My personal blog as a 'grown-up' Goth and Romantic living in the Highlands of Scotland. I write about the places I go, the things I see and my thoughts on life as a Goth and the subculture, and things in the broader realm of the Gothic and darkly Romantic. Sometimes I write about music I like and sometimes I review things. This blog often includes architectural photography, graveyards and other images from the darker side of life.

Goth is not just about imitating each other, it is a creative movement and subculture that grew out of post-punk and is based on seeing beauty in the dark places of the world, the expression of that in Goth rock. It looks back to the various ways throughout history in which people have confronted and explored the macabre, the dark and the taboo, and as such I'm going to post about more than the just the standards of the subculture (Siouxsie, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, et al) and look at things by people who might not consider themselves anything to do with the subculture, but have eyes for the dark places. The Gothic should not be limited by what is already within it; inspiration comes from all places, the key is to look with open eyes, listen carefully and think with an open mind..

Thursday 2 August 2012

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

14 comments:

  1. LOL! Great photos.
    There is no shame in posting something you love dearly. It was also a joy to read ;)

    ... despite not really being a cat person. They like to pick on a couple of my favorite critters; bats, and toy poodles XD

    Still, I do enjoy their shenanigans from time to time.

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    1. The photos aren't that great, they're just point & clicks kitty snaps made black and white to go with my blog (and my previous blogs).

      Kuro has never caught a bat. There are wild bats where I live, and he has run around after them, but he can't catch them and is now kept indoors at night anyway. As to dogs, he drives a Jack Russel Terrier insane by sitting just out of its reach and teasing it. He's picked on a doberman and a fox, though.

      Kuro definitely gets up to shenanigans. He's like a real life version of Adrian Keefe's 'Devil Cat' http://www.devil-cat.com/

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    2. It's the expressions and captions I love about the photos ;)

      My husband's cat is a mean old maine coon. It's brought in baby bunnies, and if we didn't catch him-- I'm almost certain there'd be baby bunny guts all over the house lol.

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    3. I do try and slip some humour into my captioning. This gloomy goth cliché is about the one cliché I don't fulfil :P

      Don't get me started on Kuro's hunting habits...

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  2. I enjoyed reading about Kuro and checking out his photos. I find it interesting that I had a dream about cats last night, then I visited here only to see that you had cats on your mind as well. An interesting synchronicity I think!

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    1. Heh, I only posted cat pictures because some of my friends were nagging and nagging for pictures of my cat.

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  3. Many spooky things take place in life. I should know about this well. I see and feel things before they happen. Sometimes even years before the actual event occurs. Last night, I had a dream of an empty train. But this train wasn't just any train. It also had outside compartment seats with no roof etc. Now these dreams are very odd. Do not know what they mean though.

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    1. When it comes to dreams, I keep a dream diary, with a blank page after each entry. In this I write down dreams that seem important, and then go back to them later, and see what, if anything, transpired. That way, I get better at identifying which dreams are premonitions, and which dreams are just strange dreams. I have quite the over-active imagination when it comes to dreams!

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  4. Cracking shots, even manage to make him look sweet and innocent at times but he still the devil incarnate.

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    1. Pish! Quick snaps taken on a point & shoot, the lot of them. No skill, only luck! And he IS sweet, but also a small furry trouble-maker.

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  5. We had a cat who was 12 when we got her -- she belonged to my grandpa and was an outdoor cat and not too friendly. But by the time she died at age 25, she was very sociable and quite a housecat!

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    1. 25 is an excellent age for a cat! She sounds like she had a happy mellowed cat in her feline retirement :)

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  6. What I'm about to say has nothing to do with anything buuuttt
    I HAVE THAT WITCHCRAFT BOOK. EHEHEHE. Cute cat!

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    1. Witchcraft books... I went through a period of buying every witchcraft book I could find, reading it, and scrawling a million and one notes in the margins. Some pages are so annotated that you can barely read the original text.

      Don't say that where Kuro can hear you :P

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