Their only warning
No, you don`t get it. Let me explain. The black cat who crosses your path communicates danger ahead. If you ignore the warning, you get into trouble.
Oh, my Goddess, a black cat crossed my path!!!
And I treated it seriously and slowed down and that was my best decision within the last dozen years coz I avoided hitting a homeless bum who was standing in the middle of my lane, right next to a motionless car with headlights on. I was approaching the car and didn`t see the man. If I had driven at normal speed, I would have made a bloody pudding of him.
I had spotted the black cat a few hundred meters before when it was still daylight. I had a 45 minute stopover for a private lesson and resumed the journey back home when it was dark. It was a minor country road.