This has not been a good year for me; this has not been a good year for the cats

My cousin O said that according to Chinese tradition, the year you are born in is your "bad luck year." The concept completely baffles me. I mean, the year you are born in has got to be like your "birthyear" of sort (kinda like birthday, but its the year). Anyway you look at it, it should be your good luck year. But he said generations of Chinese say that, therefore that has to be true. Perhaps he has a point there (or that the generations of Chinese have a point there) and that also extends to other life forms... at least to my cats. Our year has been: human doctor, vet, human doc, vet, vet, human doc. I have never been sick 5 times in one year, ever. And HH hasn't been sick since the year I got her (year of the pig!!). This line of thought can be kind of scary.