The Black Cat

by Edgar Allan Poe

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been a kind person. I liked pets a lot and, as a result, my parents bought me many different kinds of animals. Because of this, my friends used to make jokes and laugh at me because I was not as tough as them.

I loved feeding my pets and playing with them. They were the best things in my life, even after I grew up. I must say, I was always happiest when I had a dog with me. Dogs are wonderful! They are loyal, unselfish and they will always love you even if you treat them badly.

Anyway, when I got married, I was lucky enough to marry a woman who also liked animals. We enjoyed having pets around the house so much so that my wife went and bought as many different kinds as she could find and we could look after: birds, goldfish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey and a cat. The cat she bought was very large and beautiful and I liked him very much. He was black all over and truly clever.

We named our cat Pluto and he was my favourite playmate. He liked me so much that he used to follow me around everywhere in the house. He even used to come outside with me on the street for many years. But, during this time, a strange thing happened. I had started to notice that my personality was changing! I hated talking to people – they started to irritate me so much that I couldn't stand being with them anymore! I even started to get angry with my wife too, and to swear at her! One day I actually hit her! Yet, I couldn’t explain why I’d suddenly changed. I hated this side of myself but there was nothing I could do about it.

Even as my personality was changing, the only thing I still liked was my black cat although I began to hate all the other pets. I used to treat them badly whenever I got the chance. I didn’t give them food or water. Eventually though, I started getting impatient with Pluto too and, slowly, mistreating him until he avoided me.

But I remember one night after I got home very late, I wanted to pick him up and play with him, but he no longer trusted me and tried to run away. When I grabbed him, he bit me. I was so angry that I immediately reached into my pocket for my pen-knife, opened it and cut out one of his eyes. I feel ashamed to tell you about this time in my life. But, like I said, I had no idea why I did this – I can’t explain why I started behaving that way!

Anyway, the next morning when I woke up and remembered what I’d done the night before, I had very little feeling of shame. The cat soon recovered from its injury but it looked terrible – like a monster with one eye missing, but at least he was not in pain. He ran around the house in peace but every time he saw me, he ran away in terror.

After some time, I began to feel a real hatred for this cat. It’s difficult to explain the feeling, but I started to get irritated by just having the cat around. This feeling got so strong that it was the only thing I thought about. I knew that what I wanted to do was wrong but I couldn’t help myself. I’m sure many of us have felt like this at one time or another in our lives. All I could think about was killing the cat.

So one morning, I caught it, put a rope around its neck and hanged it from one of the trees in my neighbour’s garden. What is strange is that I was crying while I was doing it, and my heart was telling me it was wrong but that didn’t stop me.

I mean Pluto had done nothing to deserve this but I killed him anyway. What sort of person does this? I’m afraid even I don’t know the answer. Perhaps I was a cruel man. My heart kept telling me I wasn’t but why then was I doing something so spiteful?

Life went back to normal. Then, one night, I was woken up by the smell of smoke. The house was on fire! My wife and I and our only servant managed to escape but the house was completely destroyed. All my valuables were lost in the fire. It was a difficult time for us.

The next day after the fire when I went back to the house to save what I could, I noticed that all the walls had collapsed except one wall in the middle of the house where my bed had been. There was a crowd standing around this particular place. They were looking at the wall with great interest! What I saw was never to leave me for the rest of my life. There in front of my eyes was a picture of a huge cat that looked a lot like Pluto. It even had a rope around its neck!

I couldn’t imagine who was sick enough to make a drawing like that, but I started thinking that maybe someone had seen me kill the cat. I simply couldn’t explain what I saw. But as the months went by, I started to feel sorry for what I had done, so I looked around for another cat which looked like Pluto.

One night after we had moved into our new house, as I sat in the living room half asleep, alone with my thoughts, I suddenly saw a black cat – a very large black cat – very much like Pluto except this one had a small area of white around its chest. It got up and seemed very pleased to see me. I too was happy to have found a cat so like my old favourite, Pluto. He soon became our favourite pet, and especially my wife’s – she liked it instantly.

However, when things got back to normal again, I found myself starting to hate this cat too. It began to annoy me, just as Pluto had. So I started avoiding it but I didn’t have the courage to harm it. Instead, I kicked it and threw things at it so that it suffered terribly. My hatred for this cat grew stronger because I’d noticed it also had one eye missing, like Pluto.

Eventually, I couldn’t ignore my feelings any longer. One day, as I went down into the cellar, the cat followed me and I could think of nothing else but my hatred of it. There in the cellar, I got hold of an axe and was about to cut its head off when my wife took hold of my hand. In a fit of anger, I pushed the axe into her head. She fell dead at once without making a sound!

Now, anyone else would have panicked, but I was very calm. All I could think of was to find a place to hide the body. I knew that I couldn’t remove it from the house because someone might see me. Finally, I had an idea. All I had to do was bury her in the space between the walls of the house right there in the cellar. The cellar was definitely the best place to put her to rest. And this is what I did.

Now I had to find the cat that had made me do this and then kill it. I looked everywhere for it, but I couldn’t find it.

A few days went by and still there was no cat. It must have left the house forever. I was happy because I thought I’d never see it again. I was very happy. Of course people asked me about my wife but I managed to make good excuses. The house was even searched by the neighbours and the police, but nothing was discovered. I thought that no-one would ever find out.

Three or four days went by, when suddenly there was another knock on the door. It was the police again. This time around they wanted to search the house from top to bottom. I wasn’t worried or at all scared. I was even relaxed. Of course, they went to the cellar again.

But this time the police were completely satisfied and ready to go, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to prove to myself and to them that I was innocent. “Gentlemen”, I said, as they were going up the steps, “I am delighted that you accept that I’m innocent. I wish you all good health. You know this is a very well-made house.” I didn’t even know why I was saying this. “These walls are solid walls. Goodbye gentlemen.” I touched the wall where I had buried my wife, well satisfied with myself.

But as soon as I touched the wall I heard a voice from behind it. At first it sounded like the crying of a small child, then it quickly got louder and became one long scream. This was not a human voice. It couldn’t be! I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to calm down and moved to a different wall, hoping that the police hadn’t heard anything – but it was too late. The police had heard the noise too.

They quickly pulled down the wall. There inside stood the body of my wife. The body was smelly and rotten. I saw that on her head was the black cat which was the cause of all my troubles. It was the cat that had cried out from inside the wall. That’s how I was caught!