From the Cartoon Laws of Physics comes the following wisdom:
Cartoon Law VIII: Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent.
Cartoon cats possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives might
comfortably afford. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed,
accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed.
After a few moments of blinking self pity, they reinflate, elongate, snap
back, or solidify.
Corollary: A cat will assume the shape of its container.
I propose that there is only one black cat in the universe. It travels infinitely fast so it appears to be in multiple places at once.
I came to this conclusion after burying a black cat that had been been hit by a car. When I came home the animal was sitting on the porch and begging for breakfast.