About cattery

If anyone is wondering, “Why True Kurilians?”, the answer will be: First, all of our pets are the true Kurilian Bobtails. They have excellent pedigrees and fully meet the standard of the breed. And, secondly, this breed is genuine. It was not developed by man, but taken directly from the wild in nature. That’s why this breed possess sound health and has all the properties mentioned above. It was a happy incident that helped us to first meet this amazing breed. In Russia, we lived in a secluded place, in a deep forest, on a river bank. The nearest people lived six kilometers away. Beautiful scenery, wild nature and silence…

Of course, at that time, we had a lot of problems. Mice were one of the troubles or, rather, a real disaster. These vermin destroyed our garden and even the decorative plants that we added to our wild landscape. Each year at the beginning of autumn, hordes of mice came in search of warmth and food. Besides, mice are carriers of hemorrhagic fever, a disease that is commonly known as “mice fever”. This disease was prevalent in our region. Every year it killed several people. It is insidious because it’s initial symptoms resemble an ordinary cold. Cats have always lived with us, since mice have always been an acute problem. Then one day, we suddenly found ourselves at the cat show in Moscow. There we met a wonderful family – Yakov and Elena Vasilyevs. In speaking with them we told them about our problem and they replied (like in a fairy tale): “Do not worry, we can help you!”. It turned out that they own the Kurilian Bobtail Cattery “Golden Mean”. The Vasilyevs told us about this breed and promised that only Kurilian Bobtails would help to solve this problem.

After a while, Vasilyevs’ Amber, a world champion, had kittens. One of those kittens was sent by Yakov and Elena to help us. We had our first Kurilian Bobtail. He was a tom-cat, which we named Chilton. Within only a few days, he managed to adapt to us, so we let him outdoors. We had the foresight to take our camera with us (we wanted to send Chilton’s pictures to Yakov and Elena so they could see how well their pet was getting along). And who would have thought that on his first outing, Chilton, a 4 month old kitten, would catch a snake. We wondered whether to send this picture or not, and were afraid it would scare people. But later it turned out that this picture was circulated among many people, including lovers of this breed. In fact, this picture has become very famous.

Chilton really loved to “live in the wild”. But because this breed is very social, he loathed loneliness so we decided to find him company. Elena found two girlfriends for Chilton. Now we had a threesome frolicking on our lawn, scaring our main enemies – mice and rats. Every morning at our front door we found up to fourteen critters, or rather what was left of them. These cats turned out to be excellent hunters. Sometimes they even caught moles. After summer, came autumn, and then winter with frosts and snowfalls. Our bobtails turned out to be quite adaptable to variations in the weather. Their hair changed into beautiful winter fur-coats and they did not mind the frost. Whatever the weather, they continued their work. So when Spring arrived, for the first time we did not see any damage caused by mice.

Besides getting rid of mice, our pets excelled in another career. At all exhibitions and events our Bobtails received only top scores; they won in Mono Rings and took top places in the BEST nominations. During one of the exhibitions in Moscow, Chilton was recognized as the Best-In-Show male cat among all breeds. As is generally known, champions are born from champions. Consequently, even the first litter had kittens, who later became real stars. Osman is a fine example of one of the resulting stars. When we became members of the “Golden Mean” cattery, Yakov and Elena shared their extensive knowledge of the breeding and raising of Kurilian Bobtails so under their tutelage, we gained experience. But life had an unexpected turn for us. We had to leave our cozy “island” in the wild forest and move to Italy. We live in Piedmont, Northern Italy, in a very similar secluded, quiet, peaceful place, not in the wild forest, but among vineyards. Our cats have moved with us to the beautiful Italian countryside.
And now in the middle of Europe there is a little Kuril island called “True Kurilians“.

Of course, each breeder has reasons that his or her favorite breed, is better than any other, and everybody will be right. But we would just like to point out some features of the Kurilian Bobtails that make this very special breed a unique one. Firstly, Kurilians have a unusual appearance: they have a short pompon tail, and their hind legs are noticeably longer than their front legs, which in combination with the short tail, makes them amazingly similar in appearance to the lynx. Additionally, for cat owners living in an apartment, the males do not mark their territory.

Another plus to owning a Kurilian is that their fur is odorless, and they shed very little, resulting in their coats having hypoallergenic properties, so people with allergies and respiratory problems, are actually able to adopt these cats. Finally, probably, the most important characteristic distinguishing Kurilian Bobtails from other breeds, is that their behavior is more like that of a dog than that of a cat. They become very attached to their owners, so they love to stay close, by following their people from room to room. A Kurilian will be your best friend.

Get yourself a Kurilian Bobtail and you will see it for yourself!