When I wrote the history of the cattery several years ago, I thought I remembered fairly well how it had all begun.
It turned out that I did not, quite. :)
Recently I delved into old archives, forums, photographs and pedigrees and found my own messages from almost twenty years ago. Suddenly the history of Argo’s Legend became much more precise. Some dates had to move slightly, and I saw certain things almost as if for the first time.
For example, my old Bessi profile on a cat forum was registered as early as 8 November 2004. It would be wrong, however, to regard that date as the cattery’s birth. Argo’s Legend did not yet exist in 2004. I was simply someone with a keen interest in cats who read a great deal, spoke with breeders and gradually became drawn into this world.
For me, the real story begins on another date.
25 November 2006.
One of my posts survives on the old forum, in which I introduced Zuzi — Curly Susy From Sham.
That is where everything began.
I had not originally intended to buy a Selkirk at all.
I liked British cats, especially colours with white. At the time it was not easy to find precisely what I wanted in Russia, and I had been looking at Alla Shishkina’s German cattery, From Sham. I liked her cats, I liked the way she wrote about the breed, and I read her articles.
Then Alla brought in a breed that was entirely new to me.
The Selkirk Rex.
I think the course of events from that point is fairly easy to predict.
I never did buy a British cat. :)
Instead, a blue curly female called Curly Susy From Sham — Zuzi — came to live with me. Now, after all these years, I can say quite calmly that this purchase determined an enormous part of my life.
There were very few Selkirks at the time. The breed was young, outcrosses were permitted, and the whole process was extraordinarily absorbing. You did not simply produce kittens: you genuinely participated in shaping the breed, thought about exactly what you wanted to achieve and watched how traits came together and what one line or another contributed.
Zuzi’s partners included a traditional Persian and a traditional Exotic. Work of that kind is viewed very differently today, but at the time it was a normal and absolutely necessary part of the Selkirk Rex’s development.
At this point, the archive gave me another surprise.
For a long time I believed that the cattery began in 2008, because that was when Argo’s Legend was officially registered with the WCF.
Formally, that is indeed true.
But the name appeared earlier.
By 6 November 2007, animals with the Argo’s Legend prefix — Vanilla Cake, Curly Velvet and Valiant — were already appearing in my old posts.
By then, the cattery already existed at least as an idea, a name and a line of my own.
On 4 December 2007, I even explained on the forum, in my own words, where the name had come from.
The story is entirely in character for me.
At the time, Selkirks were often called little sheep cats. A sheep means wool, and wool means the Golden Fleece. The Golden Fleece means the Argo.
And so Argo’s Legend — ‘The Legend of the Argo’ came into being.
I still like the name. Perhaps I like it even more now than I did then, because over the years it has genuinely acquired a legend of its own — and quite a long one.
In 2008, Argo’s Legend was officially registered in the WCF system.
That is the proper date from which to count the cattery’s official history.
Then began everything that is usually compressed into the short phrase ‘breeding work’, although in practice it contains years of one’s life.
Learning. Shows. New animals. Pedigrees. Litters. Good decisions and less successful ones. The Netherlands, Ukraine and Russia. At one point I also found myself running a cat club.
Then my daughter was born in 2010, and life naturally made its adjustments: I had to hand over the club’s management and reduce the size of the cattery. I could not give up the Selkirks completely, of course.
Once they have found their way into your head, they are there for a long time.
The next important stage involved Silver Nika Star and Nelly Prinosyashchaya Schastye.
Silver had a successful show career and was twice named best in show. Nelly proved to be a wonderful mother. It was during this period that Argo’s Legend graduates began moving not only to homes across Russia but abroad as well, including South Korea and China.
From this pair I retained Argo’s Legend Eva and Argo’s Legend Flora for breeding.
Then Biskvit of Sultan Naf, known as Persik, joined the cattery — a cream bicolour male from Valentina Martazova’s cattery. The purchase proved very successful both for our breeding work and on a personal level: Valya and I became friends then, and we remain in touch to this day.
When you try to tell the history of a cattery through its animals, you quickly discover that it is not a line.
It is a tree.
And sometimes a rather overgrown bush. :)
Persik, Flora and Eva produced the next generation. Some lines then joined others; some decisions were made almost immediately, while others had to be carried in one’s mind for years.
Nancy’s story, for example, began with someone else’s cat in Ivanovo.
I rarely allowed my males to be used for matings outside the cattery, but this pedigree interested me because it contained related bloodlines that had already become quite rare at the time. Persik carried the same line.
As a result, Silver acquired a ‘bride from Ivanovo’ — a phrase that still sounds amusing. :)
From the litter, I took a female kitten in lieu of a stud fee: Adalina, known as Plyusha. Later, Plyusha and Persik produced Nancy.
That is how several years of breeding work can sometimes fit into one sentence.
Another very important cat for the cattery was Wonder World Romantica — Manya.
I bought her from Victoria Novikova, one of the first Russian Selkirk breeders. At first I was drawn by her beauty and rare colour; when Manya arrived, it turned out that her temperament was even better than her appearance.
Sadly, Victoria is no longer with us, and Manya too passed away some time later.
I retained her daughters, however, and the line continued. For that reason, a pedigree is never simply a list of names to me. Sometimes you look at an animal and can see someone very clearly who has long since gone.
Even in their habits.
Especially when someone insists on climbing onto your lap during breakfast.
Persik and Eva also produced Argo’s Legend Guccio, known as Guccio, a male of my own breeding. Through him, Rihanna, Ruta and other generations, the old Argo’s Legend lines continued into more modern animals.
This is where I realise every time why I find it so difficult to write a ‘short history of the cattery’.
Which cat should I remove from the story?
This one?
But without her, there would have been no next one.
What about the next one?
Then it is impossible to understand where the third came from.
In the end, the result is a pedigree told in words.
In 2022, another breed entered my life: the Devon Rex.
I had been looking at Devons for a long time. A friend would periodically show me these utterly alien creatures, and I resisted for quite a while.
For around two years, I think.
Then I decided: very well. One.
By that point I really ought to have known how the words ‘I shall take one cat’ end for a breeder.
I wanted a tortie-and-white female of good type with breeding potential. Almost immediately, a very small Baltic Elf Yasmin — Yasya appeared.
I saw her as a tiny two-week-old scrap and, for some reason, decided at once: she is mine.
That was how the second breed came to Argo’s Legend.
Then, naturally, came pedigrees, plans, breeding cats and line combinations — and instead of one genetic puzzle in my head, there were two.
When I look at the cattery’s history as a whole now, the strangest feeling comes not even from the number of years.
It comes from the number of connections.
Zuzi, whom I introduced on a forum in 2006. The first kittens with the Argo’s Legend prefix in 2007. Official registration in 2008. Animals that have long since gone. Their children. Grandchildren. Great-grandchildren. Graduates around the world. New lines. Devons. Modern litters.
And somehow, all of this still feels less like a ‘finished result’ than work that is still in progress.
That is probably why I wanted so much to reconstruct this history from the old archives at last: not from memories of ‘roughly then’, but by seeing my own messages, old photographs, names and dates.
In one sense, I discovered for myself that Argo’s Legend is slightly older than I had been accustomed to thinking.
Officially, since 2008.
The name, since at least 2007.
For me personally, it all began in 2006, when a blue curly cat called Zuzi arrived in my home.
And perhaps that is the most fitting beginning to this story.
It is still too early for conclusions.
The work continues.
