New Cat: Meet Archimedes

We've adopted a new cat. who arrived today. He's also a shelter cat, and an older cat. He was rescued from an animal hoarding situation where someone was keeping at least 18 cats in a small apartment, so he is quite nervous. At the moment Archimedes is hanging out in the spare room as he's too scared to go any further. He's being checked in on, but given his space, with gradual interaction from us until he is more settled. He is likely to be an indoor cat as he is quite timid and not used to the world outside (I think he was kept within the apartment and not allowed out), and already an adult cat of a few years, so it may always be too much for him.  We're a quiet household with no other cats, which is ideal for him as he doesn't like being around other cats after being crammed in a small apartment with so many of his extended family for so long. He got called Archimedes because he looks like a smart cat, so I was trying out classical thinker names, and he looked up at me when I said Archimedes. We're calling him 'Archie' for short. When we got him, he was called Oreo, but he's not a biscuit.

Archimedes in his 'blanket fort'. We're replacing the beige carpet soon.

I've mentioned my previous cat, Kuro ('Black') before. Kuro moved with my Dad to a rural small-holding. My Dad is still mildly allergic to cats as he has always been, but with antihistamines and the cat spending a lot of time outdoors, they are doing well. My Dad has become very attached to Kuro, and I still live a very long way from my Dad, and as Kuro is getting older, we think the journey up to Scotland would just be too stressful for him. I still get to visit Kuro, and I do miss him, but I think Kuro would not be happy as an indoor cat, and we live too close to a busy road to let a cat that likes to wander some distance roam free. Kuro lives in the middle of nowhere, with acres and acres of car-free land to roam about as my Dad's small-holding abuts farmland. I think a quiet retirement in the countryside is good for both my father and Kuro. 

Kuro, also known as 'Satan Kitty', in my Dad's garden.

Interestingly, my Dad is only allergic to cats with a specific fur type, and he got a second cat, with a much finer, sleeker coat, called Yami ('Dark') which he is not allergic to! Yami is a black cat that had escaped from a temporary foster cattery and followed Kuro home. After taking the cat to the vet, and noting he was microchipped, my Dad went through the process to adopt Yami because Yami just wouldn't leave my Dad alone!

All of these cats are rescue cats - please, adopt - don't shop. There are so many cats wanting homes, especially as they breed pretty rapidly. I've written about Kuro and cat adoption before ::here:: and my advice remains the same - if you're thinking of getting a cat, please consider adopting an adult cat. Archimedes had been with the shelter quite a while as timidity causes some minor behaviour issues (he gets scared of people, and hisses, will scratch if he feels crowded) but it's something is highly likely to work itself out with time and patience as he gets used to being around humans.

Cat Pictures And Cat Adoption

Food!

I have probably one of the most cliche pets for a Goth, short of having a bat. I've got a black cat called Kuro (after the Japanese word for the colour black). He's a rescue kitty, and as such we're not entirely sure how old he is, except that he was a medium-sized kitten when I got him. I was told that by his size he must be quite old, and wouldn't grow much larger - he certainly proved that wrong! 

Nomnomnom!

I strongly suggest that if you are planning on getting a cat, that you adopt from a shelter, rather than buy a bred kitten. There are so many cats out there who deserve a loving home but who are waiting in shelters. Black cats often wait the longest, perhaps because people in some places consider them unlucky or sinister, or perhaps because they don't look as cute as the more colourful cats and kittens. I did not pick Kuro because he was a black cat, as he was one of the cats "matched" to me when I was quizzed on what sort of cat I wanted and my circumstances. Kuro is very much a cat that wouldn't want to share his home territory with any other cats, and is a playful and active cat that is quite independent, so was suited to a home with no other cats, and one that would be happier to explore a rural garden rather than stay indoors all day.

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Please think of adopting an adult cat - kittens always quickly find homes, but adult cats are less sought-after, despite how they often quickly adapt to a new home. Kittens might be cute when you get them, but they do grow up, so either way, you will be caring for a cat. Many adult cats are already house-trained and very friendly and socialised, plus less sociable cats are often very happy to go to rural homes where they live as "farm cats" - free to roam the countryside with a lower level of human interaction, but fed and looked after, instead of living in a shelter where they are confined to a run and are in close proximity to humans frequently. With an adult cat, their personality is more established, so you know what kind of cat you're getting right away, whereas kittens often mature into cats very different in personality from who they were as kittens. 

Think very carefully before adopting a cat or any pet - are your circumstances stable enough to make the commitment? Are you likely to still be able to afford a cat a year on from now? Are you likely to move frequently and perhaps move somewhere you can't take your cat (as unfortunately happened to me)? Can you afford pet insurance or unexpected vet's bills? Are you living somewhere that's cat-compatible? Remember, cats are a commitment of years - I've known several cats that have lived between 15 and 21 years! It is still the case that people take on cats as kittens, not prepared for the long term commitment, and for the fact that they don't stay babies for ever.

These pictures are from my trip to England at Christmas. Kuro currently lives with my Dad, as my apartment in Scotland is strictly "no pets", the journey to Scotland would probably be quite stressful for Kuro, and he is keeping my Dad company as my Dad now lives alone. 

As you can see, at the time I had dark purple hair... Stay tuned to this blog to see how that has changed!

Adorable Cat Pictures

This is completely irrelevant to anything Goth. I just like cats.

My neighbour's cat is really friendly, to the point where "Friendly Puss" has become her nickname. She  waits on a window ledge for passengers coming from the bus stop and comes charging over to glomp anyone she thinks will give her some cuddles and affection. She's been on this blog before, sitting on my neck/head/shoulder. 

This was the best photo. Photographing her was really hard,
mostly because she wanted to wriggle and chew the basket.

I commute to work and back (and town, and other short journeys) by bicycle. Initially this meant me having to make some emergency stops because she leapt out in front of the bike to accost me, then after a couple of times I just dismounted well ahead of where she'd wait so that I was not in danger of accidentally hitting her with the bicycle, and now it has progressed to where she sits on the wall by the road and climbs into my cycle basket. If the cycle basket has my bag in it, she climbs onto me. I won't ride the bike with her in the basket because I am worried that it would frighten her, or that she'd try and leap out while it is moving, so, I just let her sit. Trying to get her OUT of the basket again is always a challenge, as if I pick her up and put her out of the basket, she tried to jump straight back in! She likes chewing on the bits of the basket that got broken when I had the accident before Christmas.

She's taken up following me (and other gullible folk) around, to the point where I once had to dissuade her from trying to follow me onto a bus. She follows me home, but isn't allowed in our apartment because of a very strict "no pets" rule. She does however play in our garden. 

Snow, Executions, Graveyards and Cats

Well isn't that a strange list of things!

Firstly, it snowed. I know it is mid-March, and theoretically Spring began on March 1st (for those places that use other dates than the equinoxes and solstices as seasonal starts) but it is once again terribly cold and snowy. We have had patches of warmer, brighter weather, but it seems to have plunged once again into winter. 

Snow and trees. Photograph by me.

This is a photo I took in local woodland. It was around 09:20 (I wasn't working at that point, my shift was later) in the morning, and the sun was quite low in the sky soon. Snow had blanketed everything in powdery whiteness, and the branches glittered brightly in the sun. The sky was blue, with more snow-clouds blowing in. I spent some time walking around the woods with the camera, and took a few other pictures, but this one was the best.

I caught a bus shortly after this and went into the city. I was surprised that it was so snowy in the city itself, as it is usually slightly warmer than the surrounding countryside, and often if it is snowing out on the hills, it is only raining in the city. Instead, I found great swirling flurries of snow. I wandered into the graveyard on Church St. to take photos, as I know it to always be very pretty, and the church beside it is a lovely Gothic Revival example (the church in it being much older).

Old High Church Graveyard

The sky, as you can see, had begun to cloud over once again, as more snow was falling and even more snow heading our way. I try not to photograph individual graves too legibly, but some were included as I tried to get a photograph of the overall scene. I will remember to photograph from the opposite angle in future, where I only get the backs of the stones. They are not (by any means) recent graves, and I hope I cause no offence to the families of those interred there. I tried very hard to photograph a rather fluffed-up crow that was scooting between the stones, and at one point perched on top of an urn-shaped grave stone, but he was too flighty (probably a result of the cold). 

Graveyard in the snow.

While I was there, I noticed that the visitor's board - the educational one with a brief history of the church and grounds - was buried under snow, so I cleared it off. Having cleared it off, I glanced over it, thinking I had read it all before, but then realised I hadn't, and that the parts missed included a rather gruesome episode in the Church's history. After the Battle of Culloden, Jacobite prisoners were kept there temporarily, and executed in the graveyard. There were, and are, two stones in the graveyard, one with a groove in the top that was used as a musket rest, and one 9 yards directly in front of it, facing the river, where the prisoner to be executed was placed. I think quite a few died there. Apparently the executioner missed once, and there is dent in the wall of the house opposite. Reading about it sent chills down my spine, and it seemed quite eerie that the churchyard that is now peaceful and pretty and full of wildlife and nice statuary was once witness to such bloodshed. While graveyards are often associated with death, it is rare for people to have actually died in them. 

I had to go home at this point, as I had to get ready for my shift at work, but the weather started improving again. A lot of the snow melted in the afternoon. 

There's a cat perched on me. 

On a lighter note, on the way home to change for work, this friendly cat from a neighbour's house came over to see me. She likes clambering on me, and as you can see in the photograph, especially likes sitting on my shoulders. She's a very, very cute little kitty. And yes, I am terrible at taking selfies. I often get to play with her on my way too and from the bus, and once she refused to get off my shoulders, and I wondered if she was hoping to sneak onto the bus with me... Eventually she climbed onto a fence next me and was content to be petted while sitting up there. 

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