like a pale shroud. Halloween beckons us to leave daytime reality and play in a more mysterious realm. We wear masks and disguises and revel in the midnight hour. We decorate our homes with pumpkins, scarecrows, witches, ghouls, and spider webs. We welcome little goblins and treat them to candy, hoping to ward off their tricks. Halloween is a fun time for humans and a frolicking time for cats, black, white, ginger, grey, and calico.
The Cat and the Moon
by William Butler Yeats
The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.
Cheers & Happy Reading!
Flossie Benton Rogers, Conjuring the Magic in Romance
Now that I am a cat owner again, I can celebrate October in style! 🙂 I bet Marigold is enjoying herself in the cooler weather. I’ve had Raven such a short time I don’t know if her boundless energy is due to the fall air or the fact that she’s still a kitten (probably both). Since she’s a black kitty, I’ve been calling her my Halloween cat 🙂
I’m so glad you have Raven. I bet she takes great pictures out among the orange leaves.
We, as cat people, though we’ve always had a dog, too, couldn’t imagine our lives without them.
Marigold is such a pretty looking pussycat! I’ve never had one in such colors. Black cats, on the other hand, we’ve had many times. And they were so friendly and good cats. We always laughed at the superstition linked to them. As we don’t have Halloween around here we don’t make a connection between cats and the holiday.
Happy October both for you and Marigold, Flossie!
Thank you, Carmen for the kind words about Marigold. Oh, I love black cats, too. I had several as a teenager and always named them after gods and goddesses, Osiris, Isis, and the like. Happy October to you, Carmen!