“Do you know that three thousand years ago in Egypt, cats had the status of gods? Believe me – they themselves have not forgotten that to this day,” is how composer Pēteris Vasks describes his pets. There are many stories about “little brothers” for him and his spouse Dzintra Geka – both funny and not so much. The interview is also listened to by the cat Pekonen, who does not take his eyes off his owner. He does not express his opinion this time, but it is definitely there.
Cats are the main ones
Pekonen and Princis are both eight years old. Dear cats! With confident, expressive eyes. You don’t have to be persuaded to take a picture. Their entry into this house happened almost simultaneously. Dzintra’s favorite cat breed is the British blue, and she had talked to such a “specimen” at the kennel. At exactly the same time, a call rang from the social home, where a lady had just picked out a little kitten for Dzintra, whose mother had died under the tram. “The lady had thought – if I take care of Siberian children, then I can certainly take care of the cat,” explains Dzintra. So the red one entered the house first. A week later they called that they could drive to the kennel for a British blue kitten.
Rudais inherited his name because Peka is an abbreviation of Pekonen, which is the same as Peter in Finnish. “My mother’s last cat was Pekonen. The same red one,” explains Pēteris Vasks. “I’m such a simple guy, so that cat is also simpler for me,” jokes the composer. He never had any pets as a child. “Mum is a doctor, father is a pastor. We lived in a church in Aizpute, and we didn’t have cats. But Dzintra always had cats.” Dzintra, stroking the Prince’s coat, informs that according to the documents, the gray one had a more complicated name, but when he was named Prince, he became dry, responded, and stayed that way.
Read the whole article in newspapers Day in the issue of Friday, March 10! If you want to continue reading the content of the newspaper in printed format, you can subscribe to it HERE!
