Table of Contents
Instead of chapters, the 196 pages are divided into four sections: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter to correlate with the ages of the cats from young kittens, adults, seniors and geriatric kitties. Each section and story is heavily illustrated with photos.
Introduction from the editor and publisher:
Over the years, I've worked with many cats at shelters and time and again seen amazing black cats overlooked simply because of the color of their fur. The shelter adoption stats tell a shocking truth: black cats are half as likely to be adopted as cats of other colors. I took it as a call to action.
I'm a cat expert, cat advocate and founder of Cat Wisdom 101, where we've enlightened and entertained cat lovers since 2011. Our motto is to change the lives of cats, one purr at a time. To change the lives of black cats, a new and innovative approach was needed. In a lightbulb moment, I came up with the idea for Black Cats Tell All, the first collection of positive black cat stories and amazing photos to essentially rebrand black cats as being just as adorable and adoptable as all other cats.
It’s not only the first book of positive black cat stories. It’s the first book to combine stories with a rich array of images of black cats from all over the world – the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, Russia, Europe to celebrate the joys of black cats. The stories and light-hearted profiles are narrated by the fearless felines (and sometimes their owners) who feel it’s time to tell the world the truth. These amazing black cats share nothing in common except the color of their fur and a yen to pen their stories. They reveal how wildly entertaining and fabulous black cats can be. Some stories will make you laugh out loud, while others will make you cry. All will make you think about black cats with joy and reverence.
Our goal is to change perceptions about black cats, one story, one photo at a time. One day, when someone Googles "black cat stories," Black Cats Tell All will pop up and not just the Edgar Allan Poe horror story. And one day, someone deciding to adopt the cute tabby at the shelter may think twice and consider the sleek house panther waiting in the corner.
Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a village to raise awareness, and this personal initiative, Black Cats Tell All, created a tribe of like-minded black cat lovers, the people who submitted material for this book. Many responded to my online call for submissions. Others, I reached out to one-by-one, scouting cats on Instagram and Facebook. There are no stock images. The selection process involved hundreds of messages, curating thousands of images and many sleepless nights. As you can imagine, it was no easy task to winnow a massive body of submissions into something you can hold in your hands. The process involved trusting skill with intuition and allowing it to unfold organically. And yes, a hefty sprinkle of magic.