I thought that my dad had perhaps the biggest collection of miniature cats in Moscow until I saw the inside of Andrei Abramov and his wife's flat. To give it a due credit, it's more of a museum rather, where absolutely everything is dedicated, well, to cats.

From pictures and photos to a rug that mews when you step on it, there's lots of cat-related material spread over the walls, floor and ceilings of this flat at 109 Rublyovskoye Shosse. They even have cat wine, but not that it's offered to the visitors.

Starting from the anteroom, the cat theme tour conducted by the owners themselves takes you through the living room, the bedroom to wind up in the kitchen — there simply isn't a vacant spot not filled with cats. And this is only one twentieth of what the Abramovs have in store.

Eclectic as it is, this collection however should infuse harmony, for cats are harmonious animals, Abramov believes.

Therefore, Abramov says, it's hardly surprising they've received so much attention from being worshipped in ancient Egypt to being persecuted in the middle ages.

The museum was created by Abramov in 1993, an artist and a cat worshipper himself. What you make out of a cat is your own business, but the museum suggests plenty of options, from frightened green-eyed kittens to well-pleased gingers.

But perhaps the number one cat in the flat is the sculpture of Behemoth from Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita" — a black disheveled creature on top of a bicycle swaying a large chalice.

If not entirely graceful, Behemoth, beside it's literary value, proves at least one more thing about cats — the belief that cats have many lives.

Behemoth himself has been through a number of rough times when while being shipped from one place to another he was severely damaged and then recreated almost totally to the original form. He now sits proudly among his companions of a variety of artistic interpretations.

According to Abramov, the first known image of a cat appeared around 6000 BC. Since then many have fallen under their spell, including renowned masters as da Vinci, Rubens, Renoir, Picasso, Velasquez and Chagall.

And of course Abramov himself.

One of the themes that inspired Abramov personally was that of a cat in relation to a woman. "In way of enigma, the only creatures to compare with cats are women," says Abramov for whom this comparison worked personally. It was also through cats that he met Yekaterina. The museum organizes beauty contests for women and their furry companions every November. The contenders are assessed on a number of criteria to include both looks and the knowledge of catlore.

Besides looks and lives, cats' therapeutical value has also long been recognized. They are believed to pacify people and soak up their negative energy and hurts.

If anything, Abramov claims, cats can figure out a bad-meaning person straight away. Such was Napoleon to whom his cat phobia cost a lost battle at Waterloo. On the eve he is said to have dreamt of cats, says Abramov.

There's a Russian saying that that who kills a cat will have no luck for seven years. And yet another one: those who keep a cat come back to a home not just a house.

If you want to visit Andrei Abramov's home and see Moscow's Cats Museum you can call him at 141-5455/24.