Bad luck to kill a cat

Posted by ESC on February 07, 2003

There was a recent discussion here about cats having nine lives. Here's an interesting twist.

"Aunt Nola always said it was bad luck to kill a cat, and then explained why. It is because cats have nine lives and, if they live those nine lives out naturally, everything is alright, but if people killed a cat, the remainder of its nine lives would be lived out as a witch. The witch then would be throwing all kinds of bad luck to the cat-killer's way. That, she said, is the reason witches have cats with them. No matter what color a cat is, she said it turns black after it is killed and starts living the rest of its life as a witch." From "Aunt Nola was Always an Expert When It Came to Witches" by McCreary Roberts, Kentucky Explorer magazine, Volume 17, Number 8, February 2003. The article by Mr. Roberts, a Breathitt County, Kentucky, educator and newspaper columnist, was written in 1984.