Studio Mewsings: Chatting with Kouki

Hi, furriends! I love meeting new cats, especially ones with interesting stories, and today I got to chat with Kouki, a handsome fellow with a name that means both “hope and love” and a cool Japanese car. He lives with two feline sisters, a big dog named Thorin, and a very creative human who happens to be an artist. We covered everything from art sabotage (uh, I mean, “creative collaboration”) to the fine art of being spoiled.

So grab a comfy spot, maybe a crunchy treat or two, and enjoy my conversation with Kouki!

Tyson: Hi, Kouki!  I’ve seen posts about you on Facebook.  It’s great to meet you!

Kouki: You too, Tyson!  Thanks for having me.

Tyson: First question, how did you get your name?

Kouki:  So Kouki is a Japanese name.  My pawrents got me after a cat named Shiloh passed away, which was my dad’s grandmother’s cat, or something like that.  She was Japanese, so my dad is a quarter Japanese.  And so Shiloh, I don’t quite remember the meaning of Shiloh in Japanese, but it was some beautiful meaning, and he tragically passed away suddenly at 11 years old.

So when they got me, it took them a little bit to decide on a name.  They wanted it to be Japanese in honor of Shiloh.  So my name in Japanese actually has two meanings.  The first meaning is hope and love, which kind of fit for my mom.  And on the other side, Kouki is a JDM car from Japan, which my dad, being a huge car gearhead mechanic and loving all things JDM, served his purpose as well.

So they landed on Kouki because it has two different meanings, and it serves both of my pawrents.

Tyson: Fascinating! And how old are you?

Kouki: I will be turning five very soon.  I was born in 2020, right before the pandemic hit.

Tyson: Do you have any siblings?

Kouki: So Lucy will be seven this year, and she’s actually my half-sister.  We have the same mom, but we don’t look anything alike.  And Melody was here before both of us.  She’ll be nine this year.

Tyson: And there’s a dog there too, right?

Kouki: Yes, his name is Thorin and he’s been here almost a year now.  He’s named after Thorin Oakenshield from the Hobbit series.

Tyson: I’ve seen some of the drawings my Purrson got from your Purrson. So what’s it like living with an artist?

Kouki: So living with an artist, it is weird.  I watch my human, my mom, she focuses on these pieces of paper and sometimes these big like board thingies, and she’ll be focused on that for hours in a day. And I keep bugging her to give me attention, but she rarely gives me attention because she’s so focused. So I don’t know really what to think of it.

Tyson: Do you feel inspired?  

Kouki: Yes, absolutely, I do feel inspired. I like to drive her crazy.

Tyson: So what do you do to distract her when she’s not paying attention to you?

Kouki: I’ll start purring really, really loudly, and I’ll start rubbing up against her legs, and I’ll reach up and I’ll try to tap her on the legs. Sometimes I really like to get those claws involved, which takes her off guard sometimes. I don’t know why she yells at me. I’m just trying to get her attention.

Tyson: Well, purrsonally, I have found that sitting directly in front of Mom between her keyboard and the monitor and then cleaning my butt is the most effective way to distract her from what she’s doing.

Kouki: You see, I’ve tried that. I immediately get yeeted off the table.

Tyson: I get yeeted when I step on the keyboard, which I do a lot.

Kouki: Yeah, no, I’ve tried that, but she has this weird black powder stuff that’s right in front of her and this piece of paper, and I’m not allowed to touch it, and I really don’t understand why.

Tyson: I don’t understand why Mom doesn’t let me play on her keyboard either. It seems fun, because she uses it a lot, so it must be interesting, right?

Kouki: Yeah, it must be.

Tyson: Well, does she at least include you in her work? Like, you model for her, right? Because you’re pretty handsome.

Kouki: Thank you. I think I’m handsome myself. I think I’m the most handsome cat in this whole house. But no, from what I’ve heard her talk to other humans, she doesn’t paint or draw her own pets because then they’re never perfect enough, and she’d know because she knows every single hair on our heads. So I don’t get to model. I do try to offer advice by I’ll hop up and I’ll try to touch the piece of paper, but I get yelled at when I do that, so.

Tyson: I don’t know what it is with humans, why they’re always yelling when we’re just trying to help and improve things.

Kouki: Yeah, I don’t get it.

Tyson: What do you think of her work? Is she any good at it? I’ve seen pictures of dogs that my Purrson says she has done, but, I mean, they’re dogs.

Kouki: Yeah, yeah, she definitely draws a lot of dogs, which is – eh, it’s okay. She also draws a lot of horses. I don’t understand why there’s so many horses. I don’t get it.  But I have seen her draw a couple cats, and she seems okay.

Tyson: Well, she needs to practice. She should draw more cats.

Kouki: Yeah, I agree.

Tyson: Have you ever contributed to her art?  Like knocking stuff over or put a little bit of that charcoal stuff on there for her?

Kouki: Yes, yes. I have knocked over quite a few things on her desk. It’s usually in the middle of the night when she’s sound asleep and she’ll wake up in the morning and come to find all of her paints and tools on the carpet.

I try not to knock over the actual painting. I haven’t actually touched one yet. Obviously, the first time I tried when she was sitting there, I got yelled at, so… I don’t want to make her mad, but I have moved this plate thingy that she uses to cover charcoal because for years her studio used to be in a separate room so she could close the door and I was never allowed in there.  I don’t understand why. I just wanted to play with all of her paintbrushes.  

But now she can’t do that.  And so I like to grab those paint brushes and yeet them straight off the table and play with them sometimes. There’s been times I’ve left paintbrushes for her in the kitchen. I’m just trying to tell her it’s probably time to wash them.

And then also this plate thingy that she uses to cover the charcoal, I’ve gone at super hyper speeds up over her desk quite a few times to where it moves the plate so it exposes this black powder stuff. I think she says it’s charcoal. I don’t even know. I love to walk across that a lot.

And then I do try to make my own artworks by sitting on both of the toilets because they keep the lids closed and I can put all my paw prints on them and it looks so good like that. I’m so happy with that piece of art I made.  But I get so sad because then when she’s cleaning the house, which she does about once a week, she wipes the toilets off completely till they’re white again. I don’t understand why she doesn’t like my artwork.

Tyson: You need to tell her she needs to frame those. I mean, my Purrson, she’ll take pictures of stuff that I do and I don’t know what she’s gonna do with it, but she’s always got that silly thing she calls a phone out that she always points at me, telling me to smile. She takes pictures of everything I do. Tell your Purrson to take pictures and frame it.

Kouki: I feel like she should just take the toilet lid straight off the toilet and hang it on the wall just as it is.

Tyson: That would actually be better, yes. I bet you could become a famous artist.

Kouki: Yes, I feel I could too. I’m handsome enough.

Tyson: Do you have a favorite piece of art that your Purrson has created?  Anything in particular you really like?

Kouki: Yeah, yeah, I’ve actually tried multiple times to get up there and sit next to it. I really love to stare at this one piece of art. It’s a painting of a horse. Again, I don’t understand why she paints so many horses, but it’s an older piece that she made a year before she got me, and she always held on to it. She has it hanging above our couch, not in a frame, because apparently it’s hard to find a frame for it, it’s some weird size. So there’s this ledge and I like to jump up there and sit next to it.

She really doesn’t like me being close to it, though, so she put a bunch of old bike license plate thingies, they’re really tiny, I don’t know really what they are, and a picture of me as a kitten in a frame, so it takes up all the ledge space. So I can’t get up there anymore, but I do like looking at it.

Tyson: Have you tried pawing the things off the shelf so you can get to it?

Kouki: Unfortunately, the shelf is too narrow for me to be able to get up there and do that at the same time because I have to jump to get up there.

Tyson: Are paintbrushes your favorite thing to steal? Because mine is emery boards.

Kouki: No, it’s not so much the paintbrushes. There’s these paper sticks that she has. I really love to steal those a lot.

Tyson: Do you think you’re more artistic because you live in this environment or are you just naturally artistic and really your mom hasn’t had any impact on you?

Kouki: I like to think that my mom has had some impact in my life because she’s one of my absolute favorite people. So growing up, she’s always been an artist and I’ve always been around it except for that first year her art office thing was behind closed doors. So yes, I think it has had an impact on me.

Tyson: That’s good. I know that I spend more time on the computer than I should just because of my mom spending her time working on it.  So when she has to Google stuff, I find it very interesting.

What’s your favorite napping spot?

Kouki: So at night when my pawrents are sleeping, I really love the couch.

For a while, I really loved the bed they got me on top of our cat tree here. It used to be a black cat bed. Now it is covered with my fur, so it’s mostly white now. I did like that spot, especially during the summer when the sun would come up in the early morning. She always kept the curtain open for that one window so I could sunbathe in the mornings.
Oh, that was the best thing ever. But now during the winter, she keeps the long blinds closed. And I don’t understand, but that bright sun thing in the sky, it moved so I don’t get to sunbathe anymore. I don’t get it.

So my favorite spot is actually right on the edge of our couch. And it’s near our fireplace, so I can feel the heat coming off the fireplace. So that’s my favorite spot at night.

But during the day, we love the bed. Like, when the humans aren’t in the bed, I love that bed so much. I love to burrow and put myself to bed. I don’t like sleeping directly on the sheet of the bed. It just feels wrong. So what I do is I burrow under the blanket, and I keep burrowing until I got the blanket on top of me and below me. So I turn myself into a burrito.

Tyson: Oh, that sounds like a really great idea. I’ll have to try that. I’ve gone under the covers, but I haven’t tried that.

Kouki: Yeah, my mom and dad, they always have these very fuzzy blankets, so it feels really good, so I like to turn myself into a burrito.

Tyson: Now, Mom turns me into burrito, but she does that to trim my nails.

Kouki: Oh, see, I don’t mind that all that much. I mean, I’ve found over the years it’s just easier not to put up a fight. So I just sit there. Sometimes I’ll vocalize that I’m displeased, but it’s honestly faster if you don’t fight it.

Tyson: Really? Because it just seems like it’d be easier if they just leave me alone.

Kouki: I mean, I feel that, too. I really do, because I do love my claws. They get really long and super sharp, and I love that. It makes it so much easier to climb stuff. But my pawrents don’t like that. So I’ve just learned over the years to just let them do the trim thingy.

But also another nice thing, what I also really enjoy about living in our own space now is with the previous two houses, I always had to wear these weird cap things on my nails. I hated those things so much. And the glue was atrocious. So my mom changed it to super glue which didn’t smell nearly as bad, but I still hated those caps so much. So I’m so happy I don’t have to wear those anymore

Tyson: Oh, my gosh. My mom makes me wear clothes, but she’s never put anything on my nails. I don’t know that I could handle that. Although, I don’t know that she would because she’s always talking about my murder mitts whenever I stretch my toes out. So I think she kind of likes my claws too. She just gets mad when I grab her and it gets through the cloth.

Kouki: Yeah, my mom doesn’t like that either. I’m pretty sure that’s why they clip them.

Tyson: I can’t imagine caps on my nails, though. The thought is just – I’m just going to hide my paws under my chest.

Kouki: As you should. It’s the most atrocious thing. I had to live like that for the first few years of my life.

Tyson: You have two cat roommates and a dog roommate. So who’s in charge?  You? I bet it’s you.

Kouki: I like to think it is me but my oldest sibling Melody, she rules the roost. I try to play with her, but she really hates it and she’ll give me the smackdown of the century if I try to. I really love playing with my half-sister Lucy, but for some reason she never wants to play with me back. She constantly runs away from me. And I do this multiple times a day. I just want to play with her and she won’t play back with me. All she does is she yells at me and hisses and then she tries to smack me. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. And a lot of times when I do it enough times, even Mom and Dad will yell at me to stop. I just want to play.

And for some reason, I don’t know why she got so lucky. She doesn’t get her nails trimmed. And so her nails are super sharp. So she’s left a couple of marks on my head in the past and I’m really sore about it.

Tyson: As you should be. That’s just mean. That’s unfair.

Kouki: It is. And she’s my half-sister, and she won’t play with me.

Tyson: Well, I don’t have any other cats to play with, so… Maybe that’s a good thing.

Kouki: Honestly, I think it is because my two cat siblings just won’t play with me.

But Thorin, you know, at first, I really didn’t like Thorin. No, no. I mean, I grew up with dogs, but he was sudden. They didn’t even tell us that they were bringing a dog home and just suddenly there was a dog in our house. So that was a shock.

But now I don’t mind him. I think eventually I will start playing with him. He gets a little rambunctious, so sometimes the trailer will move, wiggle a little bit when he’s running around, which takes me off guard. But I think eventually I can play with him. He’s just got really big paws.

Tyson: Yeah, we have two big dogs here, and I’ve heard Mom call it WWE.  I’m not entirely sure what that means, but they’re usually making a lot of noise when she says it.

Kouki: Right. Yeah, that makes sense.

Tyson: A lot of times she’s also saying “please don’t hurt me” while she’s saying that.

Kouki: Oh, man, I don’t know. I mean, the dogs are big. I mean, I don’t understand why humans have to have such a big dog. 

Tyson: Well, I don’t understand why they need dogs at all because I’ll run through the hallway and Mom says it sounds like a herd of horses, so clearly they don’t need the dogs.

Kouki: Right?  And Thorin, when he plays around, I’ve honestly lost track of how many times he has body slammed into our fireplace because our main living area has these hardwood floors, so they’re really slick. It’s even hard for me to corner around here when I’m going at mach Jesus speeds.

Tyson: Preach it, preach it. We have the same thing. 

Kouki: I’ve slid into the wall so many times in the corners, it’s amazing I haven’t broken anything.

Tyson: My dad just laughs when I slide into stuff. He doesn’t try to help at all.

Kouki: No, my mom laughs at me too. So does my dad. It’s so embarrassing. I’m trying my best to grip these floors. But I really love to laugh, though, when I see Thorin slide into things because he’s just too big. He shouldn’t be moving that fast in here anyway.

Tyson: Well, yeah, not if he can’t control it, that’s for sure.  

Do you have any trouble teaching him how to behave? Because I know y’all taught him manners.

Kouki: Oh, yeah, no, actually, we didn’t have to work on that at all, all three of us, because apparently he was really scared of us. As we were of him at first. Now, being we were around dogs before, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I mean, we were obviously very, very disappointed that they came home with a dog. I don’t know why they had to get a dog.

But he’s actually really scared of us. He still won’t go near my two siblings, which is fair. They are very scary. He will come near me and he will sniff me and boop me sometimes, which is fine. I don’t really care anymore. But yeah, we definitely taught him to stay calm around here.

Tyson: That’s good. Cats need to teach dogs how to behave. The smaller one that we have here, he’s black like me, and I just jump on him and around him and over him and he just stands there staring and he doesn’t do anything because he knows better.

Kouki: That’s good. That’s good. I’m still trying to teach Thorin not to get super rambunctious with me when I’m playing, because sometimes he thinks, oh, that we can play, but I’m really not in the mood. I just want to play with my toys, and he’ll butt in sometimes, and it’s just so annoying.

Tyson: Dogs, I just don’t even understand.

What about the man that lives there? Because if the artist is your person, what about him? Is he fun? Is he interesting? Is he just kind of there taking up space? Tell us about him.

Kouki: Dad’s actually a pretty cool person. He sits in front of a computer a lot when he’s home. He makes these weird sounds and he’ll sometimes get super excited out of nowhere. I’ve heard Mom say that’s gamer boy emotions. I don’t know what that means.

But yeah, he sits there a lot. He loves to play with me. I really love it when he plays with me because then he’ll get the toys and I’ll go chasing them around. I also like to return the toys. They call that fetch. I don’t know what that really means but I love to play fetch with my mom and my dad. Especially my dad. My dad plays with me more than my mom sometimes.

And then when I want attention, I make it very obvious. I start purring really loud, as loud as I can. It’s the manliest purr I can come up with. And I’ll get up on the counters and I’ll reach out to Dad. And I’ll try to hook him with my claws sometimes and he’ll pick me up and I love that. I love it when he picks me up. And then I get to stand on his shoulders and I feel like I’m the tallest cat in the whole house.

Tyson: Did you do that on your own or did he teach you to do that?

Kouki: Oh, no, no, I did that on my own.

But yeah, I like dad. I don’t know why, but he spent all summer at home. It was the best summer of my life. All my pawrents were home 24-7. It was great.  But now I don’t understand. My dad, he’s gone all day, all the time now. It makes me sad sometimes.

Tyson: I’d be very sad if Mom left me alone all day. I don’t much care when Dad leaves. He just goes a lot. But Mom’s home all the time. I don’t know that I’d like it if she left.

Kouki: And just to get my mom’s attention, as of right now, I just knocked over her stool. And look, I got her moving. Ha ha!

Tyson: Good job!

If you could change anything about your living arrangement, what would it be? Or do you think it’s perfect?

Kouki: I would really like a lot more cat perches. I’ve seen on the screens that our pawrents look at a lot. I think they’re called TVs. I’ve seen these really cool, like, along-the-wall cat perches, so you can be running around, but you’d be up by the ceiling. I really wish we had those, but apparently we don’t have enough actual wall space to mount those. Because then I’d be able to ambush my pawrents and my siblings, and I think that would be great. But other than that, it’s not too bad.

Tyson: Those wall perches sound totally pawsome. 

So give us a rundown on your top likes and dislikes. Tell us a bit more about you, like what toy is your favorite, your favorite food, what do you hate. Give us a little bit of that.

Kouki: So this thing during the year called Christmas, I don’t know what’s so special about it but my pawrents always have this tree. They bring a tree into the house. It’s not real. I don’t know where it comes from but there’s always a tree. I love playing with that tree. In fact, I love climbing that tree.

This year it was really weird because they brought in the tiniest tree I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s only like four feet tall. I really enjoyed knocking it over. I did that once. Mom wasn’t happy but I at least did it once to knock it off my bucket list because I’ve always wanted to topple a Christmas tree over.

So this year for Christmas she bought us this variety pack of cat toys and I heard her say that was the best five dollars she ever spent because I have been playing with those toys non-stop since Christmas Day and it’s the best thing ever. Those toys, they come with these fuzzy balls and I’ve been chasing them all around the house. They also came with the balls that make a lot of noise but I guess I made Mom mad because I kept playing with those at like 3 in the morning and it kept waking her up, so she took those toys away from me. So I’m kind of sad she took those away.

But the other toys – there’s the balls. They got the little mice. They have little things inside of them so it sounds like crackly paper. I love playing with those. And there’s lots of string too so I play with those a lot. That’s my absolute favorite thing to play with. Before that it was really my half-sister. She really didn’t like it so I’m glad I have those toys because now I take a lot of my energy out on those toys.

Dislikes, I really, really hate going to the vet. I don’t know about you but I really hate going to the vet. I do like people. They say I’m a real ladies man and I love all the vet techs but that ride to get to the vet, it’s like the longest ride of my life. It’s 50 minutes, at least that’s what they say. It feels like five hours but it’s 50 minutes to get to the vet and then 50 minutes to get home. I hate that.

Activities, I like going outside. I really love going outside. But since we moved to this new area – I mean, I don’t see as many birds but I see a lot of people and a lot of dogs. Mom hasn’t taken me outside yet. I guess it’s because there’s lots of other dogs in the park and she doesn’t trust them, which I guess is fine. So I miss doing that.

Tyson: Yeah, Mom has to lock the dogs up before I get to go outside just to make sure that they don’t come after us.

Kouki: Okay, I guess that makes sense. I mean, all the dogs here are on leashes, but I guess she has a distrust of people in general. So, I don’t know where that came from. Don’t really care to know. But, okay, I guess that must be why.

Food, I love dinner time and I love breakfast time. I love treats. I don’t get enough treats, in my opinion. I think I should get more. I deserve more. And I deserve a lot more wet food. I think I need a lot more wet food.

Also, my other favorite thing to play with is the fountain. I love making a mess with the fountain.

Tyson: I love playing in water. I get yelled at all the time because I play with my water bowl. And Mom tells me I’m not supposed to do that. I heard Dad say something about getting me a water fountain. And Mom just looked at him and said “then you’re going to have to clean up the pool.” I don’t know what she meant by that. But I know I didn’t get a fountain.

Kouki: Yeah, I’ve always had a fountain. Mom says it’s a lot healthier for us to have filtered water, which I guess makes sense because last year, after we had recently moved, I got really sick. I didn’t feel good. I couldn’t go to the bathroom and I don’t understand why. I got really scared. I had to spend two days at a vet. Mom and Dad were so relieved when I got to come home, but I was rocking this weird shave around my butt area. I had no fur down there. I don’t know what the vets did to me, but I did not like that. I feel a lot better now, but my mom said that it was well water. There’s a lot of crap in that water and even the fountain couldn’t keep up to keep the crap out, and I guess that made me sick.

So now, from what I understand, my mom has told us that we’re on city water, which is a lot cleaner than well water, but she still insists on putting it through that fountain, which I enjoy. I love all the running little bits of water because I love to slap them and play with it a lot.

I also love to play in the sink, and I also love to play in the sink in the bathroom, especially when Mom’s trying to put makeup on. I don’t know what that is. It makes her look weird, but I really love trying to swat things off the counter while she’s trying to do that. She really doesn’t like it when I do that. But she will turn the faucet on so I can play with the water.

Tyson: I like to get in the tub, especially when Dad’s in there because it freaks him out. And all I want to do is play with the water. That’s really all I’m looking to do. But for some reason, Dad doesn’t think I should be in the tub with him.

Kouki: See, that’s weird. And I really don’t like our shower because it has these doors that Mom keeps closed at all times. And all I want to do is play in the shower. So I have learned how to jump all the way up to the top and jump down into the shower. I have struggled quite a few times to get out. I think one time I almost did get stuck. Luckily, Mom was home and she found me. She wasn’t happy. She immediately kicked me out of the shower. I don’t know why. I just like to play in the shower.

Tyson: Humans are just so strange about their spaces. I don’t get it.

Kouki: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it makes for an interesting place. But I guess my siblings are to blame for that. Because both the girls love to use the bathtub or shower as a bathroom for them and stuff. And that made Mom really mad. I’ve never seen her so mad in my life. So that’s really their fault that I don’t get to have the shower. Because I won’t do anything like that. I just want to be in the shower.

Tyson: Well, Kouki, I don’t want to take up a whole lot more of your time, but I really appreciate you talking to me today. Is there anything else that you want to share with the readers? Because it sounds to me like you’ve got a great life there.

Kouki: I do have a great life. I’m very happy with my life. I’m very spoiled. All of us get very spoiled. So I’m very grateful to my humans for adopting all of us and giving us such a great home.

It’s been really great talking with you, Tyson. Honestly, all I want to give to the readers is I hope if they have animals or other cats, I hope they spoil them and give them lots of treats. And if they don’t, I feel like they should go get a cat. They should go get a cat and give it a good home.

Tyson: They should, because we’re wonderful.

Kouki: We are.  We’re the best.

Wasn’t that pawsome? Kouki’s got style, charm, and clearly the skills to keep both cats and dogs in line – plus, he’s a pro at making art in unexpected places (toilet-lid pawprint gallery, anyone?). I think we can all agree that his idea for wall-mounted perches sounds brilliant, and his message to humans everywhere is spot on: Go get a cat and give it a great home.

Thanks again to Kouki for sharing his story and for giving me some new ideas for distracting my own Purrson.

Be sure and check out the fabulous work of Kouki’s artist over here and let her know I sent you!

Purrs and creative mischief,
Tyson 🐾