The Black Cat, a short story, begins with a narrator telling the reader about a large black cat named Pluto that he used to own. The man and Pluto were close until the man became an alcoholic. During one of his drunken rages he gouges out the cat's eye, and later hangs the animal from a tree. The man's actions grow increasingly more violent, resulting in the death of his wife, and the police are alerted to his wicked deeds by a cat eerily similar to Pluto.
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