This section is from the book “Kentucky Superstitions“, by Daniel Lindsey Thomas, Lucy Blayney Thomas. Also available from Amazon: Kentucky Superstitions.

Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insect Superstitions

Animals can see haunts or spirits.
Animals can talk on New Year’s Eve.
It is a bad omen for an animal to die in one’s hand.
If you see a dead animal, spit over your little finger, so that you may avoid bad luck.
All men come back as animals.
To run an animal before you kill it will make the meat tender.
The crossing of a black cat in front of you will bring bad luck.
When a black cat passes in front of you, spit, to avert bad luck.
It brings good luck for a black cat to cross your path to the right………………..Blue Grass
It brings bad luck for a black cat to cross your path to the left…………………Blue Grass
Avert the bad luck incident to the crossing of a cat or a rabbit before you by pulling out a thread and throwing it from you – on the left or the right side, according to the animal’s position…..Mountains
When a black cat runs in front of you, take off your cap and spit into it, to avert bad luck.. .Mountains
If a cat crosses your path, you will have bad luck, unless you turn around three times and spit on your little finger.
If a black cat crosses your path, turn around three times to avert bad luck.
It brings good luck to have two cats or two rabbits cross your path at night…….Western Kentucky
It is a bad-luck sign to have a black cat follow you after night.
A black cat seen on the morning of an accident is a sign of warning.
If a black cat takes up its abode at a house; the unmarried daughters will have a good chance to marry.
If a black cat is kept in the family, the girls will never marry…………….Southern Kentucky
If a yellow cat passing in front of your path turns over, you may expect bad luck……..Mountains
If you spit on the floor or the ground and a cat goes near your saliva, you will die… Central Kentucky
It causes bad luck for a cat to sleep with you…………………………………Mountains
A cat on the front porch brings bad luck to the housekeeper.
To kill a cat will bring seven years of bad luck.
If you kill a cat, it will haunt you all your life.
If you kill a black cat, you will see the Devil before you see another black cat.
It brings bad luck for a man with a family to drown cats…………………..Southern Kentucky
A cat you kill in any way except by drowning will not hurt you, but if you drown one, the cat’sghostwill come at night and suck your breath……………………………….Central Kentucky
It causes bad luck to cut off a black cat’s tail.
If you step on a black cat’s tail, you will be an old maid…………………..Western Kentucky
You will have bad luck if you step on a cat’s tail.
It causes bad luck to drive off a cat.
If a cat approaches you kindly, you have a good disposition.
If a cat raises its fur at you, you have a bad disposition.
You will have good luck if a cat or a dog follows you home.
It causes bad luck to move a cat.
It will bring good luck to take a cat to a new house.
If a cat gets on a table, you will have bad luck.
If a street-car runs over a cat, it will also run over a person thatday.
If a cat turns over so that its head is away from the fire, someone is coming.
If the cat washes its face in the house, someone is coming.
If a cat washes its face in the door, someone is coming.
The first person that a cat looks toward after washing its face will be the next to marry.
To hear a cat whine at twelve o’clock is a sign ofdeath.
It is a sign of a death in the family for a cat to mew three times at midnight on two or three consecutive nights.
If a cat scratches you, you may look for a disappointment.
If a cat looks into a mirror, there will be a death.
A cat can cause the death of a sleeping person or a sick child by sucking the breath.
A cat has seven lives.
A cat has nine lives.
A cat draws lightning.
If you put cream on your face and let a cat lick it off you will have a heavy beard…….Mountains
If two cats fight for a long time, somebody will have a fight nearby…………….Central Kentucky
A cat will feed on the flesh of a dead person.
It brings good luck to have a white cat come to your house.
It causes good luck to meet or pass a drove of cattle,
If many of your stock suffer from an epidemic, someone in your family will have an accident or will die………………………Mountains
Blood in the cow’s milk is a sign of a death in the family.
To shoot a cow brings bad luck.
If a cow falls down, she will die.
If a cow falls down, she will die within a week………………………….Southern Kentucky
If a cow lows in front of your door, you may expect a death.
If a cow lows over your gate, there will be a death.
A cow’s lowing between seven and eight o’clock in the morning is the sign of a death in the family… ………………………Northern Kentucky
If a cow’s low is heard after dark, there will be a death in the family before the next Wednesday night.
If you move from one city to another and take a cow with you, you will have bad luck.
It is thought that a cow may lose its cud. It does not. Indigestion may prevent the stomach from supplying the cud.
The common belief that cows sometimes have an ailment called hollow horn is a superstition. That is, it is thought that a certain disease will produce hollow horn.

Superstitious behavior is behavior we erroneously associate with particular results. Animals create superstitions as we do. If, by accident, a particular stimulus and consequence occur a number of times temporarily close to one another, we tend to believe that the former caused the latter. Both reinforcing and inhibiting consequences may create superstitious behavior. In the first case, we do something because we believe it will increase the odds of achieving the desired result (we do it for good luck). In the second case, we do not do something because we do not want something else to happen (it gives bad luck).

In 1948, B.F. Skinner recorded the superstitious behavior of pigeons making turns in their cages and swinging their heads in a pendulum motion. The pigeons displayed these behaviors attempting to get the food dispensers to release food. They believed their actions were connected with the release of food, which was not true because the dispensers were automatically programmed to dispense food at set intervals.

Timberlake and Lucas concluded in 1985 “[…] that superstitious behavior under periodic delivery of food probably develops from components of species-typical patterns of appetitive behavior related to feeding. These patterns are elicited by a combination of frequent food presentations and the supporting stimuli present in the environment.”

We should be very careful when reinforcing any desirable behavior the animal we train shows us. If the reinforcement happens to coincide with other more or less accidental stimuli, we may be creating superstitious behavior. We may create superstitious behavior with any reinforcement, but probably food is the most liable to do it.

This can be superstitious behavior: the dog believes that if it barks long enough at the door, someone will open it because it has happened before. Many CHAP (Canine Home Alone Problems) are not even remotely connected with anxiety as many dog owners erroneously presume.

In one of our Guinea Pig camps, we saw Guinea pigs displaying superstitious behavior. One of them would place a paw on the tin containing the target scent and would swing its head repeatedly in the direction of the trainer. The piggy created the superstition because the trainer presented the reinforcers (“dygtig” and food) when it swung its head and not when it placed the paw on the tin right after sniffing the target scent. It did not take many repetitions before the animal had created an erroneous association. Another would walk over the tin if it didn’t get a reinforcer right away.

Superstitious behavior is extremely resistant to extinction. Skinner found out that some pigeons would display the same behavior up to 10,000 times without reinforcement. Displaying a behavior expecting a reinforcer, and receiving none, increases persistence. It’s like we (as well as other animals) feel that we continue long enough the reinforcement will happen sooner or later.

As always, being an evolutionary biologist, the first question that comes to my mind is, “what conditions would favor the propagation of superstitious behavior?” Making correct associations between events confers a substantial advantage in the struggle for survival. That is what understanding (or adapting to) one’s environment means. The benefits of getting one association right outweigh the costs of making several wrong associations, so much that natural selection favors those who tend to make associations rather than those who do not—and that’s why superstitious behavior is highly resilient to extinction.

For thousands of years, superstitions regarding cats and dogs have guided people’s behavior — or just made for good fireside stories. Most everyone is familiar with the belief that black cats bring bad luck or that a howling dog signifies that someone is about to die. (If that were truly the case, people would be dropping right and left every time an ambulance goes by with its siren blaring.) Animal-related beliefs have existed around the world for millennia. I’ve gone through my files to seek out a few of the more unusual ones. Here are eight superstitions and myths about dogs and cats that you might not know.

Cats for Luck and Longevity

Black cats bring good luck. In Britain, a bride and groom who encounter a black cat on their wedding day are ensured a happy marriage. Sailors, a notoriously superstitious lot, avoid saying the word “cat,” but having a black cat aboard ship is believed to bring good fortune. In fact, the wives of sailors used to keep black cats to ensure their husbands’ safe return.

A cat in the cradle protects babies. A well-known (and need I say unfounded) myth is that cats will jump into a crib and suck a sleeping baby’s breath. In Russia, however, new parents used to put a cat into a cradle to drive off evil spirits that might harm the baby. Smart thinking! Who better than a loving and protective cat with super night vision and an alert nature to ward off any natural — or supernatural — meanies? (Of course, folklore notwithstanding, you never want to leave any pet with a baby unsupervised.)

Cats won’t run away if you take certain actions. Moving? Bring your cat into the new place through the window and he won’t leave (presumably because he doesn’t know where the door is). Or rub his paws with butter. The theory behind this one is that by the time he finishes licking all the butter off his paws, he’ll be used to the new place and won’t want to leave.

Cats have nine lives. We’ve all heard that one, of course, but do you know why? My theory is that the belief is tied to cats’ incredible survival skills. Their finely tuned senses, speed, agility and an arsenal of sharp teeth and claws (weapons of mouse destruction) allow them to seemingly defy death time and again.

More Than a Guide Dog

The lick of a dog has healing powers. Ancient Greeks and Romans had temple dogs known as cynotherapists whose licks were believed to cure disease. Maybe they were onto something — we know today that petting a dog can lower blood pressure. Some dogs can also sent out cancers and other signs of illness such as high blood sugar. About that licking, though: Although chemical analysis of canine saliva shows that it has some minor antibacterial properties, your dog isn’t really trying to heal you. He is most likely attracted to the sweet taste of the serum produced by oozing sores.

Dogs lead us to the next world.

Cultures around the world associate dogs with the path to heaven — or Hades. A three-headed dog named Cerberus guarded the entrance to Hades, ensuring that no one went in — or out — who wasn’t supposed to. A Greco-Egyptian god known as Hermanubis guided souls to heaven, using secret passwords to ward off menacing spirits and open locked gates. Aztecs had the dog-headed god Xolotl, who guided souls to the underworld. And in Persia (modern-day Iran), followers of the Zoroastrian religion used dogs to determine if someone was really dead — maybe they licked their toes to see if they giggled — and to scare away any lurking demons.

Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insect Superstitions -this got to stop

Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insect Superstitions

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