The History of the Russiam Blue Cat in Israel

THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN BLUE CAT IN ISRAEL

The first Russian Blue cats were brought to Israel by immigrants arriving from the former Soviet Union.

Over the past 15 years over a million people have immigrated to Israel from the Soviet Union and of course they brought their beloved pets with them, including the wonderful Russian Blue cat.

There are now three cat clubs in Israel, one FIFe club, one WCF club and one WCF affiliated club. The great majority of the members of these clubs are Russian speakers from the former Soviet Union.

The history of the Russian Blue cat in Israel is quite a short history. To this date, as far as my research shows, only four breeders have bred Russian Blues. The first Russian Blue arrived in the country in the early 1990's.

Irena and Mark Markish

The first breeders of RBs in Israel are Irena and Mark Markish. Their tom is the oldest in the country. He is now over 9 years old. He was shown at FIFe shows some years ago. They have two females. Regrettably the owners are not available at this time to be interviewed so there is no further information about their cats.

Sofiya Zueva

Around 1998 Sofiya Zueva from Russia brought Kolombina (Female) born 4.02.97 from Russia. She mated with Elizar and she gave birth to Ulis (Male) on 31.03.98. Ulis then became her breeding tom. One of their kittens was Zaryana (Female) born May 1999. Regrettably, Ulis died in the spring of 2002 and she is no longer breeding.

Inna Gritskov, Bella Bravo Cattery

Inna Gritskov breeds Russian Blues, Exotics and Persians and has 18 breeding cats in total. She has been breeding cats since 1999.

a) Cats

Inna Gritskov, who has the Bella Bravo Cattery, obtained Zaryana from Sofiya Zueva in 1999 and this was her first breeding female. Zaryana has many Russian Blues from Russia in her pedigree.

Inna then acquired

a male and female from the Ukraine. Olivia Huansytta (Female) born 27.12.98, came from a breeder in the Ukraine who does not have a registered cattery and Karel Gott (Male) of Yaroslavna born 11.08.99. Svetlana and Nikolai Volkov, who are WCF judges, choose these cats and brought them to Israel for Inna.

Inna Gritzkov's first litter was from Olivia Huansytta who was bred to Ulis.