While black cats usually find themselves creeping in house decorations for Halloween, they tend to have bad luck when it comes to finding new homes.

To turn their luck around, TAILS Humane Society, 2250 Barber Greene Road, currently holds a month-long promotion for the “bad luck”-deemed cats. This is TAILS’s third annual “Change Their Luck” campaign, trying to get these black cats into new homes.

TAILS executive director Beth Drake said these cats, as well as dogs, deserve some extra attention since they are harder to adopt.

“Black cats and dogs, for whatever reason, remain in the shelter longer than pets of other colors,” Drake said. “It’s been theorized that they don’t show up as well in their kennels, and so adopters choose their more highly colorful neighbors.”

The idea that these pets, especially the cats, represent bad luck may also be a cause for their low adoption rate, Drake said.

“Once they become available for adoption, adult cats average three to four months here at the shelter,” Drake said.

Despite the time it takes to get these cats adopted, TAILS works its third annual “Change Their Luck” campaign to help get the cats into new homes.

“Last year, we adopted out 60 adult cats in October, more than double the average number of adult cat adoptions,” Drake said.

Katelyn Martin, freshman pre-physical therapy major, said she believes the campaign will help raise adoption rates.

“It’s really smart,” Martin said. “I know that people are usually superstitious. And it’s also a good idea because it ties in with Halloween really well.”

Junior history major Megan Swenson, who already owns black cats, said she would consider adopting another.

“I love black cats, and I think every cat should have a loving family,” Swenson said. “It’s nice that they’re trying to help black cats since they’re hard to find homes for. It is sort of sad that they aren’t usually people’s first choices for cats.”