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Black cats mean bad luck.
That superstition, or its variants, holds sway in some cultures, especially around Halloween.
Scots have welcomed a strange black cat at the door as a harbinger of prosperity, not a spooky symbol. Some English seafaring families have kept black cats on the notion that doing so ensured that sailors and fishermen would return home safely. And Germans have viewed a black cat crossing from left to right as a good omen — unlike one crossing from right to left.
But in many American communities, including Montgomery County, the real bad luck associated with black cats is in the difficulty those felines have finding a home.
An inordinate number of homeless cats are black or predominantly black, say animal shelter managers.
Some black cats have waited almost three years at the Animal Welfare League of Montgomery County's shelter in Gaithersburg to be adopted into homes, said Nona Silver, a volunteer who leads fundraising for the group.
"Orange cats are the first to go; it's the Morris kitty" phenomenon, Silver said.
Last month, Animal Welfare League members were thrilled to have found 27 cats new homes, but particularly to have adopted out three black cats that had been living at the shelter for years.
All three — Scooter, Oliver and Zorro — went to one home when the adopter was won over not just by their need but the friendship the cats had forged, Silver said.
But those adoptions were more the exception than the rule, and the superstition tends to hold sway.
The origin of the "black cat as bad luck" myth is uncertain, although there is speculation that it originated in the Middle Ages with the proliferation of cats in cities during the Plague.
Black cats, which could slip through the night unnoticed, had survival advantages. But during a time when many believed in magic, feared a horrible death and knew little of science, black cats became associated with old women who fed them and were accused of witchcraft.
In fact, a few studies have found that black cats generally are friendlier than other felines and more inclined to live in groups, according to nationally acclaimed animal scientist Temple Grandin, who addresses the topic in her recent book, "Animals Make Us Human."
Yet fears that people might seek black cats around Halloween to harm them have long led some shelters to suspend black cat adoptions for several days around Oct. 31.
That belief and practice are changing, however.
"There's no data to suggest that people who would do harm to cats are focused on getting them on Halloween," said Nicholas Gilman, a consultant whose company, Humane Logic, provides guidance and services to animal shelters.
"The latest thinking is the greatest harm would be not to put them up for adoption to people who seem to be good folks," said Gilman, who serves as director of the District of Columbia's New York Avenue shelter, which the Washington Humane Society operates under a contract.
The Montgomery County Humane Society, which also has used Gilman's services, now allows black cats to be adopted from its network and the county's Rockville shelter, which it operates, to approved homes around Halloween.
Although animal scientists have associated black fur on cats with survival advantages (sociability — they are lovers, not fighters), the trait has been a disadvantage for shelter cats (and dogs) waiting to be chosen as pets.
Their darker color makes them less visible and more likely to be passed over, said B.J. Altschul, a spokeswoman for the county Humane Society.
People's eyes are drawn to brighter colors that are easier to see in shelter cages, Gilman said.
Finding homes for black cats is a problem shelters can solve by having them seen in the best light — out of cages where people can interact with them, he said.
After all, "you don't adopt a cat, a cat adopts you," Gilman said.
