For our daughter Martha's tenth birthday in 1998, she wanted a kitten. We decided we wanted to raise a Siamese cat for a change after several generations of pure white cats with blue eyes. At the time, the family loved watching Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov, the most beautiful pair of Olympic gold medal Russian figure skaters known to the sport. We decided to name the kitten, Katia, a nickname common to Ekaterina Gordeeva. A year later, an older daughter in Vermont decided she wanted a cat. She also chose a Siamese but when she went to pick up her kitten, there were only two left. She couldn't bear to leave the second one alone. Arriving for Christmas that year, she said, " I've brought you a present. It's a second Siamese cat, only this one is a male." Almost Immediately, my younger daughter, myself and my older daughter began to laugh. When someone asked us what we were going to name him, the three of us all simultaneously said, "Sergei". And now our pair is complete. We think of the famous Russian pair skaters almost daily as we watch the antics of these two cats, now ten and eleven years old.
Katia and Sergei await Christmas
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Russian figure skaters remembered daily
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