Above: Adagio Polina of Frosty Forest - Our first breeding queen from Adagio Cattery in Moscow, Russia.

Article by Tatiana Mamedova
“The Union of The Breeders of Aboriginal Siberian Cats”
Breeder of Siberian cats, cattery ”Adagio” 

 The cat of my dream - Siberian! 

Only a person who has never seen a real Siberian can call one of these cats “regular” (some visual similarities don’t make a street cat a Siberian).  The Siberian race cat is far from a wild animal, it’s a proud and tender keeper of the light in the house. They have a wonderful character, a temper that is easy to get with, and health like a strong man. And first of all – The Siberian cat is our aboriginal breed. 

This cat has lived near humans for many centuries, but people started to talk about it as of breed after the first exhibition in Bitsa in 1987. That exhibition caused a huge interest; people were standing in the line for hours to see the cats. The same year the first standard of this breed was written. It was amplified in 1992 and was approved by WCF in 1997. 

So how does a Siberian cat look like? First of all, they are quite massive, muscular cats, on strong legs, with big round paws, with bunches of fur between fingers. The boning is quite heavy. Females are smaller than males. If a female weights from 4 kg and more, males are from 5 kg, and in some rear cases they are up to 12 kg – and this is not fat, but muscles. The head of a Siberian cat has the form of a short wide trapezium, with a good proportion to the size of the body. The upper part of the head is flat. They have a smooth transition from a non-high forehead to the wide straight back of the nose, but medium length, without a break or “up nose”, low cheek-bones, strong jaws. The chin is wide, strong, but not coming forward. The ears are medium sized, widely spread. The outer line of the ear is vertical. Ears are preferred with tassels on the tips. Eyes are oval, widely and sidelong set. The color of the eyes is green or greenish-yellow. They are wide and strong at the base tale, which smoothly goes narrower to the end, must be well fluffed. The fur also gets much attention. It consists of upper coat and double undercoat. The upper coat is – hard, shiny and waterproof. It gets longer from shoulder-blades to hips. It falls down on the sides and upper part of the tail. The fur is softer on the sides, slightly close-fitting, very thick. Abundant double undercoat, very dense and thick in the cold times, but when it’s warm – almost nothing left out of it. The fur of a real Siberian never gets tangled. The males are “dressed up” more and look more luxurious: nice volume of collar in a form of mane (it’s not supposed to be too long), splendid “trousers” and fluffy tail “straight like a chimney”. Siberians become adults only after they reach two years of age, but they become really mature only at the age of five. The most close to this description are males that are brought from Far East. Serious faults considered to be: straight profile, Persian type of the animal, long narrow head, flat cheeks, high cheek-bones, round, small, deeply set eyes, soft “cotton wool” fur.   There are also many colors without patterns. It’s black, blue, silver, smoke, red, cream, turtle, bicolor, harlequin and others. The following colors are not allowed: lilac, chocolate, Burmese, Abyssinian, and Siamese. These are all colors that are not found in Siberians in nature but appear from breeding them with other breeds. “Interbreeding” is prohibited for Siberians (mixing with other breeds). 

Our story about Siberians won’t be complete if we don’t tell anything about their character. They are fun loving and affectionate. Siberian cats love everybody in the family, but usually chose one particular member of the family to be their owner. These cats are surprisingly smart; they perfectly understand words (words “kity-kity” are not for Siberians). When I say “come to eat” – all my five cats are “flying” to me. On the pictures and in the books these cats are often portrayed sleeping in the “rolled like a ball”. In reality these cats often sleep on their backs, with paws that are laid funny on the both sides. Sometimes they sit amusingly leaning on the wall (in a human position) slightly shake heads in addition. The cleverness of Siberian cats is worthy of admiration. They can open doors by themselves – adroitly hanging on the handle. Our cat Kusya became the best, she was watching for a long time how I opened sliding doors of the closet. And later, in the same way, managed to open them by herself, jumped on the shelf and the last thing I saw was her tail, disappearing behind the closing door. I would never believe it if I didn’t see it myself! If you take your cat with you to the nature or “dacha” (summer house), you will see that in a moment you cat will become a hunter, will catch butterflies, bugs, easily will catch a mouse and will put all its mining in front of you. It will sit down proudly near: Look, owner, what a cat you have! If you praise your cat, it will be proud and happy the whole day. On the other hand, very well knowing word “no”. Siberians are social but not obsessive. When the cat sees that you are busy and can’t play with it, it goes to another room and doesn’t disturb you. But as soon as you call for it – it runs in and the fun goes on and on. This cat lives your life: if you are upset it will calm you down with its purring; if your mood is good – it’s happy together with you. It was noticed a long time ago that Siberian cat creates a good aura in the house, because it brings truly clean nature’s energetic.

Such beauty like Siberian cat can create a furore not only at the prestige show, but also at the reception in the royal palace. Not without a reason western felinologists are amazed by a “regular” Siberian cat and call it a “royal cat”.