Russian Blue Cats and Kittens

Appearance

The coat is unique to the breed as it is a double coat, with the undercoat being soft and downy, and the longer guard hairs an even blue with silver tips. The tips gives the coat a shimmering appearance. Its eyes are usually almost always green and ideally should be dark and vivid. Common unique characteristics include yellow eyes, white patches on the underside and dark banding on the tail. These cats are highly intelligent and playful but tend to be curious around strangers. They also develop a close bond with their human companions.

Temperament

Unlike so many modern cat breeds, the Russian Blue is a naturally occurring breed which is believed to have originated in the port of Arkhangelsk, Russia, although the evidence for this is purely anecdotal. They are also sometimes called Archangel Blues.[1] During and following World War II, due to a lack of numbers of Russian Blues, some people started cross breeding it with the Siamese. The Siamese traits have now been largely bred out. The majority of their modern breeding program has been carried out in the America

Although they have been used on a limited basis to create other breeds (such as the Havana Brown) or add type to a breed in creation (the Nebelung), Russian Blues themselves are short-haired, blue-grey cats.

Russian Blues should not be confused with British Blues (which are not a distinct breed but rather a British Shorthair with a blue coat), nor the Chartreux or Korat which are two other naturally occurring breeds of blue cats, although they have astoundingly similar traits.

During the early 1970s, Mavis Jones a woman who breeds Russian Blue in Australia, mated a domestic white cat with a Russian Blue with the intent to create a solid white Russian Blue (called the Russian White). By the late 1970s, the Russian White and Russian Black colors were accepted by cat fanciers in Australia as Russian cats. These hybridized colors are accepted in a few other registries and only on a limited basis.

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