RAGDOLL LANE

sweetness dressed in beauty

Le Ragdoll

mystery and faery tales

Between myth and real world, the history of the birth of the breed untangle and weaves the hanks of the various fairies who came to bend over the craddle,

 

How it all began

The beginning of the RAGDOLL remains as deep a mistery as the behaviour of the cat itself. The recorded history is somewhat confusing and for some parts of it at least even proven to be brain delirium. We know for certain, though, that the Ragdoll appeared in Riverside, California in the 60's from the will of a woman named Ann Baker, and an ordinary cat called JOSEPHINE.

Cahotic starts

Josephine was a white, semilong-haired cat who belonged to Ann BakerŽs neighbor Mrs. Pennels. Josephine was half feral and she often produced kittens. At one time Josephine was hit by a car, was rescued at the local university and nursed back to health. During this time Josephine had to stay indoors and she became obviously tamer.

JosephineŽs previous kittens had been half wild like their mother, but after the road accident they were quite the opposite. They were very relaxed and social, a real nuisance according to Mrs. Pennels. It is not quite clear what exactly was so different in those kittens and how they came to be that way. The story doesn't say. Theories on a would-have-happened genetics mutation either experimented at the university or induced by the car hit are unfounded. In any case Ann saw something so special about the kittens that she eventually decided to use them to create a new breed.

Ann acquired two of JosephineŽs kitten: Buckwheat, a black female that looked somewhat like a Burmese and a pointed bicolor she called Raggedy Ann Fugianna. Fugianna's father was mitted Daddy Warbucks, a son of Josephine as well, owned by Mrs. Pennels. All these cats were JosephineŽs offspring, but they probably all had different sires. Daddy Warbucks had the impressing appearance of a Birman with a nose blaze and a white tip on the tail. These three cats are the foundation stock of Ragdolls, for when Josephine had her next litter, the ownerŽs husband for a row between Josephine and his dog, killed mother and kittens.

When the breeding programme was well established, Ann Baker did something unheard-of in the world of cat fancy; she trademarked the Ragdoll name, every kitten sold would bring back royalty fees. Ann Baker would rule all the Ragdoll world with an iron hand, and started stating genetics and cosmologics deliriums, claiming Ragdolls were linked with human beings, raccoons and even space aliens!

The birth of RFCI

Tired of the drastic breeding requirements Ann Baker demanded, a group of breeders who fortunately had obtained their Ragdolls before AnnŽs breeding policies were implemented, decided a secession. The most emblematic figures on this were Laura and Danny Deyton.

The Ragdoll Society, which was later changed to the Ragdoll FancierŽs Club and then to the present Ragdoll FanciersŽ Club International RFCI , was founded in 1971 to promote the breed in the cat associations and in shows.

First Ragdolls were exported overseas in 1981, but the introduction of the Ragdoll in the pedigreed-cat world has not come easy.

Ann Baker died in 1997, feeling bitter and betrayed. The Ragdoll trademark and IRCA remained active after her death along with the breeding rules, but the number of breeders working under this label is dwindling, most breeders working now with RFCI.

Ragdolls are now accepted by most cat associations and with the increasing interest in the breed, the future of the Ragdoll cat won't lack of prospects!

Conclusion

As the number of breeders in Europe is on a growing spurt, it has become much easier to fing the raggie you're dreaming of. Let's hope now the beautiful disposition Ann Baker emphasized so much in this goegeous feline will not disappear in the name of quantity.