ABOUT ME

HISTORY OF MY CATTERY

Cats have been living with us since my childhood. I remember Cicada the most beautiful black cat who always pleaded for liver. Our cats were indoor cats at that time and most of them disappeared after a few years. Cicada has not come home one day and I was looking for him for a very very long time, sometimes I looked from the bus, maybe I'd find him.

Fritzy was a brown tabby male, beautiful, large, smart and strong cat, but after a nasty disease from which he recovered, another one was fatal for him.

My first purebred cat was a red persian male Isfahani Tornado Matzo. From then I took the cattery seriously and I entered the Cat Breeders Association, the first cat association that has just been founded. Unfortunately Matzo has not lived for long, there were no dewarming tablets for cats at that time and he died due to an overdose, at least this is what I was told - I was about 9-10 years old.

I have not given up on the cattery, many more cats were to come, including many adopted ones. I remember Maffia who was a black female, she knew how to apport. Unfortunately she did not live long, either. Somehow I was not lucky with cats back then.

I started to go to cat shows as a visitor, maybe I saw the first maine coon cats there, there were no such breeds in the country that time and I only heard about the existance of the breed. I decided to want one because of the large size and beautiful hair.

From the first maine coon litter in the country I bought Cyndis Amarillys Dolly Lotti Titanilla (brown classic tabby). From this, there was no turn back. Unfortunately Lotti has not proved to be a show cat, was not even large, had health issues, I could not find a match for her, then due to metritis we had to make operate her so she became a pet. But before the operation, she fell in love with an ugly male at our weekend house where we spent the summertime, and produced beautiful kittens, one of them Titu who became my daughther's pet and, won a lot of prizes at shows in pet category. Unfortunately she did at quite a young age, she was hit by a car at the weekend house. (Another kitten of hers died in 2009 at the age of 19 (!) years old.) She was an extremely smart cat, learnt how to use the toilet, purred in her own style and never let herself be a lapcat. Once she was invited to a tv film where she had to be carried by an actor in the hand, and walk with a dog on a boulevard with heavy traffic. I thought an indoor cat never lifted up so far will never let herself be carried by a stranger but I was wrong: Lotti was much smarter than we thought and has spent more than half an hour with a stranger, in the crowd. She lived 15 years, hit a record among my previous cats, then finally she had to be put down due to cancer and brain metastasis.

I went to cat shows with Lotti and worked as a ring stewardess, this is how I first saw the Russian exhibitor's cat - for me similar to the maine coon - the siberian. In the minute I saw them I knew I have found the breed which was perfect for me! The look, the size, the hair were just ideal.

In my country we had just a few of this breed, registered as a not recognised breed back then, but I knew I wanted to breed with these cats and decided the best would be to import one to breed from its country of origin.

With the help of my dog friends at that time, the foundation male of my cattery arrived in 1992: Baronet Anjou Silver (silver tabby with white). He is still in my heart. On a cold day my doorbell rang and there was a stranger with a wee little silver fur ball under his coat. As I knew later, Silver came from Moscou through Ufa (land of Tatars) then to my home, very adventurous way for an 8-week-old kitten. I still have bad feeling when I think of what he had to go through during this long journey. L

He was very smart (i.e. only peed into the water tap), kind, beautiful male and his fantastic colour (white pattern) has never came back in my breeding lines (silver tabby with white). His personality was extraordinary, I simply loved him, and all my family members fell in love with him, too. His show career was unbelievable for me: he won prizes in 4 countries, and beating many many other siberians, he has achieved the GIC title! Unfortunately he died in my hands of tuberculose at a relatively young age. I was so shocked I forgot him in a box in front of the vet's office when I wanted to put him in the car to bury. Half way back home I realised it and went back as crazy. The police stopped me but when I explained I was going back for my dead cat, I think they thought I was totally insane and they let me go, maybe they thought only a crazy woman can come up with such a story.

So I had a male, I had to buy a female to finally have kittens.

In 1993 came Varya (silver ticked tabby) and Vitold the littermates, a girl and a boy. Vitold was bought for my girlfriend, until today he is the siberian male the most used in breeding in the country, he can be found in almost all pedigrees of locally bred cat, he made a great influence on the local stock. And Varya became the foundation female of my cattery. Varya arrived at the age of 4 month, without papers and vaccinations but when we went to the weekend house, we bought her with us. She walked in the garden, climed up trees - then disappeared. I found her under a bush, eating a mouse, defending it with groans when I tried to take it away from her. I worried that she would catch some disease. She was a true Siberian! J Unfortunately I was not lucky with her either, she was also hit by a car near the weekend house and then I promised I would never ever bring a cat over there to protect them so their holidays were over. (I also had another male cat Maxim who disappeared near the weekend house and he was so large and beautiful, someone has "adopted" him for sure, we were looking for him all over.)

My first litter was born on 12.05.1995 from Varya and Silver, meeting of true old Russian pure bloodlines. I kept two kittens Maysky Maxim (brown mc tabby) and Milenkaya Masha (silver ticked tabby), who took over her mothers' place as the queen later. Then came another littters and kittens kept.

We have reached our maximum capacity so I had to let Noah (cream) go to his new owner from where he escaped and lived free later, however he has spent his entire life in a room before (he sometimes went to eat to an old lady nearby, for years). Out of his littermates, Nicolay (cream) has been castrated because he felt male too much. Nusya (silver ticked tabby female) went for breeding to Vitold, I kept Nina (brown mc tabby) for breeding, and I also kept her daughter Sonia (brown mc tabby) who unfortunately never accepted her kittens so later on I ran out of females for breeding. Unfortunately we lost Sonia due to a stupid accident, she slept forever in her favourite armchair at the age of 5.

Keke (blue silver male) felt male very much and escaped, we never found him, probably someone has "adopted" him, he was a very kind, large, spectacular cat.

Zami (red mc tabby) was my mother's favourite but we had to rehome him due to his crazy nature: he fell of the 2nd floor many times (with a leg hurting, or a tooth broken), and we wanted to protect him from more serious accidents. He then lived in a house with garden, happily with his new family, for 15 years.

We kept Ochen Oleg Lucifer (black) accidentally. He appeared on screen in a film series, he was selected for the role as a kitten and when the shooting finished, we loved him too much, so he became the father of a few litters in the country later.

Perviy Petya Kiky (blue silver) was from the last litter I kept a kitten but he was castated due his manly manners.

By 2008 my cats became old and I only had one cat left from my bloodline and it was a male. I looked for new lines and through an old friend, an american cat came to me from a pure old Russian bloodline GIC Cica Shalun Boris D Of Méda-Garden Boris (silver classic tabby) and Sophie (black smoke). I hope they will fulfill my plans!

In 2010 I have 9 Siberians living with us, 7 of them from my own breeding, between 10-15 years, 2 cats are 1 year old from a totally different USA bloodline, they are the future hopes. We also adopted 2 cats, also 1 year old.

Today at each and every local breeder there is a descendant from the Meda-Garden cattery.