CH Sahara's Pascha Dobrovnya, DM
Pascha was first CFA Russian Blue DM. Here is her story from her owner Kate of Sereshka Russian Blues.
In the mid-1970s, I became interested in getting a pet Russian Blue kitten. I found a breeder in Monroe, Washington who had a litter of kittens. Marsha Saleh, Sahara Cattery, was a CFA Longhair judge and was in the process of working on her Shorthair judging approval. In order to do so she had obtained a breeding pair of Russian Blue Grand Champions from Diana Doernberg, Velva Cattery, in Ohio. Marsha lived in the country and also raised goats. I so easily recall going to meet her and see the kittens. The kitten she wanted to sell to me wouldn’t come out from behind the refrigerator. There was this other amazing and beautiful little female kitten that caught my eye. It was love at first sight. I convinced her to let me have her. I wasn’t leaving without her. In those days, a pet RB cost $75. That was Sahara’s Pascha Dobrovnya. She was my pet and my love. I became friends with Marsha and often went out to visit her, feed the baby goats, talk Russian Blues and come home with fresh goat cheese. As time went on Pascha just kept getting more and more beautiful. I started to research the history and pedigrees of RBs. The more I learned, the more Pascha seemed to me to be something special. I convinced Marsha to agree to my not spaying Pascha as a pet and set about researching the best possible breeding we could arrange. When she was a year old, we sent her back to Diana Doernberg to be bred to GC Velva’s Williwinky, DM. Pascha’s first litter was born March 22, 1975. She had three kittens, two boys and a girl. GC Sereshka Shazam - 11 times Best in Show GC RW Sereshka Long John Silver - 16th Best Cat in NW Region 1976 GC RW Sereshka Flo Blue - NW Regional Winner 1976 - (Dam of 16th Best Cat in CFA 1978 GC, BW, NW Sereshka Alakazam of Kittay)
These three kittens all granded. To the best of my knowledge they were the first entire litter of 3 Russian Blue kittens to become Grand Champions. The boys were Best in Show winners and the girl was Best of the Best kitten in San Francisco against over 100 kittens. Pascha had seven offspring earning their Grand Championships. I ultimately sold Pascha to a breeder in Omaha. I had children and grandchildren of hers that I had kept. I planned and arranged her final breeding and sent her to Donna Fuller to be bred to GC Tsar Blu’s Fitzwilliam. She was sent to Omaha already bred. This last breeding produced GC Suntar’s Aces High who is behind most of today’s successful CFA RBs. In 1995 I got divorced and had to give up RBs. In 2014 my daughter and I decided that we wanted Russians again. We learned that no one had ever applied for the Distinguished Merit award for Pascha so we set out to remedy that. We had to get valid registration numbers for the offspring and two had incorrect numbers listed. It took us over a year to gather the necessary paperwork and get the offspring validated, but with the help of Annette Wilson, we did it and late in 2016 Sahara’s Pascha Dobrovnya officially became CFA’s first Russian Blue DM albeit rather late. Quite an accomplishment for a kitten originally sold as a pet. I can’t thank Marsha enough for what she got me into.
