I also wrote about another pet cat I had who kept all the Navratra fasts — amazing because cats can’t read the calendar and know which date the Navratras are going to begin or end but this cat just knew and stopped eating meat or anything else, just drank water, and remained throughout the Navratra days in our puja room. Another cat would sit with my mother without fail for the morning puja and if my mother was out of town, would sit on her ‘aasan’ and do puja.
Killing a cat is supposed to bring great bad luck in almost all communities and it said that you have to do daan of a Sone ki Billi if you kill a cat even by mistake. Cats, especially domesticated cats are supposed to be reborn as humans in the next birth. Incidentally, I have both cats and dogs living in perfect harmony at home and in the neighborhood my home is known as the ghar jahan kutte-billi ikathe rahte hain.
However black cats especially have a duality. They are said to bring either extreme bad luck or extreme good luck — depending on the area of the world to which you belong. Usually associated with bad luck by superstitious folks, black cats are amongst the symbols of Halloween. According to Wikipedia, “…Halloween,… also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October… It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints or hallows, martyrs, and all the faithful departed…”
It is believed that harming a black cat during Halloween can result in seven years of misfortune. Black cats got a bad name during the Dark Ages when cats were known as “familiars” of witches. However, sighting a black cat on Halloween is, it is believed, better than sighting a bat. Catching sight of a bat on Halloween is supposed to be an omen of impending death.
Cats, especially domesticated cats are supposed to be reborn as humans in the next birth. Incidentally, I have both cats and dogs living in perfect harmony at home and in the neighborhood my home is known as the “ghar jahan kutte-billi ikathe rahte hain”.
Many websites now recount how “…people during the Middle Ages described the nocturnal winged mammal as belonging to the witches’ tribes and seeing a bat during Halloween was considered to be quite an ominous sign… Spiders — just like bats and black cats — are regarded in medieval folklore as belonging to the family of witches. According to one school of thought, if a spider falls into a candle-lit lamp and is consumed by the flame, it is a sign that witches are nearby. On Halloween, popular belief goes that spiders watch over the living on behalf of their deceased loved ones… It is widely believed that children who are born on Halloween possess the gift of second sight. They are also said to have lifelong immunity against evil spirits…”
Amongst humans, when a killing takes place, it usually falls under two categories — just and unjust. For example, if one gangster is killed by another gangster, it could be considered just. But if an innocent person is killed for no fault of hers or his, the killing would be termed “unjust”. Both these are unnatural deaths, and the spirit of both would hanker for justice and there is a very strong likelihood that such a spirit will not leave earth till its purpose is achieved. This results in hauntings of several kinds to achieve the desired end.
While both the spirit who has been killed “justly” and the spirit who has been killed unjustly seek to avenge their deaths, the intensity levels of the spirit who has been killed “unjustly” are much stronger. Quite often, their physical bodies are not given a proper burial or cremation, and this adds to their rage, restlessness and strength, making them very dangerous and determined. Sometimes, an animal which may or may not have been present at the time of the killing becomes a part of the means adopted by the spirit to get revenge. If an animal was present at the time of killing, it is almost certain that it will play some kind of a role in the spirit’s quest for justice. There are also several terrible yet fascinating instances where animal spirits have sought revenge.
Ellen Girardeau Kempler, writing about dog related sightings in Edith Wharton, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer and designer’s book Ghosts, provides a most interesting account: “…The story concludes with an account of judicial records in which the wife of the Lord of Kerfol is accused of murdering her husband, who is found ‘dreadfully scratched and gashed about the face and throat, as if with curious pointed weapons.” In her testimony, the wife relates her ‘desolate’ loneliness when her husband would go off for months without explanation. Unable to bear children, she is alone in their gloomy estate until he returns, each time with an exotic gift. One of these presents is a “sleeve dog,” which is small enough to fit in a kimono. When the husband suspects his wife of being overly familiar with a neighboring nobleman, he strangles the dog as well as three other strays she had taken in. The wife tells the court of later, during the night of her husband’s death, hearing a pack of dogs snarling…”