Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 

Bonne Année! 

(In French because of the HouseCat's French connections and family) 

Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhaoibh!

(Irish Gaelic, in honour of Raven's family)

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

(In Welsh, thanks to Raven who lived most of his life in Wales)

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr dhuibh uile!

(Scottish Gaelic  because I live in Scotland)

I celebrated the solar New Year 11 days ago -the Solstice - as I am Pagan. I hope the festive season has been good for all of you, with that covering everything between Thanksgiving and Imbolc! (More festivities to be had!) I hope you had a good time, whatever it is you celebrate, from Solstice to Christmas to Festivus to New Year. Also feel free to contribute what festive greetings are like in your native language if it isn't already here. Next Year might be a bit more diverse!

I'd like to hear about what my readers did - if you have blogged about it, link in the comments, or if not, feel free to tell me about it. 

Have a picture of me at my Dad's house, feeding my over-sized cat Kuro from the palm of my hand. I went to England for a week to visit my family and friends there, and went on a plane for the first time that I know of (I think I may have been on a plane as a baby, but I was too young to know what was going on) despite being terrified! I have conquered my fear of airports and aeroplanes! I had a quiet Christmas with my Dad, and a busy week visiting everyone I knew within in a 20 mile radius of my Dad's house, which is a LOT of people. I got mostly chocolate as festive gifts, so my New Year's resolution to eat more healthily is not starting well... 

Kuro (Cat Pictures!)

Without further ado, I cave to peer-pressure and post pictures of my cat.

These are not cute kitten pictures. Kuro is not a cute fluffy kitten. He's a big grumpy tomcat with a bad attitude but he's a bit of a secret softy.

He was attacking the strap dangling from the camera.

Thug Lyf 4 Eva

Kuro is a rescue cat we took in as a kitten from a local shelter. He was found as a kitten in the carpark of a branch of Asda, and as such named 'Asda' by the shelter. I was working for Tesco at the time, and thought having a cat called Asda might not be the best show of corporate loyalty, plus I didn't think a cat ought to be named after a supermarket, or for anybody to be named after the place they were found - not the best part of his life, really. I re-named him Kuro, which is Japanese for black (for rather self-evident reasons). He was very sleek as a kitten, but has grown up into a stocky and muscled cat.

He was not socialised as a kitten, and several years later still isn't the most sociable, friendly cat. I don't think he ever will be a sociable or particularly friendly. When we first got him he'd usually hide or attack guests, and was quite aggressive with humans, but he soon started following me around and getting friendlier with people he got to know regularly. In the end he became rather attached to me especially; he used to sleep on the pillow next to me and lick my hair when he thought I was sleeping. He is still a quirky sort of cat, with a few bad habits, especially those of stealing food, raiding bins, starting fights, killing things and generally behaving like the alley-tom he used to be. If he was human he'd have an interesting criminal record by now! 

Clichés in abundance. Kuro at about 8 months old.

I guess as a Romantic Goth and Witch with a black cat I am a walking cliché. I am aware that I am a walking cliché in a lot of respects. Kuro was generally quite respectful of my sacred space when working, and didn't jump up on my shrine or chew on the candles or bat around any of my stones or shrine items.  He did, however, like chewing books, and made no distinction between paperback fiction, books on Witchcraft or even my personal diary. He still chews books.

Goth Kitty

Currently I am living in a strictly no-pets apartment. Kuro is living with my Dad. As my Dad is allergic,  to cats, I miss Kuro terribly and Kuro misses me, this isn't an ideal. I talk to Kuro (and Dad) on Skype, and Kuro tried to break the laptop open to 'free' me the first time he saw on me the computer screen, and he gets all excited when he hears my voice on the phone. When I last came home to visit, Kuro bit me for my insolence in leaving him and then spent the rest of the evening being a cuddly cat. Kuro is still victim to my style - he's got a black leather collar with a red enamelled tag with a fish skeleton on it. Goth cat! 

An iron fist in a velvet glove.

I know, I know! I was supposed to be making my blog all serious and deep about Goth culture and architecture and all these deep and serious things and here I am posting pictures of my cat... but.. but... cats. 

❝After scolding one's cat, one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word.

 And has filed it for reference.❞
~Charlotte Grey