Siberian farmer's cats become an unexpected Internet sensation

Siberian farmer Alla Lebedeva loves seeing pictures of her pet cats, but it seems the world does too.

Unbeknown to her, photographs she has taken of her litter have been reproduced on social media websites with some turned into humorous jokes.

'A couple of years ago I noticed that my pictures had gone viral,' said Alla. 'At first I spotted my photos on some website about Norwegian cats - they used my pics twice, without any credit – and now they are going around the world as ‘Norwegian cats’.'

Alla lives with her husband Sergey on a farm in the settlement of Prigorodny, on the outskirts of Barnaul in western Siberia.

They have raised cats for more than a decade, with their first pet, Babushka, becoming the ancestress for the rest of the ever-growing litter. She gave birth to five ginger kittens in 2004 and now the couple’s home is overrun with their furry friends.

Even Alla, 59, herself jokes that they live in a Koshlandia (land of cats). She said: 'How many do we have now? To such a question I usually answer ‘a million, maybe more’.

'They live in the henhouse, and sleep on the polati, and they have three 'little bedrooms' there where can they sleep according to how they feel. Our cats protect the chickens and rabbits from rats and mice.'

Her hobby is taking photographs of her pets, which have a distinctive look, perhaps as a result of their in-breeding. But it is clear the world also loves nothing more than seeing her animals, with many of the images doctored and used in an unusual way on the Internet.

Some show them wearing Russian hats, others have been mocked up to look like characters from the TV series Game of Thrones, and one was even used to joke about dieting.

Another photograph was commandeered by the Norwegian Forest Cats online community, with some people assuming the long-haired cats are from Norway, rather than Siberia.

Alla said the cats are divided into two groups with one that goes hunting and does not come home for months in summer, and the other that stays close to home.

She said: 'Our cats move about freely. In general, all rustic cats are unusual and differ from cats living in apartments, just like a rabbit differs from a hare. They are wild and independent.

'In the summer our cats divide into two groups. Some of them go hunting somewhere and don't come home for months, among them Ryzhik, Rych and Ludwig.

'Pukh, Lapych and Tema stay home and don’t go far away. All the female cats are always neat and sit at home. Here we have also noticed that they have their own hierarchy. Pukh is a kind of alpha male, an emperor. His deputy is Lapych, while Tema is just very calm.'

She added: 'They recognise me as the head of their 'pride', and they all obey me. Among the other family members, they have good relations with my granddaughter, Maria, and allow her to hold them. Her favourite cat is Nochka. 

'All our animals seem to live in peace and they have rather good relations with our dog Rikki, the chickens and even with the cockerels.'

Alla and Sergey have three sons: architects Dmitry, who lives in Barnaul, and Alexander, who moved to Norilsk, and Ivan, who is an artist and designer currently living in Moscow.