The black cat with white spot
Almost every owner of the usual black cat sometimes finds the white spot on its pet, sometimes it is on the most opened place and sometimes it is hidden. Sometimes the absolutely black muzzle is decorated with the white whiskers but more often we can see “ties” on the chest. Why does it happen?
In fact it is the result of the one of the worst periods in the history of cats. The ancestors of black cats were found by Ancient Finikia people who had brought such cats out of Egypt and that’s why forced them to wander about Mediterranean coast. During the wanderings their popularity had grown because their nature color helped them to be practically invisible and to catch mice and rats with great use. The population of black cats stretched about the whole Europe till the Middle ages when the people associated with magic and sorcery.
During next centuries the animals underwent persecution. The Christian Church organized the ceremony of burning the alive black cats every year on the holiday of St. Johan. In accordance with that cruel custom the black cats were proclaimed “the devil descendants”, they were prosecuted everywhere and thrown into the fire. But as the servants of cult thought that the devil servants must be absolutely black. And any white hair was explained as saving god mark for cat.
As a result of prosecution the number of black cats was less and less while the number of their relatives with white marks increased all the time. The religion had chosen the process of natural selection.
In the XVII-th century, when the number of prosecutions decreased, a new danger before the black cats arose. The new custom got the power that the black cats or most of them were the best medicine for many different illnesses. The tail of black cat dug into the ground under threshold of the house allegedly protected all the numbers of family who had been living in that house from illnesses.
Edward Topsell, the English naturalist, wrote in 1658 that for the treatment of blindness or any other illness of eyes the following had to be done: “Take the head of black cat without any white hair and burn it till it becomes the powder, then put it into the loam pot and with the help of bird feather pour it into the eyes three times a day”. So, the religious terror which had been lasting for many years was followed by the medicine fraud. That is why you should not be surprised that today most of the black cats have white spots which are the strong protection from the human stupidity.
Today, when we have cats exhibitions, the third stage of selection is going on. It is called “fighting for the clear breed”. Only absolutely black cats without any white spots have the right to continue their generation. The standard prescribes the following: “Fur must be thick without any white spots”. This commentary shows that the white “spots” persistently arise on the cats skin as the result even after the century.
But the owners of home class black cats with white spots, of course, have more pleasure if they think that it is not the defect but the mark of earlier period of cats history.
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