News in 2004

January 10th 2004

Chimay, December 2003

- and Zuri, January 2004

We have been to see both of Sarantoya's kittens. In December we visited Ujiji Chimay and a week ago we went to see Uzuri.

Chimay looks quite a lot like Sarantoya, but her coat is more fluffy, and she is lighter. She had been neutered recently, and even ear-marked, and both her ears were still quite green. She and the burmese Marron are very good friends. Marron seems to be the dominant cat, but it doesn't bother Chimay, and they get along very well. 

Also Zuri has got a mate. Three months ago a 3 months old Russian Blue kitten, Kamp's Beladdis usually called Addis, moved in with Zuri and Yrsa. Zuri was interested in the kitten at once, but Addis was scared for a while. However they quickly made friends. Zuri seems to be a very social minded cat like his grandmother Lilit.

He is incredibly playful, and like Sarantoya he grumbles when he doesn't have his way. He was neutered shortly before Addis moved in, and then the male cheeks he had got at that time disappeared again. Fortunately he has kept his muscular and harmonic figure; in fact he takes after his granddad Elvis when it comes to the body type. There is also likeness to his father, for instance the small ears, and the expression is quite his own. His coat is quite different from Chimay's, but is neither like any of the parents coat. It is dark, but very blue, rather close-lying and very, very lustrous. It is very easy to see his muscles move under the coat. 

Most important is that both Chimay and Zuri are very well, and that their owners are happy about them.

We took photos of both cats, and besides we got some photos of the owners, and there will be more photos in the gallery when we get time. 

February 2nd 2004

A week ago we went to our first show in 2004.

We showed both Lilit and Sarantoya, and it went very well. Sarantoya got another CAGCIB, and Lilit got her third CAP and is now a Premier. She was even nominated, and at Best in Show she beat two other female neuters, but was beaten herself by the winning male neuter, so altogether she was BOX.
But that wasn't all, because she was also the best shorthair veteran. Guess if we had a good day!

March 18th 2004

Lilit and Sarantoya went with us to a show in Sweden to obtain foreign certificates. It went very well. They got what we needed and a little more: 
Lilit was shown one day only, and besides the CAPIB she was also nominated.
Sarantoya was shown two days, and she got two CAGCIBs and even BIV the second day.
As usual the judges noted the excellent eye-colour of both cats.

We enjoyed to see the work of the very good judges, Eiwor Andersson from Sweden and Penny Bydlinski from England. They both know a lot about Russian Blues. Besides we enjoyed the company of the Swedish Russian Blue owners.

April 12th 2004

Addis at the show

About a week ago we went to a show with Yrsa, Zuri and Addis.

We were curious to see Addis again, because we might have a litter with him and Sarantoya. We were not put off, in facts we were quite pleased with both his behaviour at the show and with his look. Of cause he is not classical typed the way we prefer it, but we found him the best-looking Russian Blue at the show, Zuri included. Besides he is not at all related to Sarantoya. He has an excellent eye colour which is important to us. Also Zuri's eye colour has finally developed.  
 
Zuri got his first CAP and Addis was ex.1 in the class for 6-10 months old cats.

May 24th 2004

Djingiz is so fond of food that we can teach him tricks. When we go to bed we have a little ritual. He sleeps in Kirsten's bed, but Dorthe always come to say good night. He puts his paw on Dorthe's hand and is rewarded with three tidbits (that are his usual food). 
A few days ago he forgot to come and get his tidbits, and we all went to bed without the ritual. But then he remembered, and he went to Dorthe's room and made her understand that she had forgotten something. She had to get up from bed, go to Kirsten's room and give him what he wanted, and then we could all go to sleep.

June 20th 2004

Three days ago, June 17th, we celebrated Djingiz' 15th birthday! 

He posed for photos, and you can see one of the photos to the left. You can see that he is an older gentleman, his whiskers are absolutely white. He sleeps quite a lot, but it seems he is feeling good, and he also is still fairly agile. One of his favourite sleeping places is the den at the top of the big climbing tree. He climbs to the top almost every morning to sleep. 
He has always had a very dense coat, and he has always liked to be brushed and combed, but now we have to help him get rid of some of the dead hairs. We think the birds in the garden have been very pleased with all the "cat wool" we have provided for them this spring.

The birthday was celebrated with meat balls and cauliflower - both favourites of Djingiz.

July 3rd 2004

We have got a little camping chair which Sarantoya had in her pen at the show.
Both she and Lilit tried out the chair before the show.

A week ago Sarantoya got her last certificate for the GRAND INTERNATIONAL CHAMPION title. She is our first not neutered Grand. Once again we had a very competent judge for the Russian Blues, Anne-Gro Edstroem of Norway. She thought that Sarantoya looked a little too Scandinavian (though it was not ment to be we think it is almous a praise), but apart from this she liked her very much. Especially the shape of her head and her coat colour and tipping. Unfortunately not enough cats were present for BIV, because we think Sarantoya would have been a strong candidate. 

Also Zuri, Addis and their owner were present at the show. Zuri had to settle for second best. His profile and coat quality was not as good as the winner's. On the other hand he had the best expression, but unfortunately this was not enough. 

Addis got his first CAC. He has not yet passed his first anniversary, and he still looks very, very young. Since we last saw him especially his profile has developed. His nose has always been very straight, bur not also the angle between his nose and his forehead has grown very distinct. His coat that has been extremely light, is now a little darker and more blue. 

It is fun to drive with him, because he functions as a speed indicator. If we drives faster than 110 km/h he protests loudly, and on our way home we drove 110 most of the way, even on the stretches where we were allowed to drive faster. 

September 3rd 2004

During our holidays we visited two of Lilit's kittens. First Salsa - and her father Elvis. As usual Elvis came right away to say hello, but this time also Salsa liked to talk to us, and she seemed to enjoy being admired. And she is worth admirering, she is very beautiful. 
She and Sarantoya are still very much alike. A year ago we thought that their coat quality was the same, but now Salsa's is again better. Fortunately it has the same fine light as Sarantoya's. They must have got it from father Elvis. 
We also managed to take some pretty good photos of Lilit's sweet daughter, and now there is a new photo og her in the family section.

A week later we visited Zoogin and his family. It was the first time we saw him as a full grown cat, and we ere curious to see his development. 
At first sight we thought he looked a lot like his father Opiom and his sister Zenit with his thick, soft and light coat, but when we looked closer we could also see that he had taken after Lilit, most in his bodytype and he has the same long legs and long tail. Even though he was neutered quite early, he looked very masculine.
He is very outgoing and friendly, but Liza told us that he is also the king of the road. He is no doubt enjoying life. Liza gave us a couple of photos where he is sleeping at the lawn - at his back!
Our own photos of him were not so good, but we think the photo to the left where Dorthe holds him is quite funny. It is easy to see his good coat quality at the photo.

September 6th 2004

Sarantoya has got her first CACE. It happened at a show Saturday, and besides the certificate she even got BIV, but at the nomination for Best in Show she was beaten by a Burmese who later won BOX. 
She enjoyed to be at the show, and she wanted to talk to everybody. It usually isn't like that, but we enjoyed that it was possible to see her all the time in the show pen.

October 5th 2004

We have given up kittens for a while, and Sarantoya is not going to be mated this autumn.

November 1st 2004

We have been to another show, at this occasion we showed Lilit. 
We were very pleased that three neuters were shown (one of them was Zuri), enough for Best of Variety, and we were even more pleased when Lilit won. She was also nominated for Best in Show and was even best shorthair veteran, so she had to be taken out of the show-pen many times.