Our cats

We live together with two cats: Zarin Lilit and Sarantoya Hesseldal. They are both Russian Blues.

Lilit's Gallery 1 and Gallery 2

LILIT

Lilit was born at Sari Kulha's in Finland on December 11th 1997. Her mother is Sagolands Kapris, and her father is Cattleyas Emi No Fujikun. See Lilit's pedigree.

We had made a reservation for a female kitten from this precise litter already before it was born. There was one female only - and by the way also only one male - but it didn't matter, when it was just our Lilit who was born.

Lilit is both Kirsten's and Dorthe's cat. She loves both of us, and she loved the old cats of the house Ofelia and Djingiz, and now she is closely attached to her daughter Sarantoya - at least some of the time. She is of an extremely caring and affectionate nature. When she was fully mature, she might be the leading cat who doesn't accept quarells. If Djingiz tried to tease his mother Ofelia she just looked at him in her gentle way, and then he stopped. She is very easy to handle (for instance we can brush her teeth without problems), but she also has what we believe is the true Russian Blue temperament. She is not the kind of cat who doesn't care about who fondles her, it has to be one of us.

Lilit had a bad habit when she was younger: She loved to play on the banisters of the upper floor. Also our first cat, Bitsjka, played a lot on the banisters, but she was so elegant, and we never worried that something would happen. Lilit was different. It always seemed that she hadn't got the balance and was going to fall down, but it must have been part of the game, and she always managed.

Lilit sleeps in Kirsten's bed at night. She used to like to lie between Djingiz and Kirsten, though Djingiz sometimes thought that this was too close, but now she sleeps under the duvet close to Kirsten or in a catbed (in the bed) with Sarantoya when they are good friends.

SARANTOYA

Sarantoya is the baby of the house, born  Christmas Eve 2001. Because Lilit was not going to have more kittens Sarantoya came to be the last kitten Lilit gave birth to. The name of her father is Rathcke's Chlopiec Elf, but he is called Elvis. Elvis sired this litter only, before he was neutered. 
See Sarantoya's pedigree

As a kitten Sarantoya was very lively and rather wild. Of course she is now a fully grown cat, but still both playful and wild. She is a clever little cat, full of ideas and very curious. She hasn't quite got the same gentle temper as her mother, but we have trained with her quite a lot, and now she is easy to handle both at home and at shows. We want to be able to handle our cats, and besides we would like to show Sarantoya. She does behave very well at shows, but she doesn't want to stand quiet at the judge's tables. Anyway it is a pleasure to show her. 

Sarantoya's Gallery

She is the most talkative of our cats, or maybe you should say whining. When there is something she wants she just whines, and most often she has her way. We use to joke about that she had to stay with us, nobody else would be able to love her because she is so noisy. She is the high jumper of the house, and she practises this event daily.

Fortunately Sarantoya is socially minded like Lilit. She loved the other cats, and they loved her. After a time where Lilit had to tell her disrespectful daughter how to behave Lilit and Sarantoya are now the best of friends. They are almost always together, are playing a lot and are often sleeping together - that is when they are friends, unfortunately it isn't always so.

Sarantoya has got one litter. Like her mother she got only two kittens, and she had one male and one female.

Those who were...

BITSJKA

Our very first cat was a Russian Blue as well: Bitsjkova af Graenselandet, called Bitsjka. She was born in Aabenraa in Denmark on January 4th 1986. Her mother was Marchinka af Land og Folk, and her father was Wadim. See Bitsjka's pedigree. Wadim was the father of only this litter, and Marchinka had only two litters, so Bitsjka and her sisters and brothers were rather unique, but Bitsjka was the only one who got descendants.

Bitsjka was Kirsten's cat, and Bitsjka and Kirsten were soulmates. Dorthe could do when Kirsten was not at home, but other people (or cats) were of no interest to Bitsjka.

Bitsjka was a 110% cat. All she did was done thorough. Her heats were extremely long and extremely noisy. When she had kittens she got not less than 5. She was extremely lively, and she was extremely good at having her way - or you might say at teaching us. She had an extremely charisma, and also her devotion was extremely strong. Kirsten never doubted Bitsjka's love for her.

Bitsjka's Gallery

Bitsjka was a cat with an exceptionally strong personality. The first cat in a family will probably always be something special, but Bitsjka would always have been something special. It was a great grief to us when she died only 11 years old in January 1997.

Ofelia's Gallery

OFELIA

Ofelia was born on June 30th 1987 in our very first litter. Her mother was Bitsjkova af Graenselandet and her father Matrjoschka's Dombanos. See Ofelia's pedigree.

Ofelia was Dorthe's cat. She was reserved already before she was born, and she was the fee for Dorthe's help taking care of the kittens. She got attached to Dorthe very quickly, and ever since Dorthe was her human being no 1. At night she slept in Dorthe's bed, on her own pillow next to Dorthe's. 

She should have been an Italian, she loved Italian cooking and preferred it with lots of garlic. She did't get food for humans very often, but if we had pizza or pasta, she always had a bite as well.

Ofelia was mentally a strong cat. She never doubted her own worth, and she possessed a natural dignity and authority. She knew how to control both people and cats only by looking at them, it was not necessary for her to use stronger methods. Accidentially Djingiz tried to tease her, but he didn't succeed very often.

When Ofelia was almost 15 years of age, it was discovered that she was hyperthyroid. She could not tolerate the only medicine available in Denmark, and we didn't want to let her undergo surgery. For a long time she felt fine without any treatments, but in February 2003 she got worse very quickly. We let her pass away on February 19th.
Of course she left a big gap, but we are grateful that we have known this wonderful cat for so many years. 

DJINGIZ

Djingiz was the son of our Ofelia, and he was born in her first and only litter on June 17th 1989. His father was Igor Las Islas. See Djingiz' pedigree.

We had not at all planned that any of the kittens from this litter should stay with us, but somehow we never succeeded in finding a new home for Djingiz (perhaps we didn't try very hard!).

He was the cat of both Kirsten and Dorthe. At night he slept in Kirsten's bed in his own cat-bed, a monkey called Osvald.

He was a quite sensitive cat, and he got sorry if we have to tell him off. After all it didn't prevent him doing the same forbidden things again. His touchy nature was also the cause of his short show career. He was never aggressive, but we could see that he didn't like the shows, and then we let him stay at home.

Djingiz' Gallery

He loved to eat, but it quickly showed, when he ate too much, so we tried to restrict his food. It wasn't easy, he was very quick when it came to stealing the food of the other cats. 

Like his mother Djingiz died at the age of 15. Suddenly one night he vomitted and felt very bad, and the next day our vet found out that his liver had almost stopped functioning, and only one thing had to be done. Djingiz died November 5th 2004.
We miss our big, little boy. He looked big and strong, but his personality was soft. It is a great loss not being able to stroke his big head or look into his beautiful green eyes.