Archive for the ‘Siberian Cats’ Category

How Do You Say Siberian Cat?

Having been a bit of a linguist (I majored in Russian with a minor in French and a tiny bit of German), I was curious to see in how many different languages I could find “Siberian cat.”

I can’t confess to a completely exhaustive search, but here’s what I’ve found so far, plus some great submissions by other folks. Note that some of these are in non-latin alphabets, so your browser migh not recognize them if you don’t happen to have that font set installed.

Arabic القط السيبيري
Czech Sibiřská kočka
Danish Sibiriske kat
Dutch Siberische Kat
English Siberian Cat
Estonian Siberi kass
Finnish Siperiankissa
French Chat de Sibérie (“Sibérien”)
Gaelic Cat Sibéireach
German Sibirische Katze
Hebrew חתול סיבירי
Hungarian Szibériai Macska
Italian Gatto Siberiano
Japanese サイベリアン
Latvian Sibīrijas kaķi
Lithuanian Sibiro katinas
Norwegian Sibir Katt
Polish Syberyjski Kot
Portugese Gato siberiano
Russian Сибирская кошка
Slovenian Sibirski mucek
Spanish Gato Siberiano
Swedish Sibirisk Katt

If you know how to say “Siberian cat” in a language that I don’t have listed, or if I’ve made a mistake in the list above, please send it to me and I’ll include it here!

And a big “Thank you” for:

  • Doris for the Danish version
  • Fran for the update to the French version
  • Dar & Eyal for the Hebrew version
  • Daisy for the Arabic version
  • Merja for the Swedish version
  • Ruta for the Lithuanian version
  • Eamon for the Gaelic version
  • Merja for the Estonian and Latvian versions
  • Eva for fixing the Czech version
  • Cristiana for the Portugese and Slovenian versions
  • Corina for the Japanese version
  • Marijke for correcting the Dutch version

2 Comments


Have Cat Allergies? Try a Siberian Cat!

Sasha as a KittenIf you’d love to have a fun, furry pet but you’re plagued with allergies, you should see if a Siberian cat is right for you. While Siberians aren’t clinically hypoallergenic, they have a lot less of the protein in their saliva that causes allergies than other cats.

To give you an example, our oldest son was diagnosed as being very allergic to both cats and dogs. So we figured that we probably wouldn’t be able to have either in the house. This was a major disappointment for all of us: the boys would’ve loved to have some of furry creatures running about the house; my wife would’ve liked some creature company at home while I was away at work; and I had grown up with animals – almost every conceivable variety except cats – and it was very strange being without them.

Nina as a kittenBut then one day we found out about Siberian cats, and my wife did a lot of research, we decided to go see one. As it turned out, there was a family nearby who owned a couple (and no other animals, so there wouldn’t be any other animal dander to worry about), and they invited us to come visit. We spent a good half an hour or more playing with the cats, with our oldest son burying his face in their fur and doing whatever else he could to try and provoke an allergic reaction.

Nothing. Zippo. No bloodshot eyes. No puffiness in the face, coughing, sneezing. Nada.

SashaSo, that clinched it. We did some more research and found a Siberian cat breeder here in the Maryland area (Reigning Cats), and went to see her. I gotta tell you, folks, that when it comes to sheer cuteness it’s hard to beat a kitten, let alone a couple of Siberian kittens! It was love at first sight, and we made arrangements to get a pair of kittens (brother and sister): while well-bred Siberian kittens aren’t cheap, I strongly recommend that you get them as a pair. I think our experience has been incredibly enriched by having the two of them, rather than just one. Their names? Nina and her brother Sasha.

I’ll save the fun – and tribulations – of raising them for another time, but suffice it to say that our oldest son hasn’t had any problems with his allergies in the nearly two years that we’ve had them.

Nina on the beanbagIn closing, let me remind you that Siberians are not clinically hypoallergenic: they still have some of the Fel d1 protein that causes allergies, and some people have expressed allergic reactions to Siberians. But if you suffer from cat allergies and would love to have one of these gorgeous and fun critters, they’re definitely worth looking into!

,

No Comments


Another Funny Cat Video

I know, I know! You probably didn’t come here to see silly cat videos, but this one’s worth it! Even if you’re not a cat lover (or liker…well, you probably love ‘em or you hate ‘em), this is hilarious. My wife and I were laughing our tails off!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNmLuNdiL8

No Comments


Envelope Adhesive: A New Form of Catnip?

Does anybody else have cats that go nuts over envelope adhesive?

Sasha, one of our Siberian cats, seems to just love the stuff! He gets up on the coffee table and tries to eat the peel-off labels on the Netflix envelopes. Then this morning he dove into the pile of envelopes with all the bills and not only tried to lick (or chew) the adhesive off the envelopes, but drooled like crazy all over them before I could run him off.

Goofy cat!!

No Comments


Funny Cat Videos

All animals – as well as us humans! – can have their humorous moments. But if you own cats like we do (two Siberians), you’ll likely appreciate these. I laugh my tail off every time I see them! Enjoy!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-j7OhI5V2s

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJFE9jLgYA4

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkT7A3jegBc

No Comments


Work in Progress – Cat Tales

As I mentioned on my bio page, we have two Siberian cats. While I was raised with dogs – literally (a story I’ll save for another post!) – and never particularly cared for cats, Siberians are a breed apart. While the reasons we wound up with cats are best saved for yet another post, when I looked into the breed’s history I found some rather intriguing intersections with human history.

In particular, cats that are generally considered to be the root stock of the modern Siberian cat breed played a vital role in bringing under control the raging rat population in Leningrad after the city’s long seige by Nazi forces during the Second World War. They were captured in the general region of Tomsk, Siberia, and taken by the thousands to Leningrad and released to fight the rats.

This got me to thinking, what if the cats played more of a role in the war than what people saw on the surface?

That’s the premise behind this tale-in-progress, which I’ve given the working title of Cat Tales. I’ve only got the first two chapters here in rough form, but I’d appreciate any comments you might have on it, especially (assuming you like it!) what genre it would fit into. I’m thinking young adult fiction, but I’ve never written for that particular market and don’t know if this would fit. So, any opinions would be welcome! 

Cat Tales – Chapters 1 and 2 in PDF format.

, ,

No Comments



Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes
SetPageWidth