What is one of the most common household pet? Well that is the feline, also known as the cat. According to this the statistic of people having cats as pets are over "87,720,000" That's a lot of cats in homes. But what does that bit of information have with the supernatural? Well its known that most religions, cultures, beliefs, etc, have some kind of acknowledgement of cats being supernatural. For example in my background cats tend to be a huge superstition. They are believed to bring bad luck to people because its linked to some kind of demonic behavior. Cats were never welcomed in the homes of people. If someone was given a cat that person will be offended and even come to the conclusion that the person that tried to give them the cat were trying to perform some acts of "black magic" and terrible bad luck.
The reason I chose a cat was because I find them interesting, and I also caught a re-run of a show called "Sabrina The Teenage Witch" on television. In that show their is a black cat that is named Salem. Salem is a evil warlock that was sentenced to live the rest of his life as a black cat as a punishment for his wrong doings. I find it ironic that cats are common household pets with it having so much history about the supernatural. When I did a simple search I got tangled in so much information about the superstitions, beliefs, even praise of cats. This was all from previous ancient civilizations. For example in this website it states many different types of beliefs of the cats and broken down by origin and reason. One of the things it stated was that "Ancient Egyptian priests kept sacred cats and used them to predict the future. Every twitch of a whisker, yawn, sneeze or stretch foretold some coming event." Cats telling the future? Well that was apparently a huge belief back in the Ancient Egyptian era. Cats were being praised in Egypt.They were considered a sacred animal and the pharaohs were the ones that had access to this animal due to its mystical powers.
Also in that same amazing website which you can access it again here stated, "According to French lore, a girl who treads on a cat's tail, has no chance of finding a husband for the rest of the year." A major superstition and a reason to stay away from a cat in my opinion. I have learned that the cat is known to be in fact a supernatural being. No matter if the supernatural capabilities is positive or negative its there. I chose a cat because I believe that something that you think is harmless can have the ability to make people feel uncomfortable because of their beliefs and superstitions. I've never seen a fairy or vampire, besides seeing people dressed as them on halloween, but a cat i've seen endless amounts of time. I just feel that its more relevant to everyone. Its nice to pick a scary topic thats so close to home, it's a frightening thought that if one of the myths may be true and you have a magical creature as a pet. It will never be clarified if its true, but its good to know what everyone else in the world would perceive your household pet.
Citation:
First paragraph
http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/ownership.asp
Second and third paragraph
http://www.richardharland.net/otherbooks/SASSYCAT/Cats+Supernatural.htm
Really interesting way to open this blog entry, Sabrina the teenage witch definitly puts us in the mood. The only thing i would have liked to see is a bit more details on the examples of why cats are seen that way, after starting reading your blog we just want to know more about cats predicting the future in ancient egypt or being related to curses. But overall this made me curious about your subject and i definitly think it works.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog about cats, you got my reaction. I got chills running down my spine, because it made me think about my mother and her fears of cats, especially black cats. For instance, where I come from many believe that if a black cat lies on a sick person’s bed, death will follow! Also I agree with you, cats are so close to home, there is one probably in your back yard right now! In addition, the fear is more real as compared to fairies or vampires (which we all know do not exist).
ReplyDeletei believe cats to be in the middle of good and evil chossing sides as situations arise or a bridge for us to feel things or see things that we cannot. To visit Hell, Constantine needs to hold a cat, sit in a chair and keep his feet in a basin of water even though he had supernatural powers himself.In the matrix were neo sees a black cat and he says de javu is also another scenario were in these case the cat warning was a good thing meaning they chosse to alert neo and the others of the changes made to the matrix. althoug it was only a program still other types of animals of warning could have been used but cats have always seemed mysterious to me not trust worthy because of their mysterious nature when you compared to other pets like dogs etc that being said i like cats and have two back home but at times protective towards humans...
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