Candy wrappers are very enticing for pets. The smell, the glitter and the taste! Pets can ingest wrappers and tinsel and develop an intestinal blockage. Keep all wrappers free from your pets during the holiday season.

2.Watch out for Easy Access Electric Cords

Halloween decorations can come with plenty of lights, so be careful and keep all electric cords free from access. Besides electrocution, burns of the mouth, tongue and gums can occur.

3.Keep Batteries Out of Sight

Batteries are wonderful toys for pets. Swatting them around can make quite the enticing game. Keep them clear from pets as the ingredients are toxic to pets and children.

4.Pumpkin Yum Yum is a No No

Even your carved pumpkin is a meal in itself. Because of the taste, pets love to play, chew and eat pumpkins. After sitting on your porch for days, the pumpkin can grow plenty of bacteria potentially causing intestinal inflammation, stomach upset and diarrhea. Canned (unsweetened) pumpkin is fine for a treat, as well as adding fiber to avoid constipation. If your cat is crazy for pumpkin, offer a teaspoon or two of the canned variety, to keep him away from your table decorations.

5.Store the Chocolate Away

Chocolate contains Theobromine that is toxic to dogs in sufficient quantities. This is a xanthine compound in the same family of caffeine and Theophylline. A large amount of theobromine like 100-150 mg/kg can cause toxicity. Always seek your veterinarian’s advice when any quantity of chocolate has been ingested by your pets. It goes without saying that chocolate should be stored away year-round, out of reach of your cats and dogs.

6.Confine Cats on the Big Night

Ringing doorbells, loud shouts of "trick or treat," and an often-opened front door are all frightening to cats. Keep them safely locked in a bedroom as far away from the front door as possible. The last thing you'll want is a scared cat running out the door.

7.Save the Costumes for Humans and Dogs

While many dogs seem to enjoy wearing silly costumes and hats, cats have too much pride in their own luxurious coats to engage in such foolishness. Okay, try a t-shirt or hat for one quick photo, if you must, but let kitty glory in her unadorned beauty the rest of the time.

8.Forget the Candles

You'll find dozens of cute Halloween candles on the market. Buy them if you can't resist, but never light them when the cats are in the same room. Cats + fire spells potential disaster.

9.Keep Them Inside

This should go without saying. Cats can live happily indoors year-round, and it is especially important that they stay there on noisy, raucous holidays like Halloween New Year's Eve, and the 4th of July.

10.Think Flower Essences

If you have an especially nervous scaredy cat, consider using one of the flower essences designed for calming. Pet Essences Thunderstorm might be an appropriate one for Halloween. It contains Aspen, Impatiens, Red Chestnut, Mimulus, and other natural flowers, and is used to calm cats when exposed to loud noises and commotion. Buy Direct. (As a last resort, your veterinarian may prescribe a mild tranquilizer.)

About Cats

Black cats have played a major role for centuries in folklore, superstition, and mythology. Black cats in the middle ages were believed to be witches' familiars, and some people even believed them to be witches incarnate. Many of these old superstitions about black cats exist to this day.

Explore the mythology and lore about black cats, witches, and other beliefs that carry on in the 21st century, especially around Halloween.

Black Cats and Luck

Depending on one's area of the world (and the century one lived in), black cats portend either good or bad luck. Here are some examples, a couple of them quite involved, with some tongue-in-cheek asides.

• In Asia and the U.K., a black cat is considered lucky.
• •In Yorkshire, England, it may be lucky to own a black cat, but it is unlucky have one cross your path.
• To dream of a black cat is lucky.
• On the other paw, seeing a black cat in your dream indicates that you are experiencing some fear in using your psychic abilities and believing in your intuition. I wonder who makes up these things?
• A funeral procession meeting up with a black cat is believed to forecast the death of another family member.
• In 16th century Italy, people believed that if someone was sick he would die if a black cat lay on his bed.
• In North America, it's considered bad luck if a black cat crosses your path and good luck if a white cat crosses your path. In the U.K., switch the colors, I guess unless you live in Yorkshire.
• Finding a white hair on a black cat brings good luck. Don't pluck it though, or your luck may turn bad.
• A strange black cat on a porch brings prosperity to the owner. (Scottish Lore)
• A black cat seen from behind portends a bad omen. (And a black cat seen from the front is a GOOD omen?)
• Ahhh...an explanation here: If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it.
• If a black cat crosses your path while you're driving, turn your hat around backwards and mark an X on your windshield to prevent bad luck. Oh my, what if you aren't wearing a hat? Or you're not carrying a felt-tip pen or lipstick? Please, don't try this one at home!

Black Cats and Witches

Black cats have long been associated with witches and witchcraft to the extent that during October, the Month of Halloween, black cats and witches are favorite icons used for costumes, home decor, and party themes. This trend is so embedded in modern society that we've forgotten that the modern holiday we celebrate as Halloween has ancient beginnings as well as names:

Samhain

The religious year of Pagans starts and ends with Samhain, which is also the beginning of the Celtic new year," according to Patti Wigington, Pagan/Wiccan Guide. Samhaim is also a time for honoring ancestors who came before, Patti explains.

• All Hallows' Eve

  Catholics celebrate the first of November as The Solemnity of All Saints. October 31st is thereby designated as All Hallows' Eve (since the Saints celebrated on November 1st are considered hallowed.
  Despite these religious beginnings of Halloween, old beliefs about black cats and witches still play a large part in this holiday.

• Black Cats as Witches' Familiars

  It was largely in the Middle Ages that the black cat became affiliated with evil. Because cats are nocturnal and roam at night, they were believed to be supernatural servants of witches, or even witches themselves, according to Glenda Moore.

• Folklore has it that if a witch becomes human, her black cat will no longer reside in her house.
• Some believe that black cats are witches in disguise, or witches reborn.
• Others believe black cats are witches familiars (beings that aid witches in performing their craft). Not all familiars were black cats though; some were cats of other colors, dogs, pigs, or other animals.
• For several centuries "witches" were rounded up, tried, and killed by burning or other violent methods; often their familiars were killed along with them.