Cherub

Colours. (Or, if you prefer, colors.)

It's odd how we sometimes associate them with certain things.

You might think, for instance, that it's quite natural and obvious that black would be associated with death (the dead person passes into the darkness of the grave, etc.)

Yet in some parts of the world, the colour associated with death is actually white.

(By the way, before you put pen to paper, I do realise that black and white aren't, strictly speaking, colours!)

Then there's pink.

That's often, for some reason, thought of as a gay colour.

Though, if you go to Thailand, for example, it's mauve and violet that have that association (I've got a Thai gay magazine that quaintly refers to gays as violet people!)

So, given that we have these almost automatic mental associations linked to various colours, I found there was something quite jarring about looking at the pics of this week's HMBoy.

Don't get me wrong.

He's cute, sexy and has certainly got all the attributes we prize on this site - and more!

But it's the name.

Cherub.

Go to your local municipal art gallery - or dig out one of the Christmas cards you got last month - and take a look at one of those old paintings of a religious scene.

There's almost always a little cherub hovering somewhere in the background.

And, if he's wearing anything at all, it'll be a bit of flimsy gauze material, just hiding his naughty bits.

And it's white.

The sign of purity and goodness.

Now look at our "Cherub".

Black clothes.

Red hair.

Black and red - certainly not the colours of a cherub.

Actually, it's quite the opposite.

It's positively devilish.

Even Cherub himself thinks so.

Once in a while he'll check that he doesn't have a pair of horns!

But here's the clincher.

What's a devil's main purpose?

Ah, yes - to lead you into temptation.

And I'd say that our young Russian stud puppy Cherub does that in spades - wouldn't you?