Back in the 1970s, Russian Blacks and Russian Whites had been bred, much to the dismay of breed purists. It was the announcement of the "First Red Russian Blue" that opened the floodgates of debate in Fur & Feather in August 1970. Sadly I don't have the original announcement that sparked the debate, but it made interesting reading. The Black and White "Russian Shorthairs" are established recognised by a number of cat fancies, mainly in Europe and Australasia, but maybe the inability to produce truly solid reds prevented this cross-breeding to join them. Breeders feared that the Russian Blue, with its long history back to the early days of the fancy, would open the floodgates and turn the Russian into just another shorthaired cat. After all, some were still recovering from the shock of Oriental and Foreign Shorthairs being developed from the historic Siamese breed by progressive breeders, and there was still fierce resistance to red and tortie in the Siamese!

Mr Maddick's letter regarding the 'First Red Russian Blue' raises a very Important point, but it may interest Mr Maddick to know that the Russian Blue Association has been formed precisely with the object of preventing such an occurrence as he has envisaged. As he says, such dilution [of breed purity] has been confined to British and Siamese. In my view, even such dilution, particularly of the latter, has been too much, but we cannot Influence the actions of breeders who, for reasons of their own, wish to remain outside the Association, nor would we wish to do so.

It is my personal hope that with the passage of time, we may be able to place on the show-bench, and for sale, true-breeding, thoroughbred stock, capable of self-reproduction, and able to compete with the best stock in the world. But it cannot be done in a few short months - or even years, and It cannot be done at all whilst some breeders have this passion for crossing outside a breed. After more than seventy years of intensive breeding it is futile to expect the same results from any outcross today as would have occurred in the early days of the century.

I have the greatest respect for the erudition of Dr Raleigh, and I would agree with him that to take the mere dictionary meaning of a word is Insufficient, whether as a basis for argument or any other purpose. Nevertheless I do think a little more use of an authoritative dictionary, a lot more observation of the behaviour of animals in their natural environments, and an almost complete lack of interest in ill-informed gossip, might result in all of us breeders becoming of much more use to our cats - who knows? We might even be able to tolerate nitts.
FLORENCE H LAUGHER, Stone, Staffs.

While one feels that public controversy does more harm than good to a breed, I feel I must dissociate myself from the recent trend to breed multi-coloured Russian 'Blues'. I am not against experimental breeding. Many delightful cats have been produced by such means. But such breeding involves more than the mere mating of two cats. Subsequent kittens must be culled and those not required for further use should be neutered and sold as pets. This all requires time, space and money. I cannot understand anyone who professes such love for Russian Blues trying to produce new colours when the breed is crying out for serious breeders.

Mrs MacLeod was fortunate enough to enter the breed at a time when Russian Blues were at their best for many years. In the past the infiltration of Siamese had left their mark. With careful outcrossing and selective brother/sister mating, Miss Handscomb-Edge and I had produced some animals with less snipey faces and greener eyes, and subsequent offspring have all done well on the showbench. Mrs MacLeod has owned Harvees Demi Tod for many years, this queen was extremely good in her youth and although she did not win the final award she was put forward by Mrs Towe for best in show judging. She has produced extremely good kittens, and one feels with such a cat the dedicated breeder could have done much for the good of the breed.

Relationships between the breed and the Governing Council have not always been encouraging. Judging has often been erratic. A lot of dirty linen has been washed in public. Now when one hopes that breeders will go away quietly and just breed these unique cats one is greeted with the waving of a union jack of Russiansl If it is true that the 'Russian Black' is being accepted and given a breed number in time, then there is no reason to mate Blue to Blue (unless of course you want blue kittens) as any black, and later on white, kittens could still be registered as pure-bred (?) Russians. Apart from the possible loss of the characteristics that MAKE a Russian Blue, it could become easier or more profitable to use a black or white slud to the detriment and subsequent loss of Russian Blues. For me as a breeder of Russian Blues, Mrs MacLeod has sounded the death knell.
MARGO LEE-MEADE

Miss Lee-Meade recently raised the question of the Multi-Coloured Russian Blue. Other breeds have been discussed in varying degrees regarding purities or impurities. I write merely as a Russian Blue fanatic! Much has been said about this lovely cat, which to my mind stands unique in the feline world as an animal quite different from any Other, and yet today, due to past introduction of Siamese, unknown-bred stock, and the consequent interbreeding of such specimens, the breed as a general type could quite cheerfully be lumped for overall likeness to the Blue Burmese or Self Blue Foreign. The essentially different points of the TRUE Russian Blue have been overwhelmed by the close matings mentioned, merely doubling up known Siamese traits (and incidentally any unknown British factors) In the parents concerned.

Siamese influence is pronounced by soft, flat, skimpy coats, wrongly set ears, snipy faces and long thin tails; British factors by large round feet, clumsy heavy bone, short necks and, with maturity, stockiness of body more akin to the British Blue. Some enterprising person has recently exhibited in AOV a 'Self Blue Foreign' (quotes judge 'with green eyes'). How soon before the wheat may be separated from the chaff i.e. TRUE RUSSIAN BLUE TYPE FROM THE PSEUDO-SIAMESE.

The necessity to cull has been mentioned - but why? How many breeders admit the faults which certain lines carry? Not many I would say from my long association with the breed. Yet I have proved, by selective breeding, the faults carried and those which, a couple of generations removed from titled stock, are infertile or produce abnormal kittens. I've nearly run out of friends on whom to ditch these unsatisfactory, though extremely handsome, animals as neutered or spayed pets. I reiterate what I previously stated - bringing down coals of wrath upon my head - THERE IS NOT ONE RUSSIAN BLUE BRED IN THIS COUNTRY WHICH ANYONE, WITH A GRAIN OF COMMON SENSE COULD REFER TO AS PURE BRED.

In 1951 when Miss Rochford (with the advice and concurrence of the RBCC [Russian Blue Cat Club]) used the Blue Point Lela Do, mated to Gedling Mokey (unknown breeding) and produced that great winner Ch Dunloe Domokvitch, everyone flocked to him with their queens. There is your answer. Domokvitch, great cat that he was, showed in his coat quality alone the Siamese influence, and consequent interbreeding on his background has left its mark to the detriment of the true Russian Blue. He was not the only Blue Point used around that time, whether advisable or not - or subsequently - as records show.

The Russian Blue is slow to mature, a point not apparent in young stock exhibited under judges not entirely conversant with the breed. I appreciate a judge can only award prizes on the day, and I think it a pity ages of cats are unknown at the actual time of judging, because if this were so then appraisement of the animal might be a little more accurate, and would eliminate the rush to championship status at early ages of some animals, who by the time they are about three years old are so gross they could not possibly be exhibited under the breed number they carry.

Tying in with this is the never-ending controversy concerning the GCCF (and here I would like to add that in all my dealings with that body I have received nothing but politeness and assistance). But the gravest mistake is that they allow any cat to be registered, shown, bred from, attain championship status though it has no known pedigree, just so long as it conforms vaguely to some printed breed standard. This alone, to my way of thinking, throws the biggest spanner in the works for anyone truly dedicated to the reproduction of continuous, sound, overall type in any one breed, reference the 'Self Blue Foreign' mentioned earlier which, according to the critique could well have been registered as a Russian Blue whose parentage shows strong Siamese influence in the ancestry, though no more so than some well-known Russian Blue winners over recent years.

Far be it from my intention to discourage an enthusiastic cat fancier, but I find Mrs Frances MacLeod's lengthy and rhapsodic contributions to your columns on White Russians somewhat difficult to follow, and some of her statements should not go unchallenged. What is meant by 'the Governing Council recognised her as of Russian type'? How does one get such recognition for Breed 26.

Statements such as 'She' (a Russian queen) 'has a black dominance, unlike her half-sister; and 'you might think the Swedish stud is a dud to produce black kittens', are patently unfair to those who bred them, and as I am convinced that Mrs MacLeod does not intend any harm to come of these words, they suggest to me that she has undertaken a very ambitious programme without much idea of what is likely to be involved. From what we have been told, it would appear that these white cats carry recessive genes for black and blue (possibly other colours too). Their white and black kittens tell us absolutely nothing about the blue parents.

Since white (other than albino) is the most dominant of all colours in the cat, some white kittens are to be expected from the mating of a white cat to a cat of any colour. The fact that one Russian Blue queen produced only black and blue kittens is pure chance. Her claim that her kittens are 'thoroughbred' (if by that she means they are pure) is quite unfounded. As she has chosen to breed to Russian type, her programme, as shown, is correct for the establishment of type. She has not even scratched the surface of breeding pure white cats (i.e. white cats which, when mated to their like, produce only white kittens).

I do not take kindly to the idea that Russian type is merely the European domestic type, or something in between the extremes of British and Siamese types. Illustrations from the early 1900's show that all cats, short-haired, long-haired and Siamese, fell into this category at one time. It is only as a result of selective and progressive breeding that we have these extremes in show cats today. The Russian Blue has been designated 'Foreign' for at least fifty years in this country, and should be easily distinguishable from the British Blue by the ordinary, interested layman. If we are to work backwards. we may as well give up and leave it all to Nature, who (despite Mrs MacLeod's forecast of threatened extinction) has made a pretty good job of maintaining the species to date.

I have no quarrel with Mrs MacLeod's desire to breed cats to the European domestic type in any colour she likes, for, as I see it anyone is free to breed whatever they choose (even pink elephants), I do wish, though that she would not call them 'Russian'. I could just as well call my Lilac Foreigns 'Self-lilac Siamese', but I do not care to contemplate the effect on Siamese breeders.
SHEILAH GARNETT, llkley, Yorks.

Mrs McPherson says, quite rightly, that she will be bringing down coals of wrath upon her head when she states, that there is not one Russian Blue bred in this country which can be referred to as pure-bred. What does she think I and others have been doing for the past fifteen or more years? - I started with pure-bred stock as long ago as that and they were on the ordinary register, not SR [Supplementary Register] then. Russian Blues bred in this country today are as pure-bred as most well known breeds of pedigree cats and other animals, and this includes all the man-made breeds of dog, and also ponies and horses, one of which is the well known thoroughbred who still has the blood of the Arab in his veins. It is this that is reputed to have given him his speed and stamina.

I fail completely to see why Mrs McPherson finds it necessary to keep on raking up the distant past of the Russian Blue cat. We all know that mistakes were made donkeys years ago - but they were also made in other breeds as well. Why always pick on the lovely Russian Blue? One would think that Mrs McPherson hated the breed and has set out to ruin it, for every time she writes it is the same old story about the mating of Blue-Pointed Siamese. How many other breeds had to be perpetuated in the beginning, or during the war years because there were no studs of their own kind to keep them in existence? I can think of quite a few, one of which is the 'Burmese'. In America an unknown brown cat was mated to a Siamese, and from the resultant litter and carefully selected breeding, the Burmese was born. Also how about the beautiful Abyssinian? Experts agree that although the name 'Abyssinian' has been given to these cats, investigation has proved that it was not a breed as such in that country, and these lovely animals are the results of selective breeding by British fanciers.

The Russian Blue has a similar history. It was first known as the 'Archangel' cat, and was thought to have been brought from Russia many years ago by sailors trading between Archangel and this country. It was not until after the last war that the name 'Russian' was adopted. The Russian Blues seen today (also not seen) are the results of many years of selective breeding and the name Russian (like the Abyssinian) does not necessarily imply country of origin. But pure-bred they are today and no one with a grain of common sense would even think of introducing alien blood and therefore putting the breed right back to the beginning. When one talks of abnormalities being born and also sterility etc these things can and do happen in any species of animal on this earth. The Russian Blue in my experience is remarkably free of such things. It would be most interesting to hear from other breeders concerning this point.

I grieve to think what the disparaging remarks made by Mrs McPherson will have on novice breeders. It is enough to make them lose interest completely and start with another breed instead. Let us all bury the past and only look to the future, for if we insist on delving deep Into the past of every pedigree breed there is. we would undoubtedly get some big shocks and a lot of beautiful fairy stories would come tumbling down in ashes. Yes, even with Siamese.
PAT KIRBY, Rochdale

My next sermon is on the controversial subject - Arctic Whites, or is it Russian Whites or White Russians? One thing is certain; they have never seen the Arctic region or Russia. The docklands have been mentioned in one letter as the place where this little white cat was found; she was then mated to a Russian Blue. It makes no difference where she was found or that she was mated to a Russian Blue. Let us not give the progeny fancy names. Many of us did not like it when the Foreign Whites came on the scene. It was the aim of the breeders to breed a white cat of foreign type - Foreign White. They are here to stay, and if you care to look they are beautiful and elegant cats. Let us not blame anyone or anywhere for what is happening here. They are being bred in England, not Russia, or any of the Scandinavian countries. Even though the machinery of the Council may need a little oil from time to time, they have the final decision on what will be best, so give them something constructive to work upon.
SHIRLEY BEEVER

With reference to Mrs Kirby's Article (Fur & Feather, November 5) I wish to state that I did not question the breeding backgrounds of any breed other than the Russian Blue and disassociate myself entirely from remarks made concerning Burmese, Abyssinians, and Siamese.
DOREEN MCPHERSON, Salisbury

Fast forward 2 decades and Russian Whites and Russian Blacks were imported into the UK from the Netherlands in 1995. They came from a line originally developed by Frances McLeod in the 1960's as well as the Russian White line produced by Mavis and Dick Jones in Australia in the 1970's a white short-haired Siberian domestic cat. Frances McLeod's cats came from a white female kitten (b. 1961), which came from a Russian boat. It was registered by the GCCF (UK) as Arctic Chumvi, an "any other variety, foreign type." Because the 1960s Russian Blue gene pool was small, there were limited out-crossings to blue-point Siamese and domestic cats. Chumvi was bred to a Russian Blue stud and produced white, blue and black offspring. One of her white sons, Arctic Sumairki, was registered and was mated to a Russian Blue female who was registered by the GCCF in 1968 as a Russian White. McLeod bred and exhibited her Russian Blues, Whites and Blacks in the UK for many years before returning to Australia. Other breeders continued with her Russian White and Russian Black lines, and a black kitten, Arctic Lascatsya, (from a Russian Blue female and Russian White stud) founded the Lavengro line of Russian Blacks in 1984. In 1986 a pregnant Russian Black female, Jofran Emerald Eye, was exported to Belgium where she produced one blue and 2 black offspring. Some of Emerald’s later kittens went Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands to found Russian Black lines there . . . and so we come full circle when the Blacks and Whites came back to Britain.