bellthecat Posted September 6, 2004 Report Share Posted September 6, 2004 (edited) Not those so-called "Turkish Vans" you find in America. http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cat1.jpg http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cat2.jpg Edited September 6, 2004 by bellthecat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2004 http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cat3.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nairi Posted September 6, 2004 Report Share Posted September 6, 2004 That's one sexy cat there Looks a bit like David Bowie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2004 The bottom one? Yes, you are right he/she does look a bit like Bowie in a vague sort of way that I can't quite put my finger on! It looks like a very contented kitty anyway - all Van cats know they are superior to all other breeds. (Will Armenian Hightlander have something to say about that - "Armenians were the first to domesticate cats" or somethin' like that !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakharar Posted September 7, 2004 Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 What's wrong with their eyes? Are all Van cats like that? Don't say such things Steve. We all know that they were fathered by Armenians first, but Turks take the credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 Yes nakharar, they are all like that - their left eye is different in colour to their right eye! But, through the eyes of a Van cat, there is nothing wrong with a Van cat's eyes - it's the ordinary cats that are weird!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2004 There are stories that their eyes go back to normal colours once they leave Van, but I think it has something to do with the specific genetics of white cats that breed with other white cats, if they do it generation after generation they get differently coloured pairs of eyes - there is a website out there somewhere that explains it. There are also stories about how picky and fussy the cats are - they only like other Van cats, which is probably why they all have those distinctive eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 11, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2004 More meows. A little kitten that was wandering around an open-air restaurant near Van. http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/31.jpg http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/30.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ED Posted September 11, 2004 Report Share Posted September 11, 2004 lets reclaim our cat, The native Armenian pisik Van Cats An Armenian cat strikes it big in the international cat world--as a Turk TourArmenia The Van cat is considered a rare breed, one of the most beautiful and certainly the most unusual breeds of a cat ever known. Vans have a long history dating back to the earliest records of Van and ancestral Armenia. They are indigenous to the Van region in the heart of historic Armenia (present day Turkey), particularly to the city of Van, on Vana Lich (Van Lake). The cat is a natural breed, no human selection or cross-breeding has been used to establish the breed. They are also very unique, the only cats that are known to naturally swim. Vans are a bigger breed then other cats, with predominantly white fur. The Van cat's eyes are always large with eyes of three types: both eyes amber, both eyes blue, or one amber and one blue. Most of the stories about the Van cat seem to be about the blue and amber color eyed cats, perhaps because their eyes seem more expressive. Its skin is shell-pink, and its ears have long, delicately curved inner tufts, sometimes with 'feathers' on the tips. Van cats can easily be trained, if treated sensibly, and apparently love to be with human beings. The only other colors are an amber tail and amber marks to the head. Origin Historic records show the Van cat on cliff-side carvings in the van region from the middle bronze age, especially proliferating in carvings done by Assyria and Urartu, the latter a forebear of the Armenian race. But as with much of what was originally Armenian, the Van cat has been mistakenly mislabeled as Turkish, which is a cause of controversy. The cat was first exported to the West from present-day Turkey in 1955 by Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday, two British women who were travelling through Turkey. They noticed that the cats particularly around the area of Van in current Eastern Turkey bore a remarkable resemblance to the traditional Angora type, which were heretofore known by outsiders as "Turkish cats". The most noticeable difference however was that the coat was not pure white, but had auburn head markings and a faintly ringed auburn tail. Laura brought two unrelated cats back to Britain, and when they were mated they produced kittens bearing the same auburn markings. It was at this point that Laura realized that this was a natural breed, and not man-induced. When the club set about registering the breed, she registered the Van Cat prefix and added the word "Turkish" to the name, following the example of a Van Cat club in Turkey. However, carvings and inscriptions found in Assyrian and Urartian records showing the cat as a favored animal or deity predate the Turkish existence in the area by 2000 to 3000 years, causing no end of consternation to present day Turkish historians. Van cats have been the symbol of Van and the city of Van since at least the middle bronze age, some archeologists believing they developed around the same time as the Armenian Plateau cultivated wheat and livestock, beginning around 14,000 BC. One of the early records of white, semi-long hair cats with ringed tails and colour on their heads were carvings on jewelry by the Hittites (1600-1200 BC), cousins to the Armenian race. The Urartians (1st millenium BC) who settled in the City of Van (Tushpa) carved ringtail cats on ornaments. Archaeological finds in Van province of relics possibly from an ancient battle during the occupation of Armenia by the Romans (AD 75-387), including battle standards and armor bearing images of a large pale self colored cat showing distinctive rings on the cat's tail. Even more recently, during the excavation by the British Archaeological Institute in Ankara of a late Neolithic (7000 years ago) site near Hacilar, 22 small terracotta statues said to be women playing with cats were found on one level. Because of this discovery some scientists now question the long held belief that cats were first domesticated in Egypt. Ironically, the Turks now have a special section on their government web site about the cat, recounting that their ancestors called this cat "pisik". Pisik is a pure Armenian root word, meaning "kitten", "piso" being cat. It appears Turks want their ancestors to be Armenian, or perhaps they at least want to admit how much of their culture is due to cultures like Armenia. Anyway, Van Cats have an international breed name of Turkish Van cat, Turks use the Armenian word 'Pisik', and it is properly called the Van Cat. http://www.tacentral.com/features.asp?story_no=5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 Ed, here is what the so-called "Turkish Van cat" breed looks like - see, it looks nothing at all like a real Van cat! Ordinary eyes, different ears, and different colouring. So let the Turks keep their fake Van cats! The real ones are still around to be claimed!! http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/catfancy-turkishvan.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 Another real one (from a postcard). http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/vancat1.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2004 And yet another. This suspicious looking kitty looks like it is planning world domination, or at the very least thinking about starting to. http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/vancat3.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 14, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 And another Van kitty. Well I like them, even if nobody else does! http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/vancat2.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasun Posted September 14, 2004 Report Share Posted September 14, 2004 I can't tell the difference, these cats look like the same to me, except for the last one, or maybe it is also the same without a bath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakharar Posted September 15, 2004 Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Wow! The last cat looks pretty impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nairi Posted September 15, 2004 Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Steve, their eyes aren't uniform, if you know what I mean. Sometimes the brown is on the left, sometimes on the right. Or is it mirror-reflection for some of the pics? Btw, did you take these pics?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 (edited) Steve, their eyes aren't uniform, if you know what I mean. Sometimes the brown is on the left, sometimes on the right. Or is it mirror-reflection for some of the pics? Btw, did you take these pics?? style_images/master/snapback.png The first three are by a studio photographer in Van, and are sold as photographs in a shop in Van. The next two (of the kitten) were taken by me, at Gevas (Vostan) to the south of Van. And the next two are from postcards. The last is from a book about Van. Though I wonder if the third one and the last one is of the same cat - they look similar. I had noticed that about their eyes, Nairi - it's possible some of photos are reversed (my pics are not), but I don't know. Also, the older the cat, the lighter its amber coloured eye seems to be. I haven't seen enough of them in real life to know if one eye position is more common than another! And most Van cats don't stay still enough for you to get more than a brief glance at them. Edited September 15, 2004 by bellthecat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2004 Wow! The last cat looks pretty impressive. style_images/master/snapback.png Yep - it's very regal looking. A king amongst cats , maybe even their emperor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpa Posted September 19, 2004 Report Share Posted September 19, 2004 The Russian writer poet Sergei Gorodetsky who was in Van on an humanitarian misson in 1917 has written quite a bit about the city both in verse and prose. A segment from one of his works; My translation from the Armenian "Wide open , misshapen holes in place of windows and doors. Fetid air smelling of burnt flesh. And suddenly awful howls of starving dogs. Feral cats with dirty frazzled furs. And, more ruins, heaps of ash, charred walls, endless with no mercy..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arpa Posted September 20, 2004 Report Share Posted September 20, 2004 Here is that reference from the aforementioned book about the Van cat. "The trade unions of Van had representatives not only in the eastern countries, Turkey and Russia they could also be found as far as in Manchester and Hamburg. They sold the artifacts of the highly talented master asrtisans of Van, and even, as mentioned in the periodical Mourj*; 'The fluffy white cats of Van that were universally famed' ". *No date or author cited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2004 I remember reading an end of the 19th century description of Van that listed its various exports at that time (most which went to Persia). One of the exports were cats! It's ironic in a way that those "frazzled furry cats" managed to survive their owners. They must have done it on their own, since I doubt that the Kurds kept pets in the 1920s and 30s. Maybe that's why Van cats are described as being very self confident and hardy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nairi Posted September 21, 2004 Report Share Posted September 21, 2004 What's a Nairi? http://www.katzen-album.de/album/catimg/003454UP.jpg http://www.katzen-album.de/cgi-bin/catlist...tail&cat=003454 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2004 What's a Nairi? A sweetie (both of them ). But the fluffy blue-eyed one looks like an Angora cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted September 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2004 (edited) The last Van kitten pic I have. It's a bit cheezy though: I bet the now adult cat would wince with embarassement if shown it. http://mysite.freeserve.com/virtualani/cats/cat4.jpg Edited September 23, 2004 by bellthecat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meow Posted November 14, 2004 Report Share Posted November 14, 2004 Is this just modern nonsense - or is it a genuine traditional folk explanation of the Van Cats' characteristics? VAN - THE SWIMMING CAT FROM NOAH'S ARK "Van Swimming Cat’s story comes from legend, rather than history. White with ginger markings and tail, he is reputed to have stepped off Noah’s Ark when it came to rest on Mount Ararat. It is said that over 4,300 years ago Noah’s Ark carried a pair of white cats amongst the creatures that went aboard two by two to escape the Great Flood recorded in the Old Testament. After months of drifting in storms the Ark grounded on Mount Ararat, the highest volcanic mountain in what was then Mesopotamia and is now eastern Turkey. Noah opened the hatch and let down the gangplank. As the two cats emerged from the hold, the hatch door accidentally slammed down on their tails, which turned a fiery auburn. After months in darkness the sun was too much for them and they were temporarily blinded-which is why perhaps, there is a tendency for their descendants to be born with odd colored eyes, one blue and one auburn. The story goes that the Lord felt sorry for them, blessing them with a touch on their foreheads, giving them an auburn patch. The cats made their way down the mountain to the ancient community of Van where there was plenty of fish in the huge lake. There they bred an it became natural for the cats to wade, fish and swim in the water. The folklore, poetry and songs of the Armenian people of that region contain references to the swimming Van cat. In 1955 two visiting photographers were struck by the unique markings and characteristics of these beautiful half-wild creatures and arranged for a pair to be shipped to England for breeding. Viewers were astonished when the cats were shown on television, swimming in a pool. From then on the variety became known as the Turkish Van Swimming Cat, and has since become the favored breed of sailors and those who live aboard and tell the tale of Van, the first Ships’ Cat." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.