At the very beginning of The Black Cat, the narrator tells his readers that he is currently awaiting his own execution for the crimes he committed. He does not specify where exactly he is, but I think it is safe to assume that he is in a cell in prison, where most criminals await their executions, and he is certainly a criminal. The story he tells is one of animal cruelty and murder. Not only does he cut out the eye of his own pet cat (a cat named Pluto), he hangs the very same cat from a tree, killing it; this brings the bad luck upon the narrator that he blames for his later actions. Of course, animal cruelty is not why the narrator is being executed; instead, it is because he murdered his wife by cutting her head open with an axe and then sealing her in a wall, along with their new cat, which is his ultimate downfall.
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