On the face of it, the kitten that joined Keir Starmer’s family appears to have had a peaceful first week at an address where feline and human rivals have been known to get their claws out. The arrival of the Siberian cat – as yet unnamed in public – was revealed on Monday by the prime minister, who said his children had been pushing for a dog to join them at Downing Street. “We are now getting a kitten instead of a dog, and this is an agreement after long negotiations – I said we’d get in the room and sort it out,” Starmer told BBC Radio 5 Live. As a consolation, the Starmer family may be cheered to know that “Sibbies” are regarded by experts as being more like dogs than other cats. They are known to be highly intelligent, inquisitive and can be trained, according to Kate Staveley, a breeder and the honorary secretary of the Siberian Cat Club. “They can be very dog-like in their behaviour. You can put a harness on them. I know of people who go camping with them and a couple who even go up the Cairngorms quite regularly with them,” she said. “But, as with anything, it’s what you put into them that you get out.” If the cat is a true breed, the Starmers would also appear to be lucky in getting a Siberian at a time when Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused some breeders in Britain to pause before importing new additions from Russia.
Staveley said: “They have only really been here since around 2002 when someone imported one and, for most breeders, the basic stock is from Russia. The true, traditional Siberians are based on Russian breeding – and Russians are very guarded about anyone using anything that interfere with those lines.” She added that adverts offering Siberian cats for as little as a few hundred pounds should be treated with caution. While she had wanted to bring in a new male cat from Russia, like others she had decided against doing so on principle, but knew of others who were still going abroad. A more immediate challenge for the Starmers concerns the bedding-in of the kitten at a residence where it has become the third cat – alongside Jojo, the Starmer family cat, and Larry, who has been chief mouser to the Cabinet Office at 10 Downing Street since 2011. Larry, for one, has form – infamously clashing outside No 10 in 2012 with Freya, who lived next door with the then chancellor, George Osborne.
Staveley advised that it will be the older cats, rather than kitten, that could present problems because of potential antipathy towards a new arrival on their territory. “One approach to begin with might be to put the kitten in a confined area for its own good, and for the other cats then to become used to its presence from a distance,” she said. The Starmers should also heed another caveat that comes with owning a Siberian: beware their triple coats.
“Whoever gets one has to be prepared to groom it,” Staveley said. “Because of their origins in snowy Siberia, they grow an outer coat in the winter and then really start to shed it in the spring. They really have to be groomed, otherwise you end up with a lumpy cat. Some people even end up shearing them, which is the worse thing you can do.” While known for their long and fluffy coats, the cats are often a more suitable and safer choice when it comes to triggering allergies. That said, aides and visitors to Downing Street with a sensitive cat allergy could still suffer. Staveley, who hopes the newfound profile of the breed in Britain will not lead to a boom in popularity, adds that the cats are an excellent choice for other assets, such as their traditional ability to survive in a hostile climate. For now, at least, Downing Street is a hospitable one.