1. Then, everything goes wrong. The narrator, an alcoholic, starts getting angry at everyone. He mistreats his wife and their other animals, but he never hurts Pluto. But one night, the narrator comes home drunk and thinks Pluto is avoiding him. He grabs the cat, who bites him. In retaliation, the narrator cuts out one of the cat's eyes.
2. The cat's eye socket heals, but Pluto and the narrator no longer have a good relationship. Pluto starts to avoid the narrator all the time. Instead of feeling remorseful, the narrator just feels irritated at the cat's behavior.
3. Months pass. The narrator sees a cat remarkably similar to Pluto, except that on his chest is a white patch. The cat follows him home.
4. Months pass. The narrator sees a cat remarkably similar to Pluto, except that on his chest is a white patch. The cat follows him home.
5. The Black Cat' is told from the perspective of an insane narrator who, in his own words, does not expect the reader to believe him. He tells the reader up front that he is scheduled to die the following day, but the reader doesn't find out why until the end of the story.
6. The man tells the reader about a cat named Pluto he used to have as a pet. He describes Pluto as a remarkably large, beautiful animal, entirely black. The narrator's wife jokes that the cat might be a witch in disguise, given its unusual intelligence.
7. The narrator hangs the cat 'in cold blood' from a tree. That night, his house burns down. The narrator, his wife, and their servant all escape the fire unharmed, but the fire destroys his home and all of his possessions. When the narrator returns to the ashes later, he sees the figure of a cat on the only surviving wall.
8. Eventually, the narrator is driven so mad that he tries to kill the cat with an axe. His wife intervenes, and the narrator ends up killing his wife
