On this Halloween night, a black cat will cross my path.
Just like he does every single day, starting first thing in the morning, as he walks in front of me and around me. That's his way of telling me he wants me to feed him before I put on a pot of coffee.
His name is Kipuka, and he first crossed paths with my family at Joey's Feline Friends, the no-kill animal shelter in Kahaluu. Shelter founder Tedra Villaroz told us that superstition makes black cats the least likely cats to be adopted. www.joeysfelinefriends.org
At Halloween time, according to national reports, animal shelters tend to ask hard questions when someone wants to take home a black cat. Sometimes they're used as props in Halloween stunts and then abandoned--or worse. A worker at the Hawaiian Humane Society in Honolulu says this is not a problem locally. www.hawaiianhumane.org
Kipuka was found as an undernourished kitten living near garbage cans in Moiliili. By the time my husband Jeff and I saw him at Joey's, he'd been passed over many times by folks looking for a pet. He was, in cat years, already a teenager.
We chose him because he was beautiful and expressive. He wanted to be picked up. He looked us right in the eye and held the look. He walked with us throughout the cat shelter. A strong character, all right, who seemed to want a connection.
Today, he happily roams our yard and basks on the lanai. He's wary around most strangers and tends to disappear until they leave. But he's affectionate and protective with my husband Jeff and me. He comes into the house during the middle of the night and sleeps at our feet.
On this Halloween night, he'll be the black cat on top of our gatepost, as trick-or-treaters come by. He's no prop. He's the real thing, a household member taking in the strange human parade and watching out for his people and his home.
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