Black cats bring bad luck, or so the popular superstition goes. Mower County Humane Society volunteers know that all too well, which is why the MCHS is extra careful to adopt kitties out during October.

“We are extremely cautious about any cats adopted this time of year,” said Jane Roden, MCHS vice president. “It’s an older superstition, but still you don’t know how much of it is passed down.”

MCHS volunteers worry that people will do cruel things to cats as part of Halloween or will abandon them soon after the holiday, and usually won’t give a family a feline unless their credentials are stellar.

Prospective cat owners usually have to go through a process to get a new kitty, including sharing information like the cat’s possible home, information about family and landlord contact info.

Yet there are times when MCHS volunteers say no to people who seem to want cats specifically for Halloween.

“It’s sort of a common sense thing,” said Kelly Rush, MCHS volunteer. “It seems kind of weird that you have to be more vigilant than this time of year.”

Roden remembers when two men came to the shelter several years ago wanting black cats, specifically. It wasn’t the copious tattoos or the strange ornaments that made her wary. Neither one had an address or had owned a pet before and seemed interested only black cats. Roden declined to allow a cat to leave with them.

“The entire situation did not look right,” she said.

Black cats aren’t adopted as fast as other cats anyway. Though the shelter seems to get new cats in cycles, black cats are usually among the last to leave MCHS.

“Black cats and black dogs are kept a lot longer,” Rush said.

Once Halloween passes, MCHS volunteers breathe a sigh of relief. That doesn’t mean they won’t adopt cats when people put out pumpkins, however.

“If it seems like a good situation, we would definitely adopt right now,” Roden said. “We’ve had 13 adoptions this month.”