The Museum House of Humor and Satire in Gabrovo celebrates its birthday today. It was established on April 1, 1972. It developed as a cultural institution under the motto: The world has survived, because it has laughed, invented by renowned Bulgarian satirist Radoy Ralin. Visitors can enjoy at the museum works of Bulgarian and foreign authors of humor.

The Gabrovo humor is popular across all parts of Bulgaria. The citizens of Gabrovo are witty and thrifty. The black cat is one of the main characters in their anecdotes and a symbol of the city. There is a joke that reads that the people of Gabrovo cut their cats’ tails, so the doors close quickly after them and they save on heating bills. People also drop a cat down the chimney, so they do not have to pay a chimney-sweeper to do the job.

A unique cat sculpture can be seen at the Museum of Humor and Satire, which was made back in 1979 in line with the local principle - from scratch. It was made by celebrated Bulgarian sculptor Mihail Benchev. People believe that this sculpture makes peoples’ dreams come true. Its body was made of the cheapest material used back then - 300 kilograms of iron nails and plain wire.

The Keeper of the Museum of Humor and Satire in Gabrovo Tatiana Tsankova told Radio Bulgaria that the celebrations dedicated to the museum’s birthday are at their culmination. The organizers came up with various children’s games and the adults can enjoy new Bulgarian and foreign satirical works.

Another interesting event related to cats was held at the Earth and Man Museum in Sofia, which hosted an international exhibition of cats. It was organized by the National Federation of Felinology. We learn more about the event from a representative of the federation and organizer of the event Kamelia Bosilkova:

 “The jury assesses the cats under two criteria-standard and temper. The pets which get the highest score are nominated for the Best-in show award. They group in categories and the jury members from the International Felinology Federation examine each cat and select the most beautiful one, which matches the standard of the given breed the most and has the best temper. Some rare and impressive pedigree cats were presented at the exhibition such as: Bengal Cat, Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest Cat, British cat, Turkish Angora, Singapura, etc.”

Bonny Face was among the most remarkable cats at the event. Boncho, as his owner calls him, is a white, curly male cat, representative of the Devon Rex. Vesselin Garabitov has more about the peculiarities of his pet.

“Devon Rex is a curly cat, which appeared in Devonshire, Great Britain, for the first time in the 1960’s. We attend this exhibition for the second time. The cat won several awards so far, It is interesting to note that there are only a dozen cats of this breed in Bulgaria, which makes it a very rare pet on our lands”, Vesselin said.

A contest for house pets was also organized at this year’s event, where non-pedigree cats participated at a contest for the most beautiful and good-natured pet.

Here is another interesting fact: the visitors were able to see an exhibition of cat paintings, author Liydmila Otuzbirova. She studies in the 11th grade at the National School of Fine Arts Ilia Petrov.

“I paint cats on wrapping paper or watercolor paper. Today I painted a Turkish Angora, Siamese Cats, Maine Coon, Persian Cats and Oriental shorthair cats. I love animals. That is why I was grabbed by the idea to paint cats”, Liydmila says in conclusion.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov