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The Black Russian
History HistoryMr Richard and Mrs Mavis Jones of Myemgay cattery were the first cat breeders to acquire a Russian White, a relative of the Russian Blue. This cat was a white domestic shorthair, named Rose, brought from Russia with an official of the Thai Embassy. The first Russian Black came from the third generation, in a litter from a Russian Blue and a Russian White. There were two males born, Myemgay Black Panther and Myemgay Black Onyx. In 1977 The Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales in Australia gave approval to Dick & Mavis Jones to start a provisional breeding program for Russian Blacks. There were two black kittens born in a third generation blue to white mating. Eastern Ninotchka blue male & Myemgay Arctic Snowflake white female. The two black males were Myemgay Black Onyx & Myemgay Black Panther. These were the only two blacks approved by RAS Cat Club breed to start the first black program in Australia. Both Mavis & Dick Jones explained to me how they were guided by The RAS to proceed with their breeding program.
Having bred two black males only Myemgay Black
Onyx was used as a stud. Mavis only bred from the better of the two
males & only one generation from each cat that was black was used to
bred the next generation.
Onyx was mated to
a blue female Myemgay Kissa Lidya & Myemgay Black Opal a girl &
generation 2 was born. Myemgay Black Onyx was then desexed and Opal was
mated to blue male Felighn Ivan Stravinovich, a black girl was born
Myemgay Black Rose. Rose is the third generation black & was mated to
blue male Myemgay Blu Tzar producing three black kittens 2 boys & 1
girl.
Until now no
blacks were sold or used in a breeding program by any other person from
the Myemgay lines.
In 1983 two of the
4th generation blacks came to me Myemgay Black Jack who never bred &
Myemgay Black Bess who started our Riverlight line.
Myemgay Black Rose
was again mated to Tzar a produced Myemgay Black Lace.
In 1985 sadly Dick
Jones passed away & unfortunately Mavis was wheelchair bound. The
Russians had to find new homes, the only black not desexed by now was
Lace, so she came to live with me along with several other of their
Russians. In 1983 Riverlight cattery bought Myemgay Black Bess. Bess was a fourth generation Russian Black, she produced our first Russian Black male Champion Riverlight Rasputin and the fifth generation. By 2010 Riverlight Cattery has produced the 11th & 12th generation Black Russian kittens. (see Riverlight History below)
Riverlight Annika (left) is typical of the modern Russian Black. Good coat, upright ears, strong whisker pads and green eyes. Riverlight History
In the first part of
the history, regarding the Blacks in Australia, I talked about the Myemgay
program. This part is our Riverlight history so far, as I hope to
have many more years of breeding & developing the Blacks.
In 1983 we gained
our first Black Myemgay Black Jack, he was shown & gained his title of
Champion but never bred.
Early in 1985 we
gained Myemgay Black Lace. Lace had the same pedigree as both Jack &
Bess. Lace was mated to Aislinn Nikolai Platov our second blue stud.
Lace gave birth to seven kittens & we kept one black boy Riverlight
Felix & one black girl Riverlight Tyenka.
Rasputin was mated
to a blue girl Riverlight Vera Pilova, they produced only one black a
boy. He had the thickest coat, so Riverlight Sebastapol stayed with us &
Rasputin was sold to a breeder. Bess & Lace both went to breeders &
Felix left us as a pet.
Tyenka &
Sebastapol were the only two blacks left. Tyenka was mated to our blue
tabby male in her first breeding season.
Sebastapol was
mated to several blue & white girls but no blacks of better type than
the two I had were produced. So in 1990 I decided to mate Sebastapol &
Tyenka, two blacks, this was the first time such a mating was done. The
result was only one black girl, Riverlight Sabrina, the only kitten.
Both Sebastapol &
Tyenka were desexed , due to work committments I kept very few breeding
cats.
Sabrina bred
several small litters in her nine years of breeding & only had one black
girl early in her breeding years which was sold as a pet. A number of
years latter I was thinking that selling her black girls was not my best
decission. As the other breeders of the blacks I started had stopped
breeding the blacks.
Sabrina was now
nearly eight years old and this was going to be her last litter. She was
mated to Riverlight Kochingka a blue male & on the 24th March 1998 a
black boy was born, Riverlight Black Tsar, I was delighted. Tsar gained
his Champion Status & won many prizes.
Sabrina is no
longer with us but will always be remembered for her exquisite green
eyes, very black coat & her bossy nature.
Tsar's most
successful line is when I mated him to Riverlight Nikita, I believe her
to be the best blue female I have bred. And this mating produced only one
black girl Riverlight Delena.
Delena had been a
most wonderful girl, producing on her first mating to Riverlight Dargay
blue boy one black girl Riverlight Enya. And on her second mating to
Riverlight Boromir blue boy, one black girl Riverlight Fara.
Enya is now living
in Perth with a breeder.
Fara (pictured
left), Delena's second daughter has had her first litter to Gold DB GD
CH Tushbah Mi Uragan, there are 2 black boys, 2 black girls & 2 blue
girls. We kept one the the black girls: Riverlight Georgette. Both Francki &
Georgette are 11th Generation Blacks & 7th Generation Riverlight Blacks.
Delena has been desexed as she has become a grandmother twice
with Francki &
Georgette.
With each
generation kept there has been an improvement as we keep breeding to a
more modern interpretation of the Russian Standard.
BloodlinesClick
here to see details of
our Russian Blacks through the generations (pdf file: reader required). Gallery PhotosFor pictures of
the Russian Black click here. |
