Gentlecat | A Dapper Cat in Gyeongju, South Korea

🐱 Gentlecat 🐾

This distinguished gentleman sported the brightest red bow tie, a little splash of sunshine on an otherwise overcast day in Gyeongju.

To be fair, it’s not exactly hard for me to be in a good mood in Gyeongju; come rain or shine, it’s my favourite city in Korea. But when I spotted him (or her) sitting there, tail neatly curled around those perfect little paws, bow tie perfectly in place… well, I had no choice but to take a photo.

I’m pretty sure this was taken somewhere along the street just down from a pony café called Café Terelj (I drew the pony too…stay tuned). I can’t say for certain exactly where, though, because I never tagged it on Kakao Maps, and neither Kakao nor Google Street View is recent enough to catch it. What I do remember is that it was a lovely, new, fully-glazed hanok-style café in a beautiful area — and it had the cutest little “doorman” ever.

I didn’t get around to drawing this cat until this year, when I returned from living and teaching in South Korea for 3 years.

During my years in Korea (and travels around various Asian countries and New Zealand), I took a lot of photos (110,000+ on my camera roll?!). Between all the shots of food, friends, scenery, and architecture, I also collected so many snapshots of the animals I met along the way. And the funny thing is — I remember most of those encounters. Each one still makes me smile.

Now, I'd like to share those memories with you — pairing each mini artwork with the story of the animal that inspired it. Hopefully, they’ll make you smile too.

And with that, welcome to the start of my “Creatures of Korea” / “Animals of the Earth” mini series!