Which Poe story features a black cat named Pluto?

The Poe story featuring a black cat named Pluto is “The Black Cat.”

First published on August 19, 1843, the story is told by an unnamed narrator awaiting execution. He describes his former affection for animals, especially Pluto, a large black cat who is initially his favorite pet and playmate. The narrator’s alcoholism and growing violence eventually destroy that relationship.

After cutting out Pluto’s eye and later hanging the cat, the narrator’s house burns down. He then encounters another black cat that resembles Pluto, except for a white patch on its chest. That mark gradually appears to take the shape of a gallows, deepening the story’s atmosphere of guilt and supernatural dread.

The narrator’s account is deliberately unreliable, so readers can interpret the cat as a supernatural avenger, a symbol of remorse, or a projection of the narrator’s moral collapse. Pluto’s name is also significant: it refers to Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. The story is often confused with “The Tell-Tale Heart,” another Poe tale about guilt and murder, but that story has no cat.