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Welcome to our website. We hope you will find it interesting and informative.
History
There are many Russian websites devoted to the history of the Russian Cat. On this website our focus on "history" is in the main to point out the development of the breed within Australia in relation to the "non-blue" Russians.
Riverlight History
The facts
As with the history section above, under this heading will be our experiences in the breeding of the Russian cat. Below is a general summary of how we started and what we see as important now and in the future.
We started showing cats in 1979. By 1982 we had decided to specialise in breeding and showing Russians and had applied and received our "Riverlight" cattery name.
Riverlight cattery
brought the first Russian blacks to South Australia from Dick and Mavis
Jones' Myemgay cattery
(NSW) and was successful in getting recognition from the Governing
Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) of SA Incorporated.
When the first Russian Tabby cats appeared in a litter bred by Mrs V. Strupis of Rovene cattery, we took these cats on and gained recognition by the GCCF in 1985. They were the result of a sixth generation mating of a Russian White and Russian Blue.
Our main focus is breeding rather than showing and we have gone to considerable effort to establish a significant gene pool of Russian cats.
In the future we wish to continue improving all colours of Russians and see the Australian developed colours and markings accepted here and overseas. This will help ensure the long term survival of the Russian cat well into the 21st century.
The "passion" for the Russian cat
Let me introduce myself: Bev Allen, Riverlight Cattery, South Australia.
My love affair with the Russian Cat started back in 1981 when at a cat show my husband Mike spotted a litter of blue Russian kittens that were for sale. He called me over to see the babies and the one we both fell in love with was the male: of course we bought him. His breeder wanted him to go as a stud due to the many prizes he had won on the day. So Aislinn Alexei Suvorov was our first Russian. He sired many kittens and is behind many of our pedigrees today. He lived a long life passing away at 15 years.
Remembering back to when we first bought Alexei home, he was such a sweet little fellow so loving and always wanting to be with you. As we were encouraged to keep him as a stud I had to find him a mate so that's when I bought our first female: an older girl and a white.
At that time I had no knowledge of the Russian cats and never thought about blues being the only "true" colour of these cats. I remember our first white, Champion Mankina Polar Queen (Queeny), was a most loving creature with a thick white coat, beautiful green eyes and lovely upright ears.
At the end of 1981 Aislinn Cattery decided to downsize their number of Russians and we were fortunate in gaining four very good blue Russians, which started our foundation blue line which we still have today.
In 1982 we became a registered Cattery under the Riverlight prefix and our first litters were born.
We bred blue and white litters and kept kittens from these litters, which we showed and started our Riverlight breeding lines.
In 1983 I contacted Dick Jones of Myemgay Cattery and purchased our first black Russian: Myemgay Black Jack who became a champion, but unfortunately did not breed. Dick offered me the chance to purchase Myemgay Black Bess who had just won best Russian in the Sydney Easter Show. In November 1984 Bess gave birth to our first litter of blacks. We kept Riverlight Rasputin our foundation stud to our black line. Both Bess and Rasputin gained their championship status. These early blacks were stunning with their emerald green eyes and delightful natures. However the coat texture was somewhat flatter and the size of the blacks were smaller and even today my blacks are a smaller, finer boned than my other Russians.
Also in 1984 I was given two blue tabby female kittens. They were bred by a long time breeder Mrs Velma Strupis. Her white stud Grand Champion Rovene Sniegs was mated for the first time to his blue mother Meintyne and two blue tabby girls were produced.
I was contacted by Bobby Mathers a Russian breeder that had visited the cattery and spotted the two tabby kittens. So after many phone calls to Mrs Strupis and our governing body we were given the chance to get these cats accepted.
Both these girls came home with me, Rovene Viktoria and Rovene Alexandra. Alexandra was mated to one of our blue boys and had two blue tabby males. Riverlight Boris became a champion and is the start of our blue tabby Riverlight line.
The tabby Russian has been accepted since 25th of March 1985 with the breed number 16d by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy of SA Inc. The number alloted covers all the tabby patterns.
Viktoria was a blotched tabby and Alexandra a striped. Boris, a striped tabby, produced our first spotted and this is the pattern I have continued with until today.
I put our champion blue tabby Boris with a black girl Riverlight Tyenka and bred our first brown tabby Riverlight Konstantin in 1987. This has been our brown tabby line until today.
To me the Russian cat has never been a one colour cat. For 25 years we have bred Russians of several colours: blue, white, black and tabby. All these cats have had the qualities that are true to a Russian cat.
There are some key documents relating to the acceptance of the Russian Whites, Blacks & Tabbies.
Letter 1 to Myemgay Cattery on the Russian Black
Letter 2 to Myemgay Cattery on the Russian Black
Letter to Feline Association of SA on the Russian Black & White program
Letter to Riverlight Cattery on the Russian Tabby
Bloodlines
To illustrate the information we have under each colour, we have included information about the "bloodlines" for certain cats. This is not a full pedigree but more of a look at the family tree with significant individuals identified.
These documents can
be viewed and printed using the free Adobe Acrobat viewer.
Gallery Photos
As well as accessing the library of photos from our Gallery link in the menu on each page, links will appear in this section to take you straight to the particular pictures relevant to the subject under discussion.