IT IS said that it is bad luck to have a black cat cross your path.

For two policemen who tried to save a feisty feline from a Melbourne freeway on Wednesday morning, the adage proved painfully true.

The alleged culprit. Credit:Eddie Jim

The officers were badly bitten and scratched by the ''savage'' cat as they tried to rescue it from the West Gate Freeway on-ramp at Kings Way.

It is, after all, 2013 - perhaps the most foreboding year since, well, 1913.