CHAPTERS

Chapter 2: Russian Blue Cat in Focus

Russian Blue cats may often times look like your loving grandparents, your curious neighbor, your energetic pal, or that very playful sibling you always wanted. In whatever attitude or mood it appeals, you can expect it to make you appreciate life and make every moment count like you’ve never seen it before.

The Russian Blue is a unique and wonderful breed of cat but it may not be the right choice for everyone. Before you decide whether or not it might be the right pet for you and your family, you need to learn and invest a significant amount of time in getting to know these animals.

In this chapter you will receive an introduction to the Russian Blue cat breed including some basic facts and information as well as the history of how it came about.

This information, in combination with the practical information about keeping Russian Blue cats in the next chapter, will help you decide if this is the perfect cat companion for you.

Facts about the Russian Blue Cat

This outstandingly unique breed of a feline is a plush, shimmering pale hue of blue-gray, and its head bejeweled with a pair of bewitching emerald green eyes. Guard hairs are recognizably silver-tipped which gives the feline a silvery sheen and a lustrous appearance, completing the overall and very distinct look of the Russian Blue.

Historically, felines of all breeds have been utilized in the propagation, population, repopulation, development and improvement of other feline breeds. This fact holds true for our devoted Russian Blue as they too have been used to produce other breeds such as the Havana Brown.
The Nebelung cat has the Russian Blue to thank for its contribution to the development of its kind.

They are presently utilized in Italy to help create Oriental Shorthairs that are healthier and more robust, calling this breed RUS4OSH in FIFe.

It may have been the brilliant green eyes of the Russian Blue Cat, which calls for immediate attention when laid sights upon, or the silvery blue-grey coat, shimmering with its every movement, which made it an eye-catching choice from amongst other felines. It would be safe to suppose that the absence of genetic issues in the Russian Blue, its lesser likelihood of inheriting troubling medical conditions, its vigorous physique and its mild temperament, would’ve been some of the criteria it possess that made it the likely selection for the job.

A Summary of Facts about the Russian Blue cat

The more you learn about your pet choice, the greater your advantage at gaining a good head start in preparing yourself, other caregivers and your home to welcoming your Russian Blue into your fold.

• Russian Blue cats have a noticeable, slightly upturned mouth giving it the appearance of giving a subtle smile similar to that of the Mona Lisa.
• According to folklore of the past, Russian Blues were a fixture in the rooms of newborns to ward off and chase away evil and malevolent spirits.

• A Russian Blue cat is featured as a trained assassin in the Warner Bros hit movie Cats & Dogs.

• A diluted gene is the reason why Russian Blues are blue. This gene which is responsible for the blue-gray coloring of the feline is actually a diluted form of the black-hair gene.
• Nyan Cat, the half-cat, half-pop tart Internet sensation and animated meme is based on Marty, the illustrators very own Rusian Blue.

• Many Tom and Jerry fans speculate that Tom, with his blue-gray hue and bright green eyes, is a Russian Blue.

• There are some Russian Blues who are born with “ghost stripes” which are in fact, faint tabby markings which disappear when the kitten matures.

 The Russian Blue Cat History

Much has been speculated about the origins of the Russian Blue Cat, but determination of its actual beginnings is vague. However it is strongly believed and suggested that these mysterious looking felines originated from the port of Arkhangelsk, Russia.

They are sometimes also given the moniker Archangel Blues. It is surmised that seafarers took a liking to the Russian Blue and brought them along from the shores of the Archangel Isles to the ports of Great Britain and other parts of Northern Europe in the 1860’s.

The first ever recorded sighting and grand appearance of the Russian Blue was documented to have taken place in 1875 in England, at the Crystal Palace, when it was given the name Archangel Cat.

The electrifyingly attractive Russian Blue competed in a class which included all other felines of the blue color until 1912, which was when it was given a category and class all on its own.

The Russian Blue breed, after WWII, was mainly developed in Scandinavia and England. Shortly after the war, a noticeable lack of numbers in the population of the Russian Blue gave way for cross breeding with the Siamese Cat. That’s why there is somewhat a resemblance in the breed.

Russian Blues were in the United States of America before the said war. However it was not until the post-war era that American breeders came up with a method to create the modern day Russian Blue which is most sought after and seen in the United States today.

This method was accomplished by mixing the bloodlines of both the British Russian and Scandinavian Russian Blue cats. The traits of the Siamese have presently been pretty much bred out the slate-gray/blue color and short hair style is regularly seen in cats of mixed-breed which can affect showers and breeders because of mislabeling a feline as a Russian Blue.

Types of Russian Blue Cats

Stories of the origins of the Russian Blue cat remain vague and blurry. Legends abound, stories have been told, and lore passed on from one generation to the next.

The elusive truth of the actual beginnings of the Russian Blue cat only adds to its mystique and fans the fire of curiosity. The elegantly, long and slender physique of this devotedly loyal feline, has been catching eyes and hearts for as long as it silently entered the social scene and shared stomping ground with us two-legged folk.

Appearing to be larger than it actually is, the Russian Blue owes this illusion of grandness to its thick, dense, silver-blue coat, is believed to have developed to adaptively insulate this beautiful creature from the harsh winters in the cold regions of Russia.

This vagueness of its origins reflects in the many names the Russian Blue went by; Archangels Blue, Maltese Blue, Foreign Blue and Spanish Blue are just some of the older names it was called. Despite these strong evidence points the breed to have originated from Northern Europe.

People from as early as the 16th century has sighted the Russian Blue cat; there were also pictures found that appeared to be the Russian Blue on the Kola Peninsula in countries like Denmark and Norway as well as in the Central and Northern parts of Sweden and Russia. Belief of the felines being in Russia the longest is given proof in the folkloric photos English seafarers took with them from the shores and harbors of Russia, these pictures which hung originally in the cabins and chalets of the Russian locals.

Some of these curious photos show pictures of blue cats being buried by dozens upon dozens of mice. Curious indeed! These were the same sailors who not only brought back pictures of this blue cat but in fact, adopted and brought home the blue cat itself. They had purchased these blue cats in the harbor town of Anchangelsk, kept them onboard -the cats earned their keep by hunting mice and rodents on the ship – and later, upon arrival on the shores of England, the cats were sold to the locals at markets flanking the harbor of the slate rock of England.

The blue cat from off the ships of English seafarers were lauded to be excellent hunters of mice and this was proven true by stories of the men on the ships who witnessed their hunting prowess and efficiency as unofficial onboard rodent patrol. The cat’s luxuriously thick and gleaming fur mimicking beaver fur was a winning quality which made it an extremely popular house pet. The early English Chronicles mentions the Russian Blue as early as 1860.

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