Cats are in the Hermitage of St. Petersbourg

What kinds of cats do you know? Siamese, Persian? But what about Hermitage cats? 

Oh, they are very important. The traditional March Cat Day 

on March 27 is dedicated to them. Cats have become an important part to the 

Hermitage ... 

 Russian Emperor Peter the Great brought a cat out of the Netherlands and put him in his palace. Empress Elizabeth heard that a lot of good cats live in Kazan. She hated rats. She ordered to bring some cats to her palace. Later Empress Catherine the Great gave cats the job of protecting Hermitage although she preferred dogs ...
From that time cats have been protecting Hermitage from rats. During World War 2 a lot of cats have died and the city was full of rats ...
Today a few dozen cats live in Hermitage and everyone who works in the building knows each cat. Each cat has it's own passport. All cats are divided into four groups and each of them have their own territory to protect. If there are too many cats then Hermitage will give some of them away to good owners. It is not easy to become one of those owners ...
Cats are not allowed into all of the rooms. Besides a cat named Vassili. He loves when people take pictures of him. All other cats don't like it ...
In the summer cats like to go outside. They like to lay down near monuments and some even have their favorites. To prevent cats getting run over by cars there are signs that say "Warning! Watch out for cats !"...
Of course there are chemicals to fight the rats but nobody in Hermitage wants to use them. Cats are a part of history now and they will not be replaced any time soon ...
Workers in the museum say that even they are running out of names for cats. Now they name cats after gods, famous people, and even after states of the United States ...