Our Beloved "Domus"…
Dymka
It needs to be mentioned that apart from great love that we give to British cats, we adore other pets as well.
Sky-blue queen Gretta and large thoroughbred rabbits live in peace and harmony with Brits.
We could not say “no”, when we were offered to buy a “workable” cat, whose mother was famous for its skills in catching mice and rats. It is the dream of everyone, living in a country cottage (who we are as well), to own a hereditary “rat-catcher”.
We were pleasantly astonished and delighted on mentioning a little fluffy grey lump with extraordinary clever and piercing look!
Dymka, as our son named it, did not experience any difficulties in getting on with rather territorial Brits and a large dog. Being of a very soft, kindest character and mind, she has managed, within a week, to make Losik fall in love with her and to find some common ground with the main proprietress Shera, with whom even Los’ does not want to mess with! And with Gretta, as the time passed, they became companions in walking the street.
With time Dymochka became a stunning cat of blue tabir color and I could not keep myself from showing it on an international exhibition in the class of pets.
You can imagine my excitement, when she managed to cause a great enthusiasm from the side of strict European judges, that, during the two days of the exhibition, awarded Dymochka as the best cat and said that she really is the home bred cat and that there is no other cat like her. Dymochka received her well-deserved medals and “A” marks, but that did not restrict her from going on catching rats and mice on the exhibition, protecting the rabbits from unwanted “occupants”.
On the one hand, fluffy fur enablers her to live through the winter with no trouble, and, on the other hand, splendid mind and inborn carefulness made a real hostess out of her in our cottage.
Dymochkas’ Diplomas
Dymys' photogallery
The kittens of Dymka
Kuzmich
Following the tradition of our ancients, we let the cat come in first, when we moved into a new house. It was a splendid, absolutely white kitten with eloquent amber eyes.
I found it in a big hospital in Moscow, where I was practicing medicine at the moment. It belonged to nobody and no one knew how it managed to get to the territory of the surgery department. It ate everything we gave it to eat, hunted for slippers of the hospital personnel and slept in a big tub with rubber plant. Entering the house, the kitten behaved itself as a true owner of the house: hissed on Eri, checked all of the corners in the house and by the evening, on understanding that there is no hazard in the house, he was already sleeping on the same floor covering as Eri!
The cat grew fast and was distinguished for business-like staid management. Its day was planned by hours, just like any experienced peasant. That’s why the name “Kuzmich” stuck to it by itself…
Kuzmichs’ fur was thick, solid, compact and dense, which is why he was not afraid of any winter frost. Sometimes, when taking a closer look at the kitten, it seemed that it has had some Brits in its family…both cheeks and bones were absolutely exterior!
During the first three years of its life, it has proved to all of the rural cats that it was the indisputable owner of the village and that all of the cats were his!
The size, the weight and the battle spirit of the cat put it in front of all of the claimants at once!
Kuzmich demonstrated to the cats with pride his ears, torn in fights with different enemies, and his scratched nose, stunned them with his kind love and soft voice!
He never went for a toilet inside the house, but his periodical “love affairs somewhere out of site” and torn pelt and ears in a shape of “cauliflower” made us to go for quite an insulting castration.
Kuzmich could not understand for a long time what happened up there, but he did not lose his love to the cats… “Done it, doing it and will always be doing it” – was his motto until the rest of his life!
Even our British cat Shera could not resist his magic. They were like a normal married couple… he made quite a scene when she returned home from thoroughbred partners… and, as it has been said in one anecdote, he made everything up for his own good at once!
For the eleven years of his life, Kuzmich taught Shera to catch mice and not to be afraid of dogs, he showed her different things that cats do, such as climbing trees and roofs of houses, secret trough passages to neighbour homes, carefulness in talking to other people…
We loved madly our first Domus – he was cattily gracious and smart, humanly understanding and affectionate. Charming meowing cat that always can feel his owners’ mood, a cat that loves lying down near his owner, letting him warm his legs up for hours in his warm fur….
Kuzmich has had a tragic death… in full bloom of his strengths and health… when the spring came, he went hunting for mice to the neighbour houses, crawling in basements and, what is most probable, owners of the house that he crept in, closing him down in their basement… we searched for Kuzmich for two weeks in all the houses, called him and phoned neighbours… we found him on the neighbouring property, on a lawn. Kuzmich was thin and exhausted – he was lying there already cold… in a position of an animal crawling into a house!
Kuzmichs’ grave is near the entrance to our house under a fluffy pine tree… and every spring, soft white lilies of the valley, just like a sign of memory about the most beloved member of our family – WHITE CAT WITH A HUMAN HEART!
Kuzmich' photogallery
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