This Adorable Photo Series Wants to Change the Way You See Black Cats
Being a cat lady these days is definitely losing its stigma with celeb inspo like Taylor Swift, who credits her kitties with make her the most followed person on Instagram. There are lots of ways one can wear his/her love for felines on their sleeves with stylish cat accessories and the Internet is basically a cat meme machine. Even with all this cat-centric media, life is less than purr-fect for cats in shelters. There are still more kitties than most shelters can find homes for — and tragically, some of these cats end up getting put down. Also, certain colors of cats are harder to adopt than others due to really out-of-date superstitions. Yes. We’re talking about black cats. These cats are 50% less likely to get adopted than gray cats, and significantly less than tabbies, white cats and more.
One artist decided to do something about it. LA-based photographer, Casey Christopher has always been passionate about using her skills to raise awareness for animals in need. She first did a project to showcase the lives of her foster kittens and now she’s turning her camera’s eye on a maligned group of cats in shelters. Casey took pictures of black cats at her local shelter because “black cats and kittens tend to take longer to be adopted and it’s very sad to see new cats come and go while the black cats are still waiting for forever homes,” she said. The results are so cute that you’ll have to try and resist the urge to snuggle your computer screen.
Casey hopes that these photos help erase the stigma of bad luck that black cats get saddled with by showcasing their “giant personalities.” When you’re looking at these pics, you can see the only thing spooky about them is their scary level of adorableness.
Some shelters (though as Casey points out not shelters in LA) have bans on adopting black cats in the month of October as a way to keep kitties safe, as some people will adopt black cats around Halloween for rather malicious means. We hope this photo series might inspire someone to hopefully take a black cat home next month. Donations of time and money to help these kitties out are also always appreciated.
Aww.
Is there a special kitty in your life? Tell us or share some pics in the comments!
(Photos via Casey Christopher)
