In celebration of this year’s National Black Cat Day, cat owners are being asked to share their pet’s unique coat colour using the hashtag #50ShadesOfBlackCat

In celebration of this year’s National Black Cat Day, cat owners are being asked to share their pet’s unique coat colour using the hashtag #50ShadesOfBlackCat

Knight Rider Black, Sirius Black and Onyx Black are just three of the 50 black shades and five patterns on a specially created colour palette that is being used to highlight the subtle but important differences between black cats.

Now in its eighth year, Cats Protection’s National Black Cat Day (27 October) encourages more people to adopt a black or black-and-white cat.

“It’s a sad fact that over 40 per cent of cats given up to our centres are black or black-and-white and they take longer to find new homes than cats of other colours,” explained Gemma Croker, Social Media Manager.

“We think this is because black is a more common colour so we want to highlight just how individual each one is and hopefully find them new homes more quickly.”

Cats Protection currently has over 1,400 black or black-and-white cats in need of homes across the UK.

To download the colour chart and discover what shade of black your cat is, or to find cats in need of homes, visit: www.cats.org.uk/Black-cats

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For further information, including details of cats in need of homes, please contact Cats Protection’s Media Office on 01825 741 911, at media.office@cats.org.uk, or @CPMediaTeam on Twitter.