The fluffy, snow-covered cats in these photos live on a small farm in Siberia and belong to Alla Lebedeva, who photographs them through the long winters. She lives with her husband, Sergey, in Prigorodny, on the outskirts of Barnaul in western Siberia, and the couple have raised cats there for well over a decade. Alla jokingly calls the homestead "Koshlandia", a cat land, and when asked how many cats she has, her stock answer is "a million, maybe more".
According to an interview she gave to Design You Trust, the whole family line goes back to one cat, Babushka, who had a litter of five ginger kittens in 2004. The cats are working farm animals as well as pets: they sleep in the henhouse on the polati, the traditional raised sleeping shelf of a Russian house, and keep rats and mice away from the chickens and rabbits.
Alla says she only realised her pictures had gone viral a couple of years after she started posting them. A site about Norwegian cats reused them without credit, and from there they spread around the world labelled as Norwegian Forest Cats. Below are 20 of her photos with notes on what each one shows, followed by the facts about the Siberian breed.
Twenty photos from Alla Lebedeva's Catland
A grey-and-white cat sits on a fence post in falling snow, its fur dusted white. The thick ruff and long coat are typical of cats adapted to Siberian winters, where the guard hairs shed water and snow.
The same post photographed again as the snow keeps falling. The cat's calm stare in the storm became one of the most widely shared images in the series.
A dark tabby and a large ginger cat sit side by side in deep snow. Ginger coats are common in Alla's cats, which fits her story of the line starting with a litter of ginger kittens.
A close-up of a tabby face with snowflakes caught in its whiskers and fur. The dense undercoat keeps the skin dry even when the outer coat is covered in snow.
A bright ginger cat stands on a snowy fence among bare branches. Fences and posts are the cats' favourite lookouts across the whole collection.
Two ginger cats rest on a wooden ledge beside a barn, looking out at the yard. Their bushy tails and full chest ruffs are hallmarks of the long-haired Siberian type.
A tabby-and-white cat with a pink nose faces the camera, snow flecking its coat. Siberians come in almost every colour and pattern, so variety like this is normal within one family of cats.
Five cats line up on a ledge: gingers, a tortoiseshell and a tabby with a white bib, one caught mid-meow. It is the closest the farm gets to a family portrait.
A grey tabby hunches on a snowy, rusty roof edge. Cats curl up like this to reduce heat loss, tucking their paws under the body.
A snow-covered tabby with a white chest sits in front of a second cat. The heavy ruff around the neck works almost like a scarf.
A very dark cat peers over a snowbank against a clear blue sky. The low camera angle makes the cat look enormous, a trick Alla uses often.
Several cats gather on a snowy cart loaded with hay. Straw and hay give them insulated places to rest outdoors on sunny winter days.
A large brown tabby sits in the snow beside a wooden fence. Males of the breed are much bigger than females, and adults typically weigh between about 4.5 and 9 kilograms.
Three cats balance on fence posts under a frost-covered tree and blue sky. The contrast of warm fur and icy branches is a signature of Alla's winter shots.
Four cats perch on separate posts in a row, each looking a different way. Raised spots like these let the farm cats watch the yard for mice and for each other.
A brown tabby and a huge ginger cat sit together in the snow. The ginger's bulk is mostly fur: Siberians moult twice a year and look much slimmer in summer.
Two tabbies press their heads together in the snow. Head-rubbing spreads scent and is one of the ways cats in a group show they belong together.
A group of cats crowds onto a green sledge in bright sunshine. Despite the cold, the farm cats clearly choose to be outdoors when the sun is out.
Three cats sit in snow among bare branches, a big ginger in front of two darker cats. Their faces show the rounded shape and wide-set eyes associated with the Siberian type.
A ginger, a grey and a silver cat nestle together in a bed of straw. Sharing a nest like this keeps everyone warm through Siberian nights.
Siberian or Norwegian? Clearing up the mix-up
When the photos spread online they were often captioned as Norwegian Forest Cats. The two look alike, but they are different breeds, not different species: all domestic cats belong to one species. Genetic studies show the Siberian is closely related to the Norwegian Forest Cat and to random-bred cats of northern Europe, which helps explain the resemblance.
Whether every cat on the farm would qualify as a pedigree Siberian is a different question. They are a long-established family of farm cats of the local Siberian type, and Alla has never presented them as show cats.
The Siberian cat in brief
- Origin: a centuries-old natural variety from Siberia, often described as Russia's national cat. It was first mentioned outside Russia in a German book of 1864.
- Coat: a dense triple coat of guard, awn and down hairs. It repels water, needs regular grooming and is moulted heavily twice a year.
- Size: medium to large and muscular, with a bushy tail; females are noticeably smaller than males.
- Becoming a breed: formal standards date from the late 1980s. A pair went from St Petersburg to Berlin in 1987, registered Siberians reached the USA in 1990, and by 2006 all major registries accepted the breed for championship.
Are Siberian cats hypoallergenic?
Siberians are often sold as "hypoallergenic" because some individuals produce less Fel d 1, the main cat allergen. The evidence is thin. Breeder-run testing found that every Siberian tested produced some Fel d 1, about half produced less than other breeds and fewer than one in five produced very little. People with allergies should spend time with the specific cat, or its parents, before adopting, and talk to a doctor if they have asthma.
Credit where it is due
The story of these photos is also a lesson in online sharing. Alla's pictures travelled worldwide while her name was stripped away and her cats were given the wrong nationality. Each photo here links back to her accounts. If you share them, keep her name attached.
Sources: Photos by Alla Lebedeva (Twitter, YouTube); Design You Trust: Siberian Cats Waiting for Spring; Wikipedia: Siberian cat.
Incredible pictures!
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