Keeping your felines indoors—no matter what their color—is the safest way to celebrate October 31st.
When October comes around, stores are filled with Halloween paraphernalia, pumpkins. While black cats remain a popular decoration to celebrate the holiday, many animal shelters are extremely cautious and refuse to adopt out black cats.
Why? For safety reasons; the shelters are protecting their black cats from anyone who might want to practice bizarre (and lethal to cats) rituals or think Halloween is the perfect time to mischievously scare, harm or hurt cats.
Conversely, there are shelters that think torturing cats around Halloween is simply an urban legend. Some, in fact, go the extra mile and promote black cat adoptions during the Halloween season, highlighting just how awesome black cats are and dispelling the many myths that have haunted black cats for centuries.
I personally agree with a veil of extra protection around Halloween. If you want to promote black cats, planning special events on or around Black Cat Day on November 17 is the way to go.
It’s not just a matter of not adopting black cats around Halloween, it’s also a matter of being prudent and protecting your own cats, too. Cats who are allowed outdoors are equally susceptible to being snatched.
While Halloween is without doubt the most popular event on the pet calendar. It’s all about dressing up and trick-or-treating. In all honestly, this is more of a dog thing; cats for the most part don’t like dressing up. They might wear an outfit long enough for a quick photo opportunity but that’s about it.
There others thing to take into account with regard to all cats around this holiday, such as making sure they don’t get hold of a candy stash. Even though this is also primarily a dog “thing,” cats have been known to curiously investigate a sweet stash, too.
If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of trick-or-treaters—meaning your front door is going to be opening and closing a lot—it’s a really good idea to lock up your cats in one room of your home and make it self-contained by placing their food, water and litterbox in there. This way, you will have peace of mind that they will not be able to escape when your back is turned. In addition, other dogs showing up on your doorstep won’t be able to spook them!
If your feline does get stressed easily, consider putting a calming collar on her a couple of days before Halloween so that it is fully effective when the doorbell starts ringing. Installing a pheromone spray in rooms of your home your cat frequents is another way of keeping her feeling peaceful and serene.
Even if your cat doesn’t really care about Halloween, you can still spoil her by buying her some new-flavored treats. In my home, freeze-dried chicken or fish is a celebration in itself.
Finally, if you have bi-petual household, you can show your dog she’s special, too, by baking her some homemade cookies. Remember to use cookie cutters shaped like bones, bats, witches and—okay—cats.
About the Author: Sandy Robins is the 2013 winner of the “Excellence in Journalism and Outstanding Contribution to the Pet Industry Award.” Her work appears on many of the country’s leading pet platforms, such as MSNBC.com, MSN.com and TODAYShow.com. She is a regular contributor and columnist in multiple national and international publications, including Cat Fancy, as well as the author of the award-winning books “Fabulous Felines: Health and Beauty Secrets for the Pampered Cat” and “For The Love of Cats.” Learn more about Sandy on her website or Facebook page. #welovecats
