Black Cat Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
5correct to beat the crowd
44 free Black Cat trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free Black cat trivia questions with answers. Black cat trivia for Halloween parties, Black Cat Day on October 27, or anyone owned by one. The 44 questions start with the animal: why most black cats have gold eyes, why their coats 'rust' in the sun, the only breed that comes exclusively in black, and the gene that decides black over chocolate. Then it gets into the stories: the 1233 papal decree that tied black cats to witchcraft, the Scottish fairy cat with a white chest spot, why sailors wanted a black ship's cat, the Bismarck cat who survived three sinkings, Matthew Flinders' Trim, Poe's Pluto, Karloff and Lugosi, Felix, Salem, Binx, Jiji, Luna and Snowball II, plus Bastet, Egyptian cat mummies and the Black Panther adoption craze. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer has been checked against a reference source, shown under each question once you answer.
30 of 44 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which is the only cat breed that comes exclusively in black?
Bombay
The Bombay is the one breed whose standard allows no colour but black; its Kentucky creator spent years of line breeding and outcrossing before the CFA granted it championship status in 1976.
Q 02A black cat's coat can 'rust' to a reddish-brown shade after too much of what?
Sunlight
Sunlight fades eumelanin, the fragile pigment behind black fur, so a black cat that spends long hours basking can turn a rusty brownish-red.
Q 03A cat whose dark fur has white roots is known by what name?
Black smoke
A black smoke cat has hairs that are black along most of their length but white or silver at the root, so the pale undercoat shows when the fur parts.
Q 04Kentucky breeder Nikki Horner crossed black American Shorthairs with which breed to create her 'parlor panther'?
Burmese
Burmese cats gave Horner's new breed its build and American Shorthairs its jet-black coat; she wanted a house cat with the look of a miniature panther.
Q 05In British folklore, a black cat crossing your path is generally a sign of what?
Good luck
Good luck is the British reading of a black cat crossing your path, the reverse of the usual American one; a Welsh folk rhyme adds that a black cat keeps illness from the house.
Q 06Which pope's 1233 decree described a demonic ritual involving a black cat?
Gregory IX
Gregory IX's Vox in Rama of 1233, sent to German rulers and bishops, described heretics' rites in which a statue of a black cat came to life and was kissed by the initiates.
Q 07The Cat sìth of Scottish mythology is a fairy black cat with what distinguishing mark?
A white chest spot
A white chest spot marks the Cat sith, a fairy black cat said to be as big as a dog; Highland lore held it could steal a soul from a corpse before burial.
Q 08Which London hotel seats Kaspar, a carved black cat, as an extra dinner guest?
The Savoy
The Savoy seats Kaspar, carved by Basil Ionides, at any table that would otherwise be an unlucky size; the custom recalls an 1898 dinner whose host was shot dead weeks later.
Q 09In Japan, black cats are considered auspicious and are associated with which beckoning figurine?
Maneki-neko
Maneki-neko, the beckoning cat, comes in black to ward off evil; in the best-known legend, a temple cat waved a passing lord inside just before a thunderstorm broke.
Q 10The crew of which craft wore a joke 'Black Cat' patch in 1984 because their flight was first numbered 13?
Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle mission 41-C was first numbered STS-13, so its crew wore a joke patch with a black cat and a 13, then landed on Friday the 13th of April 1984.
Q 11The arch-backed black 'sab cat' became a symbol of which political movement?
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism took the cat from the IWW union, whose artist Ralph Chaplin said his 'Sab Cat' stood for the slow-down, a way of striking while still on the job.
Q 12Which UK charity designated October 27 as Black Cat Day to encourage adoptions?
Cats Protection
Cats Protection set up National Black Cat Day after finding black cats waited about a week longer than others for a home, simply because of the colour of their fur.
Q 13Which English football club is officially nicknamed the Black Cats?
Sunderland
Q 21The 1934 horror film 'The Black Cat' first paired which two horror stars?
Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi
Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi went on to share seven more films; this first pairing took almost nothing from Poe's story beyond its title.
Q 22Le Chat Noir, often called the first modern cabaret, opened in 1881 in which district of Paris?
Montmartre
Le Chat Noir opened in November 1881 on the Boulevard de Rochechouart in Montmartre under Rodolphe Salis, drawing painters and poets; Steinlen's 1896 poster made its black cat famous.
Q 23Marvel's Black Cat, Felicia Hardy, first appeared in 1979 as an adversary of which superhero?
Spider-Man
Sunderland made the Black Cats its official nickname in 2000 after a fans' vote in which it beat 'the Mackems'; a black cat had featured on club emblems long before.
Q 14After Black Panther opened in 2018, shelters reported black cats being named after which of the film's characters?
T'Challa
T'Challa was among the names shelters reported for black cats adopted after the film, along with Shuri, Okoye and even Killmonger; one Texas cinema held a black-cat adoption event.
Q 15Which black cat sailed with Matthew Flinders as he mapped Australia and now appears on statues beside him?
Trim
Trim, born at sea in 1799, sailed with Flinders on his circumnavigation of Australia; as a kitten he fell overboard, swam back and climbed a rope to get aboard.
Q 16Ship's cat 'Unsinkable Sam' is said to have survived the Bismarck and which two British warships in 1941?
Cossack and Ark Royal
Cossack and Ark Royal complete the famous tale, though doubt has been cast on its Bismarck opening: two photographs said to show Sam picture two different cats.
Q 17Which black cat became Chief Mouser of HM Treasury in 2016?
Gladstone
Gladstone was found wandering London's streets and taken in by Battersea before the Treasury recruited him in 2016 to keep down the mice in its Horse Guards Road offices.
Q 18India, a black cat named after a Texas Rangers ballplayer, lived in the White House with which president's family?
George W. Bush
George W. Bush co-owned the Texas Rangers when the family kitten was named for slugger Rubén 'El Indio' Sierra; India lived to 18 and died at the White House weeks before his term ended.
Q 19What is the name of the doomed pet in Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story 'The Black Cat'?
Pluto
Pluto is the narrator's beloved black cat; in a drunken rage he cuts out one of its eyes and later hangs it from a tree, the crime that sets the story's horrors in motion.
Q 20Poe's 'The Black Cat' first appeared in the summer of 1843 in which publication?
The Saturday Evening Post
'The Black Cat' ran in the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia in 1843; its narrator, awaiting execution for walling up his murdered wife, is exposed when the cat howls from inside the wall.
Felicia Hardy debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979) as a cat burglar like her father, and the Black Cat soon became Spider-Man's on-off love interest.
Q 24In 'Hocus Pocus' (1993), which witch sisters curse Thackery Binx to live forever as a black cat?
Sanderson
The Sanderson sisters turn Thackery Binx into an immortal cat for interfering as they drain the life from his little sister Emily, so that he must live forever with his guilt.
Q 25In 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch', which talking black cat is a warlock punished for trying to take over the world?
Salem
Salem Saberhagen was sentenced by the Witches' Council to 100 years as a cat; on the sitcom an animatronic puppet handled his talking scenes while real cats did the rest.
Q 26Kiki's talking black cat Jiji appears in a 1989 animated film made by which company?
Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, turns on a loss: midway through, a dejected Kiki finds she can no longer understand Jiji, or fly.
Q 27Luna, the talking black cat who tells Usagi she is a Sailor Guardian, has what mark on her forehead?
A crescent
Luna bears a crescent moon on her forehead, and it is the seat of her powers: a direct hit on the mark leaves her an ordinary cat.
Q 28What is the name of the Simpson family's black cat?
Snowball II
Snowball II is black despite the name: she replaced the family's first cat, a white one, whose death Marge reports in a Christmas letter in the 1989 series premiere.
Q 29Bagheera, who mentors Mowgli in 'The Jungle Book', is scientifically what kind of animal?
A melanistic leopard
Bagheera is a melanistic leopard, the black panther of India's jungles; the dark pigment hides his rosettes without removing them, and Disney's Baloo just calls him 'Baggy'.
Q 30Melanism in leopards is inherited as what kind of trait?
Recessive
Leopard melanism is recessive, so two spotted parents can produce a black cub; in jaguars it is the reverse, a dominant trait that needs only one copy of the gene.