This is a story my Gran told me years and years ago.
When a fire spirit is looking for a new home (and they do often, because the old one just keeps burning down!), they slip quietly along the sleeping streets, peering in windows for a home where no fire spirit lives. When they look into a home where a calico or torty lives, they see the red of flames, the black of ash and embers, and the white of smoke. They think another fire spirit already lives in that home, and they pass on by.
I don't know quite where that started, but I do know this...several times while sharing my home with torties or calicos, the house should have burned due to faulty wiring, etc., but each time there was only very minimal damage.
When a fire spirit is looking for a new home (and they do often, because the old one just keeps burning down!), they slip quietly along the sleeping streets, peering in windows for a home where no fire spirit lives. When they look into a home where a calico or torty lives, they see the red of flames, the black of ash and embers, and the white of smoke. They think another fire spirit already lives in that home, and they pass on by.
I don't know quite where that started, but I do know this...several times while sharing my home with torties or calicos, the house should have burned due to faulty wiring, etc., but each time there was only very minimal damage.