Learning about some famous Russian cats and their names

Let’s talk about cats today!

Here are some famous cats in Russian culture:

Matroskin is the cat from the Soviet cartoon 'Prostokvashino', about life in the village. He's a very practical cat, who owns a cow and acts as the head of the household. He knows how to embroider, use a sewing machine and even play the guitar.

Gav is the main character of the cartoon 'The Kitten Named Gav'. Gav is a very unusual name for a cat, as the word literally means "woof" in Russian.

Behemoth is the enormous evil cat from the Bulgakov novel 'The Master and Margarita'. He is a member of Woland’s (Satan’s) entourage and is described as a typical trickster, adored for his charisma, buffoonery and catch phrases.

All these cats have rather unique names. More traditional Russian names for cats include the following: Kuzya, Barsik, Murzik, Murka, etc. By the way, the last two come from "mur" - the cat purring sound in Russian.

INTERESTING FACT! We actually have two words for cat - "кот" for males and "кошка" for females. Unlike in English, we never use the pronoun "it" when talking about animals. In fact, each animal species even has a default gender by which it's referred to - before you get to the gender of the actual individual: the bear is male, for example ("медведь"), while cat is female ("кошка"), and so is dog ("собака").

• У меня есть кот. Его зовут Муськин.
• I have a cat. His name is Mus’kin.

• Обожаю мою кошку! Она очень ласковая и умная. 
• I love my cat! She's very cuddly and smart.

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