the word's worth

Published: June 25, 2004 (Issue # 980)

Koshatnik/Koshatnitsa: cat lover, cat fancier.

For Russians, human beings are divided into two categories: sobachniki i koshatniki (dog lovers and cat lovers). They allow for the odd fellow with a passion for guppies or parakeets (or who indulge in the fad for exotic pets, like pythons or marmosets), but basically they believe that you are destined to love a beast that thumps its tail or a beast that purrs — it’s one or the other.

It’s odd, however, that there is no simple Russian word for pets; they are called domashnie zhivotnye (literally “household animals”) or pitomtsy (literally, “foster child,” “charge”). But if you have ever watched a pensioner bring out a pot of lovingly prepared fish soup for the dining pleasure of the courtyard cats, or listened to a big burly guy coo to his German shepherd, you’ll know that some Russians are head over heels about their pets.

If you are a cat lover, you either have a pedigreed cat (porodistaya) or a mixed-breed (metis). Although you can now find virtually every breed in Russia, from Siamese (siamskaya) to an Egyptian Mau (egipetskaya mau), domestic breeds include sibirskaya (Siberian, with a thick coat and fur between the pads of its paws to keep it from slipping on ice and snow) and russkaya golubaya (Russian Blue, a silvery gray color). To find out a cat’s breed, you can ask: Kakoi porody vasha koshka (What breed is your cat?) Cats can be longhaired (dlinnoshyorstnaya)

or shorthaired (korotkoshyorstnaya, gladkoshyorstnaya), tabby (polosataya) or spotted (pyatnistaya).

Coloring is okras. Russian cat fanciers describe their cats’ coloring in such loving detail, you may have trouble keeping up with them. Ona cherepakhovaya s belymi nosochkami (she’s a brindle cat with white socks); ona lilovaya s chyornoi maskoi (she’s silvery gray with a black face); u neyo seryi podshyorstok i chyornye poloski (she has a gray undercoat and black stripes). Three-color cats (tryokhtsvetnye) are considered to be lucky — black cats are not.

Keep in mind that when describing your cat (or any animal), its face is morda. You can also use this word to describe a person’s face in unflattering terms: U nego morda kak kirpich (he has a mug like a brick).

Given the cost of a pedigreed cat in Russia, most people have mixed-breeds, often rescued strays: ulichnaya (a street cat), pomoeshnaya (literally, “a cat from the local dump”), broshenka (an abandoned cat, from the word brosat`, “to throw away”) or podkidysh (a “foundling,” from the word podkidyvat`, “to stealthily give someone something” — i.e., a cat in a basket on your doorstep). If you want to call over a street cat (or any cat), in Russian you say ks-ks-ks.

Usually, Russian describes the gender of the cat with the words koshka (female cat) or kot (male cat, tomcat), but when you talk about breeding, you call them samka (queen) and samets (tom). A litter is pomyot: Skol`ko kotyat v pomyote (how many kittens are in the litter)? This shouldn’t be confused with a litter box, which Russians call lotok. You fill it with napolnitel` (cat litter, literally “filler”).

Cats in Russia still fulfill an important task: catching mice. U menya koshka khoroshii okhotnik — na dache ona lovit do semi myshei v den`! (My cat is a great mouser: At the dacha she catches up to seven mice a day). Mouse-catching can also be used figuratively in Russian. If you say of a person, on myshei ne lovit, you mean: He isn’t too swift, he’s slow on the uptake.

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.