I've always had a soft spot in my heart for black animals, particularly black cats. My first two dogs were black... Diablo and Sundance... but I've had so many black cats starting with my boy Typo in the early '90s. They say black cats can be a little shy but very loving and I've found that to be spot on. My favorite cat of all time was a black stray kitten who wandered into my backyard in 2000. I named her Junior because she looked just like Typo and I thought Junior was actually a male cat but no, she was a girl. She brought her sister Slinky with her, also black.

I've told this story before but because Junior and Slinky were feral cats, they were hard to tame. It took six months before I could pet Junior, two and a half years before I could pet Slinky. They lived in the backyard with houses and heaters and lived a very nice life outside but when our last indoor cat died, Junior moved in. She and I were inseparable. She was my one.

Now we've had Mango and Kiwi for the last five years (we got them from the shelter when they were about 3-years-old each). Mango is a long-haired black cat and Kiwi is a tuxedo so quite a bit of black. But let's face it, tuxedos are VERY different than black cats, personality-wise. They have there own completely different set of internal rules, which I find is common with other tuxedo caretakers. But Mango is a typical black cat. Pretty cautious, a bit of a scaredy cat, but a really sweet and loyal guy. Touch him and he purrs. He's just such a content cat.

Anyway, with all the black cats I've had in my life, I salute not only my black cats but yours, too! Black cats rule!