According to one version, the two figures opposite each other on Malaya Sadovaya are a monument to the Yaroslavl cats.

The countless hordes of rats that attacked half-dead people became a terrible danger for the exhausted people of the siege. The city rats, accustomed to feeding on human waste, lost their main source of food, since people could not afford to throw away even a crumb of bread. Hungry rats became one of the worst nightmares of the blockade survivors: in search of food, they attacked half-dead people, and their migration flows to grain elevators could not be stopped even by tank treads.

Soon after the blockade was broken, a strategic cargo was sent to Leningrad - 4 train cars of smoky cats from the Yaroslavl region (smoky cats were considered the best rat catchers). Eyewitnesses said that the cats were snatched up instantly, with queues forming for them. In January 1944, a kitten in Leningrad cost 500 rubles, while a kilogram of bread was then sold from hands for 50 rubles. As soon as the blockade was lifted, another cat mobilization took place. This time, cats were recruited in Siberia specifically for the needs of the Hermitage and other Leningrad palaces and museums: 5 thousand Omsk, Tyumen and Irkutsk cats were sent to Leningrad, who honorably coped with their task - they cleared the Hermitage of rodents.

On January 25, 2000, in memory of these events, a figurine of the Cat Yelisey was installed on Malaya Sadovaya Street, which was donated to the city by the famous St. Petersburg entrepreneur Ilya Botka. The cat is 33 cm tall and weighs 25 kg. The cat Yelisey sits importantly on the corner of house No. 8, on Malaya Sadovaya Street, watching the people strolling below.

But since the Little Garden Cat became “bored” to amuse the public strolling along the pedestrian street alone, the St. Petersburg historian Sergei Lebedev suggested erecting a figure of the Cat’s friend, Vasilisa the cat, on the cornice of one of the houses on the same Malaya Sadovaya.

Ilya Botka, who supervised the landscaping work on Malaya Sadovaya, once again supported the initiative. Two life-size sculptures of animals were molded and cast from metal by the famous animal sculptor Vladimir Petrovichev. Architect L. V. Domracheva.

On April 1, 2000, the second figure, Vasilisa the cat, was ceremoniously unveiled at house No. 3 on Malaya Sadovaya Street. She is located on the cornice of the second floor of house No. 3 on Malaya Sadovaya. Small and graceful, slightly bending her front paw and raising her tail, she coquettishly looks up.